December 8th, 1941.
We’re the battling bastards of Bataan.
No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam,
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces
And nobody gives a damn.
No one much discusses what happened in the Philippines, nor do American history classes typically focus on how the Americans there, outnumbered and outgunned, and ultimately left to their own devices, held out against superior numbers for more than five months. But General King and those who fought there deserve more credit than “Remember Pearl Harbour” can truly offer.
When the end finally came and the order to surrender was issued on 08 April 1942, over 76,000 American and Filipino soldiers were marched over 60 miles — without food, without water — to die further of disease, malnutrition, and should they fall behind, the business end of a Japanese bayonet.
Americans back home never knew about the “Bataan Death March” until late January 1944. By then, MacArthur and his generals were taking back the South Pacific through strategic leapfrogging in order to strike at the heart of the Empire of Japan, MacArthur’s reputation now able to be secured and protected by strategic success. “I have returned” replaced “I shall return” — and all was forgiven in the eye of the American public fond of victory over sacrifice.
The story that is not told about those Americans who fought at Bataan is the one where — had the Americans surrendered earlier in the Philippines — the Japanese would have been given a free shot at mainland Australia. Should that have occurred, World War II in the Pacific would have taken a longer path, perhaps through Burma, perhaps over mainland China. Resources expended grinding out those stubborn Americans and Filipino soldiers were precious resources not spent at Midway, New Guinea, Guadalcanal, or the Solomon Islands.
Those “battling bastards” did more to end the war than the atomic bomb or MacArthur ever did.
