Corregidor Island

Took a day-trip out to Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay yesterday. Corregidor has been one of the principal fortified places protecting the capital city from attack by sea for hundreds of years. One of the many things we learned on the tour was that the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922--signed by the United States, the British Empire, the Empire of Japan, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy--specifically prevented the United States from improving the fortifications on the island, which would indirectly lead to the island falling to the Japanese, after a five-month battle, in May 1942. Against an attack from the sea Corregidor was well prepared, including the so-called "invisible guns of Corregidor," batteries that raised up to fire at approaching ships then were lowered again away from counterattack for reloading. However, against an attack from the air, such as that executed first by the Japanese and then by the Americans retaking the island in 1945, Corregidor was largely defenseless.

I am a history buff. Even though history as such is not in my academic interests, nevertheless my field is--in a manner of speaking--about history, and so it is natural, I think, that I should be enraptured by discussions of historical kinds of things. I am particularly fascinated by military history, which I think is unusual because there is not much in my family history in the way of proud military tradition. True enough, my father served in Vietnam, but you would be hard-pressed to find any significant heroics on the battlefield coming from the Modines. Perhaps this is because we ultimately come from the neutral country of Sweden, which seems more interested in fortifying its countryside with saunas and ski lodges than artillery installations and foxholes.

Anyhow, Corregidor was the site of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's famous line "I shall return!" The General was ordered to Australia by President Roosevelt, and beginning in the summer of 1944 he was in charge of a campaign that came west and north from a base in Australia to sytematically retake the lands conquered by Japan, achieving ultimate victory in September 1945. I said to my girlfriend that it would have been very interesting indeed to have taken this tour with some of my Japanese students, of which there are currently four at the seminary. The tour guide was obviously slanted in his presentation in favor of the American and Filipino side of the story, but this was not in any respect a weakness. A quite knowledgeable guide, he did have a couple of funny lines, including asking after the difference between the Filipino and American soldiers depicted, arms around each other's shoulders, helping each other, in front of the Pacific War Memorial. When no one gave the "right answer," he said it was simple, really: "The Filipino is the more handsome one!"

The memorial itself is so constructed that the sun on May 6 at noon is to shine directly on the "memorial altar" inside the structure. Futher, on that day the sun rises and sets exactly through the openings in the side of the building. This is one of several features designed to remember May 6, 1942, the day Corregidor fell to the forces of Imperial Japan. Some others are meant to recall February 26, 1945, the date of the final liberation of Corregidor; and March 7, 1945, the date Gen. MacArthur finally made good on his promise that he would return.

One of the most interesting things our guide said was to quote from memory the announcement of the fall of Bataan Peninsula (April 9, 1942) on the Voice of Freedom, as well as the communique' issued by Gen. John Wainwright to President Roosevelt the day before the official surrender of Corregidor and the rest of the Philippines to Japan. The fall of Bataan was also the beginning of the infamous "Death March," which was designed not only for brutality, but also to provide a long line of human shields as cover for the Japanese refortification of Bataan in order to continue their fight for the Philippines. The commanding general of Japan had promised the emperor to deliver the Philippines in 50 days' time, but the "Battling Bastards of Bataan" and the guns of Corregidor held out for an amazing five months against overwhelming odds. Corregidor did not hold as much strategic importance for the Japanese in terms of defending the Philippines as it had for the Americans and Filipinos, but it was still important enough--for military as well as sentimental reasons--to warrant a separate attack when the Americans came back to retake the Philippines. Today it is one of the prided tourist locations in the islands.

Next I want to see Bataan...