Officials in Tokyo took notice, wary of the threat those forces posed to shipping traffic bringing essential raw materials to the Japanese home islands. Following the strike on Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Army and Navy each began blazing a path across the Far East, notching a series of early victories against Allied forces. British Malaya fell, as did Hong Kong, Guam, and Wake Island. A greater challenge awaited in the Philippines, where an epic stand by American and Filipino forces was soon underway.
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Amid a surge of German and Japanese saber rattling in the late 1930s, the War Department in Washington fine-tuned a series of long-held plans for mobilization and defense should hostilities spill across the globe. The blueprint for defending the Philippines, codenamed ORANGE, presumed the Japanese would blockade the islands to isolate and starve the garrison of food and other supplies in advance of an amphibious invasion.
Given the limited resources assigned to the territory, and the great distance to the American mainland, planners deemed a wider defense of the Philippines impracticable. Instead, US-led forces would consolidate their defenses around the bustling port of Manila Bay until the US Pacific Fleet could mobilize, sortie from Hawaii, and reinforce and re-supply the garrison. With such an operation likely to take some time to organize and reach the Philippines—Manila was 5,000 miles from Pearl Harbor—stores of food, ammunition, and medicine were stockpiled on the Bataan Peninsula and the small, rocky island of Corregidor, each guarding the mouth of the bay.
Commanding the Philippine defenses was General Douglas MacArthur, one of America’s most celebrated military figures. Lured out of retirement in July 1941, it was a seamless transition for MacArthur back into uniform, as the former US Army Chief of Staff was already in Manila as a private citizen, advising the Philippine government on military affairs. Having developed a deep, personal attachment to the Filipino people, MacArthur welcomed his appointment to command all US ground and air forces in the Far East but was dismissive of the Plan ORANGE he inherited, viewing a preordained retreat to Manila Bay as premature and unnecessarily defeatist. If allocated greater strength, MacArthur was convinced he could contest an invasion. General George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, concurred, and more assets were soon on their way. MacArthur hoped to transform the outpost into a Pacific stronghold, but neither he nor Marshall believed an attack would come until April 1942. Thus, in late 1941, the buildup was still in progress.
The core of MacArthur’s ground forces was the Philippine Division – 19,000 regular US Army troops, supplemented by 12,000 American-trained Filipino “scouts.” Also at his disposal were ten divisions of the Philippine Army—nearly 100,000 men—with ample field artillery and more than 100 light tanks. He had air power as well, and considering the diminutive, pre-war American military, it was formidable and relatively modern, featuring 35 B-17 heavy bomber and 107 P-40 pursuit (fighter) planes. The US Navy also had a presence, with surface ships and submarines of the US Asiatic Fleet prowling nearby waters from their base in Manila Bay.
It was an impressive allotment, but with glaring limitations. The American troops and Filipino scouts were well-led, professional soldiers, but they carried rifles and helmets leftover from the First World War. Most were also inexperienced, while the Imperial Japanese Army had been seasoned by years of fighting in China. The Philippine Army divisions, the bulk of MacArthur’s manpower, were of questionable value, as most were reservists with little training and outdated weapons and equipment. As for MacArthur’s naval support, the Asiatic Fleet was a shadow of the far more powerful Pacific Fleet in Hawaii, and included a mere heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, and thirteen World War I-era destroyers. The Imperial Japanese Navy, steaming near its home waters, brimmed with aircraft carriers and dozens of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers.
Despite these shortcomings, the self-assured MacArthur was certain he could halt any Japanese march across the archipelago. He reoriented his forces to meet any invaders on the beaches and beyond, dividing his troops, armor, and artillery accordingly. Most of the Philippine Army divisions would defend Luzon, led by MacArthur’s subordinates—Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright in the north and Brigadier General George M. Parker, Jr. in the south—with the remaining Philippine forces posted in the southern Philippines under Brigadier General William F. Sharp. From Manila, MacArthur commanded a Reserve Force that included the American division and Filipino scouts, as well as the Far East Air Force, headed by another subordinate, Major General Lewis Brereton.
War in the Pacific
As in Hawaii, the war began with a staggering blow in the Philippines. Through US Naval channels, it took little time for word of the Japanese strike on Pearl Harbor to reach Asiatic Fleet headquarters in Manila Bay. At anchor, the fleet was vulnerable to air raids from nearby Formosa (present-day Taiwan), and in the haste to mobilize their ships, Naval officials failed to share the war news with their Army counterparts. MacArthur would not learn of events across the Pacific until nearly an hour later, when an Army radio operator heard the panicked reports broadcast over commercial airwaves.
Ground forces across the Philippines were immediately put on alert as Brereton sought permission to scramble his bombers for a preemptive strike against air bases on Formosa. With MacArthur oddly inaccessible, Brereton took the initiative, launching defensive patrols and sending his heavier planes aloft to prevent their destruction on the ground – a fate suffered by more than 300 warplanes in Hawaii. After hours of circling overhead with no enemy in sight, the planes returned to refuel. As that servicing was underway, 108 Japanese bombers and eighty-four fighter planes closed in on the Philippine airfields. The oncoming planes were picked up by radar, but communications faltered, leaving scores of defenseless Army planes still parked on open tarmacs when bombs began raining down from above. Within minutes, dozens of fighter planes and bombers across Clark Field, the main airbase on Luzon, and Iba Field, a secondary airstrip, were ablaze. By the end of the very first day of war, MacArthur’s air power had been slashed in half, with subsequent raids all but decimating his B-17s and P-40s.
With Cavite Naval Base in Manila Bay also under bombardment, the Asiatic Fleet soon set sail for safer waters to join a gathering Allied naval force at sea. Having lost his air and naval support in a matter of days, MacArthur’s ground forces prepared to face the expected Japanese landings on their own. The first came on December 10, with assault troops wading ashore in the far north and south of Luzon. MacArthur held his forces back, viewing those landings as likely diversions from a much larger invasion to come. He was right. On December 22, tens of thousands of Japanese landed in Lingayen Gulf, in the center of Luzon. Supported by tanks and artillery, they drove toward Manila, clashing with Wainwright’s forces, while thousands more landed to the south and began their own march toward the capital.
The Ground War
The Philippine Army divisions struggled to slow the Japanese advance, leaving MacArthur little choice but to reinstate Plan ORANGE and attempt to hold Manila Bay. He declared Manila an open city, hoping to keep the populace safe from harm, and ferried civilian officials and his headquarters staff to Corregidor. By early January, his ground forces had withdrawn to the mountainous jungles of Bataan and were digging into defensive lines stretching across the 20-mile-wide peninsula.
The shocking devastation at Pearl Harbor left little hope any help was on the way. With Battleship Row ravaged, the only remaining naval assets of any significance in the Pacific were the three untested aircraft carriers – USS Enterprise, USS Lexington, and USS Saratoga. US officials were gripped by invasion fears in Hawaii and on the West Coast, and thus in a defensive mindset, unwilling to let the carriers venture far from where they were needed the most. That left little possibility of relieving MacArthur’s forces in the six months War Department planners had once projected.
Shortages of food and other provisions were the immediate challenge. With the powerful Imperial Navy roaming the surrounding waters, only submarines could reach Manila Bay – a risky proposition given the small quantities the vessels could carry. The caches of supplies once stashed throughout Bataan and Corregidor were also inaccessible, as MacArthur’s shift in defensive strategies had required those supplies to be dispersed across the islands. The sudden restoration of Plan ORANGE left no time to restock the original depots, nor was transport feasible given the lack of trucks and so many roads clogged with panicked civilians.
The Fight for Bataan
On January 9, 1942, the Japanese charged onto the Bataan Peninsula. They were met by more than 80,000 American and Filipino troops, but stocks of food, ammunition, and medicine were already in short supply. The Japanese hammered the defensive line with artillery and aerial bombardments, followed by regiments of tanks and infantry rolling across the sloping hillsides and into the dense jungle undergrowth. The American and Filipino defenses held for nearly two weeks before the Japanese broke through on January 22, driving a deep wedge into the main defensive line. A general withdrawal was ordered, and after a secondary defensive line was formed further down the peninsula, the two sides largely settled into a stalemate.
Though the Americans and Filipinos had fought a superior enemy force to a standstill, the dearth of food had badly withered the defenders, diminishing their physical health each day. Already on half-rations, dwindling stores led to a further reduction of fifty percent, and in the absence of adequate medical supplies, jungle diseases spread quickly. Army doctors and nurses worked tirelessly to care for the weakened men, but resources were limited and medical conditions beyond primitive. The open-air, makeshift field hospitals became overwhelmed with thousands of fallen men, and among Wainwright’s troops, just one in four had the strength to fight.
In early March, President Roosevelt was informed a collapse of all resistance on Bataan was imminent. He ordered MacArthur to abandon the Philippines, concerned the Japanese would use the commanding general’s death or capture for propaganda purposes. MacArthur resisted at first but finally acquiesced to the presidential order, delegating command of the Luzon forces to Wainwright. After ordering his subordinate to hold out as long as feasible, MacArthur was taken off Corregidor on March 11 by small boat and eventually flown to Australia in a B-17. Upon his arrival, he publicly vowed to return to the Philippines someday.
On April 3, after again battering the Bataan defenses with artillery and air strikes, the Japanese launched a vigorous frontal assault. Despite their debilitated condition, the defenders rose to the occasion, holding the Japanese back for better than a day before eventually buckling. Another frenzied withdrawal was ordered, but with little defensible ground to retreat to, and so many Americans and Filipinos starving and suffering from wounds and disease, resistance was no longer tenable. On April 9, tens of thousands laid down their arms – the largest surrender in American military history.
Final Stand
From his headquarters on Corregidor, Wainwright prepared his remaining 11,000 men for a prolonged siege. The island, well-fortified with an intricate tunnel system, withstood weeks of intense bombardments—more than 300 air strikes alone—but Wainwright could only muster a fraction of his men for frontline duty, as thousands remained incapacitated with wounds or disease. On May 6, the first waves of Japanese assault troops and tanks landed on the island beaches. They were met by a patchwork defense, led by the 4th Marine Regiment. The crack outfit, previously garrisoned in China and evacuated on the eve of war to the Philippines, was joined in the trenches by those Army and Naval personnel still fit enough to shoulder a rifle. They put up a stingy defense, but the beleaguered men were simply overwhelmed.
Aiming to save as many lives as possible, Wainwright offered to surrender the island-fortress, but his overture was rejected by Imperial Army leaders, who insisted Wainwright order all forces in the Philippines to submit, not just those on Corregidor. Wainwright refused at first, denying he had such authority, but with so many of the sickly and wounded continuing to suffer, he relented, issuing the order on May 8. Seething with humiliation, the 4th Marines burned their regimental colors, as Sharp’s forces in the south—25,000 men—also complied, ceding those islands to the Japanese. The fall of the Philippines was complete.
Aftermath
Not all of the Filipinos and Americans turned themselves in. Many took to the mountainous terrain and countryside, vowing to fight on as guerillas. For more than two years, they tormented Japanese occupation forces, aided by local Filipinos and occasionally supplied by American submarines slipping past offshore Japanese patrols.
Much to the dismay of those who did surrender, there would be no compassion or relief. Under bushido, an ancient warrior code, the Japanese considered such capitulation a disgrace and dishonor, and viewed the defeated men with contempt. Exhausted and stricken with illness themselves and enraged about the loss of fallen comrades on Bataan, they became sadistic captors, marching tens of thousands of the wilted prisoners at gunpoint to a former Philippine Army camp sixty-five miles away. It was a harrowing journey, with the Americans and Filipinos denied food, water, and medical care despite sweltering heat and humidity. Those who collapsed on the jungle trail were shot or bayoneted, and those who came to their aid were savagely beaten. Random beheadings were common. By the time it ended, more than 600 Americans and thousands of Filipinos had perished on the Bataan Death March. The only measure of justice came seven months after the war ended, when Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma, who led the Japanese campaign in the Philippines, was executed by firing squad for his complicity in the march.
Those who persevered spent the duration of the war in savage prisoner of war camps or toiling as slave laborers across the Far East. The scraps of food provided barely kept the men alive, living conditions were abysmal, and few would survive the deprivation. Wainwright was one of them. In September 1945, the emaciated general, having endured more than three years of countless beatings and near starvation, was invited by MacArthur to witness the formal Japanese surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Nearly one year earlier, MacArthur had waded ashore on the island of Leyte, marking his triumphant return to the Philippines as once promised behind an army of 200,000 men and the most powerful naval force ever assembled.
