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Bataan Death March


doyler
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Sadly much of important history is ignored, not interesting to todays masses. Those that ignore history will repeat it.

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I've had the honor of meeting one those gentleman . He was known as the Candy Man in Waterloo In. He always had candy that he gave out to kids in town. He had the tattoo from the prison camp. His name now escapes me as he passed away some 20 years ago . Any one who came out of that hell was a hero.

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I also new a veteran and read his account of being held at Palawan.He was a Marine.He survived not only the surrender and capture also subsequent imprisonment.He also survived a surgery peformed for a appendicitis with little or no real medical equipment or supplies.There was very little or no thread available for his sutures so the surgeon literally used thread and buttons from uniforms to close his incision.Later he survived the near execution(Palawan Massacre) as the Japanese had planned to execute all of the prisioners prior to leaving the camp.Under the guise of air raid drills as American planes were becoming more and more visible each day they were commanded to dig air raid trenches to take shelter in.At one such air raid they were set on fire in the trench by gasoline lit by the Japanese soldiers.He was able to escape out the far end of the trench.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan_massacre

 

 

 

After the war he returned to Japan to testify in the war crime trial.He also became one of our states early Highway Patrol troopers.

 

 

His experiances were written in a book by him called Last Man Out

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My Great Uncle George Braga (my grandmother's brother) was a Bataan Death March survivor. He was one of Rhode Island's most decorated WWII soldiers as he won two DSC's, 17 days apart, before the surrender. He was put on a Hell ship to be shipped to Japan, the ship was torpedoed, he survived, was recaptured put back on another hell ship to Japan where he spent the rest of the war as labor in a Japanese coal mine. My grandmother said he weighed in at 96 pounds when liberated. Unfortunately I never knew my Uncle as he took his own life in the 1960's. So yes I remember this day quite well.

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My Great Uncle George Braga (my grandmother's brother) was a Bataan Death March survivor. He was one of Rhode Island's most decorated WWII soldiers as he won two DSC's, 17 days apart, before the surrender. He was put on a Hell ship to be shipped to Japan, the ship was torpedoed, he survived, was recaptured put back on another hell ship to Japan where he spent the rest of the war as labor in a Japanese coal mine. My grandmother said he weighed in at 96 pounds when liberated. Unfortunately I never knew my Uncle as he took his own life in the 1960's. So yes I remember this day quite well.

 

Thanks for sharing his story

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My Great Uncle George Braga (my grandmother's brother) was a Bataan Death March survivor. He was one of Rhode Island's most decorated WWII soldiers as he won two DSC's, 17 days apart, before the surrender. He was put on a Hell ship to be shipped to Japan, the ship was torpedoed, he survived, was recaptured put back on another hell ship to Japan where he spent the rest of the war as labor in a Japanese coal mine. My grandmother said he weighed in at 96 pounds when liberated. Unfortunately I never knew my Uncle as he took his own life in the 1960's. So yes I remember this day quite well.

 

I have a West Point Cadet blouse to a Texas vet who was captured at Bataan.Later he died on one of the ships that was sunk.

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In northern Ohio, there is a Bataan Memorial Primary School. https://bes.pccsd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=51810&type=d

 

Here is a small group from one of the few local survivors that was still living at the time of the dedication of the memorial at the school, and who attended the ceremony.

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/36926-small-but-cool-group/?hl=chio&do=findComment&comment=280918

I cannot fathom how one could deal with such an experience, and I am not surprised that it would haunt you for the remainder of your life. Lest we forget.

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The Bataan and Corregidor veterans definitely deserve more recognition. Their heroism was not always recognized with medals and parades.

 

The % of American POWs that died in Japanese run camps is @ 33%. Of those held in German camps it was a little over 1%.

 

The majority of the American POWs held by Japan were captured in the Philippines.

 

Kurt

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I shared a couple of stories on my facebook yesterday....Sadly, a lot of my friends were not aware of what happened to those poor souls who were on that death march, and fewer still who knew about the hell ships that killed more of those who surrendered. Such an outrage that this is still not taught and it's largely forgotten. These were heroes who IMO gave ALL.

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My Great Uncle George Braga (my grandmother's brother) was a Bataan Death March survivor. He was one of Rhode Island's most decorated WWII soldiers as he won two DSC's, 17 days apart, before the surrender. He was put on a Hell ship to be shipped to Japan, the ship was torpedoed, he survived, was recaptured put back on another hell ship to Japan where he spent the rest of the war as labor in a Japanese coal mine. My grandmother said he weighed in at 96 pounds when liberated. Unfortunately I never knew my Uncle as he took his own life in the 1960's. So yes I remember this day quite well.

 

Such a sad story. Thanks for sharing this.

 

dave

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Theres a fairly good book called Bataan Death March: A Soldier's Story by James Bollich

 

Worth a read as its a honest first hand account of some of the horrors.

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Theres a fairly good book called Bataan Death March: A Soldier's Story by James Bollich

 

Worth a read as its a honest first hand account of some of the horrors.

 

Thanks for the recommendation, I read Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. It is about on the World War II Allied prison camp raid at Cabanatuan in the Philippines. A great book too IMO

 

 

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I visited Corregidor and took a jeepney through the Bataan Peninsula about 30 years ago. What a wild bit of territory. It was very humbling to be on such hallowed ground.

Mikie

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The Bataan and Corregidor veterans definitely deserve more recognition. Their heroism was not always recognized with medals and parades.

 

The % of American POWs that died in Japanese run camps is @ 33%. Of those held in German camps it was a little over 1%.

 

The majority of the American POWs held by Japan were captured in the Philippines.

 

Kurt

 

Very true Kurt, thanks for bringing that up. The atrocities committed by the Japanese were unthinkable. My wife is currently reading the book "Unbroken" which provides much more detailed accounting than the movie did.

 

BR,

James

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Very true Kurt, thanks for bringing that up. The atrocities committed by the Japanese were unthinkable. My wife is currently reading the book "Unbroken" which provides much more detailed accounting than the movie did.

 

BR,

James

 

Ghost Soldiers specifically addresses atrocities of Bataan as well. Funny how hollywood forgets some of the most important details... Unbroken the book was far better than the movie-. IMO.

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zzyzzogeton

Here's a link to a pdf file at the Harrison County Museum in northeast Texas. The subject of the pdf is the diary written by a Bataan Death March survivor, USA Captain Cary Abney, started after the Japanese invasion and through his POW camp time. Right before he was shipped out of his 4th Philippine POW camp to Japan, he gave the diary to another soldier to try to send to his family. Lots of information in the PDF,

 

http://harrisoncountymuseum.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Abney_Cary_M_Paper_by_William_M_Huffman.121153858.pdf

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  • 2 weeks later...

How Utterly Timely, I'm reading this book, just started last night, got a month or so ago off Amazon, Rolling Thunder, Against The Rising Sun, Combat History of U.S. Army Tank Battalions in te Pacific in World War II.

The very first chapters deal with those two Tank Battalion in the PI, and in great detail, names of soldiers, etc etc. I finished the PI chapters just before logging on to my lap top, and was thinking it was a miracle at all that any of these men survived at all giving their already deteriorated physical condition at the time they went into the bag, I mean there was no relief for them, and this was years they were POWs afterwards.

 

 

post-34986-0-33521900-1556333183_thumb.jpg

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