Philippine History

Group 2
Japanese Occupation and The War Years

Attack on Pearl Harbour

In December 7, 1941 there was a surprise military strike by the imperial Japanese navy
air service against United States naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii territory that led to the
United States entry to World War II. Ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour (December 8
1941) Japan attacked the Philippines Roosevelt delivered his famous Infamy Speech to a Joint
Session of Congress to formally declare about the war on the empire of Japan.

Korina N. Tiongson
Philippine History
Group 2
Japanese Occupation and The War Years

Fall of Bataan and Corregidor

January 1942, forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy invaded Luzon along with
several islands in the Philippine Archipelago after bombing of the American naval base at Pearl
Harbor.The commander-in-chief of all Filipino and U.S forces in the islands, General Douglas
MacArthur consolidated all of his Luzon-based units on the Bataan Peninsula to fight against the
Japanese invaders. By this time the Japanese controlled nearly all of Southeast Asia. American
and Filipino forces were soon ordered to head south to defend the Bataan Peninsula. With battles
and skirmishes raging for four months, the mission was understood to hold out and delay the
Japanese as long as possible to allow America and Australia time to build up.
Rations were cut, medicine to fight malaria was in short supply, and the aged, out-dated
weaponry used by the Americans, some of it pre-World War I era, was soon wearing out. In
March, General Douglas MacArthur and his staff had been ordered by President Franklin
Roosevelt to flee the Philippines by boat to Australia. It soon became clear no immediate help
was coming. The men soon began to refer to themselves as the “Battling Bastards of Bataan.”
Bataan death march - 11,700 Americans and as many as 65,000 Filipinos began the 65-mile
march from the Bataan Peninsula to San Fernando. Filipinos died on the march. Men driven mad
by thirst plunged into disease-infested mud pits, only to be shot or beaten. Those who survived
soon came down with any number of diseases, from pellagra to dysentery. Some received food
the first night, but it was little more than a ball of rice, at best. Many went without any food or
water for the many days it took to complete the march. The causes of death were many, from
malaria and dysentery to starvation and sheer exhaustion. Other deaths were indescribably
horrific and violent. Many Filipinos and some Americans were beheaded and both Americans
and Filipinos were forced to endure the “sun treatment” where soldiers were forced to look for
hours directly toward the sun. The march quickly became a matter of survival of the fittest,
though there are many accounts of lives being saved by selfless acts

Korina N. Tiongson
Philippine History
Group 2
Japanese Occupation and The War Years

End of War

When General MacArthur returned to the Philippines with his army in late 1944, he was
well supplied with information MacArthur returned and knew what every Japanese lieutenant ate
for breakfast and where he had his hair cut. But the return was not easy. The Japanese Imperial
General Staff decided to make the Philippines their final line of defence to stop the American
advance toward Japan. They sent every available soldier, airplane, and naval vessel to the
defence of the Philippines. The Kamikaze corps was created specifically to defend the
Philippines. The Battle of Leyte Gulf ended in disaster for the Japanese and was the biggest
naval battle of World War II. The campaign to re-take the Philippines was the bloodiest
campaign of the Pacific War. Intelligence information gathered by the guerrillas averted a
disaster they revealed the plans of Japanese General Yamashita to trap MacArthur's army, and
they led the liberating soldiers to the Japanese fortifications. Philippine Commonwealth troops
and the recognized guerrilla fighter units rose up everywhere for the final offensive. Filipino
guerrillas also played a large role during the liberation. One guerrilla unit came to substitute for a
regularly constituted American division and other guerrilla forces of battalion and regimental
size supplemented the efforts of the U.S. Army units. The cooperative Filipino population eased
the problems of supply, construction and civil administration and furthermore eased the task of
Allied forces in recapturing the country. Fighting continued until Japan's formal surrender on 2
September 1945. The Philippines had suffered great loss of life and tremendous physical
destruction by the time the war was over.

Korina N. Tiongson