From Bataan to Safety: The Rescue of 104 American Soldiers in the Philippines

For American troops stationed in the Philippines, December 8, 1941, began with shocking reports of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, followed by a Japanese air attack on Clark Field in southern Luzon. Deprived of reinforcements, American and Filipino troops surrendered Bataan to the Japanese by April 9, 1942. For the 400 American soldiers who escaped the Bataan Death March and hundreds of others who refused to surrender, escaping the Bataan Peninsula to Luzon was a life-or-death journey. Among the local families who risked their lives to provide food and shelter to fleeing American soldiers were twin brothers and transplanted American sugar cane farmers Bill and Martin Fassoth.With Bill’s Filipina wife Catalina, they ministered to over 100 Americans between April 17, 1942, and April 4, 1943. Because they wouldn’t make their camps targets by turning them over to the American military, the Fassoths were denied any postwar compensation for their efforts. The stories of the Fassoths, the soldiers they risked everything to save and the fates of all involved following the Fassoths’ surrender to raiding Japanese forces are an important and fascinating chapter of World War II history.