Professor Greg Jackson

Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck.

I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.

Flying in five-man crews on 16 separate B-25s, 80 daring men, including Jimmy Doolittle himself, participated in the Doolittle raid.

Incredibly, only four were killed in action.

Eight were taken prisoner by the Japanese.

One B-25 landed in Russia, and after a year's detention, its crew makes it back to the States.

The rest of these flyboys get back home relatively quickly, thanks to the assistance of Chinese civilians.

but the Chinese suffer dearly.

Japanese reprisals escalate into something far more as a campaign of violence leaves tens of thousands of Chinese dead.

Meanwhile, Japan is psychologically shaken as it feels a new level of vulnerability.

And as for the United States, well, Uncle Sam is feeling a massive morale boost.

one that is desperately needed after the recent surrender of more than 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers on Bataan only the week prior.

And the tale of that surrender and its heart-wrenching aftermath, that sad tale is ours to hear today.

This is the story of the United States in the Pacific Theater from the aftermath of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 through the Japanese conquest of the Philippines in May 1942.

We'll start with the big picture.

Picking up where we left off at the end of episode 194, with President Franklin Roosevelt calling on Congress to declare war, we'll follow the cascade of war declarations, the post Pearl Harbor shifts in US military leadership.

Then, after noting Japan's decisive victories in one territory after the next, join General Douglas MacArthur on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

Once we're there, we'll follow the battle, or the retreat, as the case may be.

While the combined American and Filipino forces will give their all, including a cavalry charge unlike anything in recent memory, we'll find that the Japanese soon cornered the defenders of Luzon Island on a peninsula called Bataan, or as we usually call it in American English, Bataan.

And yet, these Americans and Filipinos will fight on tooth and nail.