The people who gave their lives defending and fighting for a 2,200-acre island that was the site of two key battles in World War II are honored by today’s #stampoftheday. A 3-cent stamp issued on September 27, 1945, it pictures Corregidor, a tadpole-shaped island at the entrance to Manila Bay about 30 miles from the city of Manila.
The stamp was issued about 6 months after Allied forced regained control of the island, which in May 1942, became the last American outpost in the Philippines to fall to the Japanese forces. Japan, which had attacked the Philippines just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, quickly destroyed every US aircraft on the ground, forcing the American naval fleet to withdraw. American forces retreated to the Bataan a peninsula, west of Manila, where Americans had a military reservation that served Corregidor, located a few miles away. General Douglas MacArthur, who commanded American forces in the Far East, moved his headquarters to Corregidor but in March was ordered, against his wishes, to leave. He escaped on a PT Boat; upon his arrival in Australia, he gave a famous speech in which he promised “I shall return.”
Bataan fell in early April and the approximately 76,000 sick and starving American and Filipino soldiers were forced on a grueling march, during which as many as 10,000 died or were murdered by the Japanese forces before they were interred in camps. After Bataan fell, the Japanese began an assault on the island, which was defended by about 12,000 soldiers. The Japanese now launched a massive bombardment of the island, which within a few days, “would become the most hellish five square miles on the face of the earth,” according to Bill Sloan, who wrote a book about the battle.
The assaults continued and in early May, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a message to Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, commander of the American and Filipino forces on the island, stating: “During recent weeks, we have been following with growing admiration the day-by-day accounts of your heroic stand….In spite of all the handicaps of complete isolation, lack of food and ammunition, you have given the world a shining example of patriotic fortitude and self-sacrifice.” Not long afterwards, Wainwright decided to surrender and sent his own message to FDR, stating: “With broken heart and head bowed in sadness, but not in shame, I report that today I must arrange terms for the surrender….There is a limit of human endurance, and that limit has long since been passed….Please say to the nation that my troops and I have accomplished all that is humanly possible and that we have upheld the best tradition of the United States and its army. With profound regret and with continued pride in my gallant troops, I go to meet the Japanese commander.”
More than two years later, in October 1944, 174,000 Allied fighters travelling on over 700 vessels attacked Leyte, a central island in the Philippines. The fight to retake the Philippines was fierce and savage. The attack on Corregidor didn’t start until late January, when Allied ships and planes began bombing the approximately 5,000 Japanese fighters on the island. In February, Allied forces attacked the beaches while about 1,000 paratroopers launched a surprise assault on the island’s rocky hills. At one point, a group of Japanese troops, who were trapped in tunnels in a mountain, blew it (and themselves) up, rather than surrender. Similar explosions occurred around the island for several days. Corregidor was declared secure on February 26 and Allied shipping began using the harbor in early March around the time that Manila itself fell to allied forces after fighting that reportedly took the lives of more than 100,000 Filipino civilians.
MacArthur returned to what had been his headquarters on the island where he said: “I see that the old flag pole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak and let no enemy ever haul them down.” He then extolled the men who had originally defended Bataan and Corregidor, contending: “Bataan, with Corregidor the citadel of its integral defense, made possible all that has happened since….Its long protracted struggle enabled the Allies to gather strength. Had it not held out, Australia would have fallen, with incalculably disastrous results.” He added: “Our triumphs today belong equally to that dead army. Its heroism and sacrifices have been fully acclaimed, but the great strategic results of that mighty defense are only now becoming fully apparent. It was destroyed due to its dreadful handicaps, but no army in history more fully accomplished its mission. Let no man henceforth speak of it other than as a magnificent victory.”
Today, Corregidor is an historic monument and popular destination for tourists who can see remains of the fortifications and visit several memorials, including a Pacific War Memorial, an audio visual installation in the tunnel that was that last stronghold of American and Filipino forces, a Filipino Heroes Memorial, and a Japanese Garden of Peace. A statue of Kan-non, a Buddhist goddess of mercy, in that garden is dedicated to war victims and “offered as a prayer for their eternal rest and peace.”
Writing this, I am well aware that I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like to be on Corregidor during these battles or to have been among the survivors who were taken prisoner and treated so brutally. So today, a few hours before the start of Yom Kippur, I honor them. May their memories be blessings, not only to those who knew them but those, like me, who know of them.
Be well, stay safe, fight for justice, and work as hard as you can for peace.