 On Feb. 4 a part of Sharp's command was made independent and on March 4, all the islands except Mindanao were made independent of Sharp, making him the commander of the Mindanao Force only.On April 16, Sharp was again made the commander of the Visayan-Mindanao Force, which meant little with much of the Visayan area now under Japanese control.Shortly before he was forced to surrender, Sharp was promoted to major general.