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The story of the Philippines during World War 11 begins on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, devastating the US forces there. What most Americans don't remember is that the next day Japan launched an aerial attack on the Philippines. Most of the American Air Force in the Philippines was destroyed while the planes were on the ground.

On December 12, 1941 Japanese forces landed in the Philippines. General MacArthur tried to stop the invasion at the points of landing. Inexperienced troops failed to stop the Japanese from landing. Poorly trained Filipino troops, most of whom had never fired a weapon, were thrown into front line combat against highly trained Japanese veterans. The Filipino- American troops were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. By New Years Day 1942 the retreat was complete, and the Japanese controlled most of the Philippines.

The Defenders of Bataan worked under terrible conditions. There was a shortage of food, ammunition, medicine, tanks, trucks, and gasoline. They held their ground without reinforcements and without being resupplied. The situation was desperate. The United States was fighting a war on two fronts without enough manpower or machinery. There were no troops or supplies to spare on the ragtag troops on Bataan.

On April 9, 1942, the Bataan Peninsula fell to the Japanese, leaving all of the Philippines under Japanese occupation. The Japanese marched the captive Filipino and American soldiers to prisoner of war camps. Many men had to march up to 85 miles, taking from 5 to 9 days. Once on the march, they were not given any food or water. These marches came to be knows as the Bataan Death March. Several thousand men died on the "Death March". 1,600 Americans and 20,000 Filipinos died in the first four months at the main prisoner or war camp, Camp O'Donnell

Throughout this terrible ordeal, and all of the hardships of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, General MacArthur's promise to return gave courage to an entire country.

General MacArthur did keep his promise. It took more than three years, but on October 20, 1944 he landed with his forces on Philippine soil. Less than a year later, on September 2, 1945, General MacArthur, as commander in chief in the Pacific, accepted Japan's surrender.

Learn more about this author, Richard Lawry.
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