Home › Glossary › Letter B

Bataan

Battles
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A 1942 battle in the Philippines where U.S.-Filipino forces surrendered to Japan, leading to the Bataan Death March.

Detailed Definition
Bataan became a symbol of Allied suffering and Japanese brutality in the Pacific War. In poetry, it evokes themes of endurance, sacrifice, and the dignity of the defeated—frequently appearing in American and Filipino verse as a testament to resilience amid unimaginable hardship and imperial aggression.
Example
Example in poetry:
Bataan, site of the 1942 Death March, appears in Filipino-American poetry as endurance amid betrayal; A modern elegy might contrast Bataan’s jungles with Washington’s silence; In a dramatic lyric, a veteran recalls thirst and bayonets on the Bataan road; A sonnet could frame Bataan as a crucible of Pacific War sacrifice; Contemporary poets use Bataan to honor overlooked Asian-American soldiers; A free-verse poem might voice a nurse from the “Angels of Bataan.”
Additional Notes
Bataan (1942) culminated in the infamous Death March, a symbol of Japanese wartime brutality; in American and Filipino poetry, it represents endurance under atrocity and the complex legacy of colonial alliance, often invoked in elegies and resistance literature.
Also Known As
Bataan Death March Battle of Bataan
Skip to main content