Bataan is a province of the Philippines occupying the whole of Bataan Peninsula on Luzon. The province is part of the Central Luzonregion. The capital of Bataan is Balanga City and is bordered by the provinces of Zambales and Pampanga to the north. The peninsula faces South China Sea to the west and encloses its arm, Manila Bay, to the east.
Bataan is famous in history as one of the last stands of American and Filipino soldiers before they were overwhelmed by the Japanese forces in World War II. The Bataan Death March was named for this province, where the infamous march started.
In 1647, Dutch naval forces landed in country in an attempt to seize the islands from Spain. The forces massacred the people of Abucay in Bataan. In the late 1700s, Limahong, a Chinese pirate used Bataan as the launching point for his conquest of Luzon, which was unsuccessful.
Shortly after the Japanese Army invaded the country in December 1941, the combined forces of Filipino and American forces were overrun and General Douglas MacArthur, was forced to retreat leaving behind tens of thousands of soldiers to make a last stand in Bataan. On January 7, 1942, the Japanese started the siege on the peninsula. On April 3 the Japanese forces began an all-out assault on the American and Filipino troops left on the peninsula. Bataan fell several days later on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began (see Fall of Bataan). About 70,000 captured American and Filipino soldiers were forced to march more than a hundred kilometers from Bataan to Tarlac.