Bataan and Pearl Harbor

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Bataan and Pearl Harbor

Bataan

On April 9, 1942, approximately 75,000 Filipino and United States soldiers, commanded by Major General Edward "Ned" P. King, Jr., were formally surrendered to a Japanese army of 50,000 men under Lt. General Masaharu Homma (www.hubpages.com). This required Japan to accept emaciated captives who vastly outnumbered them. The Japanese, having expected the fighting to continue longer, had only expected 25,000 prisoners of war and did not have any facilities vast enough to properly care for them.

Logistics planning to move the prisoners of war from Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, a prison camp in the province of Tarlac, was handed down to transportation officer Major General Yoshitake Kawane ten days prior to the final Japanese assault. The first phase of the operation, which was to bring all of the prisoners to Balanga, consisted of a nineteen mile march that was expected to take one day (www.hubpages.com). Upon reaching Balanga, Kawane was then to take personal command of executing the second phase, which consisted of transporting the men to the prison camp. 200 trucks were to be utilized to take the prisoners 33 miles north to the rail center at San Fernando, where freight trains, which would move them another 30 miles to the village of Capas, awaited them. Upon reaching Capas, the prisoners were then to march an additional 8 miles on foot to Camp O'Donnell (www.hubpages.com). Field hospitals were to be established at Balanga and San Fernando while various aid stations and resting places were to be set up every few miles.

Churchill in power remained almost alone within his own government in refusing to enter negotiations with “That Man.” As historian John Lukacs argues, it was Churchill who held his government intact against coming to terms with Nazi Germany—and it was Britain's holding out that proved to be the crucial factor in wining the war (www.hubpages.com).

In his first speech as prime minister, he declared: “I have nothing to offer but blood, tears, toil and sweat.” His war aim was unambiguous: “Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.” As Hitler's total war made every Briton a soldier, Churchill evoked the spirit of “olden times,” maintaining morale in the face of terror, bombing, and an anticipated German invasion. CBS News correspondent Edward R. Murrow marveled, ...