The fight for the Manila Hotel had begun on the 21st with an assault on the east wing by a cavalry squadron supported by field artillery, 105mm. self propelled mounts, and a platoon of medium tanks. The east wing was seized after a brief but savage fight, but the Japanese strong points in the west wind, atop which was MacArthur's former penthouse, held out until late the next day. By the time the cavalrymen and the supporting guns had overwhelmed the enemy defenders, the west wing was demolished.

 

Under heavy guard MacArthur made his way up the damaged stairs to the penthouse and found his prized library and other personal possessions missing or destroyed. A Japanese colonel lay dead beside two smashed vases that the Japanese Emperor had presented to MacArthur's father when he was military attaché in Tokyo in 1905. MacArthur later commented "It was not a pleasant moment . . . I was tasting to the last acid dregs the bitterness of a devastated and beloved home."