Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright

He was forced to order the surrender of the remaining American-led forces in the Philippines, endured more than three years as a prisoner of Imperial Japan, and then lived to stand aboard USS Missouri as the Japanese Empire formally surrendered. General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV was one of the defining American military figures of the Pacific War, a cavalry officer whose name became inseparable from the desperate defense of Bataan and Corregidor and whose leadership ultimately earned him the Medal of Honor.

Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV was born on 23 August 1883 at Walla Walla, Washington, into a family deeply rooted in United States Army service. He entered the United States Military Academy in 1902 and graduated with the West Point Class of 1906, receiving his commission in the cavalry. Tall and lean, Wainwright acquired the lifelong nickname "Skinny." His early Army career took him across Texas and to the Philippines, where he served with the 1st Cavalry and took part in operations on Jolo during the American campaign against armed Moro resistance.

Before the United States entered the First World War, Wainwright served along the Mexican border and developed the reputation of an energetic cavalry officer. During the war he went to France, graduated from the General Staff College at Langres, and served on the staff of the 82nd Division. His wartime service included the Toul and Pont-à-Mousson defensive sectors and the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives. After the Armistice, he joined the Third Army and served with American occupation forces in Germany.

That service brought Wainwright his first Army Distinguished Service Medal. War Department General Orders No. 19 of 1922 recognized his exceptionally meritorious service in positions of major responsibility. The citation specifically noted his work with the 82nd Division, the Third Army, and the American Expeditionary Forces in Germany, crediting his energy, initiative and devotion to duty with contributing substantially to the success of those commands.

The interwar years prepared Wainwright for the command crisis that would define his life. He served with the 3rd Cavalry, held assignments on the War Department General Staff, completed advanced cavalry training, attended the Command and General Staff School and Army War College, and eventually became Assistant Commandant of the Cavalry School. In 1936 he took command of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, and in 1938 he became a brigadier general. He later commanded the 1st Cavalry Brigade in Texas before sailing for the Philippines in September 1940, where he was promoted to major general and given command of the Philippine Division.

When Japan attacked the Philippines in December 1941, Wainwright was placed in command of the North Luzon Force. His troops faced an enemy superior in numbers and air power, yet they conducted a difficult series of delaying actions while withdrawing toward the Bataan Peninsula. Wainwright repeatedly placed himself close to the fighting, visiting forward positions and maintaining contact with troops suffering from exhaustion, disease, dwindling food and diminishing ammunition.

His conduct during that withdrawal earned the Distinguished Service Cross, the United States Army's second-highest decoration for extraordinary heroism. Headquarters, U.S. Army Forces in the Far East, General Orders No. 17 of 29 January 1942 cited Wainwright's actions from 21 December 1941 to 5 January 1942. The citation emphasized the skillful delaying tactics that allowed his forces to avoid Japanese attempts at encirclement and continue their withdrawal into Bataan. It concluded by praising his intrepid leadership, personal bravery and devotion to duty.

Once the defenses consolidated on Bataan, Wainwright commanded I Philippine Corps on the western side of the peninsula. The battle became a contest of endurance. American and Filipino troops fought while increasingly weakened by hunger, malaria, dysentery, shortages of medicine and inadequate supplies. After General Douglas MacArthur was ordered to Australia in March 1942, Wainwright became the senior American commander remaining in the Philippine Islands. U.S. Army historical records identify him as commander of the United States Forces in the Philippines from 21 March to 6 May 1942, while MacArthur retained nominal higher command.

Bataan could not hold indefinitely. On 9 April 1942, Major General Edward P. King Jr. surrendered the exhausted forces on the peninsula. Wainwright did not surrender with them. From the fortified islands of Manila Bay, particularly Corregidor, he continued the fight for almost another month.

The Japanese then concentrated overwhelming artillery and air power against Corregidor. During the night of 5 to 6 May, Japanese troops landed on the island. With the defenses collapsing, casualties mounting and further organized resistance offering little prospect beyond additional loss of life, Wainwright sought terms. On 6 May 1942, he surrendered Corregidor. The Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma, refused to accept a surrender restricted to the island and required Wainwright to order the capitulation of the remaining organized American-led forces elsewhere in the Philippines. U.S. Army historical accounts place the completion of the broader surrender process in the days immediately following the fall of Corregidor.

For Wainwright, military defeat was followed by more than three years of captivity. The Japanese moved him through prison camps in the Philippines and Formosa before eventually confining him with other senior Allied prisoners in Manchuria. Years of inadequate food, illness and harsh treatment left the once-powerful cavalryman severely emaciated. He nevertheless survived, becoming one of the highest-ranking American officers held prisoner by Japan during the Second World War.

His captivity ended in one of the most dramatic reversals of the Pacific War. In August 1945, the Office of Strategic Services launched Operation Cardinal into Japanese-held Manchuria to locate and protect Allied prisoners before the rapidly advancing Soviet forces could complicate their recovery. On 18 August, OSS personnel Hal Leith and Robert Lamar departed to find a separate camp holding senior Allied prisoners. They arrived early the following morning, 19 August 1945, and liberated Wainwright along with Major General Edward P. King, British General Arthur Percival and other senior captives. The group eventually reached Mukden in the early hours of 27 August.

Days later, history gave Wainwright an extraordinary moment of vindication. On 2 September 1945, he stood behind General Douglas MacArthur aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay as Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender. MacArthur gave Wainwright one of the pens used during the signing. Wainwright then returned to the Philippines, where he and General Arthur Percival attended the formal surrender of General Tomoyuki Yamashita's forces at Baguio.

The honors that followed reflected how dramatically the United States judged Wainwright's conduct. On 5 September 1945, President Harry S. Truman submitted Wainwright's nomination for temporary promotion to the four-star grade of General, Army of the United States. Five days later, on 10 September 1945, Truman personally presented him with the Medal of Honor in the White House Rose Garden.

The Medal of Honor citation recognized Wainwright's command in the Philippines from 12 March to 7 May 1942 and praised his determined leadership against overwhelmingly superior enemy forces. It emphasized that he repeatedly exposed himself at the firing line, where his presence encouraged his troops, and singled out his responsibility for the final stand on Corregidor. The citation concluded that his courage and resolution provided desperately needed inspiration during one of the darkest periods of the Allied war effort.

Wainwright's record also carried a second award of the Army Distinguished Service Medal, represented by an Oak Leaf Cluster. War Department General Orders No. 63 of 1942 recognized his exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility in the Philippines. Combined with his First World War award, his two Distinguished Service Medals documented distinguished service in both world wars.

His command in the Philippines was additionally recognized by the Presidential Unit Citation with two Oak Leaf Clusters. The government of the Philippines honored him for his defense of the country with the Philippine Medal for Valor, presented on 1 May 1947 at the Philippine Embassy by Ambassador Joaquin Elizalde on behalf of President Manuel Roxas. Poland honored Wainwright with the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari, and Mexico presented him with the Medal of Military Merit, First Class. His service record also reflected the campaigns of a career spanning the Philippine Islands, the Mexican border, the First World War and the Pacific War.

After returning home, Wainwright briefly commanded the Eastern Defense Command before taking command of the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in 1946. He remained there until retiring from active military service on 31 August 1947, ending a career of more than forty years in the United States Army.

General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV died in San Antonio, Texas, on 2 September 1953, his seventieth year and exactly eight years after he had witnessed Japan's formal surrender aboard USS Missouri. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where he rests among the soldiers whose service shaped the military history of the United States.

Wainwright's legacy cannot be measured simply by victory or defeat. His defining battle ended in surrender, yet his conduct before that surrender became the basis for the nation's highest military decoration. He remained with his troops when escape was impossible, continued resistance after Bataan had fallen, endured years of captivity, and returned to witness the surrender of the enemy that had once held him prisoner. For that reason, General Jonathan M. Wainwright remains one of the enduring figures of the Battle of Bataan, the defense of Corregidor and the American war in the Philippines during World War II. His official Medal of Honor citation captured the central theme of his career: leadership and courage when the odds had become overwhelming.