Within five months of its decision to go to war with the Western powers in December 1941, Japan’s empire expanded to embrace 110 million new subjects and its military captured over 132,000 prisoners of war. After a five-month campaign against the Philippines, then an American commonwealth, 20,000 American and 70,000 Filipino personnel were surrendered and taken into captivity by the Japanese in April-May 1942. Thousands of Allied civilians in the Philippines were also incarcerated.
The nightmare of what these POWs were forced to endure for the next three and a half years is the subject of the MacArthur Memorial’s new special exhibit: The Price of Unpreparedness: POWs in the Philippines during World War II.
The Price of Unpreparedness is currently on exhibit.
