Almost forgotten, the day after December 7, 1941

Nearly 10,000 POWs died in the Bataan Death March.

Most Americans remember December 7as the day forces of Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The bombing in Hawaii thrust the United States into World War II. On the other side of the Pacific, in the Philippines, and the rest of Southeast Asia, the Day of Infamy was the following day, Dec. 8, 1941.

The Philippines, which was a US colony, is a day ahead of the US and Hawaii because of the International Dateline. News of the attack on Pearl Harbor reached the Philippines, at about 2:30 a.m., Dec. 8. By 8:30 a.m., some small US Army installations in northern Luzon were under attack. By 12:30 p.m., the Japanese were dropping bombs on the main US bases, especially the Philippines' five major airfields.

The bombing in the Philippines destroying almost all of a new fleet of P-40 fighters and B-17 bombers, as well as many other military aircraft. 

The attack was the beginning of a five-month defense of the Phiippines doomed to fail that killed and wounded thousands, including those killed in the Bataan Death March of April 1942.

 FYI: For more details of Dec. 8, 1941 in the Philippines and its aftermath, click here.

Although FDR did not highlight this attack in his famous announcement about the Pearl Harbor bombing, the United States took immediate action in the Philippines. In early December, US officials began imprisoning Japanese people living in the Philippines without cause (this was three months before FDR signed an executive order establishing Japanese internment camps). By the end of the month, Japanese military forces freed these civilians.

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US forces, including the thousands of Filipinos who fought alongside the US military, resisted the Japanese invasion.  The JapaneseImperial leaders estimated that they would conquer the Philippines in a two-week campaign. It took four months before the Japanese could claim victory.

Despite being outmanned, outgunned, nearly starving and a shortage of medical supplies,  American and Filipino military personnel, it was not until May 1942 before the US surrendered. Nevertheless, the Japanese timetable  of conquest was delayed. That was enough time for Australia and the US to reinforce defenses to prevent further expansion of the Japanese Empire.

Nearly 80,000 men and women of the US armed forces surrendered, the largest defeat suffered by the United States. In a 60-mile forced march tin the tropical heat and weakened by malaria and lack of water, many of the American and FIlipino prisoners of war who fell to the wayside were killed by their captors. It is estimated that nearly 10,000 prisoners died in what became to be known as the Bataan Death March.

Unfortunately, perhaps because of the defeat of US forces, the story of WWII that took place in the Philippiens, is rarely covered in US textbooks. California and Haqwaii are the only states that mandates teaching this chapter of US history in its schools.

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