Philippines campaign (1941–1942)

The Philippines campaign, also known as the Battle of the Philippines (Filipino: Labanan sa Pilipinas) or the Fall of the Philippines, was the invasion of the Philippines by the Empire of Japan during the Pacific War and World War II. The operation to capture the islands, which was defended by the U.S. and Philippine Armies, was intended to prevent interference with Japan's expansion in Southeast Asia.

On 8 December 1941, several hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes began bombing U.S. forces in the Philippines, including aircraft at Clark Field near the capital of Manila on the island of Luzon. Japanese landings on northern Luzon began two days later, and were followed on 22 December by major landings at Lingayen Gulf and Lamon Bay by the Japanese Fourteenth Army under Masaharu Homma. The defense of the Philippines was led by Douglas MacArthur, who ordered his soldiers to evacuate Manila to the Bataan Peninsula ahead of the Japanese advance. Japanese troops captured Manila by 7 January 1942, and after their failure to penetrate the Bataan defensive perimeter in early February, began a 40-day siege, enabled by a naval blockade of the islands. The U.S. and Philippine troops on Bataan eventually surrendered on 9 April and were then subjected to the Bataan Death March, which was marked by Japanese atrocities and mistreatment.

The campaign to capture the Philippines took much longer than planned by the Japanese, who in early January 1942 had decided to advance their timetable of operations in Borneo and Indonesia and withdraw their best division and the bulk of their airpower. This, coupled with the decision of MacArthur to withdraw U.S. and Philippine forces to Bataan, enabled the defenders to hold out for three months. The harbor and port facilities of Manila Bay were denied to the Japanese until the capture of Corregidor Island on 6 May. While offensive operations in the Dutch East Indies were unaffected, this heavily hindered operations in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, buying time for the U.S. Navy to plan to engage the Japanese at Guadalcanal rather than much further east.