THANKS TO LTC AND MRS. RWW (R), E/2/503/173 69-70 HERITAGE BN IS USING THE FLIPPING BOOK PROGRAM
TO SHARE A WIDER RANGE OF REFERENCE MATERIALS IN A MORE ACCESSABLE FORMAT.
CORREGIDOR - THE IDYLLIC YEARS

To some, Corregidor was an asset, the strategic guardian of  America's interests in the Philippines. To others, it was a "military liability of a constantly increasing gravity."  As the Imperial Japanese adventurism in China threatened to expand beyond the continent, the problem became that the policy-making politicians, the Navy planners and the War Department all had the benefit of not being in the Philippines. 
 

   
 
CORREGIDOR - THE SIEGE
The years of budgetary neglect result come home to roost, and brave men are left to face the victorious Imperial Japanese Army.
 
 
 
 
   
CONTEMPORANEOUS DOCUMENTS
Corregidor had already occupied the public mind because of its  surrender in May 1942, and no one was in any doubt that its retaking was going to become its second defining moment in the history of WWII.
 
 
 
 
   
           
RETAKING CORREGIDOR
Contemporaneous documents involving the retaking of Corregidor
 
       
           
   
 
 
POSTWAR STUDIES
Postwar, Corregidor, not surprisingly, became the subject of detailed study at the
Advanced Officers Course at Ft. Benning and the Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, KS.
 
 
   
     
NEGROS (OCCIDENTAL) OPERATION
The transfer of the 503d PRCT to Gen. Eichelberger's command resulted in it being called in to "assist" the 185th Infantry Regiment which was finding the "mopping up" in Negros a much harder task than expected.  Negros would become, ultimately, a much more difficult operation than Corregidor. Ultimately, the campaign would be largely overlooked by even the Army's Official Historian. It was perhaps the most grievous misuse of a paratroop unit in WWII.  The Negros Journals are presented in five folders.
 
     


BATTLE OF MANILA - THE FALSE NARRATIVES ARISE, AND ARE PERPETUATED
The Battle of Manila, probably more than any other battle of WWII, has suffered from the false narratives of post-war revisionism.  This was not simply the result of Japanese reluctance to traverse their  war crimes, but from the efforts of the US to facilitate Japan as a base for the 'police action' in Korea.  The predominant revisionist approach was that the US had, by surrounding Manila, failed to afford an escape route for the Japanese to withdraw from the city, thereby causing damage and death which otherwise would not have occurred.  This approach assumes, incorrectly, that the Japanese wanted to vacate Manila without  fight. The second revision was to characterise the atrocities as  " the Manila Naval Defence Force under the separate command of the Imperial Japanese Navy running amok." This was an ex post facto invention argued by  the defense counsel of Gen. Yamashita. The third  narrative was that the damage to Manila was caused predominantly  by "American Bombing"  and indiscriminant artillery use.  The fourth narrative was that 100,000 civilians died in the Battle of Manila. The fifth issue is to downplay the role of Japanese artillery throughout the course of the battle.


         
           
       
 
 
 
 

 

 




BATTLE OF MANILA - THE ISSUE OF WAR CRIMES
The Battle of Manila, probably more than any other battle of WWII, has suffered from the false narratives of post-war revisionism.  This was not simply the result of Japanese reluctance to traverse their  war crimes, but from the efforts of the US to use Japan as a facility for the 'police action' in Korea.   The predominant revision was that the US had, by surrounding Manila, failed to afford an escape route for the Japanese to withdraw from the city, thereby causing damage and death which otherwise not have occurred.  The secondary revision was to characterise the atrocities as  " the Manila Naval Defence Force under the command of the Imperial Japanese Navy running amok."  The third  revision was that the damage to Manila was caused predominantly  by "American Bombing"  and indiscriminant artillery use. 


         
 
     
   
HEROES AND VILLAINS
Sometimes, you can't tell the truth from the legend.
   
 
 
     



CORREGIDOR - THE DARK YEARS, A RESURRECTION AS A MEMORIAL TO HISTORY, AND THE EFFECT OF THE COVID-WUHAN VIRUS  SETS IN.


Corregidor had become the focus of attention twice during WWII, but post-war it fell into a 'dark age' in which it was closed to most everyone except the Military. It's a 'dark age' because rarely did anything which happened there escape into common knowledge.   We get occasional glimpses of what was going on, though. Despite being under miilitary control, the island suffered severe  scrapping (a politically correct description of wholesale thievery). Various military programs and exercises were held. The US  used it for annual exercises of mobile radar units - this we know because we have a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald there during one of his unit's annual exercises. The Philippine Army also used it for training purposes. This we know because in 1968, a number  of Moro army recruits who mutinied upon learning the purpose of their training were massacred near Kindley Field, lest the secret training program become widely known.  Just how many were murdered  remains a secret, but the fact that a massacre occurred took place even went before the Philippine Supreme Court. The Jabida Massacre is now widely known. In 1986 the then Ministry of Tourism (now Department of Tourism, or DOT), together with the Philippine Tourism Authority (now Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Authority, or TIEZA) as assignees, entered into a memorandum of agreement with the then Ministry of National Defense (now the Department of National Defense), as assignor, to develop the historic Island of Corregidor, as well as the other surrounding islands, into a major tourist attraction of the Philippines. To pursue PTA’s obligations and objectives for Corregidor Island, Corregidor Foundation, Inc. (CFI) was  incorporated 1987. At the time, Corregidor became one of the Philippines most popular tourism attractions.

Unfortunately, with the passage of years, Corregidor has deteriorated.  Not at first, of course, and not deliberately.. It maintained its popularity in a market that was gradually changing, as WWII veterans and their families no longer made the pilgrimage to visit the WWII battlefields which had been their heritage.  Each year, there were fewer veterans, and fewer tourists.

With the closure of the tourist industry
in its entirety caused by the reactions to the Covid 19 Pandemic, Corregidor ceased to operate as a vibrant,  active  tourist destination.  It began to whither. Sun Cruises, which provided the daily tourist transport to the island, ceased to trade, and sold their boats. Corregidor Inn, refurbished at great cost, lost its guests. Sun Cruises surrendered their management rights. CFI, which earned its income from tourism, no longer had a consistent tourist stream of income from which to draw its lifeblood. Considerably weakened, Corregdor has been unable to re-establish a cash flow from which its governance might recommence its role as a historical memorial to the sacrifices of WWII.  CFI, which was created to protect the island, was shown to all to have insufficient power or influence to prevent the removal of gun barrels from Battry Hearn and Battery Crockett, the barrels being removed to create a faux  Disney-style attraction on an artificial beach facing Manila Bay. Small tours are able to visit the island, but the market has changed.

 It needs to be reinvented.

  

     
   cover      
   
 
THE GUINEA GOLD COLLECTION

The four-page printed newspaper 'Guinea Gold' was published daily, seven days a week with an American edition of 40,000 and an Australian of 20,000. It was first published on 19 November 1942 with 6,700 copies. Originally printed at Port Moresby, it later went to press in Lae, serving the South West Pacific area. These images, collected bymy father ( Paul C. Whitman)  and found years later in his footlocker,  are provided solely for the purpose of research and study. Though for me, they are a part of my heritage.

 
 
 

 

THE MATERIALS ON THIS PAGE ARE FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
29 June 2023



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