What Price Surrender? The Court-Martial of Major General Edward P. King.

The ethical dilemma faced by Major General Edward P. King, senior officer on Bataan in April 1942, is the subject of this paper. General King surrendered his command to the Japanese in direct violation of his lawful orders. King did this because he believed that to just follow orders would have led to the pointless slaughter of his sick, starved and exhausted soldiers, and to heavy loss of life among the civilian population in the area under his control. King expected to be court-martialed for his action. He spent more than three years as prisoner of the Japanese. After the war he returned to the U.S. and retired in 1946. There was no court-martial. This paper relates the historical record of the battle on Bataan and Kings surrender. It then moves from fact to fiction in describing an imaginary court-martial of General King for disobeying his lawful orders.