This is the only picture columnist Jim Watkins was able to find of Brown County resident James Mullis. The photo is from the Brown County Democrat archives.
By JIM WATKINS, guest columnist
“I shall return!”
This declaration by Gen. Douglas MacArthur made on March 21, 1942 would have consequences for thousands of Americans, Filipinos, Australians, various indigenous peoples and the Japanese in the coming years of the Pacific War.
A young American working the family farm along Schooner Creek would be one of those affected. James Allen Mullis, 18, a recent graduate of Nashville High School, would enter the Army on March 18, 1943.
MacArthur had made his pronouncement upon arriving in Australia after being ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt to leave the Philippines, which was facing imminent takeover by the invading Japanese. Subsequently MacArthur was made commander of all Allied troops in the southwest Pacific. In this capacity he set about planning his strategy for the return.
A simple glance at the map presented the first obstacle to his plans.
Lying between Australia and the Philippines is the world’s second largest island, New Guinea. The Japanese invaded the island just weeks after its attack on Pearl Harbor and had hopes of using it for a staging area in preparation for the invasion of northern Australia. They were, however, thwarted from taking complete control of the island after the success of the U. S. Navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The Japanese did continue to control much of this vital island. MacArthur knew his American and Australian forces would face not only veteran Japanese troops, but also an environment that many would rank as the most treacherous of the entire Second World War. The road back to the Philippines would be long in distance and duration.
Mullis’ personal odyssey away from Brown County began with basic training at Camp Wolters in Texas, the same camp where Audie Murphy had also trained. The heroic Murphy would become America’s most decorated soldier of World War II. After the war, with his well-known war record and good looks, he would become a Hollywood movie star.
Mullis’ advanced training orders then had him next heading to Camp Luis Obispo in California. While stationed in California he did get a furlough and was able to spend 12 summer days back in Brown County.
After California it was on to Hawaii for jungle warfare training. While in Hawaii Mullis experienced a severe injury losing a finger while operating a machine gun. This injury had him recuperating for several weeks.
He then shipped out and rejoined his unit in New Guinea where MacArthur’s road back to the Philippines was slowly progressing across its northern shore.
New Guinea lies just a few degrees south of the equator. It rains pretty much daily and then when the monsoon arrives it rains constantly. Hot and humid below the mountains it is home to crocodiles, 90 different snake species, lizards, anteaters, more than 600 species of birds and, of course, insects, which include malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Death by disease was as common as death due to combat in New Guinea. “A green hell on earth” is how New Guinea was usually characterized by the GIs.
Mullis and the Sixth Infantry Division’s baptism of fire came in a battle at Maffin Bay in northwestern New Guinea. Known as the battle for “Lone Tree Hill” (June 21 through 30, 1944) it proved to be the bloodiest 10 days in the entire New Guinea campaign.
The Japanese were deeply dug into their man-made caves. There was hand-to-hand combat often occurring at night when the Japanese would emerge screaming “Banzai” and would descend on the Americans. Mullis and the other survivors were now certainly seasoned vets.
The action at Maffin Bay was a main key in creating a staging area where MacArthur could launch his return to the Philippines. He would make the first of his two “returns” on the island of Leyte in October.
For the remainder of 1944 the Sixth Infantry Division continued to help with maintaining Allied control of northwestern New Guinea and the critical staging area. They would also be preparing for their next major offensive and that would be the return to the main Filipino island of Luzon.
Combat became more sporadic. There now might be time for letter writing and general downtime even though there was always the daily rain, heat, humidity and the pestilence that is the “Green Hell” of New Guinea. “What are we fighting for?” was certainly a recurring thought in these quieter times. Most often when it came down to the heat of battle the answer would be simply: “My buddies. I don’t want to let them down.”
But on another level when there might be time for reflection and upon writing a letter home the answer might be very different. Such was the case of another Hoosier who also fought in New Guinea, Paul Taylor of Indianapolis.
In a letter home he wrote:
“Every so often the question comes up as to what we are fighting for, and the usual points of profiteers, democracy and their substitutes, but even the large question seems clearer now. If there is hope for a peaceful settlement, if there is hope for a steady advance for mankind, certainly that hope will be found in a nation and government whose responsibility and aim is education for all, and where the responsibility for decision is the people’s. What could come closer to the recognition of the value of the individual? What hope of fair treatment of conquered nations can be found in any other philosophy?”
This would be Pvt. Taylor’s last letter home from New Guinea. Soon thereafter he was killed in action.
Early January of 1945 found Mullis and the Sixth Division aboard troop ships working their way up the West Coast for the invasion of Luzon at Lingayan Gulf. Not an easy passage. The Japanese in desperation were unleashing their suicide pilots, the Kamikaze. During the approach to the beachhead the Kamikaze pilots would ultimately injure or kill more than 2,100 sailors, sink two dozen ships and damage many more.
The Sixth Division came ashore Jan. 9, amazingly with little difficulty. In fact, the local Filipinos celebrated their arrival even breaking out American flags that they had secreted away some three years before. The Japanese had found it more strategic to defend in the mountains inland where again they were well dug in and ready to block MacArthur from his next goal, the re-taking of the capital city Manila.
The assault troops were soon moving south along dusty roads. So different from what they had experienced in New Guinea. This would change in February as they approached the so called “Shimbu Line.”
Here the action is described by Thomas E. Price in his History of the Sixth Infantry Division:
“The Shimbu Line proved to be the harshest campaign yet for the weary soldiers of the Sixth Division. Fought from Feb. 20 through April 30 of 1945, the battles waged there proved particularly harsh and pitiless. Fighting was round the clock and every night proved the power of the cult of Bushido as the Japanese launched banzai attacks.”
And it was during this fierce period that on April 2 Mullis was hit with shrapnel, which caused his death the next day.
Mullis was temporarily buried at Manila, but as was reported in the July 8, 1948 issue of the Brown County Democrat Mullis’ body was returned to Brown County for final burial. Services were held on July 9. Mullis’ burial site is at Greenlawn Cemetery in Nashville.
Mullis was the son of Irwin and Edith Mullis.
Jim Watkins is a Brown County Historical Society member who wrote “The Fallen,” a memorial document about young men from Brown County who never returned home from World War II. Watkins was a public school teacher for 42 years and has always been interested in learning about WWII. He can be reached at [email protected].
