Corregidor

From my earliest memory I recall the name of Corregidor, shaded with an awed lowering of the voice or with a grimace of anger.  My friends, predominanly the Larricks, often played war and looked for "Japs" to kill, and foreign, exotic-sounding names--Bataan, Corregidor, Luzon--were also uttered.

Today all of that was reawakened and brought much more forcefully to my understanding.  For my children, who probably have not much of an idea what Corregidor was or meant, it is my  understanding that it was the first major battle the US ever lost.  I could be wrong about that, but after McArthur left the Philippines, Japan sought to dislodge the remaining Allied forces from the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, to open the bay for their use.  They had just toppled Manila.  Their plan to conquer Philippines was thwarted by the courageous forces under Jonathan Wainwright who held them off for five months. The Japanese had taken Singapore in two weeks. The fall of Corregidor, and thus the Philippines, occurred pretty much simultaneously with the Bataan Death March.

We and the Paines left the dock in Manila Bay at 8:00 this morning and rode a ferry boat over to Corregidor Island, just over a 1 1/2 hour trip. We then boarded a bus with a guide and began our tour of the Island.  We toured for about an hour, then had an early lunch, I'm sure to stagger us with the other buses. Lunch was very good and typically Filipino.

After lunch we toured for another two hours.  I'm not going to give a history lesson here, but it was a very moving day, looking at the bombed-out shells of American/Filipino barracks and gun emplacements, etc.  One barrack is entitled the "Mile-Long Barracks" and is the longest barracks in the world, housing 8,000 soldiers. It is very easy to see how this could have been considered a perfect posting before the war--beautiful jungle trees, flowers, ocean breezes, etc. When we saw the tunnel 8,000 injured soldiers and medical staff  lived in for that five months, with often no more than two hours of electricity for lights and ventilation a day because the Japanese kept bombing the generator, we also found it easy to see how heaven could turn to hell.

After the ferry ride home, we had an hour to rest before meeting the Thelers at a restaurant, Caruso's, for dinner.  It was a wonderful Italian restaurant where they make all their own pasta.  We had a really nice evening, the three couples visiting and enjoying the great food.