FREE ESSAY ON THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH

THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH

The Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March, which was started on December 7, 1941, happened shortly after the
bombing of Pearl Habor. The Bataan Death March was significant in many different ways.
The Bataan Death March started when nearly 70,000 Americans and Filipinos were captured
and made POW's (Prisoners Of War) by the Japanese. The prisoners were forced to march 55
miles, on the way there they were beaten with sticks, kicked, and badly abused. Every
time someone would fall down, he would be shot. Only 54,000 made it to camp.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Habor. The Amereican Pacific Navel Fleet
suffered heavy losses in lives and ships. On December 8, 1941, Japan launched an aerial
attack on the Philippines. Inexperianced troops failed to stop the Japanese at Northern
Luzon and Southern Mindanao Islands (the Japanese landing points). The Filipino-American
forces mission was to lay down a bunt. They were to stall the Japanese advancement by
forcing them to use their troops and resources in the capturing of the Philippines, for
as long as possible. This would buy the needed time to rebuild the American Pacific
Fleet. The Filipino-American Defense of Bataan was dirupted by many factors such as, a
shortage of food, ammunition, medicine, and attendant materials. Most of the ammunition
as old and corroded. Tanks, trucks, and other vehicles were in short suply, along with
gasoline needed to power them. Disease, malnutrition, fatigue, and lack of basic supplies
took their toll. On March 11, 1942 General MacArthur was ordered to Australia, General
Wainwright took his place in Corregidor, as commander of Philippine forces. General King
took Wainwrights place as commander of Filipino-American forces in Bataan. Later in
March, General King and his staff determined the Filipino-American forces in Bataan could
only fight 30 percent of their efficiency due to malnutrition, disease, lack of
ammunition and basic supplies, and fatigue. On April 9, 1942, General King surrendered
his forces on Bataan, after the Japanese broke through the last main line of resistance.

The Filipino-American soldiers were assembled in various parts in Bataan by the Japanese,
but mostly assembled in Mariveles, the southern most tip of the Peninsula. American
trucks were available to transport the prisoners but the Japanese decided to march the
Defenders of Bataan to their destinations. This march was to be known as the "Death
March." The "Death March" was actually a series of marches, which had lasted five to nine
days. The distance a captive had to march was determined by where on the trail the
captive had began the march. The basic trail of the Death March a 55-mile march from
Mariveles, Bataan, to San Fernando, Pangpanga. At San Fernando, the prisoners were placed
into train-cars, made for cargo, and railed to Capas, Tarlac, a distance of around 24
miles. Dozens died standing up in the railroad cars, as the cars were so cramped that
there was no room for the dead to fall. They were, then, marched another six miles to
their final destination, Camp O'Donnell. Several thousand men died on the Death March.
Many died, because they were not in any physical condition to undertake such a march.
Once on the march, they were not given any food or water. Japanese soldiers killed many
of them through various means. Also, POWs were repeatedly beaten and treated inhumanely,
as they marched. Approximately, 1,600 Americans died in the first forty days in Camp
O'Donnell. Almost 20,000 Filipinos died in their first four months of captivity in the
same camp. The healthier prisoners took turns burying their comrades into mass graves,
where soon enough, they would be buried, days or weeks later. Camp O'Donnell did not have
the sanitation sub-structure or water supply necessary to hold such a large amount of
men. Many died from diseases they had since Bataan. Many caught new diseases while at the
Camp. There was little medicine available to the prisoners. Their inadequate diets also
contributed to the high death rate. Diseases such as dysentery, from a lack of safe
drinking water, and Beri-Beri, from malnutrition were common to the POWs. The Japanese
soldiers continued to murder and miss-treat their captives. Due to the high death rate in
Camp O'Donnell, the Japanese transferred all Americans to Cabanatuan, north of Camp
O'Donnell, on June 6, 1942, leaving behind five hundred as caretakers and for funeral
details. They in-turn were sent to Cabanatuan on July 5, 1942. The Filipino prisoners
were paroled, beginning in July, 1942.
Cabanatuan was the camp in which the men from Corregidor were first united with the men
from Bataan. No Americans, (There were Philippine Scouts and some men from the Philippine
Army, captured in Corregidor, who were interned in Camp O'Donnell.). from Corregidor ever
made the Death March or were imprisoned in Camp O'Donnell. Not having suffered the
extreme depravations and conditions endured by the men from Bataan, the prisoners from
Corregidor were, overall, much healthier. Cabanatuan, for most prisoners, ended up being
a temporary camp. The Japanese had a policy (which was a direct violation of the Geneva
Convention) that prisoners were to be used as a source of labor. They sent most of the
prisoners, from Cabanatuan, to various other camps in the Philippines, China, Japan, and
Korea, where they were used as slave labor. Some worked in mines, others in farms, others
in factories, and others unloading ships in Port Areas, for the remainder of the war.
Each subsequent prison camp, after Cabanatuan, has a story of it's own. Left behind, in
Cabanatuan, were, approximately, 511 officers and the prisoners too sick to move (and
most of those too sick to move never recovered and died in Cabanatuan). Towards the end
of the war, most of the men who stayed behind were placed on ships and sent to other
camps, in Japan, Korea, and China. The Japanese did not mark these ships, to note that
there were prisoners on board. They were bombed and torpedoed by American planes and
submarines. Most of these men died, by drowning at sea. Most prisoners who left
Cabanatuan in 1942, were sent to the other countries mentioned, in ships appropriately
called, Hell Ships. These Hell Ships sailed from Manila to their various destinations in
Japan, Korea, or China. As mentioned earlier, the Japanese did not mark these ships as
being prison ships, so they were targets for American planes and submarines. Thousands of
Americans, who were passengers on these ships, met their deaths by drowning at sea. The
conditions on these ships are indescribable and far worse than the conditions endured in
Death March and Camp O'Donnell. For the remaining three years of their captivity, the
Defenders of Bataan were spread throughout the various slave labor camps in Japan, Korea,
China, and the Philippines, until each camp was individually liberated, in 1945. These
prisoners endured the whims of their brutal captors, with similar conditions and
miss-treatment as those experienced in the Death March, and Camp O'Donnell, and the
uncertainty of when, if ever, their captivity would end. Coming from the warm tropical
climate of the Philippines, the men sent to Japan, Korea, and China had to adjust to the
sub-freezing temperatures of Northern Asia, without the proper personal equipment and
indoor heating to survive such cold temperatures. In Manchuria, China, the POWs, who died
in the winter, were placed in an unheated shack for their bodies to freeze, because the
ground was so frozen and hard t After they were released, these men were sent to various
military hospitals for physical examinations. Many of their ailments, due to
malnutrition, went undiagnosed. Many of the systemic fevers they had contracted went
undiagnosed. More importantly, the psychological scars they suffered were never
recognized. It was not until years after the Vietnam War, the US government recognized
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD as a legitimate disorder. It is safe to say, each
of these men has carried these scars for the rest of their lives, and indirectly, so did
their families. 
Bibliography
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