Change of Heart

Leyte’s leaders would change their minds and resolve after Corregidor fell on May 6. In an appeal from Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright to Maj. Gen. William F. Sharp, commander of the Visayas-Mindanao Force, the advice was to give up. Sharp’s command included Col. Theodore Cornell’s Leyte-Samar district.

To those in the field, however, the actuation of Sharp seemed ambiguous. For one, he was reported to have remarked that no one should take orders from somebody who was already a prisoner of war, in reference to Wainwright. But Sharp’s recalcitrance would be answered by relentless attacks on troops in Mindanao. Wrote Sabelino:

Supply depots were destroyed by air activities and transportation was a mass of wreckage in the motor pools bomb to smithereens

 …With all fronts cracked, penetrated and overrun by the enemy, there was no way left for Gen Sharp but to accept the demand for unconditional surrender….

In short concise language, the Japs demanded the unconditional surrender of General Sharp and his forces or else the American soldiers who surrendered at Corregidor would be massacred,

Bowed but not ashamed, Gen. Sharp acceded to the appeal. Dictating the order he loathed to make, he ordered his forces throughout the Visayas and Mindanao to lay down their arms at 8:00 a.m., May 10, 1942.

It would appear that Col Theodore Cornell, as head of the Leyte-Samar sector under Sharp’s command, was automatically implicated in the terms of surrender. But the issue is not at all clear cut. Sabelino pointed out that Sharp transmitted another order “on the eve before the surrender day releasing his forces from his command effective May 10, 1942. That was a good and well-timed start for a resistance movement.”

At first, it was difficult for Theodore Cornell to make his own decision. If he refused to surrender, the Japanese might just make good their threats to slaughter the American prisoners and the civilians. If he surrendered, it would be by no means a dishonorable option.

Then on May 20,1942, he wrote Gov. Torres a letter:

It is with deepest regret that I must inform you that conditions over which I have no control have necessitated the surrender of the troops under my command. Acting on instructions from General Wainwright, through General Sharp, I have this date issued orders for initiating the surrender.

I am a soldier and have received an order – there is no question about it being obeyed. I am sending a representative to Cebu on May 22, 1942, who will guide a detachment of the Japanese forces to Samar and Leyte. All conflict with the Japanese forces must be avoided. The destruction and hiding of any property is strictly prohibited. Prompt obedience to the Japanese Army and their orders is absolutely necessary….

This was followed by two more short paragraphs, then signed by Cornell.

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