Little Red Rising: Corregidor Island

If there was a time at all when I might have lost my mind during this trip, it was maybe this visit to Corridor Island off of Manila. I reviewed a book called Edge of Terror early on in this blog. It talked about Americans that were held captive in the Island of Panay during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines. It also talked about the final battle between the US and Japan before we fell to the Japanese. The battle of Corregidor was was like the Alamo of the Pacific before things just got terrible. After a few years of being completely immersed in Philippine history, it was so gratifying to see the things i had studied.

Corregidor was about an hour ferry ride to the Island. My cousin purchased our tickets through Sun Cruises. It was a guided tour of the Island with a catered lunch. I recommend tipping your guide. Note: There is a tour for the Japanese and everybody else.

Here are the barracks. The American and Filipino soldiers were in separate buildings.

This was called a "disappearing gun" because it was in use in WWI before planes were involved. There was one gun that fired first before the big gun fired next. With a system of counterweights, the guns went up and then went back into the ground so the enemy never knew where the shot was fired.

Counterweights to disappearing big gun

Malinta means lots of leaches as the American soldiers called it since they helped build it.

This was part of the light show and tour of how it all went down.

Not all of the tunnel was finished for the tour. Some parts of it did look like it got bombed and maybe slightly unstable. Haha..pay no attention to the ruble on the ground. This where history nerds shine!