9 April 1942: Bataan Death March Begins

After capturing some 75,000 U.S. and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula, the Japanese began transferring them from Bagac and Marivales on Bataan to Camp O'Donnell via San Fernando. The troops were forced to march for 65 miles before being crammed into "40-or-8" railroad cars for the last stretch of the journey.

Prisoners were treated ruthlessly by their Japanese guards. Stopping or collapsing along the route resulted in men being bayoneted, beheaded, or shot. No one knows for sure how many died, but estimates range from 5,000 to 18,000 Filipinos and 500-650 American soldiers, sailors, and Marines.

For details, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March

ILLUSTRATIONS: (1) Japanese guards watch over the American and Filipino POWs marching from the Bataan Peninsula. (2) An officer watches captured GIs on the Bataan Death March. (3) Japanese guards shoot, bayonet, and behead stragglers during the Death March. (4) A guard prepares to bayonet a prisoner who has fallen out. (5) Guards look on as sick and injured Death March survivors are treated after they arrive at Camp O'Donnell. (6) A Japanese officer tells survivors of the Bataan Death March what they must do to survive after they arrive at Camp O'Donnell. An interpreter stands ready to relay his instructions in English. (7) Straddle trenches served as latrines on work details. Some men were so ill from disease, exhaustion, and emaciated because of the poor diet that they keeled over and died in the trenches. (8) Camp O'Donnell guards force a rule-breaker to dig his own grave before burying him alive in it.