USS Bataan memorializes the valiant resistance of American and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula in the dawning days of World War II. Fighting on the Philippine Islands of Luzon and Corregidor began just 10 short hours after the raid on Pearl Harbor. After weeks of Japanese air raids and beach landings on the north of Luzon, Gen. Douglas MacArthur ordered withdrawal from the fortified north to the narrow jungle peninsula Dec. 23, 1941. There, combined Army, Navy, Marine Corps and American-trained Filipino forces opposed the Japanese. Despite rampant disease, malnutrition, and insufficient supplies and ammunition, the “Battling Bastards of Bataan” defended the peninsula until April 16, 1942.
Corregidor fell shortly after on May 6, 1942. During combat some units absorbed as high as 80 percent casualties. Tens of thousands of American service members died either in the battle or during the “Bataan Death March.” The 65-mile “death march” alone claimed 21,000 lives in less than a week and is marked as one of the greatest tragedies of World War II. Those who survived the march faced starvation and disease aboard “hell ships” during transportation and later in prison camps until Japan’s formal surrender in 1945. Bataan was the last American stronghold in the Pacific theater to fall until MacArthur fulfilled his famed prophecy, “I shall return,” by reconquering the Philippine Islands two and a half years later. The battle of Bataan and ensuing “death march” are widely regarded as one of the greatest examples of allied courage, endurance and sacrifice in the history of military conflict.