A work by one of the official artists in the War Art Program has now been acquired by the Military Collection. Barse Miller (1904-1973) was a member of the Southwest Pacific Art Unit serving under General Douglas MacArthur, the other artists being Sidney Simon and Frede Vidar.
The ink and watercolor sketch (8 x 11 inches) titled Air Raid Shelter, Tacloban Key depicts five civilians including an infant huddled together under a makeshift shelter at Tacloban Key located on Leyte Island in the Philippines. On the verso is a manuscript note in Miller’s hand written on November 3, 1944 which, while not alluding to the image, provides some context to the local situation:
Conference after breakfast with Gen. Sverdrup. Frede [Vidar] with me. He had hopes of advancing his idea of taking leave before the next operation. “Jack” Sverdrup looking well and all eager to get down the road to Dulac [Dulag] etc. wants to see all he can today and may have a little time to listen to our plans on his return tonight.
I “waded” across the rice paddys between G.H.Q. and 2nd GSB HQ on the beach. Shorter but sloppy will not do that again! Rochet [Lieut. Cortlandt Rochet Rosebro, Jr., USNR, commanding USS APc-6] took me up to the head of the bay where we have set up the maintenance POU [?]. Sixth army H.Q. next door and they both had a bad night or two. They are practically on the end of the nips bomber run over Tacloban Air Strip. Lots of business each night. “Raid” this afternoon resulted in the shooting down of another of our own planes. Makes 3 in two days. Japs are winning at that rate. Boys on the air strip plenty trigger happy.
At the end of the war, each official artist submitted their work to the War Department in Washington, D.C. where a committee reviewed the images and a small selection was returned to the artists for their own use. On the verso of this drawing is the ink stamp: Released to artist by the War Department.
General “Jack” Lief Sverdrup (1898-1976), a Norwegian-born American civil engineer and general with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was MacArthur’s Chief Engineer.