THE BATAAN BATTLE

 

The day after Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began. Within a month, the Japanese had captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and the American and Filipino defenders of Luzon (the island on which Manila is located) were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. For the next three months, the combined U.S.-Filipino army held out despite a lack of naval and air support. Finally, on April 9, with his forces crippled by starvation and disease, U.S. General Edward King Jr. (1884-1958), surrendered his approximately 75,000 troops at Bataan. The surrendered Filipinos and Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march some 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando. The men were divided into groups of approximately 100, and the march typically took each group around five days to complete. The exact figures are unknown, but it is believed that thousands of troops died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and beat the marchers, and bayoneted those too weak to walk. Survivors were taken by rail from San Fernando to prisoner-of-war camps, where thousands more died from disease, mistreatment and starvation. America avenged its defeat in the Philippines with the invasion of the island of Leyte in October 1944. General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), who in 1942 had famously promised to return to the Philippines, made good on his word. In February 1945, U.S.-Filipino forces recaptured the Bataan Peninsula, and Manila was liberated in early March. After the war, an American military tribunal tried Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march, a war crime, and was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946.  

The Bataan Battle between Japan and U.S.-Philippines is represented as the most intense phase of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II. 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, 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. Soon afterwards, U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced into the Bataan Death March. (according to Wikipedia at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bataan)

The Bataan Death March is the cruel indicator of the brutality of the Imperial Japanese Forces that occupied the Philippines. The captured American and Filipino soldiers were in bad health- starving, thirsty and stricken with diseases. The American and Filipino prisoners were forced to march to San Fernando, and the one's who fell were killed or left to die in the heat. The survivors of the march were sent to Japan as labourers on cramped vessels called Hellships that were unmarked and were sunk by U.S. submarines.

The 9th of April, called Araw ng Kagitingan or Day of Valour, marks the fall of Bataan and the subsequent Death March. This day is considered to be a celebration of the resiliency of our country and to remember the bravery and courage of the Filipino and American soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the safety of our HOME. This reminds us that even if we are on a challenging time, we're not alone. We are all in this together. Many might die and many may sacrifice, but that does not mean that their lives are wasted. Sometimes, we need to go through this phase to be resilient, to understand how life is important, to have the courage to face this problems, to appreciate the small things, to feel the love of other people for us and to also make them feel our love and care for them, and to believe and surrender ourselves to God. Think of it as an opportunity to improve. God gave made us go through all of this because he wants us to fully understand and realize thing/things, and that thing/things are for us to decipher.

References

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march

https://images.app.goo.gl/FeR4LtcM3x9K2ksc6