1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Pacific Defenders of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act . 2. Findings Congress finds that— (1) Guam was captured by Imperial Japanese forces on December 10, 1941, 3 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and remained in the hands of the Japanese until June 1944; (2) the prisoners who remained on Guam suffered atrocities at the hands of the Japanese, with some prisoners being transported on hell ships to Japanese prisoner of war camps; (3) on December 22, 1941, the Japanese took approximately 1,600 prisoners on Wake Island; (4) approximately 450 members of the Armed Forces and 1,150 civilians were captured on Wake Island and transported on hell ships to prisoner of war camps in China and Japan; (5) Major General Edward King led the combined Philippine-United States force of 75,000 troops in the defense of the Bataan peninsula, until April 9, 1942, at which point, due to diminishing resources and disease, Major General King surrendered soldiers from the United States and the Commonwealth of the Philippines into enemy hands; (6) over the next week, the soldiers from the United States and the Philippine Commonwealth were taken prisoner and forced to march 65 miles without food, water, or medical care in what came to be known as the Bataan Death March, where approximately 600 members of the Armed Forces and between 5,000 and 10,000 Filipino soldiers died from starvation disease, exposure, exhaustion, and abuse by their captors; (7) on May 6, 1942, the resistance reached its limitations after a weeklong siege and Lieutenant General Wainwright, as authorized by President Roosevelt, surrendered the remaining 11,000 troops on Corregidor Island