Evening star., 1945-11-05

ASASSo oo AAAA6oPOAC, ID o11OWh WI
wright shortly before the Japan,
the Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
prayer asking Gods blessing on our
loved ones and friends. In the
middle of the prayer, with all its
unbearable visions of home, his
voice suddenly broke and softly,
helplessly, he began to cry. He
could not stop it, nor could we. He
turned his back to us for long
time, and when he could control
himself he turned again, and con-
tinued.
1t was shortly thereafter that our
fears began to be realized.
SIaps British General.
Beckwith-Smith passed Jap
private near the parade ground the
following week. The British general
gave the sneering man a good Brit
ish salute. but the Jap did not like
it. He chased after the general,
wheeled him around roughly and
hit him twice in the face with
clenched fists. 1t was so outrage
ously unfair that it made all of us
boil with anger. Beckwith-Smith
staggered back but did not fall
And, as furious as he was, he had
the presence of mind not to strike
back-or he most certainly would
have been killed.
Gen. Percival and I went 10 my
room Immediately and we wrote out
a letter to Capt. Imamura, the camp
commander, objecting to such
treatment. We then asked the
guard to take us to the commander.
Instead, he took us before young
Jap lieutenant named Nakashima,
surly, muscular fellow whom we
had nicknamed Boots" because of
the way he walked in his ill-fitting
riding boots. He glanced through
the letter rapidly and few into a
rage. He shouted that we would
not see the camp commander and
that If we wrote another such letter
of protest he would personally see
to it that we were dealt with
severely.
| A day or two later Domei CORE
spondent visited the camp and asked
me if I thought I would be court
martialed if I ever returned to the
United States.
"'Court- -martialeda' r asked
"Why?"
For surrendering," he answered.
as If I should have known.
| I told him that I did not think
so; that I had the authority OF my
commander in chief to act in accord
ance with my own judgment-which
astounded the Jap-and that we
were a reasoning Nation not given
to communicating officers who
issued reasonable orders.
Wrote Message to Wife.
He could not fathom any of this,
and started to leave. But detained
him. took a long chance and scrib-
bled out message to my wife and
asked him to wire or cable it to
Mrs. Wainwright I had not been
able to tell her since the fall of
Corregidor that I was still alive. The
Jap reporter accepted the message
with some misgivings, and left.
But what he had said about my
surrender did work on my mind.
To surrender is, indeed, a dreadful
thing to be forced to do, and the
act was never far from my con-
sciousness-even after all the in
tervening months.
So I got out my diary, sat down
and wrote:
II will probably be asked why I
surrendered Corregidor without
1ast-ditch' stand. The answer will
be found in my notes in the front of
this book, plus these additional
facts:
"(a) Enemy could and would have
taken the island in a day or two, or
less, by piling up on it many more
troops from Bataan. He was actually
doing so while I was negotiating
with Gen. Homma at Cabcaben.
"(b) A few days longer would
make no difference, as no help was
in sight. The only difference lay in
the fact that had we all been
killed on the island it could have
been said What brave men they
were!' Many, however, would have
called me fool or perhaps a GRIM
inal for sacrificing all my troops
without any possible chance of good
coming from so doing"
"(c) I was afraid that If the as
sault was allowed to reach the
Tunnel, as it would have that night,
a terrible massacre would occur in
the darkness, and that tanks and
f1ame-throwers in there would finish
every one off. for no good, including
1000 sick and wounded and 125
nurses. And more wounded were
coming in every minute. The women
were grave consideration.
Outnumbered 2 to 1.
"(d The beach defense troops,
Marines, plus all mixed detach-
ments, were already outnumbered
II to l, and the harbor defense
troops, while magnificent on their
jobs, were not really trained for
infantry combat, were badly bat
tered to pieces by the months bonn
bardment, and were, so far as the
remaining armament would permit,
engaged in returning the intense
fire from Bataan.
/ "(el Troops would have been cap
tured piecemeal in any case. I
therefore thought it much better to
surrender all at once in an orderly
manner.
/ go The japanese would that
night, from their landing at James
Reyine beach, which they actually
made, have separated the troops
on the west end of the island from
those on the east end, and would
have, and did get, possession Of our
power and water installations.
"(g) Col. Howard, commanding
the beaches defenses, reported two
days previously to Gen. Moore that
his troops were so shaken by the
months bombardment that he could
only with great difiiculty hold them
in their assigned positions, and
now the prepared positions were
all destroyed.
For all these reasons, plus those
stated In the front Of the book, !