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The Bataan Death March (also known as The Death March of Bataan) took place in the Philippinesmarker in 1942 and was later accounted as a Japanese war crime. The 60-mile (97 km) march occurred after the three-month Battle of Bataan, part of the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42), during World War II. In Japanese, it is known as , with the same meaning.

The march, involving the forcible transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in the Philippines from the Bataan peninsula to prison camps, was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon the prisoners and civilians along the route by the armed forces of the Empire of Japanmarker. Beheadings, cut throats and casual shootings were the more common actions — compared to bayonet stabbings, rapes, disembowelments, numerous rifle butt beatings and a deliberate refusal to allow the prisoners food or water while keeping them continually marching for nearly a week in tropical heat. Falling down or inability to continue moving was tantamount to a death sentence, as was any degree of protest or expression of displeasure.

Route of the death march.
Section from San Fernando to Capas was by rail.
Prisoners were attacked for assisting someone failing due to weakness, or for no apparent reason whatsoever. Strings of Japanese trucks were known to drive over anyone who fell. Riders in vehicles would casually stick out a rifle bayonet and cut a string of throats in the lines of men marching alongside the road. Accounts of being forcibly marched for five to six days with no food and a single sip of water are in postwar archives including filmed reports.

The exact death count has been impossible to determine, but some historians have placed the minimum death toll between six and eleven thousand men; whereas other postwar Allied reports have tabulated that only 54,000 of the 72,000 prisoners reached their destination— taken together, the figures document a casual killing rate of one in four up to two in seven (25% to 28.6%) of those brutalized by the forcible march. The number of deaths that took place in the internment camps from delayed effects of the march is uncertain, but believed to be high. One of the last remaining US commanders who survived the Bataan Death March, Dr. Lester Tenney, was interviewed at Hitotsubashi Universitymarker in June 2008.

On May 30, 2009, at the sixty-fourth and final reunion of Bataan Death March survivors in San Antonio, Texas, Japanese ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki apologized to the assembled survivors for the Japanese treatment of Allied prisoners of war, on behalf of the Japanese government.

The fall of Bataan

On April 9, 1942, as the final stage of the Battle of Bataan, approximately 76,000 Filipino and Americanmarker troops, commanded by Major General Edward "Ned" P. King, Jr., formally surrendered to a Japanese army of 54,000 men under Lt. General Masaharu Homma. This was the single largest surrender of a military force in American history.

Logistics planning to move the prisoners of war from Marivelesmarker to Camp O'Donnellmarker, a prison camp in the province of Tarlacmarker, was handed down to transportation officer Major General Yoshitake Kawane ten days prior to the final Japanese assault. The Japanese, having expected the fighting to continue, anticipated about 25,000 prisoners of war and were inadequately prepared or unwilling to transport humanely a group of prisoners whose number reached almost three times that amount. Historians have noted that the Japanese commander most directly involved in the decision to march and mistreat the prisoners was Masanobu Tsuji.

The Death March

Dead soldiers on the Bataan Death March
Prisoners on the march from Bataan to the prison camp, May 1942.
(National Archives)
News of this atrocity sparked outrage in the US, as shown by this poster.
The newspaper clipping shown refers to the Bataan Death March.
At dawn, 9 April 1942, and against the orders of Generals Douglas MacArthur and Jonathan Wainwright , Major General Edward P. King, Jr., commanding Luzon Force, Bataan, Philippine Islands, surrendered more than 75,000 (67,000 Filipinos, 1,000 Chinese Filipinos, and 11,796 Americans) starving and disease-ridden men. He inquired of Colonel Motoo Nakayama, the Japanese colonel to whom he tendered his pistol in lieu of his lost sword, whether the Americans and Filipinos would be well treated. The Japanese aide-de-camp replied: “We are not barbarians.” The majority of the prisoners of war were immediately robbed of their keepsakes and belongings and subsequently forced to endure a march in deep dust, over vehicle-broken macadam roads, and crammed into rail cars to captivity at Camp O’Donnell. Thousands died en route from disease, starvation, dehydration, heat prostration, untreated wounds, and wanton execution.

Those few who were lucky enough to travel to San Fernando on trucks still had to endure more than twenty-five miles of marching. Prisoners were beaten randomly, and were often denied promised food and water. Those who fell behind were usually executed or left to die. Witnesses say those who broke rank for a drink of water were executed, some even decapitated; the sides of the roads became littered with dead bodies and those begging for help.

On the Bataan Death March, approximately 54,000 of the 75,000 prisoners reached their destination. The death toll of the march is difficult to assess as thousands of captives were able to escape from their guards. All told, approximately 5,000-10,000 Filipino and 600-650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach Camp O'Donnell.

War crimes trial

After the surrender of Japan in 1945, an Allied commission convicted General Homma of war crimes, including the atrocities of the death march out of Bataan, and the following atrocities at Camp O'Donnell and Cabanatuan. The general, who had been absorbed in his efforts to capture Corregidor after the fall of Bataan, claimed in his defense that he remained ignorant of the high death toll of the death march until two months after the event. He was executed on April 3, 1946 outside Manilamarker. For unknown reasons, the Allies did not attempt to prosecute Masanobu Tsuji for war crimes.

Commemorations

The Philippines

Every year on April 9, the captured soldiers are honoured on Araw ng Kagitingan ("Day of Valour"), also known as the "Bataan Day", which is a national holiday in the Philippines. During the 1980-1990's, the Boy Scouts of America [Philippine troop] would reenact this march every 2 years along a portion of the initial route in Bataan taken by the soldiers. The march was about 10 kilometers in length.

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

The Sacrifices of the Fall of Bataan and Corregidor are commemorated at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, Honolulu, Hawaii every year. On April 9, 2009, Philippines Secretary of National Defense, Hon. Gilberto C. Teodoro gave the "Araw ng Kagitingan Address" (Day of Valor Address) and led in a wreath laying ceremony, attended by US Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, Filipino World War II veterans, Hawaii government officials, members of the Consular Corps, the U.S. Pacific Command and the Filipino-American community in Honolulu. The Philippine Consul General in Honolulu, Hon. Ariel Y. Abadilla, organized the ceremony.

New Mexico, USA

The Bataan Death March is commemorated every year at the White Sands Missile Rangemarker, north of Las Cruces, New Mexicomarker, with a trail marathon known as the Bataan Memorial Death March. The full marathon and run covers paved road and sandy trails, and is regarded by Marathon Guide as one of the top 30 marathons in the United States.

Around 4,000 marchers participate in both the marathon and the run (only the marathon is timed), with members of military units of the United States and foreign armed forces participating. Many civilians also participate, usually running in the full marathon, which is timed with awards (but not certified by USA Track and Field). Several of the few remaining Bataan prisoners usually await the competitors to congratulate them on completing the grueling march.

There are two categories, for both civilian and military divisions, known as "light" and "heavy." In the light category, runners may wear standard distance-running apparel. Marchers in the heavy division must carry a minimum of 35 pounds in rucksacks or backpacks; military entrants in the heavy category must also do so wearing Battle Dress Uniform (BDUs) or their service equivalent uniform.

Minnesota, USA

Company A, 194th Armored Regiment, was deployed to the Philippines in autumn, 1941. To commemorate the military and civilian prisoners who were forced to march from Bataan to Camp O’Donnell, an annual Bataan Memorial March is organized by the 194th Armor Regiment of the Minnesota Army National Guard and held at Brainerdmarker, MNmarker. The march is open to anyone with both ten and twenty mile distances. The march has different categories, consisting of teams, individuals, light pack, or a heavy pack. A closing ceremony is held to award the finishers and pay tribute to the survivors and their many comrades who perished on the death march.

Maywood, Illinois, USA

Plaque in Maywood, Illinois
For 65 years, this small western suburb of Chicago has marked the second Sunday in September as "Maywood Bataan Day." This is the anniversary of the first Maywood Bataan Day, held on the second weekend of September, 1942. The residents were then calling attention to the nearly 100 Maywood National Guard troops who were taken prisoner when American forces surrendered at Bataan on April 9, 1942. These men endured the death march, prison camps, prison ships and eventual slave labour in Japan itself. The men were part of Company B, 192nd Tank Battalion. The original Maywood Bataan Day drew more than 100,000 spectators, dozens of marching bands, and celebrities including the Mayor Ed Kelley of Chicagomarker and movie and radio stars. Today's celebration is much smaller, but still draws several hundred. The memorial is supported by the village of Maywood, Illinoismarker and a non-profit group, the Maywood Bataan Day Organization.

American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor veterans association

Veterans of the death march held regularly scheduled conventions after World War II. The last convention, attended by 73 survivors from the march, was held on May 29, 2009, in San Antonio, Texas. At the convention, Japanese ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki apologized to the assembled attendees for "having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners of war, those who have undergone tragic experiences."

Memorials

The Philippines

  • In Capas, Tarlacmarker there is the Capas National Shrine built in the grounds surrounding Camp O'Donnell.
  • There is also a shrine in Bataanmarker on Mount Samat named Dambana ng Kagitinganmarker ("Shrine of Valour") commemorating the battle and the march. The shrine has a colonnade that houses an altar, esplanade, and a museum. There is also a Memorial Cross built towering 92 meters in height.


Battling Bastards of Bataan Memorial at Camp O'Donnell


  • The Battling Bastards of Bataan Memorial commemorating all the Americans that died on the death march and at Camp O'Donnell during the war. Located at Camp O'Donnell - Capas, Tarlac, Philippines.


United States

  • The Bataan Bridge in Carlsbadmarker, New Mexicomarker commemorates the victims of the march.
  • The Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge in Chicago, Illinoismarker, where State Street crosses the Chicago Rivermarker, commemorates the defenders of Bataan and Corregidor as well as those on the march.
  • The Bataan Memorial Highway in Indianamarker, SR 38 from Richmond, Indianamarker to Lafayette, Indianamarker.
  • Highway-70, through Southern New Mexico was renamed the Bataan Memorial Highway.
  • Statue of American and Filipino Bataan survivors resides at Veterans Memorial Park, in Las Cruces, New Mexicomarker
  • The "A Tribute To Courage" Memorial in Kissimmee, Floridamarker, at the corner of Lakeshore Boulevard and Monument Avenue. It depicts a scene from the Bataan Death March: two soldiers, one American and the other Filipino, are propping each other up while a Filipino woman is offering water to them. It symbolises the unique friendship between the United States and the Philippines - the two countries fought together during World War II, and the heroism and comradeship between the Americans and Filipinos. It was sculpted by Sandra Storm and is made of bronze. A brick walkway encircles the monument and there are commemorative plaques depicting the history of the Bataan Death March and the Memorial. American and Filipino flags fly side by side. It is the only statue in the United States dedicated to the heroes and survivors of the fall of Bataan and Corregidor and the Bataan Death March [39946].
  • Bataan Elementary School in Port Clintonmarker, Ohiomarker commemorates the 32 men from the Port Clinton area who were victims of the march. [39947]
  • Bataan Memorial Trainway in El Pasomarker, Texasmarker honours the prisoners-of-war who died in the enemy camp [39948]
  • Bataan Death March Memorial Park in Spokane, Washingtonmarker
  • Bataan Memorial Building-Santa Fe, New Mexico; The building is named in memorial for the many New Mexico veterans serving in the 200th Coast Artillery (Regiment) during World War II. The building served as the State Capitol Building from 1900 to 1966.
  • Bataan Memorial Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico memorialises the veterans of the 200th Coast Artillery and 515th CA regiments. The park was dedicated in 1943, a monument was added in 1960, and major additions were completed in 2002. Rows of granite slabs are etched with the history of the units and the names of those who served. Each year survivors meet to remember their ordeal.
  • Bataan Street in NW Washington, DC (between Massachusetts and Rhode Island Aves.)


See also



References

Notes

  1. Bataan Death March - Britannica Encyclopedia Online
  2. Lester Telly, Bataan March survivor tells of his experiences during the Bataan Death March.
  3. Official Bataan Memorial Death March Page
  4. Bataan Memorial Death March Rules
  5. Maywood Bataan Day Organization web page
  6. Associated Press (Chicago Sun-Times), " Japan says sorry for Bataan Death March 67 years later", May 31, 2009.


Books

Stewart, Sidney, "Give Us This Day", W. W. Norton & Company, revised edition - ISBN 0393319210

Norman, Michael, Norman, Elizabeth, "Tears In The Darkness", Farrar, Straus and Giroux - ISBN 9780374272609

Web




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