Route of the death march. Section from San Fernando to Capas was by rail cars.[1][2]
The Bataan Death March (Japanese:Batan Shi no Koshin (?????????)) 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 128 km (80 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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The Japanese were unprepared for the number of prisoners that they were 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, the capital of Bataan. Many were beaten, bayonetted and mistreated. The first major atrocity occurred when between 350 and 400 Filipino officers and NCOs were summarily executed after they had surrendered.[5]
Dead soldiers on the Bataan Death March.
The Japanese failed 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.[6] 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. At times, prisoners were made to bury their comrades alive at the side of the roads. Any refusal to do so was met with execution and further punishment to others.[7] 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).[6]
Prisoners on the march from Bataan to the prison camp, May 1942. (National Archives).
In June 2001, U.S. Congressional Representative Dana Rohrabacher described the horrors and brutality that the prisoners experienced on the march:
"They were beaten, and they were starved as they marched. Those who fell were bayoneted. Some of those who fell were beheaded by Japanese officers who were practicing with their samurai swords from horseback. The Japanese culture at that time reflected the view that any warrior who surrendered had no honor; thus was not to be treated like a human being. Thus they were not committing crimes against human beings.[...] The Japanese soldiers at that time [...] felt they were dealing with subhumans and animals."[8]
Trucks were known to drive over some of those who fell or succumbed to fatigue,[9][10][11] and "cleanup crews" put to death those too weak to continue. Marchers were harassed with random bayonet stabs and beatings.[12]
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.[6] 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.[13]
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 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 300–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach Camp O'Donnell.[6]
[edit]Public responses
News of the Bataan Death March sparked outrage in the US, as reflected in this poster.
[edit]Japanese
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.[14]
[edit]United States
The Bataan Death March, and other Japanese actions, were used to arouse fury in the United States.[15] 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.[16]
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.[17]
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.[18]
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.[19]
At least five remaining survivors are living in the state of Washington (as of Feb 2012).[20]
Major Robert Wray of Iowa (Oct. 9, 1916 - April 27, 2012) was Commanding Officer of the 34th Pursuit Squadron, flying P40’s. He was General Wainwright’s Air Officer, Provost Marshall and photography officer for Clark and Nichols Field in the Philippines. Bob was one of the few survivors and remained a prisoner for over three and a half years. After spending a year and a half recovering from his near death experience, Major Wray retired honorably with a medical discharge. He received several awards and medals including the Silver Star and Purple Heart. [21]
Retired Master Sergeant Lewis A. Hazel, 94, of Savannah, Georgia, is also a survivor. He was a Corporal (CPL) and in the 27th Bomb Group, 16th Bomb Squadron. [22]
[edit]War crimes trial
U. S. Army personnel toiled to identify the charred remains of Americans captured at Bataan and burned alive on Palawan. Picture shows charred remains being interred in grave. March 20, 1945
In December 1943, (General) Masaharu 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.[26] 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 Tojo (later Prime Minister), Kenji Doihara, Seishiro Itagaki, Heitaro Kimura, Iwane Matsui and Akira Muto, and Baron Koki 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.[citation needed]
[edit]Memorials and commemorative events
Main article: Memorials to Bataan Death March victims
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. A wide variety of commemorative events are held to honor the victims, including holidays, athletic events such as ultramarathons, and memorial ceremonies held at military cemeteries.
