Video: 'Fall of Corregidor - Last day of the Battle of Corregidor'

(Wednesday, May 6, 1942, at about 1:30 p.m. Japan Standard Time; during the Battle of Corregidor, part of the Pacific Theater of World War II) — Some 15,000 American and Filipino troops on Corregidor island surrendered to Japanese forces today as U.S. Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright sent two officers forward with a white flag to carry his surrender message to the Japanese.

Video: 'May 6, 1942: The Fall of Corregidor | Everyday History'

The fall of Bataan on Apr. 9, 1942, ended all organized opposition by the U.S. Army Forces Far East to the invading Japanese forces on Luzon, in the northern Philippines. The island bastion of Corregidor, with its network of tunnels and formidable array of defensive armaments, along with the fortifications across the entrance to Manila Bay, was the remaining obstacle to the 14th Japanese Imperial Army of Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma.

Homma had to take Corregidor, since as long as the island remained in American hands, the Japanese would be denied the use of Manila Bay, the finest natural harbor in the Far East.