The Luzon Campaign 1945
Macarthur Returns
Nathan N. Prefer, Casemate, 2024, 336 pages
Book Review published on: September 18, 2025
In recent years, rising Chinese capability, influence, and desire for dominance have brought the Indo-Pacific region to the forefront of American foreign policy. Taiwan's situation often captures attention because of its unique circumstances. However, examining the geography and recent competition for resources brings the Philippines into the picture as an antagonist to Chinese ambition, an ally to the United States, and a potential base of operations for future deterrence and offensive operations. Nathan N. Prefer's The Luzon Campaign 1945: Macarthur Returns describes the largest land campaign of the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II.
In the 1930s, the Japanese understood the strategic position that the Philippine Archipelago occupied. American naval and air bases on Luzon at Subic Bay and Clark Field threatened sea lines of communication from resource-rich European colonies in Southeast Asia to the Japanese home islands. Japan claimed the undefended Southeast Asian colonies as spoils of its alliances with Germany and Italy. French Indochina and the Netherlands East Indies and the natural resources they contained were ripe for the picking of a modern industrial empire bent on regional hegemony like Japan.
In deference to the threat posed by American naval and air power based on the Island of Luzon, the Japanese immediately sought to capture not only that island but also the entire Philippine Islands group as soon as the American Pacific Fleet was destroyed on 7 December 1941. The Pearl Harbor strike eliminated the possibility of reinforcing the American Philippine Garrison. World War II was scarcely months old when the Japanese army defeated the American Army on Luzon, and the survivors marched into captivity. A modern parallel set of events could make the Philippines a target for a regional hegemon seeking to secure a "breakaway province." The Philippines occupy a strategic position in the "first island chain" that would make them a target of value for both parties to a future conflict.
Roughly three years later, the fortunes of war had reversed, and the United States was poised to retake the Philippines. A series of fierce naval battles had attained the striking power of the Japanese fleet, essentially stranding isolated army garrisons on far-flung Pacific islands incapable of mutual support or cooperative maneuver. The stage was set for the largest land campaign of the Pacific War.
In addition to focusing on the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. Army has recently turned towards studying and preparing for large-scale combat operations (LSCO). LSCO envisions the employment of field armies to command-and-control numerous corps engaged in land combat. The 1945 campaign on Luzon would otherwise fit nicely into the scholarly study and context of LSCO in the Indo-Pacific. Gen. Douglas MacArthur commanded an Army group composed of two field armies (the Sixth and Eighth Armies, respectively, which maneuvered several corps each) during the Luzon Campaign.
Prefer is an enthusiast of World War II history and the author of six other books on World War II subjects. His writing is, therefore, to inform similarly minded enthusiasts of World War II (in general) and the Pacific Theater of Operations (in specific). He wrote this book to fill a historical gap that he describes in his introduction as the study of the Luzon campaign, which heretofore had produced: "Histories of incidents within that campaign, many of them excellent, but which do not do justice to the ordinary soldier who fought, and many who died in clearing the Philippine Island of Luzon of Japanese occupation." He achieves that goal.
Prefer focuses on ground combat on Luzon nearly exclusively; joint operations (either Army-Navy or Army-Air Force) are not dealt with in any great depth. The challenges of command, resource prioritization, tempo, etc., are present for the reader to comprehend but not as warnings for a future conflict. Contextually, the Pacific Theater of Operations was prioritized after the liberation of Europe and the defeat of Nazi Germany. In the Pacific, MacArthur competed for resources with Adm. Chester Nimitz and his drive through the Central Pacific that aimed to put strategic bombers within striking range of the Japanese home islands.
Prefer fulfills his goal of encapsulating the greater story of the Luzon campaign and the greater story of valor by ordinary soldiers to secure the island. This volume will satisfy World War II/Pacific Theater of Operations enthusiasts. However, it is of limited utility to the reader who seeks to apply the campaign to future conflict.
Book Review written by: Paul J. Narowski II, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas