The Fall of Bataan

"Radio Broadcast - Voice of Freedom - Malinta Tunnel - Corregidor - April 9, 1942

"Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy. 

The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more that three months. Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear. 

For what sustained them through all these months of incessant battle was a force that was more than merely physical. It was the force of an unconquerable faith--something in the heart and soul that physical hardship and adversity could not destroy! It was the thought of native land and all that it holds most dear, the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in these most priceless of all our human prerogatives. 

The adversary, in the pride of his power and triumph, will credit our troops with nothing less than the courage and fortitude that his own troops have shown in battle. Our men have fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the most superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last in the face of overwhelming odds. 

But the decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of unshakable faith are made of something more that flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come.
Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand--a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world--cannot fall!"

Japanese Invasion of P.I. in Photos

General Homma at Lingayen Gulf,  Philippine Islands 1941

Japanese tanks and soldiers moving towards Manila, Dec. 22, 1941

Cavite Navy Shipyard in flames, Dec. 10, 1941 

A Japanese soldier looks at an American propaganda billboard.


(Photo Source from the US National Archives)

The Japanese invasion of Manila

Shortly after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl harbor, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Philippines on December 8, 1941. The first to be attacked was Clark Airbase in Pampanga.  Then the Japanese landed at Lingayen Gulf and proceeded towards Manila. At the Advice of the Commonwealth President Osmena, Gen. Douglas MacArthur declared Manila an Open City so as to spare the destruction of its buildings and residents.

Manila: Open City

While the Japanese proceeded to occupy Manila, MacArthur's forces, composed of Filipinos and Americans, decided to put up a fight at Corregidor and Bataan.. With the Japanese in pursuit, the Philippine Scouts guarded the rear of MacArthur's forces and succeded in inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese.

The heroic stand of the Fil-Am forces in Bataan and Corregidor  delayed the Japanese advance to other countries in the Pacific.The Japanese thought that they could take the Philippines by two months but actually dragged on for half a year.

Even as the surrender of the Fil-Am Forces on early April of 1942, small groups of Philippine Scouts continued to resist the Japanese.