It may be a tiny dot in the ocean, but it’s also a well-positioned dot. Nothing gets in or out of the Philippines without Corregidor’s tacit approval. That made the tiny island and its extensive network of underground tunnels, a key possession for both the Americans and their Japanese opponents in the Philippines in 1941 and 1942. (READ MORE: Pinnacle of Patriotism: Remembering Lafayette’s Tour of America)
Island warfare is an odd and deadly thing. It’s much easier to hold on to two square miles surrounded by the ocean than to hold on to a city on the mainland. That means the fighting is more brutal, the warfare more total, and the death toll much higher per square mile.
So when the Japanese forces began dropping bombs on the island in December 1941, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the stubborn and sometimes controversial American commander in the Philippines knew it was going to be a blood bath, and he wanted to be right in the middle of it.
By February, the Americans were on half-rations and knew it was a losing battle, but they weren’t about to go down without a fight. MacArthur would have gone down with them, and Roosevelt, who didn’t like MacArthur would have let him. Years of experience in Asia and his public figure made the general an invaluable asset, so he was ordered to take command to abandon the Philippines and take command of American forces in Australia. (READ MORE: Joe Biden Is No Dwight D. Eisenhower)
MacArthur hasn’t gone down in history as a man who liked to follow orders. Abandoning his men was the last thing he wanted to do. He threatened his resignation, promising to enlist in the Philippine Army as a volunteer. He was eventually convinced that the plan was impractical, so he decided to organize a hair-brained escape.
MacArthur enlisted the help of a cocky navy man, Lieutenant John Bulkeley, to leave the island on patrol torpedo (PT) boats. On the night of March 11, the Army general climbed aboard and set off into the stormy Sulu Sea. (READ MORE from Aubrey Gulick: The Old Man and the Sea: An Allegory or No?)
When he finally made it to Australia, he discovered his forces were in no condition to take on the encroaching Japanese, but that didn’t stop him from telling the press that he had every intention of returning to the Philippines as a savior.
In 1945, MacArthur finally managed to recapture Corregidor. Just one-third of the men he had left behind were still alive. “I’m a little late,” he told them, “but we finally came.”
This article originally appeared on Aubrey’s Substack, Pilgrim’s Way, on March 11, 2024.
