Final answer:
Six months after the Japanese attack on the Philippines in December 1941, Japan was in control of the islands. It took several years of hard-fought battles, including the Bataan Death March and the strategy of island hopping, before the U.S. regained control during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 and the liberation of Manila in 1945.
Step-by-step explanation:
Six months after Japanese forces attacked the Philippines in December 1941, Japan had gained control of the islands. Japanese forces achieved a series of early victories against Allied forces, including the capture of the Philippines, before the tide turned with the American victories at the Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. General Douglas MacArthur, who had been forced to evacuate to Australia during the Japanese onslaught, vowed to return to liberate the islands. Following the early victories of Japan, General MacArthur, and American forces began the painstaking process of retaking the islands after the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, which actually occurred later in October 1944. It took until 1945 before Manila was liberated and full control was reestablished by U.S. forces. Therefore, just six months after the initial invasion by Japan, the Philippines was still under Japanese control.
The Philippine archipelago saw some of the fiercest resistance and most brutal episodes of the war, such as the notorious Bataan Death March, where thousands of American and Filipino troops were forced to walk miles to a prisoner-of-war camp under extremely harsh conditions, resulting in the death of approximately 10,000 individuals. Over the course of the war, strategies such as island hopping were employed by the United States to gradually retake territory in the Pacific and eventually defeat Japan. It was a long and difficult process that spanned several years before the ultimate victory was achieved by the Allied forces.