While the situation on Bataan was very serious, the soldiers tried to have some brief moments of fun. Lt. Colonel William Dyess, a pilot, and Lt. Juanita Redmond, ANC, recalled a party in Mariveles the pilots threw in early March. The food for the festivities came through an extensive bartering system the units established. (32) To pass the time between battles, soldiers played volleyball and in the hospital, the chaplains put on entertainment nights for the patients. But usually, the chaplains were performing ministerial duties and soldiers were looking for food. (33) While the two hospitals on Bataan, were suppose to be safe, the Japanese bombed them. The first time was an accident, which the Japanese apologized for, but the later bombings were intentional, despite the visible Red Cross. According to the 1929 Geneva Convention, hospitals were not supposed to be attacked. (34)
But the lack of food and medical supplies got increasingly worse. Soldiers were willing to eat anything, and did. As rations thinned, they turned to carabao (water buffalo), horses, mules, monkeys, lizards, and snakes. (35) When fresh water was not available, some soldiers drank from dirty streams. Troops were down to two meals a day and less. A lack of proper nutrition, combined with contaminated food caused many severe to deadly medical conditions. Besides those wounded in the fighting, the medical units, which were running hospitals with make-shift operating rooms and various wards (surgery, orthopedic, head, abdominal, and dental, to name a few), had to treat a wide variety of illnesses, often without proper medication, especially quinine. Sometimes the nurses would sterilize used dressings and use them again on the patients. Some common diseases caused by malnutrition and impure water were malaria, dysentery, and beriberi. (36)
Troops on Bataan could not hold out much longer. The Japanese intensified their attacks in late March and early April. On April 7, the nurses on Bataan (over sixty were assigned to the Philippines before the war) were evacuated to Corregidor. Before Corregidor fell, some would make it to Australia. Others were never seen again. (37)
By the beginning of March the food shortage on Bataan had become a much deadlier foe than the Japanese. MacArthur's delay in December in ordering Plan Orange put into effect, and the consequent inability of his quartermasters to stock Bataan, had led to a situation that was beginning to seriously debilitate the troops. (38)
Despite the critical situation, MacArthur sent orders to Wainwright, which said: "I am utterly opposed under any circumstances or conditions to the ultimate capitulation of this command. If food fails you will prepare and execute an attack upon the enemy." (39) President Franklin Roosevelt agreed with MacArthur and issued his own "no surrender" orders. Wainwright forwarded the orders to King on April 4. (40)
While the U.S. troops were faltering, due to poor health, the Japanese were strong due to reinforcements. On April 3 they implemented a full attack. By April 8, the Americans and Filipinos could fight no longer. "As the Japanese approached Cabcaben, Bataan's commander, Major General Edward King, sadly concluded he had no alternative to surrender. Thus 79,500 men, the largest force in American military history to succumb to an enemy, put down their arms." (41) Even though the Philippine division was supposed to be transferred to Corregidor before the fall of Bataan, "issuance of the necessary orders bogged down in the staff (a conspicuous point of weakness throughout the campaign), and the American 31st and Philippines Scout 45th and 57th Infantry Regiments became so enmeshed in the confused fighting they could not get free." (42) About 2,300 military and civilians would escape from Bataan to Corregidor. The scores of thousands remaining became the victims of the infamous Bataan Death March to the O'Donnell and Cabanatuan prisoner of war camps, otherwise known as "hell camps." (43)
King surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942.
