The Russian Communists and Nazis had nothing on the Japanese for pure unadulterated savagery and cruelty.
I visited the Bataan Memorial in the Philippines a few of years ago. Very nice memorial. The view from the Cross is amazing.
PING!!!
Thank you very much.
Allied POWs with hands tied behind their backs pause during the Bataan Death March. About 76,000 prisoners including 12,000 Americans were forced on the 60 mile march under a blazing sun without food or water toward a new POW camp in the Philippines. April 1942.
I for got the caption on the first picture of this I posted.
Has anyone ever seen the play (or movie, I think) called “Cry Havoc!” It is the story of female soldiers killed just before the start of the Bataan death march.
Look who won!
It is fitting that this is held in New Mexico. The 200th Coastal Artillery unit of the New Mexico National Guard went to the Philippines in August of 1941. They were caught up when the war began and captured.
Of the 1,800 New Mexico men sent to the Philippines, 900 survived the Battle for Bataan and the horrors and atrocities of the “death march” and the privation and deep humiliation of the 40 months spent in prisoner of war camps. Much of their survival was credited to having many friends and family members in common (to this day NM is still a small state with less than 2 million citizens) as a bond. One prisoner made a small American flag from bits and pieces of cloth, although posession of such would mean death.
He raised it on the flag pole when the Japanese fled the camp at the end of the war, as a signal to American planes.
NM has a POW license plate, and many of them are these men.
I knew two men that survived the Bataan march. One was my Scoutmaster, and the other was the father of one of my friends. Both of them died in their 50s of uncontrollable cancers.
Although it was against Japanese regulations and could have meant death, these American POWs celebrate the 4th of July, 1942, in the Japanese prison camp of Casisange in the Philippines.
Overall, an estimated 40 percent of U.S. Army and Air Force POWs died while in Japanese captivity, compared to 1.2 percent in German and Italian custody.
I was educated in Catholic high school by several priests who were military chaplains held as POWs by the Japanese.
Enjoy your Toyotas and Hondas folks.....none for me...no way...never
Why was there not anything that could be done for them? Why did we surrender?/Just Asking - seoul62....
I am part Japanese and these pictures left me in tears./Just Asking - seoul62......
Many Filipinos risked their lives, and some lost them, giving food and water to the marchers. They would throw chunks of sugar cane or fruit in the path of the marchers, and saved many a life.
One guy said that as they were marched by the Filipinos, in an effort to humiliate them, some Filipinos who were smoking, would make the “V” for victory sign as they pulled the cigarette in their mouths.
And, there’s the obligatory poem about these abandoned troops that I haven’t seen so far:
The Battling Bastards of Bataan
We’re the Battling Bastards of Bataan
No Mama, No Papa, No Uncle Sam
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces
And nobody gives a damn!
by Frank Hewlett, 1942.
God Bless to those who served and those are serving for your outstanding gratitude. Your service has saved millions from many horrible fates known to man.
Pinging you to this outstanding thread, Ronnie. Thank you, Dubya.
Wisconsin Army National Guard Soldiers...ROCK! :)
Thanks. My great uncle John died of starvation during the Bataan Death March. RIP.