Bataan Death March

Jack Blansitt

Timeline

1942 1946

January, 1942: Japan captures Manila, capital of Philippines

American and Filipino soldiers forced to retreat to Bataan Peninsula

January – April, 1942: American and Filipino soldiers hold out against Japanese forces for three months despite the lack of naval and air support

April 9, 1942: U.S. General Edward King Jr., and the American and Filipino soldiers surrender; exhausted, starving, and sick with disease

April, 1942: Captured soldiers rounded up and placed into groups of approximately 100 men. They were then forced to march 65 miles from Mariveles to San Fernando. The soldiers were brutally beaten and sometimes killed. The survivors were placed into prisoner of war camps.

October, 1944: America avenges its defeat in the Philippines with an invasion on the island of Leyte.

February, 1945: General Douglas MacArthur and the U.S. – Filipino forces the Bataan Peninsula.

April 3, 1946: Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines, was held responsible for the death march and executed by firing squad.

This is a newspaper article about Bataan being taking over and controlled by the Japanese. Soon after this, the U.S. Army went to Bataan to free it and the Philippines. Unfortunately, this did not go according to plan. We had to surrender because of that fact that we were starving, exhausted, and dying of disease.

This is the bolt action rifle that I used while battling the Japanese in Bataan. It was an amazing gun that was capable of shooting multiple enemies faster than almost any other gun at the time.

The only thing we had left after we were captured were our uniforms. They were the only form of protection we had from insects, the heat, and the beatings we earned when we stepped out of line. This photo shows two men in my group who were being checked to see if they had any weapons on them.

This is a map of the route that we were forced to march on for five to nine days. The march was approximately sixty five miles long. The conditions were terrible and most of us died and most of the ones who survived the march ended up dying in the prisoner of war camps due to diseases and poor living conditions.

This is a propaganda message sent to the Filipino people, telling them to not trust the American soldiers. The message said that we would be the last people to “respect the chastity of Filipino women”. This letter caused some trouble for us at first but we eventually earned their trust.

Bibliography

• http://www.army.mil/asianpacificsoldiers/history/bataan.html

• http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march