World War II reached the Philippines on December 7, 1941, with a surprise air attack, followed three days later by a full-scale invasion of Luzon. By early January, American and Filipino defenders had retreated to a narrow position on the Bataan Peninsula, where they fought until surrendering to the Japanese on April 9, 1942. The Japanese then forced about 76,000 prisoners, including 20,000 Americans and the rest Filipinos, to march north into captivity along what became known as the Bataan Death March. After three American officers escaped a year later, the world learned of atrocities committed during the 60-mile ordeal, including killings, disease, exposure, and the denial of food and water; approximately 5,200 Americans died along the route. Prisoners were bayoneted, shot, beheaded, or left to die, and some were made to sit for hours in the hot sun without water. The march lasted five days for some and as many as twelve for others. Although the Japanese were unprepared for the number of prisoners, the brutality was rooted in a belief that a soldier should die rather than surrender and that surrender forfeited all rights to humane treatment. Of the 20,000 American troops who surrendered, only 1,700 survived. Four survivors of the Bataan Death March were from Wood County, Wisconsin: Elmer Blonien of Rudolph, Clinton Guelzow of Wisconsin Rapids, Floyd Dotter of Pittsville, and Peter Karaliunas of Blenker. Blonien later died in the prison camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines after contracting malaria and suffering an infected spleen. Guelzow, Dotter, and Karaliunas spent the remaining 3 1/2 years of the war in Japanese prisons, where they were forced to work in copper and coal mines before liberation after the atomic bombs were dropped and they eventually returned home.