I’ve seen this photo a thousand times but learned something new about it over the weekend as I went down another WWII rabbit hole. Standing directly behind General MacArthur (sitting) is U.S. Army General Jonathan Wainwright IV. The photo was taken September 2, 1945. Three weeks prior, he had been in a Japanese POW camp for three years. MacArthur signed his name with several pens. He immediately gave one to Wainwright, saving one for West Point and the other for Annapolis. I always thought that was some cool forethought. Here’s a description of what happened the moment he was rescued:
The emaciated American hero stood silently in tattered clothing. The OSS men stared at each other with stunned disbelief.
Wainwright broke the silence. “Are you really an American?” he asked.
“General, you are no longer a prisoner of war. You’re going back to the States,” Lamar responded.
Wainwright, however, was conflicted. He had survived over three years of brutal captivity and was afraid of what his fellow Americans thought of him. Would he return to the United States in disgrace and live the remainder of his life in shame?
Wainwright responded slowly, his voice cracking with emotion, and asked the question he had agonized over for three terrible years. “What do the people in the States think of me?”
“You’re considered a hero,” Lamar replied. The tired old general nodded silently but was still not convinced.
It’s one thing to be found and technically free; it was a whole other adventure getting out of there, which involved three days traveling over 100 miles avoiding rogue Japanese infantry, working with uncooperative Russian troops driving U.S. military vehicles that got stuck in the mud, and riding in a train that derailed.
On the August 31, Wainwright landed in Yokohama to meet with General MacArthur. Wainwright was apprehensive, fearing his old commander’s reaction to the general who had surrendered American armed forces in the Philapeens to the Japanese. When MacArthur spotted the weary old soldier, he rushed across a crowded dining room and embraced him. The tough veteran soldiers fought back tears, and spoke in whispers for several moments.
Per Wikipedia: He later received the Medal of Honor, an honor which had first been proposed early in his captivity, in 1942, but was rejected due to the vehement opposition of General MacArthur, who felt that Corregidor should not have been surrendered. MacArthur did not oppose the renewed proposal in 1945.
Wainwright retired on 31 August 1947, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64, stating that he was reluctant to do so. He became a Freemason in May 1946 at Union Lodge No. 7. in Junction City, Kansas, and a Shriner soon after. He died of a stroke in San Antonio, Texas on 2 September 1953, aged. Wainwright was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to his wife and near his parents. Present during the funeral were Omar Bradley, George Marshall, and Edward King, with a conspicuous absence of MacArthur.
One other thing I discovered about the Formal Japanese Surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri. As the Japanese are led away the victors put on one final display of Triumph: 1,500 planes, Boeing Superfortresses and navy fighters roar across the sky
