Before World War II, Manila was a slice of America in Asia, populated with elegant neoclassical buildings, spacious parks, and home to thousands of U.S. servicemen and business executives who enjoyed the relaxed pace of the tropics. The outbreak of the war, however, brought an end to the good life. General Douglas MacArthur, hoping to protect the Pearl of the Orient, declared the Philippine capital an open city and evacuated his forces. The Japanese seized Manila on January 2, 1942, rounding up and interning thousands of Americans.
MacArthur, who escaped soon after to Australia, famously vowed to return. For nearly three years, he clawed his way north, obsessed with redeeming his promise and turning his earlier defeat into victory. The twenty-nine-day battle to liberate Manila resulted in the catastrophic destruction of the city and a rampage by Japanese forces that brutalized the civilian population.
Schedule
5:30pm: Reception
6:00pm: Program
7:00pm: Book Sale & Signing
About the Author
A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, James M. Scott is the author of Rampage, which was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by the editors at Amazon, Kirkus and Military Times and was chosen as a finalist for the prestigious Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History by the New York Historical Society. His other works include Target Tokyo, a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist, The War Below and The Attack on the Liberty, which won the Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award.
In addition, Scott is a sought-after public speaker about World War II. Over the years he has lectured on military bases, at presidential libraries, book festivals, and in universities and museums around the world. Included among those institutions are the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, the University of the Philippines, the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, and the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Scott has been interviewed on national television, public radio, and in newspapers ranging from The New York Times to The Washington Post. He also is a featured presenter on the Smithsonian Channel’s television series Hell Below. Scott lives with his wife and two children in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.