Bataan Death March Essay

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Pages: 5

The Bataan Death March “A P.O.W is standing next to a fresh water stream extremely dehydrated. He is forced to stand next to the stream by a Japanese soldier. The P.O.W. is not allowed to drink from the stream under any circumstances. He can no longer bear it, drops to his knees, and takes a drink of water from the stream. Although he does not hear the Japanese soldier walking up behind him as he takes out his sword. With one quick slash the P.O.W.’s head drops to the ground severed and bloody” (Kaufman 89). The Japanese soldiers were too harsh when it was not necessary. There was no reason for the Japanese soldier to chop off the P.O.W.’s head when he was simply drinking water. The horrible treatment of the P.O.W.’s occurred during …show more content…
Two days later on the 24th General Douglas MacArthur ordered a retreat into the Bataan Peninsula. Then in the next year on January 1st 1942 the Japanese troops entered Manila. Next on the 9th of January the Japanese took offence against the Bataan defenses. Then on March 12th MacArthur and his family escaped to Mindanao. Also on April 3rd the Japanese took a second offensive against Bataan. Additionally on April 9th Major General King surrendered forces on Bataan and an estimated ten thousand Americans and sixty thousand Filipinos were surrendered. Therefore on April 10th the Bataan Death March began and so did the siege of the Corregidor. Finally on May 6th the Japanese capture the Corregidor (Grolier 49). Of the estimated eighty-five thousand to ninety thousand surrendered soldiers approximately twenty five thousand died before reaching San Fernando. In the barracks meant for twenty thousand people sixty thousand people were crammed in. Of that sixty thousand about forty-five thousand died due to illness, starvation and exhaustion. General Masahara Homma was given fifty thousand men and fifty five days to invade Luzon, a cost of the Bataan Peninsula. The men were forced to walk forty five miles from Mariveles to San Fernando and a further twelve miles from Capas to the P.O.W. cages at Camp O’Donnell. The Death March ended after six days where the P.O.W.’s boarded a train to the Death Camp. About five thousand