On December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, The Japanese airstrikes attacked Clark Air Force Base near Manila.
The Japanese planes carried out carpet bombing, and in just a few minutes, 20 B-17s and 60 P-40s neatly arranged at the airport were blown to pieces. The U.S. Asian fleet had to flee south to the Java Sea.
MacArthur, the commander of the Pacific at the time, had 130,000 troops on paper, but among them were ten hastily armed Filipino divisions, which were trained for no more than a few weeks and could be said to be completely ineffective.
From 10 December 1941, Japanese landed in Apali, Vigan and Legazpi in the Philippines. After launching an offensive against Manila, the capital of the Philippines, MacArthur had to redeploy his defensive lines on the Bataan Peninsula near Manila.
The Bataan Peninsula was a small peninsula only 25 miles long and 20 miles wide, where MacArthur concentrated more than 90,000 U.S.-Philippines troops in preparation for a protracted war with the Japanese.
On January 10, 1942, when the Japanese army began to attack Bataan, commander Masaharu Honma thought that there were only 26,000 U.S.-Philippines troops on the Bataan Peninsula at most, and that they would pull out their legs and run as soon as the cannon sounded.
However, after the battle began, the American and Filipino coalition troops not only did not run, but pounced on the Japanese army. It took only 48 hours to annihilate most of the 65th Brigade, which was the main attacker, and Honma Masaharu had to order the attack on Bataan to be stopped.
Despite the victory and morale boost, the U.S. and Filipinos soon ran out of supplies as they lost most of their supplies during the previous retreat.
And many people suffered from malaria, to which the commander of the U.S. Army, General Wainwright, wrote that "the constant hunger, the hot steam day and night, the daunting malaria and the constant groaning of the wounded and sick cruelly tormented us."
In such a situation, the fall of the Bataan Peninsula will be inevitable. President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to be captured by the Japanese and ordered him to place his forces under the command of Lieutenant General Wainwright and to go to Australia to serve as commander-in-chief of the newly formed Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific.
On the night of March 12, 1942, MacArthur, his family, and several U.S. Far East Army officers quietly left Correchido Island and boarded a torpedo boat for Mindanao. At this time, MacArthur's face was pale and his eyes were black, and he said to the people who came to see him off, "You saved me from the mouth of the tiger, and I will never forget it."
Hideki Tojo was greatly annoyed to learn of MacArthur's escape, and he had planned to capture MacArthur and let him go to the streets of Tokyo, but macArthur ran too fast.
At 3 p.m. on April 3, the entire U.S.-Philippine defense line was attacked by 100 Japanese aircraft and 300 cannons, turning the defense line of Mount Samat into hell.
Over the next three days, a large number of Japanese tanks and infantry launched a continuous attack on the Philippines, and the entire Allied defense collapsed completely. Only a few officers and men retreated to the island of Koregido, and all roads were filled with refugees and fleeing troops.
MacArthur, who was far away in Australia, gave orders to the bataan commander Wainwright to counterattack the entire front. But his troops had no way of carrying out such whimsical orders.
On April 8, 1942, senior U.S. military commander in bataan, Edward M. Seeing that it was pointless for the defenders to resist any longer, Major General Kim proposed the terms of the surrender agreement.
On April 9, 1942, after hours of negotiations with the Japanese, Major General Kim led a tired, hungry 70,000 Bataan defenders to surrender to the Japanese. This was the largest contingent in the history of the U.S. military to surrender, and the Bataan Peninsula completely fell.
The surrender of the Bataan defenders shocked Washington, and President Roosevelt personally issued a new directive to Wainwright, who was still holding on to The Island of Corregidore, authorizing him to make his own decisions according to the actual situation, that is, Wainwright could surrender to the Japanese army.
Determined to bring the Battle of the Philippines to a perfect end, Masaharu Honma, on the other hand, surrounded the tiny island of Koregidoor with 100 cannons and shelled them for three weeks. After shelling and bombing, the Japanese destroyed the American artillery positions on the island and blew up the water supply facilities.
Exhausted and desperate, General Wainwright finally chose to bow to the Japanese. Perhaps in his opinion, the Japanese army should not be difficult for prisoners of war.
On May 5, Wainwright sent a final telegram to Washington: "Please tell the nation that my troops and I myself have done all that humanity can do." We have defended the fine traditions of the United States of America and its military, and I went to see the Japanese commander with deep regret and infinite pride in my tenacious army, goodbye, Mr. President. After sending the telegram, Wainwright led his troops to surrender.
Throughout the Battle of Bataan, about 80,000 U.S. troops surrendered, and the surrender of U.S. and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula led to the fall of Krechido Island a month later, followed by more than 60,000 Filipino 15,000 U.S. prisoners of war forced to march to bataan death that shocked the world.
The PRISONERs were forced to brave the sweltering heat to walk 120km through the jungles of the Philippines to reach a prisoner-of-war camp, arguably the most brutal event of World War II. Just before the march began, the Japanese commander Masaharu Honma had ordered the escorting Japanese to eliminate any Bataan prisoners of war who could not insist on going to the prisoner-of-war camp.
A total of 15,000 soldiers fell ill or were shot dead by the Japanese on the way. After arriving at the prisoner-of-war camp, American and Filipino prisoners were also tortured, tortured, and forced to work hard. Another 26,000 people died in two months.
The Battle of Bataan represented the most important phase of Japan's campaign in the Philippines, was important for Japan's ability to control the Southwest Pacific, and caused the largest capitulation in U.S. military history.
However, this battle also has its far-reaching significance, if it is not for this obstruction of the Japanese army, the Japanese army will soon capture all The American bases in the Pacific. The Battle of Bataan Slowed down the Japanese offensive and bought valuable time for the subsequent counter-offensive preparations.
A few years later, MacArthur flew to Tokyo as a victor and began a seven-year occupation of japan.