Today was the 30th of January. The first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Manila.
The next (our fifth in Manila) day I struck off again by myself for my big tour of Corregidor. I got up early and left for the ferry port. When I arrived there were perhaps 20-30 of us getting on the boat. The ferry took an hour. The ferry docked on a long jetty. We disembarked and a mini steam train rumbled to a stop. We could take the train for an extra fee. I decided to walk, I passed a few vendors. I would’ve bought a fried banana if had seen one but this was all packaged and bottled stuff. Our group was divided in two.
We joined an entertaining guide on a trolley bus and drove around the island all morning. I saw all of the relics that were left over from the destruction of the island. We also looked at the various memorials of everyone that died there.
Corregidor Island was the home of the US army’s Fort Mills. It became the last place in the Philippines under US control after the Japanese captured the surrounding island. General Douglas MacArthur famously retreated from Corregidor for Australia on March 11, 1942. After a month of bombardment and blockade the defenders were forced to surrender to the Japanese on May 8.
The story doesn’t end there though. The Allies retook the island in a battle in February of 1945. In a complex combined parachute assault and amphibious landing.
Thousands of troops died in the battles. Our tour took it all in. The island was trying to become more than a memorial of war though. There was a hotel to host night time tours, a resort on one of the beaches. We even had nice lunch cooked up at a banquet hall on the island. The workers on the island really wanted its notoriety to make them a living and I hope that they are all okay to this day. We finished the tour walking through the tunnel that was the last home of the defenders of the island. It was dark, cold, and lonely. Then we rode back to the ferry to whisk me back to Manila.
