The Philippines campaign was the largest and costliest waged by the US armed forces in the Pacific during World War II. Central to the campaign is the role played by General Douglas MacArthur, one of the most controversial military leaders in US history. In 1941, Roosevelt needed a commander in the Philippines who could unify the American and Filipino forces and provide the needed energy and strategic acumen to defend the islands against a Japanese invasion. On the same day he signed the embargo against Japan in July 1941, Roosevelt reinstated MacArthur as a general in the US Army and gave him command of a new organization, the US Army Forces in the Far East, which would control all US and Philippine army forces in the region. MacArthur formed a staff, the “Bataan Gang,” that would support him over the long war to come. In the fighting of 1941–1942, MacArthur badly bungled the defense of the Philippines, resulting in the largest mass surrender of forces in US history. MacArthur was able to escape to fight another day in Australia, but, for the troops left behind, three years of desultory and brutal life in Japanese prison camps awaited.