Wednesday, May 6, 1942. The fall of Corregador

On this date in 1942, US and Filipino forces surrendered to the Japanese at Corregador.

The loss of the island fortress was inevitable, and in many ways the amazing thing was how long the final stages of the conquest of the Philippines took.

Thursday, April 9, 1942. Bataan surrenders and the Death March begins.

Today in World War II History—April 9, 1942: US surrenders to Japanese at Bataan: 35,000 Filipino troops and 35,000 US troops, the largest surrender in US history.

Sarah Sundin’s entry on her blog, with more than this event being covered on it, notes the grim fact.

I was inevitable, or course.  That Bataan would fall, disaster though it was, could not bee prevented.  The Philippines could not be supplied or relieved.  The troops could not bee withdrawn.  Nothing could be done.  It could be argued that the US should have ordered the bastion to surrender earlier, although their ongoing resistance did tie up a significant number of Japanese forces and even caused the Japanese to send troops to the islands from China, the Japanese army’s primary focus.

The Japanese, in spite of having worked for weeks to complete their conquest in of the Philippines were not prepared to handle such a large number of prisoners.  This, combined with the institutional cruelty of the Japanese armed forces gave rise to an event commenting on this day, the Bataan Death March

Friday, April 3, 1942. The end for Bataan.

The behind schedule Philippine offensive of the Japanese, the only one running behind schedule, makes use of reinforcements, including troops brought in from China, Japans strategic imperative, by launching a renewed offensive against Bataan.  It works, as after  massive bombardment, the Japanese break through the 41st Philippine Division.