The
Battle of Bataan, fought 7 January – 9 April 1942, represented the most intense phase of
Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during
World War II. In January 1942, forces of the
Imperial Japanese Army and
Navy invaded
Luzon along with several islands in the Philippine Archipelago after the
bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The commander-in-chief of all Filipino and American 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. The
Bataan peninsula and the island of
Corregidor were the only remaining Allied strongholds in the region. Despite a lack of supplies, Filipino (many were U.S. Nationals) and American forces managed to fight the Japanese for three months, engaging them initially in a fighting retreat southward. As the combined Filipino and American forces made a last stand, the delay cost the Japanese valuable time and prohibited immediate victory across the Pacific. The surrender at Bataan was the largest in
American and
Filipino military histories, and was the largest United States surrender since the
American Civil War's
Battle of Harper's Ferry. Soon afterwards, Filipino and American (including Filipino-American)
prisoners of war were forced into the
Bataan Death March.