The morale of the people is very low. After the shock of the first days, those who were still hoping for the arrival of American reinforcements are losing all hope. Before, they felt so confident that they believed that Bataan and other points of resistance could serve as bases for the early recapture of the lost territory. But now their morale is crumbling.
That help and reinforcements from the States could not be depended upon or even hoped for. America was thousands of miles away with an impregnable wall of Japanese bases between. The Nipponese Empire was expanding. If we trace a circle around the map of East Asia and the Pacific and place Manila at the center, we can see that within a radius of two thousand miles all the lands and seas are dominated by Japan. From Burma and Siam to Midway and the Marshall Islands, from Manchuria and Japan to New Guinea and Timor all is controlled by the Japanese Oriental Empire. Manila is the geographic center of this immense circle. So to send convoys to aid the isolated and scattered Fil-American forces is impossible.
The Air Force alone cannot win a war. A nation is not conquered by air-raids. A city may be razed, but only the land forces can conquer it. The air forces play an important role in an invasion. But to demolish a defending army and conquer the land, the infantry forces must be excellent. The action of the air force is limited to paving the way for the mechanized land forces. This was the tactic followed by the Japanese before launching the final campaign in the Pacific. They crippled part of the Allied air force and, with that unexpected air attack on Pearl Harbor, destroyed many other warships. Thus the Japanese succeeded in landing without encountering any resistance.
America was limiting her actions to check the Japanese advance towards Australia and could not assist the forces which had not yet yielded in the Philippines and in the Dutch Indies. In the meantime, America would have to speed up the building of her war machine. If the American war machine could be powerful enough, if her sea and air power could dominate in the respective areas, if it could be able to open and protect the way for a well-equipped, well-trained and well-disciplined army, then America could launch an offensive campaign, either from Australia or from Hawaii, or simultaneously from Australia and Hawaii.
The opinion is that the Allied High Command would not be in the position of attempting a direct conquest of the Philippines without first pulverizing the enemy forces in the north and in the south.
Meanwhile, the islands and regions where the American flag is still waving are falling one by one, shaken by the superior aerial, naval and land power of the enemy, in spite of the reinforcements promised by Roosevelt.