Death March Horrors to the Fore

Washington Post ^ | 05/26/2002 | Steve Vogel

[Pokey78]

Mel Rosen's introduction to being a prisoner of war came in the first hours after he and his troops surrendered to the Japanese in the Philippines in spring 1942.

As they sat in a big field ringed by Japanese machine guns on the Bataan peninsula, a GI tried to use the latrine. A Japanese soldier thrust his bayonet through the American's chest, and when the blade did not come out cleanly, the Japanese soldier used his foot to push the dying GI into the latrine.

[basil]

I once lived next door to a Bataan death march survivor. I once asked about it, and he didn't answer me, but quickly changed the subject. His wife later told me that in the 53 years they had been married, he was never able to utter one word about the event. He carried those horrors to the grave with him.

[breakem]

Thanx for the article. My wife's family lost two on the march. Her father escaped and survived.

[mamelukesabre]

In times of war, the far east is known for extreme savage viciousness. The people of that region with knowledge of history scoff at hitler and the west's outrage for the holocaust.

[agitator]

Every time I hear someone whine about the U.S. nuking Japan I think of the Death March and want to punch them out. If it had been me instead of Truman, there would have been a lot more crispy Japanese cities.

[IronJack]

And if this isn't enough to justify the bombings of Japan, read up on the Rape of Nanking. Apparently Japanese notions of "civilization" differ drastically from our own.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Two books great Bataan related books - Death March, written in the early 80s, and Ghost Soldiers. Death March was assembled by someone who tracked down survivors and got their accounts from the battle of Bataan, to the march, prison at O Donnel, death ships to Japan, surrender and the return home. Outstanding book.

[sugar_puddin]

My three uncles died in the Bataan Death March. My dad was in the Air Force and was on his way back over seas when they found out. They made him stay in the AF in the states since he was the sole surviving son. The plane he was to be on was shot down on the first mission. He would have died too but for the Grace of God.

[null and void]

ping

[InkStone]

It’s a good time to remember and honor those who were brutalized and murdered by the japs during the death march. I believe the enemy units involved were later largely annihilated in the Pacific campaign.

My Father’s cousin was there. He was an MP Sgt. and survived the horror, only to be sent to japan and worked for years as a slave laborer in the mines.

At the war’s end, he was just a living skeleton with a rag for a loincloth.

-----------------

Sleep my sons, your duty done, for freedom’s light has come, Sleep in the silent depths of the sea, or in your bed of hallowed sod Until at dawn you hear at last the loud, clear reveille of God. -from the Eternal Flame Memorial, Corregidor

[FlyVet]

He carried those horrors to the grave with him.

Most combat vets don't talk about it. I don't blame them. My Gramp was in the trenches in France in WW I. He wouldn't talk about it until he was in his late 80's, but never would talk about the actual horrors. I was never in combat but I don't even bother talking about my experiences with my family. It's a different world and most civilians don't get it. It's not a Bing and Bob musical, singing songs around the tent....

[SkyPilot]

Thanks for posting this.

First, I CAN'T BELIEVE the Washington Post printed this article!!!

Second, the Japanese have done a terrible job of coming to terms with their atrocities during the Second World War. The Rape of Nanking? Hell Ships? Never happened in their history books. Here in Germany, the people have come to terms with their past. It is taught in schools, there are documentaries on the Concentration Camps on network televsion at least 10 times a year. Japan will never, ever, ever come to terms with their atrocities. Ever. It is much simpler and nobler for them to demand an apology for the Atomic Bomb.

_________________________________________________________

SOURCE: Stars and Stripes
DATE PUBLISHED: 31 August 1945

"Horrific details of atrocities carried out by Japanese doctors are emerging as Allied PoWs are released. Prisoners have been subjected to vivisection. Others have been used as human guinea-pigs and injected with acid, innoculated with fatal diseases or frozen at minus six degrees Fahrenheit.

Eight US Airman shot down after B-29 raids in May died in vivisection experiments carried out by Professor Fukujiro at Kyushu University. One PoWs stomach was removed, and artery was cut to see how long it was before he died....................others have been boiled or dehydrated to death. Experiments included prolonged exposure to X-rays and prisoners subjected to a pressure chamber where the blood was forced out of their skin as they died in agony."

[Savage Beast]

"Everything the Japanese did to us was deliberate, inhuman, brutal, calculated and racist"

"If anybody dropped or couldn't make it, we were not allowed to help. The Japanese clubbed them to death, bayoneted them, shot them or beheaded them"

"There were hundreds of American bodies and thousands of Filipino bodies left along the route of the death march."

If the Japanese Empire can be replaced by a peaceful, constitutional republic, the Islamic theocracies can also--and they should be.

[WesternPacific]

My father was in the 5th Marines on Iwo Jima and I have always been interested in the War in the Pacific.

One of the highlights of my life came last year when I had the opportunity to visit the Philippines and the Bataan Memorial. A very moving site.

My home video of the memorial sets next to my father's 5th Marine Division Spearhead book.

[nomad]

What gets me is that there are so called "freepers" who say we were wrong to have nuked the japs.

[FlyVet]

What gets me is that there are so called "freepers" who say we were wrong to have nuked the japs.

They're lucky we nuked. That ended it. We could have continued to rain napalm down on their cities, which would have been much more horrific than two nukes. The stupids can't see that. In fact I don't see Japan invasion as ever being necessary, given we had air superiority at the time. We had an air war machine that could have burnt every one of their cities to the ground. It would have taken a few more years, but the nukes ended it. They're lucky we went nuclear.

[AlaskaErik]

If the Japanese Empire can be replaced by a peaceful, constitutional republic, the Islamic theocracies can also--and they should be.

Apples and oranges. The Japanese, for all their atrocities during the 30's and early to mid 40's, were industrious and hardworking. Muslim filth, on the other hand, are lazy scum who depend on foreigners to do their dirty work. They are savages with no work ethic whatsoever. There is no potential in the arab states...just poverty and misery for the masses and stolen wealth for the elite. They are firmly entrenched in the 8th century and don't seem to have any desire to move forward. We need to stop them from coming into our country. Let them rot in their islamic paradise.

[backhoe]

From the past:

Recalling Past Wars- the Bataan Death March, the Fall of Corregidor...

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Whenever anyone mentions that there are "safe" jobs in the military (out of combat) I remind them of our men who fought in Corregidor. In the last days, any member of the Air Corps without a plane became an infantryman and all sailors without ships became instant Marines. Rear area personnel also were given guns and became ground pounders. I stress this to point to the unknowing letting them know how quickly our fortunes of war can change, and all men and women in uniform should be prepared for situations like this. I hope nothing like this never happens again, but there are people who believe that it's impossible. Without a well trained and equipped military, another Corregidor is very possible.
Here's to all of our men who lived and died there and elsewhere to preserve our freedom. You are not forgotten.

1986 there was a made for TV movie titled "Women of Valor" starring Susan Sarandon and Kristy McNichol. It involved Army nurses captured by the Japanese and forced into the Bataan Death March, then into prison. You felt sorry for them until the end of the movie and the disclaimer that there were no women in the Bataan Death March. I was angry about that one.

[Wave Rider]

Big Ping to YA - they are as you stated and should be destroyed on their Homeland before they are able to invade this one more and start the down fall of this Great Nation with their Babbling Bullsh*t.