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Buna was General Douglas MacArthur's first offensive campaign against Japanese troops in World War II. As supreme commander, Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), MacArthur expected American soldiers to seize the Japanese forward base at Buna, on Papua New Guinea, speedily and without many casualties. After all, the SWPA intelligence officer, Brigadier General Charles Willoughby, assured MacArthur on the eve of the operation that there was 'little indication of an attempt to make a strong stand against the Allied advance.' The battered Japanese forces were closely defending the airstrip at Buna and had established an embarkation point to the west of the base–all pointing to a general withdrawal by sea. MacArthur and the officers and men of the U.S. 32nd Infantry Division, the unit ordered to take Buna, therefore expected a quick victory. They were told–and they believed–that Buna would be a pushover, taken in a few days from the emperor's understrength and already badly mauled forces. Unfortunately for the American soldiers, no one told that to the Japanese defenders.
Other Memories Prior to World War II, he was in 1938 a Colonel in command of 27th Infantry Regiment. In 1941 he was promoted to Brigadier General and Assistant commander of the 9th Infantry Division.
