Posted on 08/15/2011 8:00:34 PM PDT by decimon
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A doctor once told Albert Brown he shouldn't expect to make it to 50, given the toll taken by his years in a Japanese labor camp during World War II and the infamous, often-deadly march that got him there. But the former dentist made it to 105, embodying the power of a positive spirit in the face of inordinate odds.
"Doc" Brown was nearly 40 in 1942 when he endured the Bataan Death March, a harrowing 65-mile trek in which 78,000 prisoners of war were forced to walk from Bataan province near Manila to a Japanese POW camp. As many as 11,000 died along the way. Many were denied food, water and medical care, and those who stumbled or fell during the scorching journey through Philippine jungles were stabbed, shot or beheaded.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
(( ping ))
1. Maybe only the strongest people survived, not necessarily physical strength
2. Maybe the starvation had beneficial effects, like increased autophagy
You should request the mod’s delete your post.
amazing considering many of these guys that got out alive never made it to their 70’s...
RIP, Doc Brown.
My uncle disappeared on that march.
j/k
I'd have thought it would take more of a toll on him and I'd have been wrong.
RIP.
Read the survivor accounts in John Toland’s “But Not in Shame” and you will be of a different opinion.
Someone he'p me with the math.
Wow.
Read Ghost solders,what these poor guys went through at the hands of the Nippon Army, UNREAL!!! God Speed and bless you Brave Warrior!
My uncle disappeared on that march.
He was 36 which is getting close to 40.
Every time I think of this,it tears my heart. One of the saddest incidents I have ever known about. So many people are completely unaware of this event. RIP all participants in this horrendous march and the aftermath.
I guess 36 is near 40.
The march was beyond your power to imagine - for sure. I knew a Bataan survivor and got to hear a bit over a couple years. On top of surviving the march, he eventually was evacuated to Japan in a hell-ship and ended up working in a lead mine loading ore with his hands. Toward the end of our friendship, he began to question his sanity because his dreams were so vivid and fresh - they haunted his waking hours, too. That was in the early 2000’s - nearly 60 years after his imprisonment with the Japanese.
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