Named to honour the scene of resistance by American and Filipino defenders, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, against an overwhelming Japanese invading force on the island of Luzon in the Philippine Islands from 1 January to 9 April 1942.
HMAS Bataan (D-9/D-191) was a Battle class destroyer laid down by Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Limited at Sydney in New South Wales on 18 February 1942, launched on 15 January 1944 by Mrs. Douglas MacArthur, wife of General Douglas MacArthur, US Army and commissioned at Sydney on 25 May 1945. Bataan was present in Tokyo for the official Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945, and operated in support of United Nations Forces during the Korean War. HMAS Bataan paid off at Sydney on 18 October 1954 and was laid up in reserve awaiting conversion to an anti-submarine escort but this was cancelled in 1957, was placed on the disposal list and sold for scrap to Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Limited of Tokyo on 2 May 1958. Note: The ship was originally to have been named Kurnai, after an Australian aboriginal tribe but was renamed Bataan in honour of General Douglas MacArthur as a gesture to the United States for naming one of their ships USS Canberra.
