A U.S. ARMY NEWSPAPER EDITOR
IN THE WWII PHILIPPINES

by SGM Herbert A. Friedman (Ret.)

Philippines Flag

American Flag

Note: NIAS Press, an academic press based in Copenhagen used images from this article in their book "End of Empire: 100 days that changed the world." Bonnier Publications requested and received permission to use images from this article in a series of books titled "En verden i krig," (“The world at war”), book number 10, Det totale kollaps (“The Total Collapse”). Professor Satoshi Ara, Ph.D. of Fukushima University, Japan, requested the use of photographs for his book on "Collaboration in the Philippines during WWII." In 2017, the Cultural Center of the Philippines requested images from this article to be used in the re-publishing of the CCP “Encyclopedia of Philippine Art.”

When we think of newspaper editors we envision editor Perry White of Superman’s Daily Planet or J. Jonah Jameson, editor-in-chief of Spiderman’s Daily Bugle. These are just cartoon characters of course, but there are real newspaper editors and they do important and meaningful work producing the news on a daily basis.

WWI Leaflet Balloon

In wartime, newspapers are an important part of American psychological operations (PSYOP), and help to both motivate the American military and civilians, and demoralize enemy military and civilians who learn the truth about their current military and political situation. These newspapers are usually written and printed by Army personnel working in various PSYOP units. There are very famous propaganda newspapers going back to WWI when the British mastered the art of dropping the newspapers from unmanned balloons. The Allies prepared a host of newspapers for the enemy. In March 1915, the British began the airdropping of the newspaper Le Courrier de l'Air for civilians in German-occupied France and Belgium (this newspaper would be revived in WW2). The French were already publishing a propaganda newspaper, La Voix du Pays (The Voice of the Country). In January 1917, the Belgian Army (in Britain) began publication of La Lettre du Soldat (The Soldier's Letter) for the Germans occupying Belgium. The Germans retaliated with the Gazette des Ardennes, a weekly newspaper written in French distributed both by airplane and by balloon.

In WWII the propaganda newspapers were printed once again for use against the enemy. The American Office of War Information was very busy in the Pacific printing one million copies a week of the Marianas Jiho (Marianas News Report) and dropping them over Japanese troops. In addition, they printed the Hawaii Weekly News, Makoto (Truth), Rakkasan (Parachute News), the Korean-language Chosen Weekly News and Chosen Liberty Weekly and the Chinese-language World Weekly News. At the same time, the U.S. Army in the Pacific was printing Free Philippines and Ji Ji Shu Ho (News of the Week).

This is just a small sampling of the dozens, and perhaps hundreds of propaganda newspapers printed during the war. We have not even mentioned Europe where there were many more newspapers produced for all the nations occupied by Nazi Germany.

Captain Theodore L. Sendak

In early 2011, Peggy Sendak told me about her father-in-law who had been a U.S. Army newspaper editor in the Philippines during WWII. I have already written about the Philippines in an article entitled U.S. Army PWB Leaflets for the Pacific War and I thought that telling his story would round out the story of U.S. PSYOP efforts in the Philippines. His family was reluctant, but Peggy’s husband Tim took the bull by the horns and saw that a box containing the military papers and archives of Theodore Sendak was mailed to me. I used as a main reference source of Captain Sendak’s military history his book, A Pilgrimage Through the Briar Patch, Guild Press of Indiana, Carmel, IN, 1997.

Theodore (Ted) Sendak received his draft notice on 31 March 1941, was sworn in 14 April 1941 and assigned to the 38th Infantry Division at Camp Shelby, Indiana. He was assigned to a medical battalion as a bugler, but the Army soon discovered that his musical talents were wanting. By April 1941 he was “promoted” to drum major and reporter of the camp newspaper. Ted had made the mistake of telling the Army that he could type. He took part in the biggest training maneuvers in American history, 500,000 soldiers in Louisiana from August to October 1941.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor he was nominated for Officers Candidate School, he thinks because he was one of the rare soldiers with a college degree. He reported to Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania and a short 90 days later on 28 March 1942 was commissioned and went from a Private First Class to a Second Lieutenant. While at Carlisle, some of his articles were published in The Medical Soldier. You start to see a pattern here. Wherever he went, he was writing articles for newspapers and magazines. He received a temporary promotion to First Lieutenant on 25 July, 1942.

He was next sent to Camp Barkeley, Texas, as an Assistant Medical Supply Officer where he was responsible for storage, assemblage and issue of medical supplies and equipment. Besides his appointed position, he was assigned as a Public Relations Officer and Special Services Officer. His duties included writing articles about the soldiers stationed at the base and sending them to their hometown newspapers. On 21 May 1943, Lieutenant Sendak was promoted to Captain. He volunteered for assignment to Military Government – Civil Affairs training and was sent on 27 August 1943 to Ft. Custer, Michigan, for a two month military police / military government course. Many of the students there were elected officials and politicians. He studied past Civil Affair actions and one of his textbooks was The Allied Military Government of Occupied Germany 1918-1920.

What were the duties of the Civil Affairs Officer during WWII? In part they were:

1. Advise the commander and staff on matters involving supervision and control of civilians in the theatres of operation.
2. Supervise military government and civil affairs activities.
3. Coordinate with other staff to control civilian population with actions affecting military operations such as maintenance of order, prevention of sabotage, etc.
4. Make recommendations as to size and responsibilities of civil affairs units.
5. Coordinate operations with the supported command.
6. Control the civilian population, displaced persons, refugees, coordinate supply, shelter, transportation, and medical services for civilians, etc.

And of course, in the military, your duties also include whatever the Commander thinks falls under your authority and supervision.

A July 1944 day out at the Chicago Civil Affairs School. Officers Glacken,
Sendak, Goldsmith and Good with instructors John Suzuki and Paul Sugawara

After successfully completing the course, on 28 November 1943 he was sent to Far Eastern Civil Affairs Training School at the University of Chicago.

Hyojun Nihongo Tokuhon – The Standard Japanese Reader

At this school he worked in small groups learning to speak Japanese. The students were warned that even if they understood Japanese, they should never let their interpreters know it. They were to use this knowledge to check on the accuracy and loyalty of the interpreters.

I should stop here and mention that interpreters are always a problem in the military. People are hired and used in very important and confidential discussions and often the American officer has no idea what they are actually saying. I could mention a dozen cases where the interpreter went off in his own direction, but we actually have an anecdote from Ted that occurred in Leyte after the invasion.

He tells us that a group of refugees were brought in seeking aid. None spoke English. One of the Filipinos tried to present the captain with the gift of a freshly severed Japanese head. The disgusted Sendak told his interpreter to tell the Filipinos to immediately remove the head and get the hell out of his office. He found out later that his interpreter had told the Filipinos:

The captain thanks you for you expression of appreciation. But he would rather you present the barbarian’s head to the Mayor of Ormoc as a symbol of your revenge against the savage oppressors.

Japanese language Instructors Mr. Sehchi Niwa and Mrs. Michi Myamoto in Chicago
Dec 1943 - July 1944

The instructors were “relocated” Japanese-Americans (Nisei). Each day they attended classes on Japanese culture, religion, government, politics, propaganda, geography, commerce and other aspects of their daily life. The students also learned several hundred Japanese picture characters just to get acquainted with their language. I have seen a number of the books that were used in this training. Just a very small sampling includes; the English-Japanese Conversation Dictionary, The standard Japanese Reader, and an Introduction to Kana Orthogtaphy. I also notice a workbook entitled Charts for the Writing of Chinese Characters where he practiced copying hundreds of such characters in pencil.

The Graduation Booklet

 

Upon graduation the students received a booklet that described their training course. The Booklet was entitled Far Eastern Civil Affairs Training School – University of Chicago – Class II. This tells us that Ted was in the second class that was offered and his dates of training were 29 November 1943 to 15 July 1943. We discover that there were eight “sections” or groups of students and Ted was in Section II. His section consisted of 12 students, Nine Army and three Navy officers. Among their specialties were Price control, Public Safety, Legal, Engineering and Public Relations, to name a few.

Civil Affairs Class – Section II

We find that a number of the faculty of the University of Chicago was assigned as instructors to the Civil Affairs School; Page four of the booklet identifies eight such faculty members. There were 23 Japanese language instructors, the majority from the United States, two from Hawaii and six from Japan. There were 47 visiting lecturers on subjects such as; Japanese Psychology, Tokyo since Pearl Harbor, Experiences in the Marshall Islands and Experience in China and Japan. Most were military but there were many civilians including several Ph.Ds. In an editorial entitled “In Retrospection,” the experiences of the students are described. Some of the text is:

We were a heterogeneous lot – both Army and Navy officers. We were of all branches and Bureaus of the service – some of us were line officers, and others had received direct commissions because of special qualifications. Some of us had seen service in 1918, and others, by comparison, were hardly dry behind the ears. Some of us had lived, worked. And travelled in the orient and had a vast store of practical knowledge, and others were specialists in other fields, and had yet to set foot on anything larger than a row boat. Some of us had asked to come, and others had been selected…

We started to learn to read and write Japanese. We felt like first graders…Classroom doodling began to take on a constructive aspect, and we eventually learned to make sense from scribblings that had been absolutely meaningless…

Notwithstanding all of our complaints about being overworked and underpaid, and our wonderings about where we were going from here, we were gradually getting to know a lot about Japan. Some of us could talk about Japan without knowing what authority we were quoting – Japan was becoming a part of us.

The Civil Affairs school highlights some of the subjects discussed in class

I have looked through Ted’s workbooks from the school. Curiously, already showing an interest in psychological warfare he wrote a paper entitled “Japanese Export Propaganda.” He says that the Japanese try to fool their target audience with lots of detail that imply, though not guarantee the truth:

Like his Nazi cohort, the Japanese propagandist utilizes precise sounding little details to make his stories sound good. He tells us exactly on what day and at what time of day some movement of troops took place, what are the distances between places named, the names of divisions and military leaders, the terms of demands made and rejected, and so forth. His account, as far as it goes, because of this exactness of statement, is a convincing one. But, that is as far as it goes…

Continuing to look through his workbook to see what he was being taught, I see lessons on Japanese deities, Buddhist holidays, and official vocabulary (Zaibatsu is the “financial clique and Gumbatsu is the “military clique.”).

There are also discussions on Japanese attitudes such as “America attacked us,” Japanese slogans “Cut the enemy’s flesh by letting him cut our skin, and cut the enemy’s bone by letting him cut our flesh,” the virtues of the Japanese soldier (loyalty, trustworthiness, courage, decorum and simplicity), and what will be expected of a Civil Affairs Officer once America has occupied Japan.

It appears to have been a very detailed course of study and I am sure any graduate was thoroughly knowledgeable on Japan and its people.

On 1 August 1944, Ted reported to Fort Ord, California, the Civil Affairs staging area, to prepare for deployment overseas. The rumor was that General MacArthur was being his stubborn self again and did not want civil affairs officers from the United States; he preferred to use his own people. At some point MacArthur relented and the new civil affair officers departed Hamilton Air Field on 1 November 1944. Ted flew first to Honolulu, and then Guadalcanal. There he trained groups called Philippine Civil Affairs units. His first unit, PCAU 15 consisted of eight officers and 39 enlisted men, mostly Filipino Scouts.

On 8 December 1944, Captain Sendak boarded the SS David F. Barry and sailed for Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, to join with other ships for a convoy to the Philippines. They sailed with 48 other ships and a Navy escort and reached the Philippines on Christmas day. At Tacloban, because of his background he was offered a job in psychological warfare but decided to stay with civil affairs. Curiously, because the two specialties are so similar in mission, he would be working with Psywar people again in the near future. On 1 January 1945, all the unit’s equipment arrived and they convoyed by truck to Ormoc.

Major General Charles A. Willoughby explains MacArthur’s interest in the importance of Civil Affairs in the Philippines in MacArthur 1941-1951, McGraw-Hill, NY, 1951:

It is essential in my plans for the control of civil affairs that the measure of freedom and liberty given to the Filipino people be at least comparable to that enjoyed under the Commonwealth Government before the war. It would be a matter of gravest concern if restrictions were imposed. If any impressions were created that the United States is curtailing rather than expanding liberties, the most unfortunate repercussions might be expected. I repeat, utmost care should be taken that an imperialistic attitude not be introduced into the situation under the guise of military necessity.

I found a document entitled “Public relations and Information Section” in Ted’s records which seems to be local guidance. Some of the comments are:

This section is involved with all matters involving contact and communications (a) between the military forces and the civilian population and (b) within the civilian population…The section contains the following sub-sections – communications, education and propaganda.

I found it interesting that a civil affairs document mentions propaganda. Some of that section is:

The work of this subsection will be of a highly specialized character. It involves matters of high policy, for propaganda includes the formulation and direction of public thinking, which is the basis for international relationships. This subsection will plan the organization for collecting, collating, and editing special information intended for public consumption, and the methods of transmitting such information to the public.

The guidance goes to tell the civil affairs officer to examine all information to be disseminated to the public, to examine all proclamations, ordinances, press, radio, and motion pictures, to supervise all relations with the foreign and domestic press, and to maintain an office for accredited journalists and authorized personnel.

Writing to his wife in January 1945, he mentioned his daily routine:

We’re on the job before 0730. There’s already a half-hundred Filipinos at the headquarters steps with many headaches, complaints, pleas and requests. The place quickly resembles the scene back home at the main entrance of a department store just before opening time when some rationed item like 1000 pairs of nylon hosiery are to go on sale…each PCAU now has 10 officers and 39 enlisted men. The other eight officers specialize in medical legal, engineering, welfare, finance, transportation, supply and public safety.

Ted was under fire on and off until about mid-February. He was then moved to PCAU 26 in Western Leyte. He first moved to the island of Cebu, and then took part in the invasion of the island of Panay and Negros. He went ashore with the invasion troops on Panay on 25 March 1945.

The mission of the PCAU was to control the civilian population, displaced persons, and refugees; to assist the combat troops in every possible way by caring for the civilian population and keeping them out of harm’s way. To arrange service for supplies, shelter, transportation, medical services, and labor recruitment. To rehabilitate utilities, communications, transportation, industry and agriculture and restore civil government, fiscal controls, and economic stability. Behind the velvet glove was the ability to declare martial law if needed.

It was here that he met the man who was printing propaganda for the guerillas. Abe S. Gonzales was a newspaper editor who had gone to the hills to fight with guerilla leader Tomas Confessor. He had been printing news sheets and leaflets in the hills (see the section below on Guerilla leaflets).

The Eighth Army Magazine "Free Philippines"

The 8th Army Psychological Warfare Officer, Major Alfred Hall was publishing a newspaper and magazine called Free Philippines. Once again we see PSYOP and Civil Affairs crossing paths. Major Hall recommended that Captain Sendak publish a local edition of the newspaper. Ted called on the services of Aurelio Servando, a local Philippine printer. He and his staff produced the Bacolod City Free Philippines for a peso and a half. The U.S. Army supplied the ink and local guerillas supplied the paper from factory stocks they had taken from the Japanese. The newspaper was published each Wednesday and Sunday from 4 June through 15 August 1945. We depict the first and last issue below.

It is interesting to note that at some point major Hall apparently proposed that Ted Sendak take over his position as 8th Army PWB Officer. He says as much in a letter to Hall dated 18 June 1943:

I am much interested in the proposition of being your replacement. I would feel it an honor and privilege; and I would make every effort to perform the job successfully…Prior to this war I collected a great deal of propaganda material directly from original sources, i.e., various ministries of information (Allied and Axis), news services, etc., which material I collated and studied.

Eighth Army provided general guidance for all of the local editions of Free Philippines. In a classified confidential letter dated 10 June 1945 it was stated that local newspapers were now being published in Bacalod, Dumaguete and Cebu City. The guidance called for a unity of print, asking that each newspaper mail copies to all the other newspapers and to headquarters. To help with the publication, 8th Army offered to send photographs, provide for distribution, provide a uniform newspaper banner and provide other assistance as required.

Major Hall gave the PCAU guidance that included eight positive points that should be stressed. Some of them were: tell the truth, stress items of current and local interest, feature Filipino personalities, never mention future plans, compare true facts to Japanese lies, and follow national policy. There were also eight points that should be avoided at all costs: Don’t distort the news, don’t mention collaborators or get involved in controversial political arguments, don’t mention independence, don’t talk about other war fronts, don’t mention or attack the Emperor, and PWB does not set policy.

Ted says:

I seemed to have two bosses. One was my PCAU Commanding Officer; the other was the Psychological Warfare Board.

As the war came to an end, Ted had volunteered for occupation duty in Japan. However, he had accumulated enough points to be sent home so found himself on the Navy transport Admiral Sims in November 1945.

He returned to his family on 7 December 1945, four years to the day since the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

Colonel Ted Sendak is inaugurated into the "Legion of Hoosier Heroes" at Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN, on 17 April 1972. Admiring the plaque presented to COL. Sendak are (L/R) General Taylor, Mrs. Sendak, Colonel Sendak and Colonel West.

Ted went on to join the active Army Reserve and retired a full bird Colonel on 26 April 1972. His military decorations included the Asian-Pacific Theatre ribbon with three battle stars, the American Defense ribbon, the American Theatre ribbon, the World War Two Victory medal, the Philippine Liberation ribbon with one star, and the Presidential Unit Citation. He prospered in civilian life and served three terms as Indiana’s Attorney General between 1969 and 1981.

After his retirement he wrote a newspaper column for The Star Register in which he called himself “The Propaganda Analyst.” His column of 12 September 1991 is entitled; “The Techniques and Proper Definition of Propaganda.” He actually carried a business card that identified him as “The Propaganda Analyst.” He really did love the art of winning hearts and minds.

Theodore Sendak passed away of heart failure on 22 January 1999 at the age of 80 years. Looking back on his career we see a strange dichotomy, although he was trained for civil affairs it seems he always had an interest in psychological warfare and journalism and the two came together in time of war and made him the perfect propagandist, although that was never his primary duty.

Map of the Philippine Islands

I should note that Civil Affairs is still an important function of the U.S. Army in combat. As I write this, U.S. Civil Affairs (CA) troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are helping those people by digging wells, bringing electricity to the outlying villages, building schools, repairing roads and bridges and a host of other projects to make the civilians self-supporting and improving the quality of their life.

A Japanese Propaganda Poster still visible in the Philippines several Days after the 1945 American Return.

Sendak’s specific duty seems to have been the rebuilding of the Philippine court system and the recruiting, training and equipping of its police and fire departments.

 

We Return to the Philippines

As Captain Sendak prepared to deploy to the Philippines, he was issued this information booklet. The Army issues these booklets for every place they deploy and today some of the WWII booklets are collected by military historians. In my article on Desert Storm I depict some of the dozen or so booklets we were issued on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, as well as other books on the climate, weapons, land mines, desert lessons-learned and local customs. Notice that the captain placed his name at the top of the booklet. In the army that is how we make sure that reference books and manuals don’t “take a walk.”

Some of the chapters in the 34-page booklet are; why we are going into the Philippines, the fall of the Philippines, what does the Filipino think of you, and Tagalog language guide.

Captain Sendak in Battle Gear

Seeing Civil Affairs Detachment Commanders in battle gear during combat operations is not a common site. Here Captain Sendak takes part in the battle for Ormoc from December 1944 to January 1945. He set up PCAU 15 adjacent to the 7th Infantry Division units and is depicted here with the Mayor of Ormoc, Mr. Catalino Hermosilla.

In January 2012, retired United States Navy Chief Petty Officer (E-7) Mario Yrastorza Hermosilla, wrote to me about his grandfather Catalino Hermosilla who was the Mayor of Ormoc City, Leyte, Philippines during much of World War II. He saw the above photograph above and said:

The picture was apparently taken after the Liberation of Leyte sometime after October 1944. As the Mayor of Ormoc during that time, my grandfather was the acting "father of the masses," political leader, guardian, and protector of the Ormoc civilian populace during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. During his term of office, he was the catalyst in saving a lot of civilian lives from the hands of the brutal Japanese military personnel. He passed away in March 1945, right after the Liberation of Leyte. He was posthumously honored in 1972 by the Ormoc City Council with the naming of a major thoroughfare in his name.

According to the Eastern Visayas Reporter of 24 March 1972, "Cata" as he was known, started as a humble school teacher and rose to the position of Mayor. He was known for his statesmanship. During the Japanese occupation he managed to keep the Imperial Army content inside Ormoc, and at the same time he was able to deal with the guerrillas outside the city in the hills. He was able to balance and moderate both sides to the extent that there was never a bloodbath in the city.

The First Edition of Free Philippines

The very first edition of Free Philippines was dated 6 June 1945. It mentions the end of the war in Europe and also MacArthur’s advances against the Japanese on Luzon and Mindanao.

Ted printed 21 copies of Free Philippines before being ordered to cease publication on 15 August 1945. Some of the highlights in other issues are: “General MacArthur visits Bacolod” (10 June 1945), “7000 Japs on Okinawa surrender” (24 June 1945) and “Soviet Russia declares war on Japan” (12 August 1945). There are different numbers for distribution of the newspaper, but it seems that a standard issue printing run was 1,810 copies for Bacolod, 1,825 for towns north of Bacolod and 1,215 for towns south of Bacolod. Another 250 were randomly distributed along the roads to make a total of 5,000 newspapers. Later those numbers climbed to 6,050 copies, and the final issue stating that “War Ends” was 17,000 copies.

We know a lot about this newspaper because Ted wrote about it a great deal. In fact, he sent out about a dozen bound copies to various people and places that he felt would be interested. Among others I see letters of thanks from the Governor of Indiana, The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard College and Northwestern University. Other individuals and organizations were sent a single copy of the newspaper. They include Life Magazine, Columbia University and the Chicago Sun.