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There are three cities of significance named San Jose
in the Pacific arena.
Naval History and Heritage Command #NH 1116
San Jose,
California. The first is an American
city located at the south end of San
Francisco
Bay (121.884W
37.345N) that was important as a rail and agricultural
center.
San Jose, Mindoro.
The second is the principal city of the island of Mindoro, just south
of Luzon
in the Philippines
(121.087E
12.347N), with a small port sheltered by Ilin Island and an airstrip. Elements of 6 Army landed
here on 15 December 1944, found no significant ground opposition, and
constructed operational airbases within two weeks.
The American bases were bombarded for twenty minutes in February 1945 by a cruiser-destroyer force under Kimura Masatome, who brilliantly penetrated the American defenses and got away with the loss of a single destroyer.
San Jose, Luzon. The third is a city in the central plain of Luzon (120.990W 15.792N), important as the northern terminus of a rail line leading back to Cabanatuan. During the second Luzon campaign, 10 Division was ordered by 41 Army to
defend a line between San Jose
and Tayug, but its commander, Okamoto Yasayuji, believed his understrength division could not hold
the line assigned, and he chose to concentrate elsewhere. This left the strategically important railhead virtually undefended.
References
Smith (1961; accessed 2011-4-13)
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