Bataan Death March

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The Bataan Death March (aka The Death March of Bataan) was a war crime involving the forcible transfer of prisoners of war, with wide-ranging abuse and high fatalities, by Japanese forces in the Philippines, in 1942, after the three-month Battle of Bataan, which was part of the Battle of the Philippines (1941-42), during World War II. In Japanese, it is known as Batān Shi no Kōshin meaning the same. 10,000 of the 75,000 POWs died.

1 The march
2 Camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan
3 War crimes trial
4 Commemorations
- 4.1 The Philippines
- 4.2 New Mexico
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] The march

Prisoners on the march from Bataan to the prison camp, May 1942. (National Archives)

Approximately 75,000 Filipino and US soldiers, commanded by Major General Jonathan Wainwright formally surrendered to the Japanese, under General Masaharu Homma, on April 9, 1942, which required Japan to accept emaciated captives who outnumbered them. The next day, the prisoners were forced to begin a week-long journey about 160 kilometers to the north, to Camp O'Donnell, a prison camp in Tarlac province. They marched most of that distance, although for a small distance they were transported packed into railroad cars.

Prisoners of war were beaten randomly, and then were denied food and water for several days. The Japanese tortured many to death. Those who fell behind were executed through various means: shot, beheaded or bayonetted. The commonly-used Japanese "sun treatment" forced a captive to sit silently in the humid April sun without water or even the shade of his helmet.

Meanwhile, Allied forces elsewhere in the Philippines fought on, and the column of prisoners marching from Bataan was accidentally shelled by US guns defending Corregidor to screen the Japanese artillery movements. Packed into boxcars to travel from San Fernando to Capas, the number of prisoners was further diminished by malaria, heat, dehydration and dysentery.

[edit] Camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan

Prisoners on a burial detail at Camp O'Donnell.

About 10,000 perished while others were able to escape; approximately 54,000 reached Camp O'Donnell. The problems persisted there. On June 6, 1942 the Filipino soldiers were granted amnesty and released, while the American prisoners were moved to another camp at Cabanatuan. Many of the survivors were later sent to prison camps in Japan, Korea, and Manchuria in prisoner transports known as "Hell Ships." The 500 POWs who still resided at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp were freed in January 1945 in the The Great Raid.

[edit] War crimes trial

News of this atrocity sparked outrage in the US, as shown by this propaganda poster. The newspaper clipping shown refers to the Bataan Death March.

After the surrender of Japan in 1945, Homma was convicted by an Allied commission of war crimes, including the atrocities of the death march out of Bataan, and the atrocities at Camp O'Donnell and Cabanatuan that followed, and executed on April 3, 1946 outside Manila.

[edit] Commemorations

[edit] The Philippines

Every year, the captured soldiers are honored on Araw ng Kagitingan ("Day of Valor") (9 April), also known as the "Bataan Day", which is a Philippine national holiday. There is a shrine in Bataan commemorating this event. In Capas, Tarlac there is also the Capas National Shrine built in the grounds surrounding Camp O'Donnell.

[edit] New Mexico

The Bataan Death March is commemorated every year at White Sands Missile Range just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The march which covers 26.2 miles via paved road and sandy trails allows 4000 entrants from many military units both International and the United States armed services. Several of the few remaining Bataan prisoners await the competitors to congratulate them on their success of the grueling march, however the real thanks comes from the participants to those who actually endured the actual march and encampment at Cabanatuan.