Corregidor falls, ending organized resistance in the Philippines
Wainwright surrenders the last American stronghold in Manila Bay
Quick facts
- Location
- Corregidor Island, Manila Bay
- Date
- May 6, 1942
- US/Filipino commander
- Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright
- Japanese commander
- General Masaharu Homma
- Result
- Unconditional surrender of all US/Filipino forces in the Philippines
What happened
After Bataan fell on April 9, 1942, the fortified island of Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay remained the last organized American and Filipino stronghold in the Philippines. Japanese artillery bombarded the island for weeks, at times dropping thousands of shells a day, and Japanese troops landed on Corregidor on the night of May 5. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, commanding roughly 11,000 defenders in the island's tunnel network, raised the white flag at noon on May 6. Japanese General Masaharu Homma refused to accept a surrender of Corregidor alone and demanded the unconditional surrender of all American and Filipino forces throughout the islands, a demand Wainwright accepted to try to spare his men from reprisal.
Why it matters
The surrender ended the Philippines campaign and delivered roughly 11,000 more prisoners into Japanese captivity, on top of the tens of thousands already captured at Bataan. Wainwright, the highest-ranking American POW of the war, spent three and a half years in Japanese captivity before he was freed in time to witness the formal Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri in 1945.
How we know
Firsthand press accounts from the Malinta Tunnel command post, including a war correspondent's eyewitness record of the surrender negotiations at Cabcaben, are preserved in the Corregidor historical archive alongside official Japanese and American accounts of the surrender terms.
Sources
- corregidor.org historical archive. Gen. Wainwright Surrenders (eyewitness account, The Story of Malinta Tunnel) · Primary source (author-declared)corregidor.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- The National WWII Museum. MacArthur Returns to the Philippines · Reputable sourcenationalww2museum.org · The domain "nationalww2museum.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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