Directed by Jesse Collier Sutterley
Within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, bombs were raining down on U.S. and Filipino forces in the Philippines. With U.S. planes in the Philippines destroyed and the U.S. fleet significantly lost/damaged after Pearl Harbor; the necessary supplies and reserves were not on the way. After months of vicious fighting against overwhelming Japanese forces, the Allied forces surrendered. They were then faced with a brutal march to P.O.W. Camps located throughout the islands. Thousands perished on the march before ever reaching the P.O.W. camps, where countless more died. The surrender of the Philippines, often forgotten in U.S. history, was the largest surrender by U.S. military forces. Despite their much higher loss of life during the same events, the Bataan Death March is commemorated in the Philippines every year.
Up Next in World War II Experience: Season 2 - Pacific Theater
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Remembering Port Chicago
Directed by Alexander Zane Irwin
In California's Bay Area, a painful memory lingers of the Port Chicago disaster of WWII, when hundreds of the Navy's first Black Sailors perished, and the White officers in charge were protected by the chain of command.
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Merchant Marine Paul Goercke and the ...
Directed by Alexander Zane Irwin
While Merchant Marine veteran Paul Goercke rests with his family in his plot at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, he is survived and remembered by his pioneering American Legion Post 448, the only predominantly LGBTQ post in the nation.
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Adele Shimanoff: U.S. Marine
Directed by Hannah Anderson
In 1945, Adele Shimanoff joins the U.S. Marine Corps amid a larger plan to bring women into the military in order to “free a marine to fight”. Adele moves away from the traditional Women’s Reserves and into active duty for a year, where she forms lifelong friendships ...
