The Death March

One of the most famous incidents for brutality of WWII started on this date, April 9, in 1942 in the Philippines: The Bataan Death March. The March, on the Bataan peninsula, was enforced by the Japanese army against the 75,000 US (about 12,000) and Filipino (about 63,000) prisoners of war. The US soldiers were surrendered by US General Edward King. 

Bataan Death March, red is by foot,
black is by rail

The death march followed a three month battle on the peninsula which the US and Filipino soldiers were able to hold off the Japanese even though ill supplied. For example, after Pearl Harbor, the US forces were placed on half rations. The Roosevelt Administration's Europe first policy greatly affected supplies and manpower for the Pacific theater of operations in the early stages of WWII. The men were near starvation at the start of the death march, and things only got worse from there. The Roosevelt Administration, by Christmas 1941, regarded the soldiers on Bataan as a lost cause. Secretary of War Simpson remarked just after Christmas, "There are times when men have to die." (Sides, p 43)

The march, which went from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando, was about 69 miles long, and ended at a rail head. By closed cargo cars, they were shipped further north by rail. They ended up walking the final several miles again by foot to Camp O'Donnell, later referred to as Camp Cabanatuan. Imprisonment occurred at a former Filipino army camp designed for 10,000, but would now hold about six times that number of war prisoners. It is thought that of the total group who marched, about 54,000 actually reached the camp, although actual numbers are not known. There are varied accounts of the number of men in the march, the number in the camp and the number that died. About 27,500, mostly Flipino soldiers, died during the march or in the encampment. A US soldiers ring was was prized by a Japanese solider. The ring could not be removed due to swelling in the fingers, so the Japanese soldier cut off the hand at the wrist with his machete. The camp was liberated on 30 Jan 1945, in a daring well-known raid, behind enemy lines.

Photo of Bataan Death March

The conditions and brutality that were part of the march is difficult to comprehend. The men were marched in hot, humid conditions and in pouring rain. They were provided no medical care. Once in camp, the care from the Japanese was basically non-existent with US medical staff providing the care they were capable of, but with no supplies. If they column of prisoners came across a stream, or really any water source, they were not permitted to take a drink. Some stragglers were bayoneted by the Japanese guards, others left to die, some were helped by already emaciated US soldiers who had three more months of little to eat. 

The camp conditions were ripe for disease, with little water, no sanitation, meaning malaria, dysentery weakened many of the men. Sleeping on the floor in bamboo huts without covers made for a bad situation, particularly for those that were ill. The main food was rice and a vegetable soup, although an occasional piece of water buffalo was provided in the soup. Deficient in many vitamins and protein, illness such as beri-beri, and pelagra became common. The Japanese refused offers of assistance from the Philippine Red Cross.

Bataan Death March

The evacuation after the raid was slow and arduous, with water buffalo pulled carts for the lame, and the slow pace of the men able to walk. The were also difficult battles with a Japanese enemy who would not go down without a fight regardless of how many men they lost doing the same thing over and over against US weapons, often wielded by Filipino soldiers.

Many of the US survivors were on a transport ship from the Philippines to San Francisco. A journey normally of 7000 miles, the transport, covered over 12000 miles, to avoid shipping lanes, and Japanese subs. The Japanese were gravely insulted by the raid, and vowed that their submarines would hunt down and sink the transport ship as it made its way starting in mid-February. 

Photo of some camp residents

The Filipino and US soldiers endured a hell on earth in that prisoner of war camp. It lead one man, whose unnamed diary was found outside the camp to write: "We are all ghosts now. But once we were men." (Sides, unnumbered page). The greatest indignity perhaps was the way they were considered collateral damage by the Roosevelt Administration, as the administration moved men and material to Europe, leaving the men to fight with dwindling supplies, see them surrender, and then go through the hellish conditions of the march and the POW camp. It was truly a death march. 

Sources: 2001 Sides, Hampton, Ghost Soldiers, Random House, NY NY

                History.com

                National World War II Museum website

                National Museum of the US Air Force website