Good Morning...Human cruelty exceeds human endurance

[Okla-homey]

April 10, 1942: The Bataan Death March begins

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/7105/aaaaaaaaaaabastardsbataan7rc.gif (http://imageshack.us)

On this day 64 years ago, one the most dramatic and horrible chapters of American military history begins. The day after the surrender of the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese, the 75,000 Filipino and American troops captured on the Bataan Peninsula begin a forced march to a prison camp near Cabanatuan.

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During this infamous trek, which became known for all time as the "Bataan Death March," already starved prisoners were forced to march 85 miles in six days amid tropical heat, with only one meal of rice during the entire journey.

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Filipino civilians along the route of march tried to sneak food and water to the marchers. Many were killed for their attempted kindness.

By the end of the march, which was punctuated with atrocities committed by the Japanese guards, hundreds of Americans and many more Filipinos had died.

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Men who couldn't go on were bayoneted, shot and in some cases ritually beheaded by Japanese officers

The day after Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began. Within a month, the Japanese had captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and the U.S. and Filipino defenders of Luzon were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula.

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Only brief rest stops were allowed. The Japanese guards were changed every three hours. The sick and hungry Filipino and American GI's were only afforded 5 minute breaks at approximately 2 hour intervals.

For the next three months, the combined U.S.-Filipino army, under the command of U.S. General Jonathan Wainwright, held out impressively despite a lack of naval and air support. Finally, on April 7, with his army crippled by starvation and disease, Wainwright began withdrawing as many troops as possible to the island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay.

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The prisoners had to carry their own wounded as long as they could. They knew if they didn't carry their comrades their death would come instantly

However, two days later, 75,000 Allied troops were trapped by the Japanese and forced to surrender. The next day, the Bataan Death March began. Of those who survived to reach the Japanese prison camp near Cabanatuan, few lived to celebrate U.S. General Douglas MacArthur's liberation of Luzon in 1945.

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The prisoners were repeatedly searched for absolutely anything of value and were denied anything that could be a source of comfort including family photos, letters and even bibles.

In the Philippines, homage is paid to the victims of the Bataan Death March every April on Bataan Day, a national holiday that sees large groups of Filipinos solemnly rewalking parts of the death route.

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Word of the Japanese cruelty and atrocities at Bataan spread quickly and fueled American resolve to destroy the Japanese Empire.

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Letter received by a "Death March" and POW survivor after his liberation at war's end.

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[AlbqSooner]

I knew an attorney in Oklahoma who survived the Bataan Death March. Although he was a kind man with little animosity toward anyone, he would, even in the early '80s, cross the street to insult and in some instances spit upon anyone of Japanese heritage.

[StoopTroup]

I met a Priest from Wichita who told us about his comforting of one of the last survivors of the Bataan March.

He told us how that every night since the Hero came home his Wife had endured this fellows nightmares while he would awake not remembering anything but that he had gone to bed and woke up the next morning. His Wife had endured 50+ years of his nightly disturbances. Talk about Love and Commitment (WOW!).

Anyway the Priest asked him as he was nearing his finally moments on Earth if he had forgiven his capturers for what they had done to him. He told the Priest that he had long forgiven them as if he hadn't he would have been the one living the rest of his life living in the daily hell of the memories of the captivity and march.

The Priest went on to tell us that he had gone to this man to help him in his final moments only to learn what real forgiveness was. A moment he will never forget for the rest of his life.

Anyway...very cool story I heard.

[TexasLidig8r]

That's a poster that perhaps *should* have been made today. Trouble is, we're not fighting another country, we're fighting a covert organization. In WWII, it was easy to see the enemy forces and target them. You had military, and you had civilians. With Al Qaeda you just don't know all the time.

Also, in most cases, the terrorists don't capture and mistreat people, especially Americans. [they just commit mass murder by hijacking airplanes and flying them into buildings and would use weapons of mass destruction in a heartbeat.] They kill our guys occasionally. When they capture someone, it's a civilian, and usually they treat them fairly well (there are exceptions)[except of course, the beheadings which were performed in the most appalling, most painful way possible and the fact that they believe that killing "infidels" is not murder but is merely a pathway to heaven]. I'm pretty sure that they won't commit a "death march" type of atrocity because then the whole world really will turn against them, and (shock horror) might sack up and just wipe them all out.

Fixed..

Did you really mean that last paragraph? Or, was it merely an example of poor use of sarcasm?

[Taxman71]

How did Lid (Miss Cleo?) foresee Handcrafted's post of over 2 hours later in time?

Anyway, considering the Bataan Death March came AFTER the absolutely-no-warning-or-reasoning attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan should be lucky to this day they still have a country. If we weren't 100% positive it would have turned communist, they might not have.

[Harry Beanbag]

I knew an attorney in Oklahoma who survived the Bataan Death March. Although he was a kind man with little animosity toward anyone, he would, even in the early '80s, cross the street to insult and in some instances spit upon anyone of Japanese heritage.


I don't blame him one bit.


Can you imagine this poster being made today? Switch out Jap for Muslim or raghead...

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/189/aaaaaaaaaaantijapan21xe.gif (http://imageshack.us/)

[BeetDigger]

Perhaps we now understand how Truman felt comfortable dropping the two biggies. And how our army felt comfortable bombing Tokyo and burning it to the ground.

[PhxSooner]

My grandfather was a doctor in the Army Air Corp in the South Pacific. He is a very kind man, but is unwavering in his opinion of the Japanese in WWII. He would have dropped the bombs himself if given the chance.

[handcrafted]

I don't blame him one bit.


Can you imagine this poster being made today? Switch out Jap for Muslim or raghead...



That's a poster that perhaps *should* have been made today. Trouble is, we're not fighting another country, we're fighting a covert organization. In WWII, it was easy to see the enemy forces and target them. You had military, and you had civilians. With Al Qaeda you just don't know all the time.

Also, in most cases, the terrorists don't capture and mistreat people, especially Americans. They kill our guys occasionally. When they capture someone, it's a civilian, and usually they treat them fairly well (there are exceptions). I'm pretty sure that they won't commit a "death march" type of atrocity because then the whole world really will turn against them, and (shock horror) might sack up and just wipe them all out.

[usmc-sooner]

when I was in boot camp they had some Marines that had escaped a Korean POW camp speak to us about the Marine Corps, I remember sitting there thinking could I do what these men did?

[usmc-sooner]

the Japanese officers would practice with their swords on American soldiers backs and force them to kill their fellow men who fell on the march.