General Douglas MacArthur in sunglasses and his braided cap sits beside Philippine President Sergio Osmeña, who wears a pith helmet and round dark glasses, in a jeep at Tacloban, Leyte, in October 1944

General Douglas MacArthur and President Sergio Osmeña ride by jeep to the liberation ceremony at Tacloban, Leyte, October 1944. U.S. Navy, National Archives. Click the photo to see it larger. The KNOWOL logo doesn’t appear on prints.

Two men sit side by side in a jeep under a bright Philippine sun. On the left is General Douglas MacArthur, in aviator sunglasses and his gold-braided cap, with four stars on his collar and his mouth open in the middle of a sentence. On the right is Sergio Osmeña, the President of the Philippines, in a pith helmet and round dark glasses, with a pen clipped in his shirt pocket. A soldier in a steel helmet stands behind them. The Navy’s caption says they had just “landed ashore from PT’s” and were riding “to the ceremonies in Tacloban, Capital of Leyte where the proclamation of Liberation is to be read.”

Three Days After “I Have Returned”

MacArthur had left the Philippines in March 1942, ordered out by President Roosevelt as the islands fell to Japan. On October 20, 1944, American troops landed on the east coast of Leyte, and that afternoon MacArthur went ashore at Red Beach. Osmeña rode in with him. Basilio Valdes, the Philippine Army’s chief of staff, wrote in his diary that the party left the ship “on an L.C.M for Red beach.” Once ashore, MacArthur spoke into a radio microphone: “People of the Philippines, I have returned.”

Within three days, Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, was in American hands. The two men came in by PT boat, the Navy’s small, fast torpedo boats, and rode the last stretch by jeep. A photographer from one of the Navy’s combat photography units, CPU-3, caught them on the way. The Navy released the picture on October 28, 1944.

A President Coming Home

Osmeña was 65 and had been president for less than three months. Born in Cebu in 1878, he had served for years as vice president under Manuel L. Quezon, and he had gone into exile in the United States with Quezon’s government. When Quezon died of tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York, on August 1, 1944, Osmeña took the oath of office the same day in Washington. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson swore him in. He was the first vice president of the Philippines to become president that way.

Now he was back on Philippine soil, with most of the country still under Japanese occupation. His presidency would be the shortest of any Philippine president, less than two years.

On the Capitol Steps

The ceremony was held on October 23, 1944, in front of the Leyte Provincial Capitol, a columned building finished in 1924. Valdes was there. “In front of the Capitol of the province,” he wrote, “General MacArthur read the proclamation declaring null and void all laws promulgated by the Japanese and the puppet republic.” Then Osmeña gave a speech.

MacArthur put it to the Filipino people in one sentence: “On behalf of my government, I restore to you a constitutional administration by countrymen of your confidence and choice.” Tacloban became the temporary capital of the Philippine Commonwealth, and the capitol was its seat of government until February 27, 1945. In 1950, the Philippines named the building a National Historical Landmark, under the name “Capitol Building of the Philippines, 1944-1945.”

The Battle Offshore

The same day as the ceremony, the Battle of Leyte Gulf began in the waters around the island. Japan sent nearly all of its remaining major warships to destroy the landing. The fighting lasted from October 23 to 26, and the U.S. Third and Seventh Fleets turned the Japanese navy back. It was the largest naval battle of World War II, and by some measures the largest in history, with more than 200,000 naval personnel involved. It also saw the first organized kamikaze attacks of the war.

Two months after this ride, in December 1944, MacArthur was promoted to General of the Army, and the four stars on his collar became five.

About This Photo

  • Archive title: “Photograph of General Douglas MacArthur and President of the Philippines Sergio Osmena Ride By Jeep to the Ceremonies in Tacloban, Capital of Leyte, Where the Proclamation of Liberation is to Be Read.”
  • Original caption: “Landed ashore from PT’s, Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur and Pres. of the Philippines Sergio Osmena, ride by jeep to the ceremonies in Tacloban, Capital of Leyte where the proclamation of Liberation is to be read.”
  • Date: Released October 28, 1944. The ceremony it shows them riding to was held on October 23, 1944.
  • Place: Tacloban, Leyte, the Philippines
  • Photographer: U.S. Navy, Combat Photographic Unit 3 (“CPU-3” in the caption; no name given)
  • Who’s in it: General Douglas MacArthur (left) and President Sergio Osmeña (right)
  • Collection: General Photographic Files, General Records of the Department of the Navy (Record Group 80), National Archives at College Park, Maryland
  • Photo number: Archives number 80-G-258303, National Archives Identifier 213259793
  • Rights: Public domain, a work of the U.S. government
  • Restoration: KNOWOL, 2026, from the Archives’ scan of the negative

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