After three months of starvation, disease, and relentless siege, Major General Edward King surrendered roughly 75,000 troops to Japanese forces on the Philippines' Bataan Peninsula. It marked the largest capitulation of American forces in history. The surrender was followed by the infamous Bataan Death March, during which thousands of prisoners died from beatings, starvation, and exhaustion during the 65-mile forced march to prison camps.
The defenders of Bataan had been reduced to eating monkeys, iguanas, and horses by the time General Edward King made the decision to surrender without consulting his superior, General Jonathan Wainwright, who had ordered him to fight on. King reasoned that further resistance would only lead to a massacre of his exhausted, malaria-ridden men, who had received no reinforcements or resupply for months as Washington prioritized the war in Europe.
What followed became one of the war's darkest chapters. Japanese forces, who had not anticipated capturing so many prisoners and held deep contempt for soldiers who surrendered rather than died fighting, forced the 75,000 captives on a 65-mile march to Camp O'Donnell under a brutal tropical sun with almost no food or water.
Thousands died along the route from summary execution, starvation, dysentery, and heat exhaustion. Survivors recalled guards bayoneting stragglers and denying water even when it was available beside the road. The Bataan Death March became a rallying symbol for American forces throughout the Pacific War and, decades later, a war crimes case against Japanese commanders.