When the Japanese launched their Pacific attack, General Douglas MacArthur's United States Army Forces in the Far East included ten divisions of newly recruited and poorly equipped Philippine Army soldiers, and one U.S. Army infantry division with supporting units--the Philippine Scouts. "Forgotten Soldiers" follows the U.S. Army's Philippine Scouts as they protect the fledgling Philippine Army during their retreat from Lingayen Gulf to Bataan, and the movie then relives their heroic stands on Bataan and Corregidor. Bataan, then Corregidor, were the U.S. Army's first two battles of World War II and the last Allied strongholds to hold out against the Japanese in the Pacific. These prolonged actions bought the U.S. time to reorganize its Pacific defenses and rebuild the U.S. Navy fleet the Japanese had destroyed at Pearl Harbor. Eventually, a Japanese naval blockade starved out the soldiers on Bataan and Corregidor, and the men on Bataan were subjected to one of the worst atrocities in modern history--the Bataan Death March. Even after the horrors of the Japanese prison camps, Philippine Scout survivors continued their resistance and prepared to participate as U.S. Army soldiers in the invasion of Japan. Scouts who survived World War II went on to serve in the U.S. Army in Korea and in Viet Nam. Philippine Scout veterans who fought on Bataan and suffered through the Bataan Death March tell their personal stories on-screen and describe the action and events over photographs, reenactments and actual footage of the battles, much of it captured from the Japanese at the end of the war. Of the original 12,000 Philippine Scouts only 118 survive today (6,000 died during World War II). They were the United States Army's Philippine Scouts, America's FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS.—Chris Schaefer
As U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood before Congress after Pearl Harbor to ask for a Declaration of War against the Japanese Empire, U.S. Army troops were already engaged in combat with the enemy 7,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean. The United States Army Forces in the Far East, led by legendary General Douglas MacArthur, were a conglomerate of native troops, U.S. soldiers, Marines and national guardsmen; and the backbone of MacArthur's troops--the Philippine Scouts.
MacArthur told his men to hold their ground at all costs, to fight to the death if necessary, as they began America's first major battle of World War II, the Battle of Bataan.
The U.S. Army's 12,000 Philippine Scouts were an elite cadre of professional Filipino soldiers, serving under American officers who were mostly graduates of West Point. On Bataan they combined forces with the poorly trained and equipped but nevertheless courageous army of the Philippine Commonwealth. The top brass in Washington promised to send reinforcements, planes, naval support and supplies...but the planes and the reinforcements never came. The men held off the enemy for four months, surrounded and constantly bombarded by the powerful Japanese army and navy. As their ammunition, medicine and food supplies dwindled they went on half rations, then one-third rations. They were starved out--victims of malaria, dysentery and a variety of tropical diseases. After four months of almost constant combat, after every other allied stronghold in the Pacific had fallen, their commanding officer succumbed to the Japanese onslaught rather than see any more of his men slaughtered by the enemy.
Had he known what was going to happen next, their commander might have reconsidered. The survivors of the Battle of Bataan were destined to suffer one of the worst atrocities ever perpetrated against U.S. soldiers, the Bataan Death March. Thousands of men died on the Death March, thousands more in horrible Japanese prison camps. In combat and as Prisoners of War, more than half of these brave men died at the hands of the Japanese Army.
In this stirring documentary movie, Bataan survivors tell their story on-screen and describe the action and events over photographs, reenactments and actual footage of the battles, much of the film captured from the Japanese at the end of the war.
In the years since World War II the heroism and achievements of these soldiers have slipped into history and few Americans today are even aware of the existence of this unique segment of the United States Army.
They were the U.S. Army's Philippine Scouts. America's FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS.
