Shortly after temporarily crippling the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese executed their boldest military maneuver of the war: they took over the Philippine islands, protected by more than 10,000 American servicemen and many more Filipinos. Allied forces held out as long as they could, but without adequate resupplies and reinforcements, they had no choice but to surrender. Shortly before, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific, Douglas MacArthur famously ran a Japanese blockade to land on the island and vow to its residents that he “shall return.” And so he did.

On this day, February 16, in 1945, Americans recaptured the Bataan peninsula, overlooking Manila Bay, in the Philippine capital. General MacArthur made good on his promise.

A triumphant MacArthur was one of the first to wade ashore on the Philippine islands in 1944, at the start of the American campaign. Landing with his troops a full five months before the total capture of the islands, he announced “I have returned.” His statement was premature: like the Japanese-held islands before it, and those after, the Philippines were fiercely defended every step of the way.