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Post by EXO on Jun 8, 2016 15:45:21 GMT 8
These have been posted by Bob Hudson to both the Corregidor Historic Society and Battle of Bataan Facebook Groups. They are for those who decline to join Facebook as they sincerely believe that Facebook is a waste of time and cannot possibly ever have any historic value. Special thanks to Bob Hudson
- ExO -
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Post by Bob Hudson on Jun 8, 2016 19:14:35 GMT 8
I have had these documents for over a year now. I received them through a contact at the National Archives. I recently went through a 279 page pdf files and in the midst of those pages, these documents stood out. I was mesmerized by reading them. I felt as I was there experiencing the excruciating stress everyone was under. I'm happy to have shared them and thank you Paul for sharing them here.
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Post by joeconnor53 on Jun 9, 2016 2:41:50 GMT 8
Bob, could you please contact me at joeconnor53 AT yahoo DOT com?
Thanks.
Joe Connor
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Post by beirutvet on Jun 9, 2016 16:11:36 GMT 8
Bob
I too was mesmerized by these documents, what a fabulous find!
These were surely hectic and tragic times to be going through and the sentiments expressed in these documents can be understood. No one wants to surrender, especially if your forces are still intact.
I can only guess at the mental turmoil and anguish being experienced under these circumstances.
My admiration for these men only grows with time.
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Post by joeconnor53 on Jun 10, 2016 5:37:17 GMT 8
Nothing was simple in that campaign, was it? If MacArthur and George Marshall had been on the same page, all the chaos following Wainwright's surrender might have been avoided.
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Post by Bob Hudson on Jun 10, 2016 8:29:05 GMT 8
These documents were sent to me in large volumes last year from a contact at the National Archives. This contact has since moved on and no longer available to me. The monumental number of documents were sent to me in a four month period. I only came across these posted docs as I go though each file. It is rare that I come across such documents as is posted here. The majority of them are dull, repetitive and boring documents, most of which make no sense to the reader.
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Post by fortman on Jun 10, 2016 14:14:53 GMT 8
Fascinating stuff indeed. As beirutvet wrote it must have been a terrible time for the men involved, and this only the precursor of the grim days as POWs ahead.
fortman
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Post by joeconnor53 on Jun 10, 2016 20:55:26 GMT 8
When you look at things from the perspective of the participants in light of their training, this was uncharted territory.
1. Surrender by commanders (as opposed to individual soldiers) was not part of American military culture. How many times had it happened before WWII? Yet in the first six months of the war, American military commanders had to face it at Guam, Wake and the Philippines.
2. King (Bataan) and Wainwright (Corregidor) were faced with traditional surrender decisions. Their troops had fought honorably and the decision to surrender was made only at the point at which those troops could no longer resist or achieve any military gain by further resistance. For King, the great fear was that the Japanese troops were about to reach the hospitals on Bataan. For Wainwright, he feared that Japanese armor would soon reach Malinta Tunnel. Each realized that the ultimate outcome was clear and further resistance would not change or delay that ultimate outcome.
3. For the commanders in the other islands, like Sharp and Christie, the situation was different. Their commands still had the ability to resist and achieve military goals. Their troops had not be defeated on the field of battle. Their problem was whether to follow the order to surrender issued by their superior, Wainwright. Soldiers are required to obey lawful orders from their superiors. Is it a lawful order to surrender when one still has the ability to resist? A soldier can disobey an illegal order, but he does so at his own peril (i.e., if he's wrong about the legality of the order, he is screwed).
4. Because the War Dept. had made Wainwright commander of all American troops in the Philippines (and the Japanese knew this), they could lawfully insist that Wainwright surrender all troops under his command.
5. Under MacArthur's original plan, Wainwright would have commanded only the troops on Bataan and Corregidor and, thus, the Japanese could have insisted that he surrender only those troops.
6. Beyond the legalities of the situation, there were the practicalities: the Japanese were holding more than 10,000 men on Corregidor as hostages. Disobedience of Wainwright's order to surrender could have led to the execution of these hostages.
7. In retrospect, I don't know of anyone who has criticized the decisions of either King or Wainwright. (OK, MacArthur did behind the scenes but he had a vested and personal interest in the matter). King and Wainwright were honorable men who surrendered to spare their troops from needless slaughter that would not have achieved any military goal.
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