Jonathan Wainwright

Also known as: Jonathan M. Wainwright — short form of Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV · "Skinny" — West Point and Army nickname, earned at six feet two inches and 125 pounds · "Jim" — nickname carried in the Army record · Hero of Bataan — the contemporary American press designation, used in his 1947 retirement coverage

Society

Definition

Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (August 23, 1883 – September 2, 1953), nicknamed “Skinny,” was a United States Army general who commanded the forces that surrendered the Philippines in May 1942 — the officer the American press called the hero of Bataan. A West Point cavalryman of the class of 1906 whose first overseas posting took him to Jolo in the Moro Rebellion, he returned to the islands in September 1940 to command the Philippine Division, succeeded Douglas MacArthur in March 1942, and directed the defense of Corregidor from the Malinta Tunnel until the Japanese landing of May 5–6, 1942 forced the largest surrender in American military history. Taken prisoner as the highest-ranking American in Japanese captivity, he spent three years in camps in Formosa and Manchuria before his release in August 1945; he then stood behind MacArthur at the Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, received Yamashita’s surrender at Baguio on September 3, 1945, and was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Truman on September 10, 1945 (General Orders No. 80, September 19, 1945) for the period March 12 to May 7, 1942. Promoted to full general, he closed his career commanding the Fourth Army in Texas, retired on August 31, 1947, and died in San Antonio on September 2, 1953 — exactly eight years after the Missouri ceremony. (Wikipedia — Jonathan M. Wainwright)

His name is inseparable from this wiki’s Corregidor Island and Malinta Tunnel entries: it was from the tunnel, “while under the command of Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright,” that Corregidor surrendered on May 6, 1942, and it was Wainwright whom 1945 brought back to receive the Japanese capitulation at Baguio. (Wikipedia — Malinta Tunnel)

Identities

Authority	Value
Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_M.Wainwright(general)
Wikidata	Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (Q1703246)
DBpedia	https://dbpedia.org/page/Jonathan_M.Wainwright(general)
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings	Wainwright, Jonathan Mayhew, 1883-1953
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	N/A
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

Jonathan M. Wainwright — short form of Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV
“Skinny” — West Point and Army nickname, earned at six feet two inches and 125 pounds
“Jim” — nickname carried in the Army record
Hero of Bataan — the contemporary American press designation, used in his 1947 retirement coverage

Examples and Analogies

The cavalryman who surrendered an army: the officer whose trade was horse cavalry ended the war’s first act ordering not just Corregidor but every American force in the Philippines to lay down its arms — “the largest-ever surrender of American armed forces,” after the 72,000 lost on Bataan weeks before.
A prisoner who became a symbol: the highest-ranking American in captivity was moved from Manila to Tarlac to Formosa to Manchuria, and his fate became “a national fixation” at home even as he starved.
Vindication at the surrender table: three years of captivity ended with MacArthur insisting Wainwright stand behind him aboard USS Missouri while Japan capitulated, and handing him a pen mid-signature.
Verified data (commands, dates, awards):
Born: August 23, 1883, Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory; died: September 2, 1953, San Antonio, Texas
Philippines service: posted 1908, Jolo combat in the Moro Rebellion; Philippine Division from September 1940; major general October 1, 1940
Command 1942: lieutenant general March 19, 1942 after MacArthur’s departure on Roosevelt’s February 22 order; Corregidor surrendered May 6, 1942
Captivity: Manila, Tarlac, Karenkō (Formosa), Xi’an (Manchuria); liberated August 1945
1945: General September 5; Medal of Honor September 10 (G.O. No. 80, September 19, 1945; period March 12 – May 7, 1942); New York ticker-tape parade September 13
Postwar: Eastern Defense Command from September 28, 1945; Fourth Army from January 11, 1946; retired August 31, 1947

Usage Scenarios

1. Studying the 1941–1942 Philippines Campaign

Wainwright frames the endgame: the starvation warning of April 1942, Bataan’s surrender on April 9, and the Corregidor decision of May 6 — the sequence this wiki’s Corregidor Island and Malinta Tunnel entries carry from the island’s side.

2. Examining the Ethics of Surrender

May 6 is a case study in command responsibility: Wainwright traded “one day of freedom” for “several thousand lives,” a thousand wounded among them, while MacArthur urged resistance — the dispute military ethicists still weigh.

3. Tracing the POW Experience of Senior Officers

The captivity itinerary — Manila, Tarlac, Karenkō in Formosa, Xi’an in Manchuria — maps the movement and treatment of high-value prisoners, starvation and abuse included.

4. Teaching the 1945 Surrender Ceremonies

Wainwright behind MacArthur at the Missouri on September 2 and receiving Yamashita’s surrender at Baguio on September 3 — the closing tableaux of the Pacific War’s Philippine chapter.

Strategies

Read the decision before judging it: reconstruct May 6 from the official history — tanks ashore at 10 a.m., a thousand wounded in the tunnel — before engaging the controversy the surrender provoked.
Use his own words: the radio messages to Roosevelt and MacArthur of May 6, 1942, reproduced in General Wainwright’s Story (1945), are the surrender’s primary documents.
Follow the medal’s paper trail: the 1942 nomination, MacArthur’s opposition, Stimson’s rejection of it as “untrue” and “untenable,” and Truman’s Rose Garden presentation of September 10, 1945 document how the surrender was re-read as heroism.
Pair the biographies: Wainwright’s arc reads fully only against MacArthur’s — the February 1942 command split, the wartime quarrel, the Missouri reconciliation.

Security and Safety Measures

The surrender calculus as protection of the helpless: the documented rationale of May 6, 1942 — trading further resistance for thousands of prisoners’ lives and a thousand wounded — was framed by Wainwright as the safety measure available to him.
Warning Washington early: his April 1942 message that the troops would be starved into submission by mid-April sought relief or realistic orders before the collapse.
Protecting prisoners from reprisal: he ordered Sharp’s surrender citing Japan’s stated intention to slaughter prisoners on Corregidor unless all forces complied.
For researchers: the Medal of Honor citation and General Orders No. 80 of September 19, 1945 are the authoritative record of the decorated period; his memoir, written with Robert Considine, is a participant’s account, not an official one.

Historical Context

Born into the Army at Fort Walla Walla in 1883 and graduated from West Point in 1906, Wainwright served in the cavalry in Texas before his first Philippine tour — posted to the islands in 1908, he fought on Jolo in the Moro Rebellion, the first of three American wars he would fight in or over the archipelago; in France in 1918 he served on the 82nd Division staff at Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne, where an explosion permanently damaged his hearing. (Wikipedia — Jonathan M. Wainwright)

He returned in September 1940 to command the Philippine Division — Philippine Scouts led by American officers — and was promoted major general on October 1, 1940 while transiting the Panama Canal. When invasion came, Roosevelt on February 22, 1942 ordered MacArthur to Australia; MacArthur split the Philippines command four ways and left Wainwright over Luzon, and Washington, uninformed of the arrangement, promoted him lieutenant general on March 19, 1942. He warned that the troops would be starved into submission by April 15; Bataan fell on April 9 with Major General Edward P. King surrendering some 72,000 men; and the siege of Corregidor ended with the Japanese landing of May 5–6. (Wikipedia — Jonathan M. Wainwright)

The landing was nearly destroyed on the beaches — the first group of 790 was “quickly bogged down,” and between half and two-thirds of the landing craft were sunk or damaged — but Japanese tanks came ashore at 10 a.m. on May 6, and Wainwright judged “that it was the terror that is vested in a tank that was the deciding factor,” directing his staff to broadcast a surrender message to General Homma at 10:30 a.m. (Wikipedia — Battle of Corregidor) The decision had been made at 10 a.m., “to surrender, to sacrifice one day of freedom in exchange for several thousand lives,” with a thousand wounded in the tunnel; the flag was lowered and burned, a white flag run up, and to Roosevelt he radioed: “With broken heart and head bowed in sadness but not in shame … I report … that today I must arrange terms for the surrender of the fortified islands of Manila Bay … Please say to the nation that my troops and I have accomplished all that is humanly possible.” (Morton, The Fall of Corregidor) Homma refused the surrender unless it included all American forces in the Philippines; Wainwright was taken to Manila and compelled to broadcast the order, and General Sharp, though MacArthur urged him to fight on, surrendered Mindanao on May 10. (Wikipedia — Jonathan M. Wainwright)

Captivity followed the course of Japan’s war: the University Club in Manila, then Tarlac from June 9, then — when the Americans landed on Guadalcanal — transfer to Karenkō on Formosa, where his treatment “devolved into starvation and abuse,” and finally removal to Manchuria, held in brutal, freezing conditions at Xi’an. On August 19, 1945 his captors told the prisoners the war was over; two OSS agents secured his release, and the Soviet Red Army escorted him out on August 24. He and the British general Arthur Percival had spent the war’s last years at the special camp at Hsian, both notably emaciated when freed. (National WWII Museum — Witnesses: Percival & Wainwright on V-J Day)

Rehabilitation compressed into a month of ceremony. He reunited with MacArthur at Yokohama’s New Grand Hotel on August 31; on September 2 he stood behind MacArthur aboard USS Missouri as Japan surrendered, receiving one of the signing pens; on September 3 at Baguio he received the surrender of Yamashita’s forces in the Philippines; he was promoted to full general on September 5; and on September 10 Truman surprised him with the Medal of Honor in the White House Rose Garden — nominated in 1942, delayed by MacArthur’s opposition, cleared when Stimson rejected the objections as “untrue” and “untenable.” New York gave him a ticker-tape parade on September 13, he took the Eastern Defense Command on September 28, and on January 11, 1946 his last command, the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. (Wikipedia — Jonathan M. Wainwright)

He retired reluctantly on August 31, 1947, served as national commander of the Disabled American Veterans in 1948, and numbered the Philippine Medal of Valor among his foreign awards. He died of a stroke in San Antonio on September 2, 1953 and was buried near his parents at Arlington National Cemetery after a service in the lower level of the Memorial Amphitheater, mourned by Omar Bradley, George Marshall, and Edward P. King. (Wikipedia — Jonathan M. Wainwright)

Challenges and Controversies

The Surrender of All Forces

Homma’s refusal to treat unless every American force in the Philippines surrendered posed the campaign’s harshest dilemma: comply and be blamed for ending resistance wholesale, or refuse and invite the slaughter of the garrison and its thousand wounded. His compliance remains the contested center of his reputation.

MacArthur’s Quarrel

MacArthur judged that Wainwright “had taken leave of his senses” and urged Sharp’s force to fight on — a verdict that shadowed Wainwright’s captivity and delayed his Medal of Honor until Stimson overruled it in 1945. The Missouri reconciliation closed the quarrel publicly without settling it.

Hero or Cautionary Tale

The American home front treated him as a hero while he starved, but his own account — a commander calculating lives against a symbolic day of freedom — keeps the memory double-edged: May 6, 1942 is at once an act of rational mercy and the largest capitulation in American arms.