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Pearl Harbor/ Clark Field attack
Frank Lovato is walking on Clark Field air force base when he looks up and sees planes. He thinks it is the US until he sees bombs fall from them, and destroy all of the US's airplanes on the Philippines "Hell, they're not our navy! They're Japs! someone shouted. For an instant, we stood frozen like rabbits in car headlights staring incredulously at the bombs plummeting towards the neatly parked B-17s on the runway". ( 5 ) -
Japanese Attack Lingayen Gulf
Frank Lovato and his squad ( G- Battery ) are hidden on the beach of the Lingayen Gulf and are waiting in case the Japanese attack. They only have four half-tracks, when they see the Japanese navy emerge into their vision. They have to fight with all they have, " From our vantage point at water level, we saw a wave of six enemy boats packed with soilders heading directly towards us". ( 27 ) -
Tank Hunters
After the attack on the Lingayen Gulf, Frank and his squad had fallen back deeper onto the island. His captain decided to use a strategy where they would attack and fall back. They did this for months because they did not have the ammunition to take on the Japanese army head on, "We were moving our position south ahead of the advancing Japanese forces. The captain called it "Strategic Withdrawal". ( 51 ) -
Surrendered
On April 9th 1942, Frank Lovato was ready to die for his country. They were south of the island on the Bataan Peninsula, with only their lives and guns. The soilders could hear the Japanese coming when they heard the order to surrender, " We're ordered to surrender! Open your breech and tie a rag to the end of your muzzle, yelled one of the men. " ( 92 ) During the march, Frank was a outcast because the Japanese would treat him like garbage. They would not treat the prisoners like human beings -
Bataan Death March/ Camp O'Donnell
After the surrender, the prisoners of war would walk the " Infamous" Bataan Death march to the Camp O'Donnell " The first month at Camp O'Donnell was disorganized and the Japanese were ill prepared to accommodate over nine thousand prisoners". ( 119 ) This was a major time Frank Lovato was an outcast, he was just another prisoner to the Japanese. He could of been killed off whenever the Japanese could but he kept his head up and did not care what the Japanese did to him. -
The Release of the Bataan Survivors
The prisoners would have to endure years of being prisoners of war being beaten, living off of little food, and finally being pushed to their limits and seeing their friends die.
