Wainwright, Jonathan (1883–1953), U.S. general in World War II.Graduating from West Point in 1906, Wainwright served in World War I as a captain. In 1940, as major general, he assumed command of the Philippines Division. Commanding North Luzon forces during the opening days of the Japanese invasion in December 1941, he redeployed American forces to defensive positions on the Bataan Peninsula.
On 11 March 1942, after Gen.
Douglas MacArthur left for Australia, Wainwright assumed command of U.S. forces on Bataan and the island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay. Promoted to lieutenant general and put in command of all U.S. forces in the Philippines, Wainwright proved unable to prevent the collapse of resistance on Bataan on 8 April. In order to ensure continued resistance of U.S. forces in other areas of the Philippines, he released them from his control shortly before he surrendered the U.S. forces on Corregidor on 6 May. Gen. Homma Masahura, commander of a Japanese force invading Corregidor, refused to accept this partial surrender. Out of concern for those already in captivity, Wainwright ordered the capitulation of all U.S. forces, and more than 80,000, Americans and Filipinos then surrendered to the Japanese.
Wainwright spent the remainder of the war in a series of Japanese prisoner‐of‐war camps. Liberated in Manchuria in 1945, the frail, emaciated general took part in the formal surrender ceremonies aboard the USS
Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Greeted with a hero's welcome upon his return to the United States, Wainwright resumed active service for a brief time before retiring in 1947.
[See also
Bataan and Corregidor, Battles of;
World War II, U.S. Naval Operations in: The Pacific.]
Bibliography
Louis Morton , The Fall of the Philippines, 1953.
Duane P. Schultz , Hero of Bataan: The Story of General Jonathan M. Wainwright, 1991.
G. Kurt Piehler
