Overview
June 6, 2009 marked the 65th
anniversary of the massive invastion of the Normandy beaches by Allied
forces
that led to regaining control of France
and ultimately led to the defeat of Germany
and Italy
during the Second World War. This was
why recently there was a lot of international media spotlight on the Normandy coast of France, highlighted by a ceremony
attended by world leaders including President Barack Obama.
While
we are remembering the history of WWII, it is
important to point out another significant event that occurred shortly after
the single largest defeat in United States
military history, the 99-day Battle
for Bataan in the Philippines
that ended on April 9, 1942.
This resulted in the surrender of more than
76,000 American and Filipino troops under American command.
However, the end of the Battle of Bataan marked
the beginning of one of the cruelest episodes in the history of modern
warfare, the little known Bataan Death March.
It is important to know what happened in the
aftermath of this battle to the heroic soldiers who fought, and then died or
survived this battle and subsequent imprisonment, including many shipped to
Japan’s massive biological/chemical weapons factory in Northeast China.
Also, as we will discuss later in this article,
a significant remembrance of this event occurred recently during its 67th
year anniversary.
The
Bataan
Death March
The Japanese attack on the
Philippines
started shortly after
Japan
bombed Pearl Harbor
on December 7, 1941.
This three-month-plus battle that culminated in
the Battle
at Bataan helped delay Japan
taking control of a key location in the Pacific.
The American soldiers involved were the first
American soldiers engaged in fighting the ground war in WWII.
But unfortunately they were ill prepared by our
military for that battle.
They were armed with outdated and inadequate
equipment and were cut off from their food supplies.
So slowly the soldiers became weak and sick in
that insect-infested Bataan
peninsula, and finally starved.
They slowly gave up ground, and finally had no
choice but to surrender.
Little
did they know what was waiting for them.
The approximate 76,000 American
and Filipino soldiers who surrendered were already enduring exhaustion,
starvation, and sickness.
The nearest Japanese prison camp was at Camp
O’Donnell,
which was more than 60 miles away (could be longer depending on the starting
point).
Either not having enough transport vehicles or not
willing to use their scarce transport vehicles, the Japanese forced the
prisoners of war (POWs) to do the 60-plus mile march on foot to Camp
O’Donnell (with a short railroad car ride sandwiched in the march on foot).
Thus began the Bataan Death March.
Normally a 60-plus mile march by
soldiers is not extraordinary.
However, these POWs experienced unimaginable
inhumane treatment at the hands of the Japanese soldiers, thus this march
earning the name the ”Bataan Death March.”
The Bataan Death March was not a single march
of 76,000 POWs, but a series of marches by subgroups of the POWs.
The series of marches spanned several weeks,
with each march lasting almost a week.
Before the march began, the POWs
were already extremely weak with exhaustion and starvation, and many were
injured or sick.
During the march, the POWs were not given any
food, except for a rice ball or two during the whole march (not per day).
They were also not given any water, even though
there was plenty of fresh ground water nearby.
Any POW who tried to get water from these fresh
water sources were shot or bayonet to death on the spot.
The POWs had no choice but to gather whatever
water they found in the water puddles along the trail, even though these
water puddles were usually dirty and infected.
They were given little rest, and anyone who
stopped on his own or was not able to continue was killed on the spot,
including those who were sick or injured.
Furthermore, anyone who showed any sign of
belligerent behavior or just disrespect was also killed on the spot.
A common method of killing was beheading.
Of the 76,000 POWs who participated
in the Bataan Death March, about 25-30% never reached
Camp O’Donnell
(including the small percentage who were able to escape).
After
months of malnutrition and starvation, by the time the survivors reached
Camp
O’Donnell,
many were only a skeleton of their former selves, with weight loss of up to
50%. The
additional deaths after reaching
Camp O’Donnell
from delayed effects of the march or subsequent atrocities will never be
known, but definitely many.
Aftermaths of the
Bataan Death
March
Many of these POWs would remain
in Camp O’Donnell
or other prison camps for more than three years until
Japan
was defeated and surrendered in August 1945.
Many others were put on unmarked “hell ships”
which transported them to Unit 731 in Northeast China, Japan’s infamous
massive biological and chemical weapons factory in Manchuria, where they
would become human guinea pigs for Japan’s experimentation and development
of new biological and chemical weapons.
Many of these ships sank in their journey.
Those who perished in this way were perhaps the
lucky ones, because some of the POWs who made it to Unit 731 suffered
through vivisections or autopsy operations while still alive.
For more information about Unit 731, see the
article “Japan’s
Biological and Chemical Warfare in
China
during WWII” (http://www.dontow.com/Pol_Soc_Commentary.html).
These American POWs suffered
twice:
First as prisoners, and then as civilians after
returning home.
They weren’t welcomed home as heroes who helped
won the war.
They received poor treatment from the Veterans
Administration, without adequate counseling or medical care.
Furthermore, many of the ones who ended up and
survived Unit 731 had to sign nondisclosure agreements barring them from
speaking about their experiences, because the U.S.
government granted immunity to many key Japanese scientists and doctors of
Unit 731 in exchange for their state-of-the-art data and expertise on
biological and chemical weapons.
Our government did not want this immunity
agreement to become public knowledge, and it remained a well-kept secret for
35 years until an investigative journalist published in 1980 classified
documents about this decision-making process.
The evil Japanese scientists and
doctors who performed those horrible inhumane acts established successful
careers and lived affluent lives after the war.
Our American POW heroes live their remaining
years with horrible memories, with little gratitude from their government
for their sufferings, and with many enduring serious injuries that lasted
their lifetime.
For an excellent article on the Bataan Death
March and its aftermath, see Lee Brandenburg’s 5/24/09 article in
www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_12440271.
Referring to the survivors of the Bataan Death
March,
Brandenburg
ended his article with the statement “They may have come home, but in a
sense they never completely escaped the trauma.”
For the last 64 years, there has
been an annual convention of the American Defenders of Bataan and
Corregidor.
(Corregidor
was another key battle in the Philippines that occurred shortly after the
fall of Bataan; it too eventually fell to the Japanese on May 6, 1942.)
This
year’s convention was held in San Antonio 5/26-30/09.
Because there are only 73 survivors from the
battles at Bataan and
Corregidor and they are very
advanced in age, this would be the last convention and the group will
disband after 6/30/09.
It will be replaced by a new group of its
descendants “Descendants Group, an Auxilliary of the American
Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor.”
At the last day of the
convention on 5/30/09, Japan’s
ambassador to the U.S.,
Ichiro Fujisaki, at the last minute decided to come to the convention and
delivered Japan’s
first in-person apology on this atrocity.
He said “Today, I would like to convey to you
the position of the government of Japan
on this issue.
…
We extend a heartfelt apology for our country having
caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners
of war, those who have undergone tragic experiences in the
Bataan
Peninsula,
in Corregidor
Island
in the Philippines
and other places.
Ladies and gentlemen, taking this opportunity,
I would like to express my deepest condolences to all those who have lost
their lives in the war, and after the war, and their family members.”
About half, but only half, of the 400-500
attendees gave the Japanese ambassador a standing ovation.
Even though this apology is
many decades late, it was a step in the right direction.
We hope that the Japanese government would
officially apologize for other atrocities the Japanese military committed
during WWII.