An Unexpected Surrender
During the Second World War, thousands of brave Americans made the ultimate sacrifice to safeguard liberty for people in every corner of the globe. On January 1, 1946, a lone U.S. soldier on the island of Corregidor was on detail for the American Graves Registration. His job was to record the makeshift graves of fellow Americans who had lost their lives fighting the Japanese.
Japan formally surrendered to the Allies on September 2, 1945, but news of the capitulation had been made public since August of that year. This massive news managed to evade approximately 20 Japanese soldiers on the island of Corregidor. The group of soldiers was living in an underground tunnel that was built during the war. They might have been there for a long time had it not been for one man who ventured out in search of water. In his quest, the soldier discovered a newspaper announcing Japan’s defeat. For him and his comrades, the war was finally over.
As the American soldier on Corregidor was performing his duties, he was approached by the recently enlightened Japanese soldiers. Waving a white flag, they surrendered to him, thus closing another chapter in the history of World War II.
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