UPDATE:
Read more about the 13 Bataan Death March survivors who attended this unique commemorative march and about the 5,800 people who came to honor them and the other heroes of that March here.
Original Post
Today, March 17, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter met with Japan’s Senior Vice Defense Minister Akinori Eto on Yokota Air Base, to “discuss the continued close relationship of U.S. forces and Japan’s military as well the ongoing realignment of U.S. Forces toward the Asia-Pacific region.”
A lot has changed in the last 70 years.
Seventy-one years ago Japan and the United States were engaged in a mortal conflict, the War in the Pacific.
As part of this “conflict” and in one of the many atrocities committed by the Japanese, thousands of American soldiers were force-marched through the jungles of the Philippine peninsula of Bataan and “suffered an ordeal of unparalleled cruelty and savagery: forty-one months of starvation, dehydration, hard labor, deadly disease, torture, murder, and journeys on ‘hell ships’ to the enemy’s homeland.”
The words above are from an incredible book by Michael and Elizabeth Norman, “Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath,” which I reviewed almost four years ago.
Why bring up the book? Why bring up the Bataan Death March?
The Bataan Death March is commemorated every year in March by military members of the United States and foreign armed forces and civilian marchers and today, March 17, as the two leaders (above) were meeting, members of the Air Force Space Command (AFSC) in Colorado participated in the 24th Annual Bataan Memorial Death March.
According to Capt. Tamara Fischer-Carter of AFSC Public Affairs, the March, which qualifies as a marathon, covers paved roads and sandy trails through the high desert terrain of White Sands Missile Range, northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico. It is regarded by Marathon Guide as one of the top 30 marathons in the U.S.
Two Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Posts (Posts 4051 and 5221) are sponsoring members of AFSC to participate. They are among 6,000 participants honoring the actual Bataan Soldiers and survivors.
Captain Fischer-Carter on the March:
There are two different routes for the Bataan Memorial Death March, as well as two different categories of participants. People can enter as an individual or as a team and they can participate in either the light (Load Bearing Equipment with canteen) or heavy (35 pound ruck) category. They can also choose between the Green route, which is the full 26.2-miles, or the Blue route, which is 14.2 miles in length.
And on the Bataan Death March:
When the Japanese Navy blockaded Bataan and nearby Corregidor, food, ammunition and medicine were prevented from reaching the island. For months, the soldiers on Bataan lived on scarce rations in the hot, tropical jungle and fought back against Japanese attacks. There was little running water, sparse food, no medical care, and only slit trenches along the sides of the camp for sanitation.
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By the first of April, 1942, most of the starving men had lost as much as thirty percent of their body weight and they became so weak that they could barely lift their weapons…
In 1942, as medical supplies ran out, malaria, dysentery, beriberi and a host of other diseases were rampant…
The soldiers, who trudged for 70 miles in intense heat with no food or water, were beaten for slowing down or helping each other, yet they continued to walk…
In Bataan, 10,000 men were confined to two open-air jungle hospitals. Less than half of the men were considered “combat effective”, which was defined as a man who could walk 100 yards without staggering and still have enough strength left to fire his weapon…
The death toll of the actual Bataan Death March is difficult to assess as thousands of captives were able to escape from their guards or many were killed during their escape. It is, however, estimated that 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war were forcibly transferred after the three-month Battle of Bataan. All told, approximately 2,500-10,000 Filipino and 100-650 American prisoners of war died before they reached Camp O’Donnell.
Please read more about the 1942 March in the Normans’ spell-binding, emotive, harrowing and beautifully written book, and about the March today here.
Author’s note: Of the approximately 25,000 Americans captured by the Japanese in the Philippines, only 15,000 came home alive at the end of the war).
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.