Jonathan Mayhew "Skinny" Wainwright the son of Robert Powell Page Wainwright, an officer killed in action in the Philippines, in 1902. Jonathan Wainwright was promoted to Major General (temporary) returned to the Philippines, in December of 1940, as commander of Filipino and US forces under General Douglas MacArthur. Upon the "relocation" of Douglas MacArthur to Australia said to had been ordered out of Corregidor because the President Franklin Roosevelt was concerned about the negative impact MacArthur's death or capture would have on the American public during the critical first year of the war, the unenviable position of Allied commander in the Philippines was handed down to Wainwright. Also that same month, Wainwright was promoted to Lieutenant General (temporarily).
With 70,000 troops on Bataan General Edward P. King grandson of a Confederate General of the Civil War, after months of fighting the invading Japanese Army and with food and medicine exhausted, accepting sole responsibility to disobey MacArthur's and Wainwright's orders, chose to surrender his troops on the 9th of April, 1942. King never informed Wainwright, a move which would cost him professionally. He wanted the responsibility all to himself saying: "You men remember this. You did not surrender ... you had no alternative but to obey my order." His courageous act saved the lives of thousands of his troops, who would have been annihilated by the Japanese if he had not surrendered. Of course, General King had no way of knowing the horrors they would face in captivity, including the Bataan Death March (which claimed the lives of at least 1,000 Americans and 5,000 Filipinos); brutal conditions in Japanese POW camps (where thousands more perished) and for a unlucky few, transport to the enemy homeland on "hell ships" with little food, water or ventilation. Some of the ships were torpedoed by U.S. submarines, which had no way of knowing that their fellow Americans were being held below decks.
King spent three and half years as a captive of the Japanese and was often mistreated by them because of his rank. In a meeting with his troops prior to being sent to a POW Camp in Manchuria, he assured his men, in a tearful farewell, that he alone was responsible for the surrender. In General King’s own words, "We were asked to lay down a bunt. We did just that. You have nothing to be ashamed of."
When he emerged from a Japanese POW camp, King expected to be court-martialed for failing to obey a direct order. Instead, he was treated as a hero--and deservedly so. As we noted four years ago, the surrender on Bataan was a product of false expectations and poor leadership. Any hope of reinforcing the Philippines ended with the debacle of Pearl Harbor, though MacArthur kept telling his troops that help was on the way.
When the war in the Pacific finally ended both MacArthur and Wainwright received promotions and the Medal of Honor for their defense of the Philippines. However, Edward King had a different fate. For his actions, King received no promotions and no accolades. MacArthur even refused to see or speak to him after the war believing that he should not have surrendered. In the 1977 film "MacArthur" starring Gregory Peck, his name is not even mentioned. This however, was a sentiment not shared by the soldiers. Many veterans of the Philippines Campaign of 1941-42 were angry at MacArthur and remained bitter at him for the rest of their lives. They believed that he was out of touch with what the troops were really going through during that time. At the time of King's surrender, Wainwright disapproved but later said of King's decision that it "required unusual courage and strength of character."
With Bataan now under Japanese control, the enemy turned their full attention to Corregidor then was called "The Rock." General Wainwright and his 26,000 troops at Corregidor were the last organized resistance on Luzon. In all, more than 400 fighter plane and bombing attacks were launched against the 2 square mile island. For almost a month, while the Japanese continued their wholesale slaughter of Bataan's valiant defenders during their infamous death march, Corregidor held. By May 6th the Philippine defenders had continued to fight the delaying action called for in Orange No. 3 for the full six month period determined necessary for resupply and reinforcement. The defenders had done their part, but now they knew there would be no resupply or reinforcement.
The situation at the island of Corregidor was no better. Here too, the soldiers were weary, wounded, malnourished and diseased. From the Malinta Tunnel General Wainwright did his best to direct the tactical aspects of the resistance. Unlike MacArthur, who had only once left the tunnel to visit troops on Bataan, "Skinny" Wainwright made frequent visits to the peninsula to check on the status of his men and to fight Japanese. In the months preceding his promotion to command of all forces in the Philippines, Wainwright had not only commanded the Philippine Scouts in I Corps, he had fought with them. On more than one occasion he had come under direct fire from enemy soldiers, watched men next to him die, and returned fire on the enemy. A unique kind of commander, many who witnessed his bravery called him, "Last of the Fighting Generals."
For long days and nights, General Jonathan Wainwright had struggled to determine in his mind the best course of action. He was proud of his men and they had come to love, admire, and obey him. Finally, on the morning of May 6th in the interest of minimizing casualties, Wainwright with his 10,000 troops left on Corregidor, he notified them of his decision. "With broken heart and with head bowed in sadness, but not in shame," he told his soldiers, today I must arrange terms for the surrender." At 10:15 A.M. he sent the last message from Corregidor to President Roosevelt. At exactly noon on May 6, 1942, General Jonathan M. Wainwright surrendered to Japanese General Homma and by June 9, Allied forces had completely surrendered. A historian of the Civil War, Wainwright later said of that moment, "Suddenly, I knew how Lee felt after Appomattox. Wainwright was then held in prison camps in Luzon, Formosa, and Liaoyuan (former Xi'an in Manchukuo) until his liberation by the Soviet Red Army in August 1945. He was the highest ranking American POW and despite his rank like POW General Edward King, his treatment at the hands of the Japanese was not pleasant.
In Australia MacArthur was furious, in his own mind he expected these generals to die fighting to defend the Philippines. King and Wainwright, the generals he had selected to complete their mission had let him down. On July 30, 1942 General George C. Marshall proposed that a Medal of Honor be awarded to the last of the fighting generals. It prompted an act of resistance to a Medal of Honor award, unprecedented in the Medal's history. General MacArthur wrote, in part...
"The citation proposed does not represent the truth. As a relative matter award of the Medal of Honor to General Wainwright would be a grave injustice to a number of general officers of practically equally responsible positions who not only distinguished themselves by fully as great personal gallantry thereby earning the DSC but exhibited powers of leadership and inspiration to a degree greatly superior to that of General Wainwright thereby contributing much more to the stability of the command and to the successful conduct of the campaign. It would be a grave mistake which later on might well lead to embarrassing repercussions to make this award."
During his more than three years of captivity, General Wainwright suffered deprivation, humiliation, abuse and torture at the hands of the Japanese. In his own mind he feared the moment of his return, sure that he would be considered a coward and a traitor for his surrender at Corregidor. He knew nothing of the award that had been proposed, then shelved because of MacArthur's scathing objections. Throughout the period he struggled to survive, General Jonathan Mayhew Wainright was the highest ranking and he was also one of the oldest American prisoner of war in World War II and celebrating his 60th birthday in a POW camp in Manchuria.
On October 25, 1944 General Douglas MacArthur waded ashore at Leyte to announce, "People of the Philippines, I have returned." Almost a year of bitter fighting remained for Allied forces in the Pacific. Then, on August 6, 1945 the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, three days later a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. On August 14 the Japanese announced that they would surrender. The final documents of surrender would be signed in Tokyo Harbor on September 2nd, General MacArthur would preside over the historic event and sign on behalf of the President of the United States.
On August 19 General Wainwright learned that the war had ended, he would finally be going home. Upon release, Wainwright was flown from Mukden, Chongqing, China. He met with Sid Huff, who escorted him to a barber and a tailor. He had lost so much weight that his uniform was loose on his wiry frame. He was flown first to Yokohama, where he arrived looking tired and gaunt on August 31st. MacArthur's second evening in Japan he met Wainwright. MacArthur recalled...
"I rose and started for the lobby, but before I could reach it, the door swung open and there was Wainwright. He was haggard and aged.... He walked with difficulty and with the help of a cane. His eyes were sunken and there were pits in his cheeks. His hair was snow white and his skin looked like old shoe leather. He made a brave effort to smile as I took him in my arms, but when he tried to talk his voice wouldn't come. For three years he had imagined himself in disgrace for having surrendered Corregidor. He believed he would never again be given an active command. This shocked me. "Why, Jim," I said, "your old corps is yours when you want it."
Wainwright arm-in-arm with MacArthur, could only respond with "general..." before he broke down in tears. MacArthur did not notice at the time of the reunion, but afterwards he realized that the cane Wainwright walked in on that evening was a present from MacArthur before the war; he had kept it near him through the years in the prison camps. It was given by MacArthur so that his friend, a fellow general, could use it as a swagger stick, a symbol of his rank; ironically, Wainwright used it to support his weakened weight and defeated spirit.
Wainwright never felt any bitterness toward MacArthur for his actions in the Philippines or MacArthur's attempt to deny him the Medal of Honor. In fact, when it appeared that MacArthur might be nominated for president at the 1948 Republican National Convention, Wainwright stood ready to make the nominating speech. He died of a stroke at San Antonio, Texas on September 2, 1953.
To many Filipinos and Americans MacArthur was a hero. Through the dark years ahead they believed that, as he had promised, he would return. But to some, specially enemy powers sought to portray MacArthur differently; Germany and Italy to Japan he was labeled in the media as arrogant, egoistic, self important, over rated, a coward, a deserter and the "fleeing general." MacArthur had been ordered out of Corregidor because the President Roosevelt was concerned about the negative impact his death or capture would have on the American public during the critical first year of the war. To counter the propaganda of the enemy, General George C. Marshall suggested awarding MacArthur the Medal of Honor. The President agreed and the same award his father had received 80 years earlier was presented to General Douglas MacArthur in Australia on June 30, 1942. Arthur and Douglas MacArthur became the only father and son in history to both receive the Medal of Honor.
Truth be told that in 1940, the Philippines was a Commonwealth of the United States. We had no quarrel with Japan or the Japanese people. Unfortunately there were US Armed Forces stationed in the Philippines and when the United States and Japan were unable to resolve their differences over a number of issues, war became inevitable. Filipinos were taken in to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States and we fought alongside US soldiers with loyalty and determination.
Legally as citizens of a Commonwealth of the United States, Filipinos were American nationals entitled to all benefits afforded those serving in the United States Armed Forces.
However when the war ended, the US Congress passed a law, the “Rescission Act of 1946,” declaring that “the service of Filipinos shall not be deemed to be or to have been served in the military or national forces of the United States or any component thereof.” This effectively stripped Filipinos of their recognition as US veterans, and blew away whatever benefits they may have been entitled to.
More than 60 years later, a new law was passed granting certain payments to eligible persons who served in the US Armed Forces during World War II to include Filipino veterans. If the eligible person was not a citizen of the United States, he was granted $9,000. For a citizen of the United States, the amount was $15,000.
In February and March 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, some 117,000 Japanese-Americans (Niseis) living along the West Coast of the United States were herded into internment camps where they were kept under difficult living conditions. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the “Civil Liberties Act,” providing each of the surviving 60,000 Japanese-American internists with $20,000 along with an apology for a grave injustice.
So much for our steadfast devotion to Uncle Sam and the red, white, and blue. By the way, the United States does not observe Bataan Day as a national holiday. Rightly so because it was a day of defeat. Seventy years after, very few Americans know what Bataan and Corregidor was all about, or where these places are located.
- - ka tony
the 9th of April, 2012
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