The Bataan Death March (Batān Shi no Kōshin (バターン死の行進)) was the forcible transfer, by the Imperial Japanese Army, of 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of prisoners.[3]
The 97 km (60 mi) march was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon prisoners and civilians alike by the Japanese Army, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime.[4]
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On April 3, 1942, after three months of siege, the Japanese Fourteenth Army, led by Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma staged an attack on U.S.-Filipino forces in the Bataan Peninsula. The siege had weakened the U.S.-Filipino forces, who were suffering extensively from malnutrition and disease. The attack smashed their defensive lines, leading to a surrender by U.S. Major General Edward P. King. The Japanese planned the march in order to move 78,000 prisoners from the southern Bataan Peninsula, removing them from the theater of operations, in preparation for their siege of Corregidor.[5][6][7]
There were several motivations for ordering the march. The POWs would have placed a large burden on the Japanese logistics system as they attempted a military buildup along the coast in preparation for the assault on Corregidor. Homma was also planning an amphibious assault, but wanted the U.S. troops at Corregidor to believe that he planned to use blockade and bombardment, and did not want American troops nearby as his Army practiced amphibious landing tactics. Also, the prisoners and their guards would be subject to U.S. artillery bombardment if they remained near the theater of operations.[5]
The original plan for prisoner transport had been designed in advance of the operation. The Japanese Army at Bataan was not a highly motorized force, and did not have vehicles to spare that could be used to transport the prisoners, so marching them was the only means of relocating them. They were to be marched 25 miles to the central collection point of Balanga, after which they would be marched an additional 31 miles to the town of San Fernando. From there, they were to be transferred by rail to Capas, where they would then be marched 9 miles to the abandoned military outpost Camp O'Donnell.[5]
A march of 25 miles a day was considered standard for the Japanese army, whereas 20 miles was achievable by U.S. troops only under the best of conditions (and in this case, the U.S. troops were exhausted after five days of battle, malnourished, and suffering from a host of tropical diseases). The plan anticipated only 25,000 prisoners, and had presumed that the Americans would hold out for a month longer than they did (by which time supply lines would be in place to support the prisoners). The Japanese, unaware that the U.S. troops had been on reduced rations, and also that they were suffering so badly from disease, had planned to have the prisoners marched to Balanga in a day, and did not have plans to distribute food to the prisoners until they arrived at this collection point (after which they had three resupply points set up).[5][8]
The Japanese were clearly unprepared for the number of prisoners that they were suddenly responsible for, and there was no organized plan for how to handle them. Prisoners were stripped of their weapons and valuables, and told to march to Balanga. Many were beaten and mistreated. The first major atrocity occurred when between 350 and 400 Filipino officers and NCOs were summarily executed after they had surrendered.[5]
Because of the lack of preparation to supply the prisoners with food or water until they had reached Balanga, many of the prisoners died along the way of heat or exhaustion.[9] Prisoners were given no food for the first three days, and were only allowed to drink water from filthy water buffalo wallows on the side of the road.[10] Furthermore, Japanese troops would frequently beat and bayonet prisoners who began to fall behind, or were unable to walk. Once they arrived in Balanga, the overcrowded conditions and poor hygiene caused dysentery and other diseases to rapidly spread amongst the prisoners. The Japanese failed to provide them with medical care, leaving U.S. medical personnel to tend to the sick and wounded (with few or no supplies).[9]
In June 2001 U.S. Congressional Representative Dana Rohrabacher described the horrors and brutality that the prisoners experienced on the march:
Trucks were known to drive over some of those who fell or succumbed to fatigue,[12][13][14] and "cleanup crews" put to death those too weak to continue. Marchers were harassed with random bayonet stabs and beatings.[15]
From San Fernando, the prisoners were transported by rail to Capas. 100 or more prisoners were stuffed into each of the trains' boxcars, which were unventilated and sweltering in the tropical heat. The trains had no sanitation facilities, and disease continued to take a heavy toll of the prisoners. After they reached Capas, they were forced to walk the final 9 miles to Camp O'Donnell.[9] Even after arriving at Camp O'Donnell, the survivors of the march continued to die at a rate of 30–50 per day, leading to thousands more dead. Most of the dead were buried in mass graves that the Japanese dug out with bulldozers on the outside of the barbed wire surrounding the compound.[16]
The death toll of the march is difficult to assess as thousands of captives were able to escape from their guards (although many were killed during their escapes), and it is not known how many died in the fighting that was taking place concurrently. All told, approximately 5,000–10,000 Filipino and 600–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach Camp O'Donnell.[9]
In an attempt to counter the American propaganda value of the march, the Japanese had The Manila Times claim that the prisoners were treated humanely and their death rate had to be attributed to the intransigence of the American commanders who did not surrender until their men were on the verge of death.[17]
The Bataan Death March, and other Japanese actions, were used to arouse fury in the United States.[18] It was not until January 27, 1944 that the U.S. government informed the American public about the march, when it released sworn statements of military officers who had escaped from the march.[19]
General Marshall made the following statement about the march:
These brutal reprisals upon helpless victims evidence the shallow advance from savagery which the Japanese people have made. [...] We serve notice upon the Japanese military and political leaders as well as the Japanese people that the future of the Japanese race itself, depends entirely and irrevocably upon their capacity to progress beyond their aboriginal barbaric instincts.[20]
Retired Army Capt. Tom Harrison, 93 of Utah, is the last known survivor left from his unit. He was recently awarded numerous medals for his heroic actions during World War II.[21]
Philip Coon, 92, of Oklahoma is also a survivor. He was a private first class with the 31st Infantry. He is a full-blood member of the Muskogee Nation.[22]
In December 1943, Homma was selected as the minister of information for the incoming prime minister, Kuniaki Koiso. In September 1945, he was arrested by Allied troops, and indicted for war crimes.[23] Homma was charged with 43 different counts of crimes against humanity.[24] The court found that Homma had permitted his troops to commit "brutal atrocities and other high crimes".[25] 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. On February 26, 1946 he was sentenced to death by firing squad. He was executed on April 3, 1946 outside Manila.[23] Also in Japan, Generals Hideki Tōjō (later Prime Minister), Kenji Doihara, Seishirō Itagaki, Heitarō Kimura, Iwane Matsui and Akira Mutō, and Baron Kōki Hirota were found guilty and responsible for the brutal maltreatment of American and Filipino POW's, and were executed by hanging at Sugamo Prison in Ikebukuro on December 23, 1948. Several others were sentenced to imprisonment of between 7 and 22 years.
In many places throughout the United States, and in the Philippines, there exist dozens of memorials (such as monuments, plaques and schools) dedicated to the U.S. and Filipino prisoners who died during the Bataan Death March. There is also a wide variety of commemorative events held to honor the victims, include holidays, athletic events such as marathons, and memorial ceremonies held at military cemeteries.