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After MacArthur’s escape, the situation in Bataan grew extremely grim. Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright succeeded him as commander of the USAFFE, by then officially USIP (United States Forces in the Philippines). From MacArthur’s headquarters in Corregidor, Wainwright directed the desperate defense of Bataan.

The Filipino and American defenders, hopelessly outnumbered, tired, and sick, held their ground fighting with heroic valor until the bitter end. They had hoped that America would help in that dark hour of their need. But no help came–not till October 20, 1944, anyway.

Bataan fell on April 9, 1942. There had been no other choice. The odds were too great to overcome. General Edward P. King, American commander of the forces in Bataan, surrendered to stop the further slaughter of his helpless men. Sadly but proudly, the Voice of Freedom, the USAFFE radio, told the world: “Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand–a beacon to all the liberty-lover peoples of the world–cannot fall.”

The Death March

More than 70,000 Filipino and American soldiers, including sixteen generals, laid down their arms at Bataan. After surrendering, they suffered the inhumanity of the victorious foe.

Extremely weakened from hunger, thirst, disease, and fatigue, they were forced to march from Mariveles, in Bataan, all the way to San Fernando, Pampanga.

During this infamous “Death March,” about 10,000 Filipinos and 1,200 Americans perished on the road.

In San Fernando, the survivors were put in railway boxcars and taken to Camp O’Donnel in Capas, Tarlac, where they were in concentration and many more died of starvation and disease. The few survivors were later released to their families.

The Fall of the Philippines

Corregidor, the tiny fortified island guarding the entrance of Manila Bay, was doomed. General Wainwright valiantly resisted but in vain. Realizing the futility of further resistance and knowing that no help was coming from the United States, he surrendered to General Homma.

Corregidor fell on May 6, 1942. Nearly 12,000 Filipino and American soldiers were taken prisoner by the Japanese. But they had better luck than their comrades who were in the Death March. The fall of Corregidor ended organized resistance against the Japanese invasion.

The Start of the Guerrilla War

The war was over as far as the American forces in the Philippines were concerned. On the night of May 7, General Wainwright, the vanquished American commander, upon orders of the Japanese military authorities, broadcast by radio his order to all sector commanders of the Filipino-American forces throughout the Philippines to surrender to the nearest Japanese command post.

Major General William F. Sharp, Jr., commander of the Visayan-Mindanao forces, obeyed the order and surrendered to the Japanese in Malaybalay, Bukidnon. But other Filipino and American officers and their men refused to give up.

The fled to the hills with their arms and with the help of the civilian population, they waged a bitter guerrilla war against the Japanese.

The Philippines had fallen, but the Filipinos and their American guerilla allies were unconquered. As far as they were concerned, the war with the Japanese had just started.