Evening star., 1945-10-30


Gen. Wainwright. the negotiations
with forces in the south and in
upper Luzon.
What I did not know at the time
was that the Japs had informed
our men on Corregidor-including
officers who against all laws OF
warfare were put to work cleaning
up The Rocks debris-that if the
troops in the south and in the
north did not surrender I would
be forced to witness the shooting
of 10 American officers every day
those troops held out.
But even without this knowledge
or the foresight to know that there
would be trouble in the south, those
first three days in Manila were
times of great tension.
Then, on May II, Col Jesse T.
Traywick returned from Mindanao,
my chief source of worry. He re-
ported that Maj. Gen. William F
Sharp had received my broadcast
and that he had radioed Gen. Mac
Arthur, as I hoped he would. Mac
Arthur had replied, in effect, "Use
your own judgment.
Agreed to Surrender.
Sharp's judgment was the same
as mine. He agreed to surrender.
1t was a source of great relief to
find him accepting orders after ]
had released him and to know he
felt as I did.
Mindanao at that time was al
most completely overrun by Jap
forces, and it was thus time to
break up our forces into guerrilla
bands, as Macarthur had en-
yisioned.
But I did not think then, and do
not think now, that the short action
that such bands could have engaged
In, and the small amount of good
they could have accomplished
would have compensated in any way
for what would have happened to
the men and women of Corregidor
Certainly these guerrilla bands could
not have lasted the two and a half
years which passed before our troops
got back to the Philippines.
On the same May II, at night, we
were joined at the University Club
by Brig. Gen. Lewis Beebe, Maj. Bill
Lawrence and Sergt. Hubert Carroll,
who brought with them our clothes,
toilet articles and other personal
effects. 1t was blessing to get into
something clean, and to shave.
Officers Searched Bags.
But with the arrival of our bag
gage began a seemingly endless
search of our ever-dwindling effects.
The bags we're opened in our rooms
that night and Systematically
searched by unit of Jap officers.
Out of my bag they took my tao
tical maps of North Luzon and Ba-
taan, my field glasses. compass and
q pair of wire cutters.
On the morning of May u the
questioning began, questioning
which was to continue almost with
out abatement until the day of my
liberation.
At the very start of the question:
ing they wanted to know why moth
ing had been heard from Coils. ]. P.
HQran and Guillermo Nakar. They
were even more severe about the
fact that some small detachments of
the Philippine Army troops and
some of the Constabulary were max
ing a last ditch stand on the island
of PalaWan and in the Bicol PENN
sula. They reminded me again that
I would not be recognized as a pris-
oner of war until all opposition had
ceased.
I told them I would do what
could, and asked them to send to
Camp O'Donnell and release Gen.
Francisco and 1t. Silhavy, a Philip
pine Army engineer who had served
4. in the Bicol Peninsula. I told the
Japs that would give instructions
to these two Philippine officers and
send them to Legaspi and Palawan
to speak to the holdouts. With
them, I promised, would send Col.
Johnny Pugh, my aide.
Tell of Death March.
Francisco and Silhavy, much the
worse for wear, were brought to my
quarters in the University Club and
in whispers told me what they knew
OF the Bataan Death March, a
story which made me sick to hear.
Yet I knew that the Japs we're
capable of staging other death
marches, and would do so unless all
organized resistance ceased. So I
quickly sent Francisco, Silhavy and
Pugh to Legaspi, with instructions
similar to the ones sent to Sharp,
Nakar and Koran.
They went armed with many
, printed copies of this order, along
with shorter one signed by Fran
cisco, reading:
ITO any Constabulary officer:
"The undersigned chief of Con-
stabulary upon instructions from
1t. Gen. j. M. Wainwright, U. S. A..
senior American officer in the
Philippines, is now in Legaspi to
transmit to you an order of sur
render to take effect Immediately
You are hereby ordered by me that
upon receipt of this message to
send q, representative to Legaspi
Maya, Labor or SorSoeon. which,