Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Bataan Death March

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

On December 8, 1941, as the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, they were simultaneously attacking other Allied positions around Asia.  One of the biggest attacks was on Manila and the Philippines and the Filipino and American forces on the island of Luzon. Filipino and American forces ended up surrendering, which began one of the most brutal and horrifying episodes of the entire war.  Learn more about the Bataan Death March and how and why it happened on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Newspapers.com Get 20% off your subscription to Newspapers.com Mint Mobile Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/eed Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! Stitch Fix Go to stitchfix.com/everywhere to have a stylist help you look your best Tourist Office of Spain Plan your next adventure at Spain.info  Stash Go to get.stash.com/EVERYTHING to see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Austin Oetken & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/  Disce aliquid novi cotidie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. On December 8, 1941, as the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, they were simultaneously attacking other allied positions around Asia. One of the biggest attacks was on Manila and the Philippine Islands and the Filipino and American forces on the island of Luzon. These forces ended up surrendering, which began one of the most brutal and horrifying episodes of the entire war. Learn more about the Baton Death March and how and why it happened

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The Baton Death March was one of the most brutal events

that took place in the Pacific Theater of World War II, which is saying a lot given how brutal the war was. As always, to understand why and what happened, we need to understand the geography and background of the military situation in the Philippines before the Japanese invasion. In 1941, the Philippines was still an American territory. There was a plan for Philippine independence in the works, which eventually happened after the war, but the Japanese invasion put the plans on hold. The key to the Philippines was, and still is, its capital and largest city, Manila. And what makes Manila so important is Manila Bay. Manila Bay is a fantastic natural harbor, which is why it was selected as a location for the capital of the Philippines.

The entrance to Manila Bay is defined by the Baton Peninsula, as well as Corrigador Island, which is an island in the mouth of the bay. Whoever controlled the Baton Peninsula and Corrigador Island would control access to Manila Bay, which made those choke points strategically valuable. In 1936, Douglas MacArthur resigned from the United States Army and was appointed Field Marshal of the Philippines Army by President Manuel Kazan. MacArthur grew up in the Philippines, and his father was the territory governor after the Spanish-American War. So MacArthur always had an affinity for the Philippines for this reason.

MacArthur was put in charge of what was an almost non-existent Filipino Army. His mission was to create the Filipino Army and prepare them for full independence. They began a draft to fill the ranks in the Army and established a Filipino Military Academy designed along the lines of West Point. On July 26, 1941, President Roosevelt federalized the Filipino Army and recalled MacArthur to active duty service at the rank of Major General and appointed him commander of U.S. Army forces in the Far East. At the time of the federalization of the Filipino Army, there were approximately 22,000 troops, with thousands more joining over the next several months. Prior to the outbreak of war,

the United States had developed a plan in the event of a Japanese attack on the Philippines. The U.S. military knew that they didn't have the manpower to repel a full Japanese invasion, and they also knew that they were very far from help. The plan was simple. In the event of an attack, American and Filipino forces would retreat to the fortified Baton Peninsula and wait there for reinforcements, all the while denying the Japanese access to Manila Bay. MacArthur actually wanted a more aggressive plan where they would try to hold all of Luzon Island and sink Japanese ships with American bombers. Despite promises, the U.S. did a horrible job of preparing and supplying the garrison in the Philippines.

By November 1941, 1.1 million tons of equipment intended for the Philippines was stuck in U.S. ports awaiting shipment. The Japanese attack took place on December 8th, nearly simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Because it was on the other side of the international dayline, it occurred on December 8th instead of December 7th. The American and Filipino forces were caught completely off guard by the Japanese attack. The Japanese targeted their attacks on the first day. on Clark Airfield, which is where most of the American aircraft were located.

The vast majority were destroyed before they could ever get off the ground. And there were also small landings in the north and south of the island of Luzon. However, the main Japanese invasion force didn't actually land on the Philippines until December 22nd. They arrived in Lingayun Gulf in the northwest of the island of Luzon. The commander of the Japanese forces was General Masaharu Homa. The Japanese quickly advanced south, overwhelming the thin defenses that were in their path. On the evening of December 24th, General MacArthur reverted back to the original American strategy

and ordered a general retreat to the Baton Peninsula. That same evening, MacArthur moved his headquarters to the heavily fortified island of Corrigador. Over the next two weeks, American and Filipino forces retreated to the Baton Peninsula. However, there was a problem with the sudden change in strategy. Most of the American and Filipino forces were able to fall back to Baton, but they had to leave their supplies behind. The Japanese entered Manila on January 2nd, and the combined American and Filipino forces had finalized their retreat to Baton by January 6th. And on January 7th, the Japanese began their assault of Baton and the Battle of Baton began. Initially, the American and Filipino forces were able to repulse the attacks on the peninsula.

However, time was not on their side, as they had few supplies and no reinforcements. On January 23rd, the Japanese landed on the southwest coast of the peninsula and began to threaten the rear of the Allied forces. Despite the potential new front, the beleaguered forces still managed to put up stiff resistance. On February 8th, General Homa halted major offensive operations on baton to regroup and resupply his forces, facing logistical challenges and high casualties. rates. During the entire month of the battle, MacArthur remained on Corrigador, separated from the bulk of his forces. Many soldiers blamed MacArthur, and others thought that he was going to pull

some sort of trick out of his hat at the last moment. Instead, MacArthur received an order from President Roosevelt to evacuate to Australia. On March 12, MacArthur and his family escaped by small PT boats to the island of Mindanao, which hadn't fallen to the Japanese yet, where they boarded B-17s, which flew them to Australia. When he arrived in Melbourne on March 21st, he famously said, I shall return. Back on Baton, conditions got worse. The Japanese bombarded American and Filipino positions with planes and artillery. The defenders slowly ran out of supplies, including ammunition and food. Help was nowhere on the horizon. On April 3rd, the Japanese made a final push on the Baton Peninsula. Finally, after three months of holding out, on April 9th, Major General

Edward P. King Jr., commander of the forces on Baton, surrendered unconditionally to the Japanese to prevent further loss of life. Approximately 70,000 Filipino and American troops became prisoners of war. It was the largest surrender of U.S. forces in history. And it should be noted that the vast majority of these prisoners were Filipino. Here I should note that at this point, before the events that were to be known as the Baton Death March even took place, the survivors of the Battle of Baton were weakened, starved, and many were sick. The Japanese, for their part, didn't expect to capture so many people and were unprepared for so many prisoners.

They didn't have enough automobiles to accommodate the large number of sick people. The Japanese decided to march everyone up the Baton Peninsula to the city of San Francisco. Fernando, about 65 miles or 105 kilometers away. From San Fernando, they could reach railways that would take prisoners to the city of Kampas, the location of the former U.S. military camp O'Donnell. All of the prisoners were split into groups of 100, which were guarded by four Japanese soldiers. Almost immediately, atrocities began being committed. On April 12th, 400 Filipino officers were summarily executed on the orders of Colonel Masanobu Suji. Colonel Suji had no respect for the prisoners and didn't even consider them to be prisoners of war.

He issued secret orders to unit commanders, contrary to the instructions of the commanding officer General Homa, to kill all prisoners in custody. More on Colonel Suji in a bit. This order was not followed by every officer, but it was followed by some, and there was a general air of cruelty by most of the guards. prisoners were beaten constantly with the butts of rifles or by the pommels of swords. Prisoners were not allowed to eat or drink, even though they were walking in the middle of the day in blistering heat. There were no bathroom breaks. If you had to go, you had to do so while walking. Almost everyone who fell down was bayoneted and killed immediately. Japanese soldiers took whatever they could. There was one report of a man having his hand chopped off so a guard could steal his ring.

Other soldiers had their teeth knocked out if they had a gold tooth. There were reports of prisoners being shot for even asking for water. Filipino civilians who tried to get the prisoner's food were shot for doing so. When prisoners arrived in San Fernando, conditions did not improve. They were herded into box cars. They were packed in so tight that if you passed out, there was no room to fall down. Temperatures in the box cars reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit or 43 degrees Celsius. and the prisoners were in the box cars for several hours.

When the trains arrived, the hardship still wasn't over. They were put on another forced march of nine miles to make it to Camp O'Donnell. Of the estimated 70,000 men who began the march, only about 54,000 made it to Camp O'Donnell. Estimates are that somewhere between 7 to 10,000 men died in route, with the rest escaping into the jungle, most of which joining guerrilla forces that fought the Japanese for the rest of the war. Only about 650 of the men killed were Americans. The rest were all Filipino. And estimates for the total number killed have run as high as 18,000.

The survivors who managed to make it to Camp O'Donnell were weakened, hungry, dehydrated, and many were sick and injured. Over the next several weeks, several thousand more prisoners died. The total death toll may have doubled factoring in the deaths in the camp. The events on the Baton Peninsula loomed large over the rest of the war in the Pacific. Douglas MacArthur was driven on a personal level to retake the Philippines. He returned to the Philippines when he walked ashore on the island of Laité on October 20th, 1944.

Camp O'Donnell, the final stop on the Baton death march, was liberated on January 30th, 1945. The American public wasn't informed of the events on Baton until, January of 1944. Life magazine reported the tales of survivors which aroused anger and support for the war back home. At the end of the war, a war crimes tribunal was established. General Masaharu Homa was charged with 48 separate counts of violating the rules of war and crimes against humanity. There was controversy surrounding his trial because there was little evidence that he was actually responsible for the atrocities. His defense was that he had led his subordinates organized the transfer of prisoners as he was focused on the assault on Corrigador.

He was found guilty and sentenced to death on the basis that he was responsible for the actions of his subordinates. He was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946. In 1948, two of homeless subordinates were also sentenced to death and hung. The one man who escaped justice was the one man with the most evidence against him, Colonel Suji. Suji disappeared after the fall of Japanese control. controlled Burma in 1945. He fled to Thailand and then China where he worked for Chinese intelligence.

He later returned to Japan and was never placed on trial. He was elected to the Japanese legislature in 1952 and was re-elected on two occasions. In 1961, he traveled to Laos and was never heard from again. Some believe that he was killed in Laotian Civil War and others think he went on to work for the North Vietnamese. Today there are memorials for the men who fell in the baton death march in New Mexico, where many of the American victims hailed from, as well as in the Philippines. The baton death march was one of the most brutal and horrific events of the Pacific Theater of the War. Somewhere between 10 to 20,000 people died, depending on the estimates and the time frame used. The baton death march remains a poignant reminder of the horrors of war.

The bravery and suffering of those who endured the march have left an indelible mark on history, serving as a testament to the capacity for human cruelty, as well as the spirit of human perseverance. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Oakden and Cameron Kiefer. I want to thank everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. I'd also like to thank all the members of the Everything Everywhere community

who are active on the Facebook group and the Discord server. If you'd like to join in the discussion, there are links to both in the show notes. And as always, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you two can have it read on the show.