I believe that everyone knows the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanjing, and today I will talk to you about the death march of Bataan in the Philippines, one of the three major atrocities committed by the Japanese army in the Far East.
Historical background
On December 7, 1941, Hawaii time, Japan sneaked up on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Naval Base in Hawaii. The next day, the United States declared war on Japan, and the Pacific War broke out in full swing.
10 hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, they also sneaked into the U.S. Far East Air Base at Clark Airfield in the Philippines, and the U.S. Far East Air Force was seriously damaged. On 22 December, the Japanese 48th Division landed at Lingayan Bay on the west coast of Luzon and launched a fierce attack on the U.S.-Philippines forces. On the 24th, 7,000 men of the 16th Division landed at Ramon Bay in southeastern Luzon. The two main divisions of the Japanese army formed a north-south attack on the U.S.-Philippines forces stationed in Manila. On the 26th, MacArthur ordered the U.S.-Philippines defenders to abandon Manila and retreat to their predetermined positions on the Bataan Peninsula and Crégiddo Island in preparation for a long resistance. On January 2, 1942, Manila fell. On 9 January, the Japanese began an attack on the Bataan Peninsula.
Since the early days of the Pacific War, the high-level decisions of the United States gave priority to the Atlantic-European Theater, the battle plan in the Pacific Theater was to contain Japan with limited available resources. In this way, the US military fighting in the Philippines could not get manpower and material supplies. Soldiers had to catch snakes, monkeys or large lizards to feed themselves. In addition, as a result of fighting in the tropical jungle, 75 to 80 per cent of soldiers suffer from malaria, beriberi, pellagra, scurvy and other diseases to varying degrees. But they still insisted on mountain warfare, jungle warfare and position warfare with the Japanese.

Bataan Death March
On March 11, 1942, MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the U.S.-Philippines coalition forces, was ordered to leave the Philippines and fly to Australia to become commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific Theater. Jonathan Winlet, who remained in Luzon, was promoted to lieutenant general and put in charge of commanding the U.S.-Philippine coalition. On April 3 of the same year, the Japanese launched another general offensive. On the 9th, the Japanese army broke through the last line of defense of the Us-Philippine coalition army, and the Bataan Peninsula was lost. General Kim, the supreme commander of the Bataan Peninsula who believed that the resistance had been meaningless, surrendered, and more than 75,000 U.S.-Philippines officers and men were captured by the Japanese.
On May 6, 1942, The Island of Crégido was also captured by the Japanese. After sending one last telegram to Washington, General Wainwright led 15,000 U.S.-Philippine Allies to surrender.
At the beginning of the Pacific War, U.S.-Philippine prisoners of war who surrendered on the Bataan Peninsula, escorted by Japanese soldiers, began their march on foot on April 10, 1942, from Milestone 167, two miles east of Mariveles Airfield, to the Ordner concentration camp, 120 kilometers away. Pass through Cabaica Airport, Bataan Airport, Baranga, Bedmoga City, Lupao, Orani, and arrive in San Fernando in The Province of Bonbon. On 15 April, a van arrived in the town of Karpas in the province of Tarlac from San Fernando, from where it was an 11-kilometer walk to the Odenell prisoner of war camp.
A 120-kilometer march is not far for a soldier. However, for the U.S.-Philippine coalition, which had been fighting without energy supplies and food supplies for months, it was miserable, and they marched for 6 days. During these six days of marching, the PRISONERs of war were beaten, insulted and slaughtered by the Japanese army, and the bodies of the prisoners of war were everywhere on the roadside. The march exposed the inhuman atrocities of the Japanese army and became known as the "Bataan Death March".
Event passed
In World War II, an unusually brutal "Bataan Blood War" broke out, the American army was defeated by the Japanese army, and 78,000 American and Filipino soldiers surrendered to Japan, these historical facts can be found in the history books.
But even more brutal was what happened later: The prisoners were forced to brave the sweltering heat to walk more than 65 miles through the jungles of the Philippines to a prisoner-of-war camp, arguably the worst of World War II
The brutal event, which survivors of the year called the "Bataan Peninsula Death Tour," saw a total of 15,000 soldiers fall to their deaths on the way.
Under the scorching sun, the prisoners of war had dry mouths and dragged their weak bodies forward. They don't know how far ahead they are or what the future holds. Suddenly, Hank slipped and fell into the bushes by the side of the road, and he tried to struggle to get up, but he couldn't do it. Several Japanese soldiers ran toward Hank, and one Japanese soldier viciously rolled four or five knives at Hank's weak body. Blood poured out of Hank's shirt, and he struggled to get back into the line, but it wasn't long before Hank, who had lost too much blood, fell down again, this time not so lucky, and was shot and killed by the Japanese soldiers.
The Japanese did not give preferential treatment to prisoners of war in accordance with the provisions of international conventions. Just before the march began, Masaharu Honma, commander of the Japanese Philippine Dispatch Army, had ordered the escorting Japanese to eliminate any Bataan prisoners of war who could not insist on going to the prisoner-of-war camp. Therefore, the Japanese soldiers doubled the torture of the prisoners of war, and even gave them water to drink at will.
On the third day of the march, they still had no water or food. There were many springs and artesian wells on the Bataan Peninsula, but the Japanese just wouldn't let the prisoners of war drink it. Day and night marches left the prisoners of war exhausted and hungry and thirsty. A Japanese soldier wondered why they wanted water to drink. Once, they passed a pond where two buffaloes were rolling, the water was covered with green foam, and swarms of flies were flying on the water.
The water was already dirty, and it also seeped into the foul smell of the sea water, which made people sick. A Filipino soldier ran to the Japanese officer in sign language and asked if he could drink water. With permission, he ran toward the pond. Then two other people followed, two more followed, and then the sixth person left the team. When man's desire for the source of life reaches its limit, they do not care what kind of water it is. But even so, the Japanese army could not tolerate it. All the Japanese guards raised their rifles, and when the 6 men ran to just a meter or two away from the pond, the Japanese soldiers opened fire until all 6 were dead.
Almost every time he went to a water source, there were stampedes, and Taney hoped it would get better, but didn't. Under the heat, people are extremely thirsty and suffer more. As soon as they saw the water, the prisoners of war were still going crazy, and more and more bodies fell to the edge of the well, some trampled to death, and some stabbed to death by the butts and bayonets of Japanese soldiers.
In the United States alone, there are nearly a hundred books dedicated to reviewing or studying this war crime, of which Dr. Lester Tannie, a tenured honorary professor at Arizona State University in the United States, is most famous for his "Coming Home Alive: A Personal Experience of bataan's Death March".
Hunger and thirst produce hallucinations
The Japanese soldiers did not allow us to march with water, and the physical pain caused by not drinking water for a long time was indescribable. My stomach hurt, my throat tingled, and my arms and legs didn't listen. By the third day, hunger and thirst made me daydream. I seemed to see all the good things I had eaten and drunk in the past: hamburgers with cheese and onions, milkshakes, beer, coke, and I wanted to drool, but unfortunately the saliva had long since dried up.
The Japanese soldiers deliberately. In fact, the roadside is not without water. Some guards would let a small number of PRISONERs drink water, but not more. One day, I felt my tongue thicken as a Japanese convoy passed by, and the dust from the convoy was sucked into my mouth and stuck to my tongue, and my throat was about to be dried by the dust. Once, I saw an artesian well on the side of the road, and it was a pity that the water of the white flowers flowed away. After observing for half a day to make sure there were no Japanese soldiers nearby, Frank and I rushed to the well with our comrade-in-arms. We take a sip of you, I take a sip, open your belly and drink water. We drank enough as soon as possible and filled the kettle and prepared to drink on the road.
Within minutes, 10-15 prisoners of war had gathered at the well. This caught the attention of a Japanese soldier who ran over and laughed at us. At this time, the 5 people in front of him drank water, and the 6th person was just about to crouch down to drink water, when the Japanese soldier suddenly raised his bayonet and stabbed him in the neck. The brother immediately fell to his knees, breathing heavily, face down, and died without taking a sip of water, blood staining the artesian well red.
Two hours later, we passed a pond where the buffalo bathed. A daring brother ran up to the Japanese soldier and gestured to him if he could get him to drink a little water. The Japanese soldier laughed and waved in agreement. After getting permission, dozens of people rushed to the edge of the pond in a frenzy, regardless of whether the buffalo was still bathing inside. Some people pluck the green foam, splash the water on themselves, and drink the water that parasitizes a variety of germs.
A few minutes later, a Japanese officer ran up and shouted. No one understood what he was saying, and he didn't make any gestures, but everyone quickly returned to the team with interest. Soon something shocking happened. The smiling officer, circling around the POW line, immediately ordered the Japanese to check our uniforms and pull out those who had water marks on their bodies. The Japanese officer ordered the water-stained men to line up on the side of the road and ordered the Japanese soldiers to shoot at them.
"Superb decapitation technique"
On the fifth day, I witnessed the most inhumane crimes of the entire Bataan Death March, and of course some of the atrocities comparable to those committed. The Japanese soldiers stopped our queue for a while and waited for the team behind us to catch up. When the group behind us caught up, the Japanese ordered us to get up and move on, just at this time a brother with very serious malaria, with a high fever, everyone was burned and confused, and wanted to stand up, but could not stand up. The Japanese soldiers walked up to him and smashed him on the head with the butt of their rifles, knocking him to the ground. The Japanese soldiers summoned two prisoners of war and asked them to dig a pit on the side of the road, and he was ready to bury the sick brother alive. The two prisoners of war began digging the pit, and when the pit was a foot deep, the Japanese soldiers ordered them to stop, carried the sick brother into the pit, and buried him alive. The two prisoners shook their heads and said they couldn't do that.
Without warning, the Japanese soldiers raised their guns and killed the two POW diggers. He pulled two more prisoners of war out of our ranks and ordered them to dig another pit and bury the big ones as well. The Japanese soldiers drew a cross on the side of the road, which means "bury there the prisoner of war he killed." The two prisoners dug a second pit, in which they placed the sick and dead prisoners of war in the pit and shoveled dirt at them. The sick prisoner of war was not yet dead, and when the soil was thrown at him, he cried out bitterly.
The 4-5-mile march from Lupao was extremely brutal. The Japanese guards ordered us to run from time to time, and they roared more often and louder. Within minutes, there were different guards, beating, shoving, and even stabbing us with bayonets. On this section of the road, we were asked to march at twice the usual pace, the Japanese changed shifts frequently, and we were often asked to run to keep up with the new guards.
We managed to catch up with a group of Japanese soldiers, and the guards ordered us to stop. We saw an American prisoner of war kneeling in front of the Japanese soldiers, and a Japanese officer standing behind the prisoners of war. The Japanese officer drew his samurai sword from its scabbard and waved it in the air, as if to show his ability to slash people. He asked the American prisoner of war to move his knees in the direction of his swinging knife. After the warm-up exercise, he raised his katana high and swung it down rapidly, the Japanese soldiers shouted "Long live", we only heard a muffled sound, and the American prisoners of war were in different places. The officer then kicked the prisoner's torso to the ground.
The officer "cleanly" demonstrated "superb decapitation technique." All the Japanese soldiers smiled happily and left. When I saw his blade fall, my heart clenched and my body twitched, and I put my hand on my chest in prayer. I felt suffocated, and I couldn't believe that beheading was a form of entertainment for the Japanese army.
The "stuffy tank truck" carrying death
San Fernando is the largest town we passed through on the Bataan Death March, it is very prosperous and has suffered little war damage. The Japanese soldiers drove us into the train station and let us rest. We saw a stuffy tanker truck driven by an old-fashioned locomotive inside the station. We sat on the tracks and waited for an hour before a worn-out stuffy tanker clicked into the station.
The Japanese soldiers drove us into this little stuffy tanker. The carriages were very small, and they could usually fit 10 heads of cattle, or 25-30 people, and under the drive of the Japanese soldiers, 80-100 people were crammed into each carriage at the moment. We could only take turns sitting because there wasn't enough space in the carriage for everyone to sit down, even if the people near the door stuck their legs and feet out of the door. The middle of the carriage was so crowded that some of the brothers could not breathe fresh air and suffocated. People who are close to the car door and can breathe fresh air are lucky. We stood shoulder to shoulder for 5 hours to reach Karpas. Karpas is near our final destination, O'Donnell concentration camp.
I am one of the lucky ones. I sat by the door, my legs dangling. I enjoyed the fresh air, the wind blowing, and didn't have to worry that the Japanese soldiers would suddenly stab me in the back with bayonets. Don't worry, it's a treat. Soon, I tasted a taste of my laxity.
A Japanese guard passed by me, brandishing a long bamboo pole used as a cane. He hit me hard, but he didn't hit my foot, he hit me on the knee. I was so surprised that I cried out in pain—I can't remember exactly what it was called, but it was definitely not a compliment. He grabbed the doorknob of the carriage and tried so hard to close it, and the door slammed into my thigh, hurting me so much. But the door didn't end up shut, my thighs were out, and it couldn't possibly close. Thankfully my thighs opened the door so we could breathe a little fresh air, and as the train started, a strong wind blew into our carriages.
Only the living stepped off the train; We were instructed to leave our dead brother in the carriage. Some people can jump off the train, some can only move to the door and slowly slide down. I slowly jumped out of the carriage, and just as I was about to take a step, I fell on the tracks. I feel like my skinny legs don't listen to my brain anymore. One of the guards, thinking I wasn't standing fast enough, greeted me with the butt of my rifle, and I was hit the back, legs, and neck. He made a threatening gesture at me, stabbed me with a bayonet, and I knew that if I didn't dodge, I would die, so I quickly got up and left.
Described as withered and ragged, we got out of the car and lined up, walking half-dead. Our bodies were so dirty, so we were stained with all sorts of liquids, and we didn't shave our faces. On this narrow, never-ending road, we saw some beautiful tall, fruit-laden mango trees, as well as many lush greenery. From time to time we could see the bodies of American prisoners of war on the side of the road, lying under green trees, covered in blood, which had turned dark brown.
The result of the event
After the surrender of the U.S.-Philippines coalition, the number of surrenders was about 78,000, and after these 78,000 became prisoners of war of the Japanese army, they began to be forced by the Japanese army to extort property, and began to be escorted to a prisoner of war camp 62 miles (about 100 kilometers) away, the journey was mainly on foot, but the entire march process except for a little food at the beginning (according to the survivors, only once gave golf-sized rice), the prisoners of war were not allowed to have any food along the way, and those who tried to find drinking water and food were executed by the Japanese army with bayonets or shots. At the same time, the local Filipinos were also expelled and prevented from giving food and water to the prisoners of war, and even if a few lucky people escaped the Japanese eyeliner and stole a few mouthfuls of river water, the river water was seriously polluted (the river was floating with corpses and green foam, and the temperature reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit), and finally caused severe diarrhea, vomiting and death.
In this way, after a forced march without eating or drinking, although they finally reached the target camp, they died of hunger and thirst along the road (initially they chose to surrender due to hunger and helplessness) and were stabbed to death by the Japanese army and shot and killed as many as 15,000 people.
Incidentally, it was not possible to escape death after arriving at the camp, because the Japanese army also abused prisoners of war in the camp, including torture, forced coolies, and deliberately starved them, so that about 26,000 people died within two months of arriving at the camp.
Posthumous commemoration
Marching activities
45 years after that death trip, some New Mexico Army Reserve Officer Training Corps officers and cadets decided to commemorate that history in their own way, not by going around giving presentations and speeches or making films, but by reliving the journey, and finally they got their wish.
Commemorating the 12th year of the Bataan Peninsula Death Journey, they embarked on a 26.2-mile commemorative trip from the New Mexico desert to honor heroes like Hamilton and those who sacrificed their lives. Hamilton said: "I think that commemorative marching is the best way to commemorate the soldiers who died many years ago, and I am often amazed at how enthusiastic people would pay attention to and participate in such activities, but it is a history that will never be forgotten." I don't think I've done anything brave, I've just done what anyone would do in that environment. The important thing is that I survived. ”
When Army Sergeant Brent Collis first heard about a march to commemorate the Bataan Peninsula Death Tour, he also wanted to participate, to learn about that history in this way. Corlis, who set out from the location of the U.S. Military's Southern Command in Miami, Florida, to try to bring that history back to life, said: "I really can't believe what they endured on that death journey, and I was deeply moved by their spirit of sacrifice." ”
There may be a reason and reason for everyone who attends the event, but they all have a common purpose, which is to reach the finish line.
As a female soldier, Martinez has participated in two such marches.
She said: "I really enjoyed having the opportunity to honor the soldiers of the Bataan Peninsula. ”
Oral history
Welton Hamilton and others, survivors of bataan's death march, publicly recounted the painful experience that still makes them talk about it to this day.
Bataan Bloody Battle
Hamilton joined the U.S. Army Air Force in October 1940 and soon after boarded a warship
He went to the Philippines to fight, and he became one of the last American soldiers to fight in the Philippines.
Just 18 days after that warship set sail, the United States joined the war. Hamilton and his unit, the 34th Mortar Squadron, were deployed to Nichols Airport outside Manila, but they remained there for only nine days. On November 29, 1941, they were told to leave with their luggage, and they hurried to the nearby Del Carmen, where disaster had arrived, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, and the United States had to join the war. But while the eyes of most of the world's people were on Hawaii, Hamilton and his thousands of comrades were fighting for survival in the Philippines.
Hamilton said: "Japanese bombers bombed us indiscriminately, and it was a disaster. The first day our fighters took off, they were all shot down by the Japanese, and then they bombed the planes on the ground. Without air power, we had to switch to infantry. "The ground forces retreated to the coast of the Bataan Peninsula, where they tried to hold off the Japanese, but the cost of the battle was quite high, and as support and supplies were cut off, the soldiers were sick and hungry, and fell one by one.
Hamilton recalled: "Our food was completely cut off, and we had to eat the horses of the 26th Cavalry. "American and Filipino soldiers on the Bataan Peninsula either surrendered or died all, and they had no choice. After four months of fighting, Major General Edward King, commander of the Bataan Peninsula Force, ordered 78,000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers to surrender to the Japanese on April 9, 1942.
Journey of Death
But after the surrender, an even bigger nightmare came. Russell Grote, another survivor of the Bataan Bloody War, wrote in his biography Twelve Hundred Days: "After the order to surrender was given, all the people huddled together and waited for the doom to come, and many people actually watched the Japanese cry, and the American soldiers and the Filipino soldiers were crying." ”
According to Grocott, many people began to flee, but they were ordered to stand still, the Japanese began to loot their belongings, watches, water bottles, wallets, rings and everything of value were robbed. The prisoners of war were divided into groups of every 300 men and then began their march. They walked from Marivelles to San Fernando for a total of 100 km (62 mi) and then another 10 km (6.2 mi) to Camp Donaire. The journey was not a long one for a soldier, but the Japanese did not give them any food or water throughout the trip. The American soldiers and Filipino soldiers who surrendered were already very sick, and they were all too hungry to march!
Hamilton recalled that the only food he ate for 8 days was a rice ball the size of a golf ball, and he insisted on it. Clarence Larson, another survivor of the Bataan Peninsula, described the scene in a book titled The Long Way Home, writing: "The lack of food is not our greatest pain, the main problem is that there is no water, and most people are dying of thirst."
Along the way, they desperately tried to find water to drink, and many people drank it whenever they saw it, no matter how dirty it was. There was a resting spot on the bridge, and there was water below, but there was green foam floating on it, and you couldn't see the water at all, but some people couldn't care less, so they jumped down and poured water into the kettle, but I didn't go down, because there were still the bodies of several soldiers floating inside, and it looked like there were days inside, and the temperature at that time was 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and you could imagine what the water tasted like. ”
Hamilton said: "Even more infuriating are the Japanese soldiers, who are simply playing a game of death. For many American and Filipino soldiers, such dirty water is also their life-saving water, but the Japanese stab or shoot with bayonets as soon as they see someone going to get water to drink, and many die under the bayonet or under the muzzle of the Japanese because of a mouthful of dirty water. Even if you are lucky enough to escape the Japanese bayonets and guns, as long as you drink the water there, you will be doomed, but you will die a little slower, and die a little more painfully, because the water in the river is seriously polluted, drinking it will cause severe diarrhea and vomiting, you will slowly fall down and fall behind, and the final result is still a dead end.
It was so terrifying, I really didn't have any strength, and I felt that it was impossible to take another step forward, but I saw someone being shot and killed by the Japanese army, so suddenly it seemed as if an angel of death was standing behind me, pushing me forward.
Survival belief
After all, Hamilton still had the strength to move forward, but many people were already exhausted and really couldn't move a step, so they fell to the ground and could no longer get up. During that short journey, 15,000 American and Filipino soldiers starved to death, died of thirst, exhaustion or were killed by the Japanese, and in the following two months, 26,000 died in prisoner-of-war camps! So many people died, hamilton was not among them. He said: "I swear, I must survive. So the cruel journey has survived, how can you die in prison again? "Before his nightmare was over, Hamilton endured 3 years in that prison, they were tortured, tortured, forced to do coolies, and often starved, many of whom starved to death in that Japanese camp.
Suddenly, one day, as if they were in a hurry, the Japanese left in a hurry. Hamilton said: "For some reason, those Japanese troops suddenly slipped away quietly, and we only had 1800 people left. We heard that there were Americans on the other side of the island, so we secretly climbed into a train and ran there. The first thing I did was call my mom and I told her I was alive and I was going home right away. For me, it was truly a day of infinite happiness. ”
Go home for a new life
In October 1945, Hamilton returned to his hometown, he was full of diseases: beriberi, dysentery, scurvy... The doctor said that it was not easy for him to recover, but Hamilton miraculously recovered after a period of treatment and recuperation, and he recovered physically and mentally. He married a girl who was a child and had 5 children.
On November 13, 2010, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsushi Okada held talks with six retired veterans of the U.S. Military, including former University Professor Lest thani, who was captured by the Japanese army during the Pacific War, and his family members, apologized to him, saying: "You have suffered inhumane treatment and hardships. On behalf of the Government of Japan, I would like to express my sincere apology. ”