Battle of Bataan

After Japanese landings on Luzon in December 1941, more than 80,000 American and Filipino troops withdrew into the Bataan peninsula to hold Manila Bay. Short of food and medicine, and with hopes of relief dashed once MacArthur left on March 11, they held out until April 9, 1942, when the remaining force of about 75,000 surrendered to General Homma's army. The surrender led straight into the Bataan Death March, a forced march of about sixty miles to prison camps on which thousands of prisoners died. Corregidor held out for almost another month. The defense did not change the outcome in the Philippines, but its cost and the treatment of its prisoners shaped American and Filipino memory of the war for generations.