World War 2 History: The Fall of Corregidor (May 6, 1942)

May 6, 1942: A gloomy day in history when the combined force of the United States' armed forces and Filipinos, abandoned by the US led by president Roosevelt (the Europe-first policy), without food, ammunition, medicines; with gangrened bodies piled up, capitulated almost a month after the Bataan peninsula gave up the gallant fight; a heroic fight that delayed Japanese timetable of occupation to the point of saving Australia from the Japanese juggernaut. By this time, much of East Asia already fell under the shadow of the Land of the Rising Sun except Thailand who collaborated with the Nihon-jin invaders.

This happened long after British-controlled Singapore, a vaunted impregnable fortess, capitulated in the middle of February 1942 that ended British's feared invinciblity in Asia. (note the brilliant strategist of Singapore invasion was Tomoyuki Yamashita)

a memorial to the heroes of war near the ruins of Cine Corregidor

This is the first of a series on Corregidor, a tadpole-shaped island fortress at the mouth of Manila Bay, politically part of Cavite even if geographically nearer to Bataan, that I visited three times: the first time in 2004 with Japanese friends (my rusty knowledge of Japanese helped a lot), the second time for the occular inspection and the third time for company team building activities

To be continued...

Related Posts:

Corregidor Guided Tour,
Corregidor Guided Tour,
Corregidor Team building,
Corregidor Ghosthunting