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.
The years of budgetary neglect result come home to roost, and brave men are left to face the victorious Imperial Japanese Army.
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.
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.
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 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.
Sometimes, you can't tell the truth from the legend.
CORREGIDOR - THE DARK YEARS, AND RESURRECTION AS A
MEMORIAL TO HISTORY
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.
