My GrandMother’s 2nd Husband survived that march and imprisonment. He never spoke of it to us, but she said many a night he’d wake up shouting pleas for one of his friends to stand up and continue.... the guards were coming.
Thank you for the post. We need to remember these type of events and the people who sacrificed.
Thanks for the reminder. God Bless all the survivors and RIP/God Bless the those who did not make it.
My maternal grandfather narrowly avoided capture in the Phillipines during WWII. He was injured during MacArthur’s evacuation preparations (nothing heroic folks - he once told me a truck driver backed over him as he walked out of his tent one morning). He had quite a good sense of humor about it.
In any case, the leg injuries he suffered turned out to be about the best thing that happened to him during the War. He was shipped off the island to Australia aboard an incredibly over-loaded “hospital ship” called the USS Mactan, which I have been told was one of, if not THE, last vessels to take “regular grunt” troops away before the Japs caputured the place.
He was a fantastic grandfather! He died in 1982 when I was a senior in high school, and I still miss him.
There was a book written about the Mactan - some time in the late 70s, I think. It had a single small pressing, so it is pretty hard to find, but I would like to get my hands on a copy. My grandfather was interviewed by the author during his research for the book. My mother had a signed copy of it at one time; but I do not know what happened to it. She passed away a little over a year ago so I may never find out.
Those were some BRAVE people who served our country in that war.