Note 25 — Chapter XXII · Leyte Is Liberated

From 20 January on, the remaining Japanese forces stayed in the Villaba sector, hoping that succor would come. On 20 January General Tomochika “waited on the beach” for a boat that never came. The men were “plunged into the depths of despair.” Time passed. On the evening of 17 March, two Japanese vessels appeared. General Suzuki and part of his staff boarded the craft and at 0030, 18 March, left the island of Leyte, For days the vessels sailed from island to island in the Visayas only to find that they were too late. The Americans were already in possession. On the evening of 16 April, the vessel bearing General Suzuki was bombed by American aircraft off the coast of Negros Island and Suzuki was killed25 The Leyte Campaign had ended.