units to the invading Japanese forces. Those who surrendered at Bataan, in April of 1942, were forced to march 85 miles to their camps. Denied food, water, and rest, they were beaten throughout the march, which lasted twelve days; those who could not go on were beheaded or bayoneted where they fell (Morin, 1963, pp. 34-41).
The first enlisted draftee in the Pacific theater to earn a Congressional Medal of Honor was Private Jose P. Martinez, of Ault, Colorado. Martinez was assigned to the Seventh Infantry Division which had invaded the island of Attu, in the Aleutians, to take the island back from the Japanese, who had occupied it in June of 1942. Martinez' unit had been trying for several days to drive the Japanese defenders from a defensive position in the mountains which was a key to the defense of the entire island. On May 26, 1943, another attack was launched against the position, but it bogged down. Ignoring very heavy machine gun and mortar fire, Martinez resumed the advance on his own, urging his comrades to follow him. Inspired, his unit
...