Battle of Bataan | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Philippines campaign in World War II | |||||||
Japanese tank column advancing in the Bataan Peninsula of Luzon | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Empire of Japan | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Douglas MacArthur |
Masaharu Homma Susumu Morioka Kineo Kitajima Kameichiro Nagano Yuichi Tsuchibashi Takeshi Hamasaki | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
120,000 U.S. and Filipino troops | 75,000 Japanese troops | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
106,000 10,000 killed, 20,000 wounded, 76,000 captured[1] |
8,406[2]–22,250[3] 3,107 killed, 230 missing, 5,069 wounded |
The Battle of Bataan (Tagalog: Labanan sa Bataan; January 7 – April 9, 1942) was fought by the United States and the Philippine Commonwealth against Imperial Japan during World War II. The battle represented the most intense phase of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II. In January 1942, forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy invaded Luzon along with several islands in the Philippine Archipelago after the bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.
The commander in chief of the U.S. and Filipino forces in the islands, General Douglas MacArthur, consolidated all of his Luzon-based units on the Bataan Peninsula to fight against the Japanese army. By this time, the Japanese controlled nearly all of Southeast Asia. The Bataan Peninsula and the island of Corregidor were the only remaining Allied strongholds in the region.
Despite their lack of supplies, American and Filipino forces managed to fight the Japanese for three months, engaging them initially in a fighting retreat southward. As the combined American and Filipino forces made a last stand, the delay cost the Japanese valuable time and prevented immediate victory across the Pacific. The American surrender at Bataan to the Japanese, with 76,000 soldiers surrendering in the Philippines altogether,[1] was the largest in American and Filipino military histories and was the largest United States surrender since the American Civil War's Battle of Harpers Ferry.[4] Soon afterwards, U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced into the roughly 65 miles (105 km) Bataan Death March.[5]
The 76,000 prisoners of war of the battle for Bataan – some 64,000 Filipino soldiers and 12,000 U.S. soldiers – then were forced to endure what came to be known as the Bataan Death March as they were moved into captivity.
Bataan Death March, march in the Philippines of some 66 miles (106 km) that 76,000 prisoners of war (66,000 Filipinos, 10,000 U.S.) were forced by the Japanese military to endure in April 1942, during the early stages of World War II.