THE BATAAN DEATIONAL MARCH

THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH

As a result of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. American force was immediately sent to defend the Philippine islands in the Pacific Ocean. President Roosevelt appointed American General Douglass MacArthur Commander of the U.S. Army troops in the Philippines. It was their job to defend the Bataan Peninsula until reinforcements could arrive. American troops had to fight the Japanese from the crack of dawn until sunset every day. On April 3rd the Japanese fleet, through headed to Australia, detoured and began an onslaught on the MacArthur’s troops. During this horrifying time, the Americans

and Filipinos had no other choice but to wait---wait to die, wait to live, or wait to surrender even though they had been ordered to persevere. Then, April 9, 1942, was the day Americans thought that the world was about to end. This was the day the American and Filipino forces had no choice but to surrender because so many of them were sick, wounded, and near death. This was the culmination of 4 months of excruciating conflict on the Philippine peninsula of Bataan. This marked the beginning the Bataan Death March. They were organized by the Japanese into long lines and ordered to start walking. Over the next seven days they marched for 65 miles in extreme heat with no food or water.
\ 3 years later.

Before going into World War II, America was placed under defense to protect its main possessions, this led to early battlefronts with japan. The general, Douglass MacArthur, appointed a new commander of US army forces by President Franklin Roosevelt, demanding the American troops in the Philippines to treat the south’s Bataan peninsula until reinforcements arrived. However, in 1941 the attack on the Pearl Harbor acted so brutally that it distracted the flow of reinforcements, which then led to the troops being on their own. From the year 1941-1942, the troops in Bataan overly resisted the Japanese conquest from the crack of dawn to sunset. On April 3rd the japan flotilla originally destined for Australia arrived in the Philippines, which led to new surge of Japanese attacks. During this horrifying time the Americans and Philippines had no other choice but to wait, wait to die, and wait to live, or wait for an absolution. On April 9th 1942 the 12,000 Americans and nearly 58,000 Filipino soldiers decided to surrender. By this time, a third of them were already sick and dying. Getting deeper in to the death march, Japanese rounded up the captured troops in to long lines and told them to start marching for the next seven consecutive days with no food or water and had very little rest with temperatures constantly increasing by the minute. This torturous march caused over five thousand deaths. During this time, there was a code called “the bushido code” that the

Japanese had to abide by, these code states that surrender was disgraceful and death was more desirable. Anyone who disagreed was a coward in their eyes and in their minds they felt like the troops should be treated like less than a human. In this most discouraging event, the death march was called death march because of the way they executed you, and in my opinion this title describes exactly what went on in this nightmare like March. It didn’t make no difference to them of how they killed you, if you fall down, defecate or try to pull a certain move; you were a dead animal to them (Japanese). Moving to the end, after the war, Americans arrested General Homma Masuhara, the commander of the Japanese troops. He was indicted of nearly 48 counts of violating the rules of war along with the charges of the death march. Although he was in complete denial he was still found guilty and was executed. In the year 1951, Americans made peace with japan by signing a peace treaty with japan. Years later, Japan did a formal admission of “peace, friendship, and exchange initiative”, and to show that japan is now committed.
1. https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/bataan-death-march