From Wiki: Approximately 2,500–10,000 Filipinos and 300–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach Camp O'Donnell.
From Wiki: Approximately 2,500–10,000 Filipinos and 300–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach Camp O'Donnell.
My late father, John Zale, told me the older-looking American POW pictured with what looks like a woven basket in his lap was a fellow infantryman from the 31st Inf. on Bataan. The man’s name escapes me now, but he was an older career soldier from New York City. He died in my father’s arms in the POW camp at Cabanatuan. The photo grips me every time i see it. Dad said they would have gone “all the way” and fought to the death, but the brass decided surrender on “humanitarian grounds” would be preferrable to wholesale, Alamo-style slaughter. Humanity wasn’t present there.