The Bataan Death March : A Brutal Journey Through Malnutrition

On June 3rd, 1942, the United States declared war on Imperialistic Japan and Nazi Germany. Due to the bombing of the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese the U.S. was forced to take action. The United States began their first naval battle near the Midway islands in defense of its pacific fleet and positioning. Midway was the Japanese' last goal for its western expansion in the Pacific.

The Japanese attacked the United States’ largest naval base located off the coast of Hawaii, beforehand it was stationed in California, on a Sunday Morning at 7:55 am. On December 8th, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war upon Japan. Franklin

On December 7th, 1941, Japanese fighter planes staged an attack on U.S naval and military forces based in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. In around just two hours, America suffered from approximately 3,435 casualties including 2,000 deaths. The shattering defeat cost the U.S, 8 battle ships and around 200 airplanes. The following day, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. This was approved, and more than two years into the conflict, America had eventually fully committed to the war.

“The Japanese plan was simple: Destroy the Pacific Fleet. That way, the Americans would not be able to fight back as Japan’s armed forces spread across the South Pacific. On December 7, after months of planning and practice, the Japanese launched their attack. In all, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 airplanes. Dry docks and airfields were likewise destroyed. Most important, almost 2,500 men were killed and another 1,000 were wounded. On December 8, Congress approved Roosevelt’s declaration of war. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy declared war against the United States. For the second time, Congress reciprocated. More than two years after the start of the conflict, the United States had entered World War II” (History.com).

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was an engagement between the United States Pacific Fleet and the Japanese navy in World War II. This Battle occurred started on June 19 and ended on June 20 in 1944. The Japanese goal at the very beginning of this conflict was to discourage American forces by incurring such great damage to the military that the public majority would become weary of the war and discontinue its support of the war. The loss of support from the public would then cause the US Government to retract its forces from Japan.( Willmott, H.P. June 1944. New York, NY: Blandford Press, 1984. ISBN 0-7137-1446-8) Willmott 1984, p. 143.)

Pearl Harbor is the name given to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by the Japanese against the Americans on December 7th, 1941. Although there was growing tension between the United States and Japan dew to sanctions and frozen assets put on Japan, the attack was still a surprise for the world. 2400 Americans were killed in the attack, along with many ships and nearly two-hundred airplanes.1 The attack united the American people and under Franklin Roosevelt 's leadership, America declared war on Japan, with a unanimous vote in the senate and 388 to 1 vote in the house, with the lone dissenter being an avid pacifist. Soon after, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States and the United States declared war on the Axis powers in turn. America had finally joined the Second World War. When Roosevelt gave his speech that war was being declared, most of the country was behind him. There were fears that

Pearl Harbor, the beginning of the war between Japan and the United States, was the start of dreadful war organized by Japanese aircraft. The attack was a withheld, destructive attack against the United State's naval base in Hawaii. This attack on December 7, 1941 was originally a plan to conquer the Dutch East Indies without being interrupted by the U.S. Pacific fleet. The Japanese were tired of negotiations with the United States, they wanted to continue their expansion, but the United States had placed an extremely restrictive embargo on Japan in the hopes of curbing Japan's aggression. This terrible ambush resulted in the United State's entry into World War II. The aerial attacks were sent in two waves, this resulted in the sinking of multiple U.S. Battleships, Destroyers, Cruisers, and Auxiliaries, which led to thousands of U.S. personnel casualties and many wounded army, marines, and navy soldiers including many citizens.

President Harry Truman decided to try out the atomic bomb on Japan after being involved in many tragic battles against them. One of the horrific attacks was on the morning of December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor, a naval base in Hawaii, was unexpectedly bombed by the Japanese. When the attack was over, 2,403 Americans died. A day later, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war against Japan. In his speech, Roosevelt described the attack to 81 million Americans listening on the radio as sudden and deliberated for weeks in advance. For the next four years, the war between the U.S. and Japan raged on.

The Battle of Luzon, fought in the Pacific Theater in early 1945, is remembered as the World War Two battle which had the highest net casualties. After Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines, was captured by the Japanese in 1942, General MacArthur believed that it was extremely important to recapture it. This took some time, but in 1944, a new campaign to recapture the Philippines was created. The campaign started with attacks on Leyte and Mindoro, which prepared for Luzon. The US, working together with the Commonwealth of the Philippines, successfully used multifaceted assault tactics—including the use of air force, naval, and ground troops—to advance from the Lingayen Gulf to the capital city of Manila. After the capture of Manila,

The first attack against the U.S. done by the Japanese was the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor just before 8 a.m., it was devastating. The Japanese fighter planes destroyed around 20 naval ships and eight of them were some of the United State’s biggest battleships. The Japanese didn’t just destroy vessels, they also managed to destroy around 300 airplanes. The amount of American soldier’s lives lost was heart-rending, there were over 2,000 Soldiers and Sailors lost from the American fleet. There were also more than 1,000 wounded or critically injured on that horrifying day. The day of the Pearl Harbor attacks became known as “a date which will live in infamy”, and this day was only the beginning. This was only the midpoint of Japan’s attacks, the second half was the Bataan Death March.

After the thousands of deaths in the well known Pearl Harbor and slightly lesser known rape and massacre of Nanking, attack and for the most part subsequent conquering of the Philippines, Guam,

In the beginning of war, Japanese victory in Pacific terrified West Cost Americans. Partial victory for Americans appeared when Japanese capital Tokyo was bombed. It was less of a material loss but huge in terms of psychological attack. It was followed by the Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942 and after that the decisive Battle of Midway Island took place. U.S. aircraft carriers destroyed three out of four Japanese carriers that sabotaged their further plans of invasion and they adopted a defensive strategy.

The death march at the Japanese Bataan Camp, of April 1942, Japanese officers enslaved about "75,000 men, 12,000 of which were American soldiers" (Bergamini 1168). "The soldiers were forced to march sixty miles with

As prisoners continued to suffer poor condition in the Far East, people in the United States barely started to learn of the atrocities of Japan and the Bataan Death March. News first broke of the Bataan Death March in the summer of 1943, when an escaped American prisoner of war who walked in the Bataan Death March managed to reach the mainland United States and tell Americans of the atrocities of the Japanese. However, the story of the Bataan Death March did not widely spread until January 1944, when the U.S. government finally allowed the media to publish stories regarding the Bataan Death March. The March met strong opposition from Americans throughout the country who wanted to make Japan pay for the atrocities they committed against the American prisoners of war. With the American people vowing to get revenge on Japan for Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, and several other atrocities, American soldiers regained control of the Philippine island of Leyte in October 1944.

On December 7th, 1941, Japan bombed the United States Army, Air Force, and Naval Bases, in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor. The next day on December 8th, 1941, the U.S. entered World War II declaring war on Japan as they provoked us to do so with their sneaky aerial attack. Behind the scenes of the extensive fighting, American