IT was their “baptism by fire,” wrote American historian Alfred McCoy, as he narrated how the graduates of the pioneering Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1940 were taken to the frontlines as the Philippine Army was shattered during the Japanese invasion of December 1941.
At least 55 of them fought in Bataan, and “most of them experienced both the horrors of defeat and the months of demoralizing confinement that followed,” he said. “Not only did the class suffer a high incidence of injury or illness, but nine of their 79 graduates would die in World War II,” according to McCoy, in his book Closer than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy.
The siege of Bataan and the surrender of the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) after holding out for four months against the Imperial Japanese Army on April 9, 1942, would later be considered as the “first major land battle for the Americans in World War II and one of the most devastating military defeats.”
The forces on Bataan, numbering some 76,000 Filipino and American troops, actually comprised the largest army under American command ever to surrender.
Exactly 80 years after the “Fall of Bataan,” the nation continues to honor these Filipino soldiers, who stood up beside their US allies against “the [Japanese] veteran troops from China who were experienced in combat.”
According to Filipino historian Dr. Ricardo Jose, what was admirable was that most of those who helped defend Bataan were “not professionals, but reservists and ordinary people who trained for only six months.”
Historians agree that the “Fall of Bataan” was never to be celebrated but commemorated annually as the Day of Valor—or Araw ng Kagitingan, for the thousands of Filipinos who dedicated their lives for freedom during World War II.
The attack
AFTER WWII started in the Pacific region on December 8, 1941, when Japanese forces attacked American bases, including those in the Philippines, the US response was War Plan Orange 3, which placed all of the US colony’s defense in Bataan.
As public historian Xiao Chua once noted, the plan was to “frustrate the efforts of the Japanese troops by making it hard for them to transport their supplies to Manila.” To reach Manila, these ships reportedly would have to pass between Cavite and Bataan, where the island of Corregidor was also strategically located.
The Japanese, on the other hand, blockaded Bataan and nearby Corregidor to prevent any food, ammunition or medicine from reaching USAFFE troops.
From January to February 1942, the Japanese were stopped in their tracks and their ranks decimated by the tenacious defense of the USAFFE under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, wrote the late historian Teodoro Agoncillo.
Some even believed that the USAFFE would be back in Manila before Christmas, and the Filipinos would have a real Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Agoncillo said in the first of the two-volume book The Fateful Years: Japan’s Adventure in the Philippines (1941-1945).
“[But] while the Filipinos and Americans in the occupied and unoccupied areas were indulging their exuberant optimism, the authorities in Washington and Corregidor were deathly worried over the situation of the USAFFE in Bataan. They knew for certain that without material aid the USAFFE will collapse.”
On March 11, 1942, General MacArthur, under orders from President Roosevelt, secretly left the Philippines by PT boat for Australia, leaving Maj. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright in command.
As Agoncillo noted, MacArthur’s departure was suggested “as not to comprise his honor and his record as a soldier.”
Upon arriving in Australia, MacArthur proclaimed, “I came through and I shall return.”
But his famous statement, wrote Agoncillo, proved to be “apocryphal” to some and even became a favorite subject of jokes. In an air corps regiment, for instance, the popular joke was, “I am going to the latrine. But I shall return.”
On April 3, 1942, Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, who commanded the Japanese 14th Army that invaded the Philippines, ordered the final assault on Bataan. It turned out that the general offensive against the United States Forces in the Philippines (USFIP) was significant not only to the Japanese, but also to the Filipino-American troops.
Wrote Agoncillo: “To the Japanese, it was the anniversary of the death of their first emperor, Jimmu, a day of fasting and devout ceremonies. To the Filipinos and the Americans, it meant the religious observance of the Crucifixion, a day of fasting, of compassion and of suffering. To both combatants, therefore, April 3 was a day of sacrifice and gloom.”
By April 7, there was already disintegration of the USFIP. “The frenzied enemy bombing and artillery fire, coupled with hunger and the high incidence of malaria and other diseases, further demoralized the Filipino-American troops,” Agoncillo wrote.
The Japanese, however, reportedly continued pounding the defenders’ lines as bombers flew no less than 160 sorties and dropped some 100 tons of explosives. The Japanese advance was reported to have been “practically unopposed.”
The starving defenders fought as best as they could, but they were no match against the Japanese.
The surrender
ON April 8, 1942, Wainwright wrote MacArthur that his men’s “power of resistance was practically nil and that he was ‘forced to report that the troops in Bataan are fast folding up.’’”
Still, Wainwright issued an order to Gen. Edward King, the American field commander, to attack towards Olongapo, but his troops were no longer in a position to advance under any condition.
The next day, King ordered his commanders to destroy their equipment and weapons, except vehicles and gasoline. He had decided to negotiate with the Japanese preparatory to a surrender.
Early in the morning of April 9, 1942, Wainwright tried to stop King, but the latter had already made the necessary arrangement. At 12:30 pm, he agreed to surrender unconditionally by handing over his pistol to Col. Nakayama Matoo, the senior operations chief of the 14th Army. His officers followed suit and they became captives of the enemy.
“Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy,” Lt. Normando Ildefonso read the message written by Capt. Salvador Lopez in a radio broadcast through the Voice of Freedom.
What followed was the “Bataan Death March,” which historians consider as “one of the worst atrocities in modern history.”
Once the surrender went into effect, Japanese soldiers rounded up the prisoners and gathered them into groups of 100 on the only paved road. Four Japanese guards were assigned to each group and began marching the prisoners from Mariveles, Bataan, to Capas, Tarlac, a 69-mile trek to prison. Of the 78,000 troops that left Bataan, only 54,000 reached Camp O’Donnell.
On May 6, 1942, Wainwright also surrendered Corregidor Island, the last American stronghold in the Pacific. The thousands of American and Filipino troops who refused to obey the order continued to fight the Japanese in a guerrilla war that lasted until the Americans regained control of the islands in October 1944.
Today, such a tragic chapter in our history will never be forgotten because it showed how the Filipino people willingly risked their lives even if they were merely dragged into war by their one-time colonizers, so that peace can eventually prevail for all and their freedom restored as a nation.
Image credits: US Army via Encyclopedia Britannica