Bataan death march

An interesting marker in Bagac, Bataan: the KM 00 which symbolizes the start of the so-called Bataan death March  of Flipino and American Prisoners of war from Mariveles, and Bagac to Camp O” Donnell, Capas, Tarlac April 1942.

Immediately after the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942, The USFFI forces were evacuated by the Japanese from the field of battle as prisoners of war. The more than 70,000 Filipino and American troops who had survived the battle of Bataan underwent in this evacuation, The ordeal that history now knows as the death March.

The Death March started from two points in Bataan: on April 10 from Mariveles, on April 11 from Bagac. The Filipino and American troops were marched day and night, under blistering sun or cold night sky, staggering through Cabcaben, Limay, Orion, Pilar and Balanga, where they were given a brief rest and some water, From Balanga, The Prisoners  were organized into groups of 100 to 200 and under guard marched on through were segregated from the Filipino Prisoners of war and marched separately, The march continued northward through Hermosa, to Layac junction, Then Eastward into Pampanga through Lubao, Guagua, Where the Prisoners were rested and given a little food at the National Development Company Compound.

Already suffering from Battle fatigue, The Filipino and Americans troops were strained to utter exhaustation by this long march on foot, many were ill, most were feverish, but none high rest, for the enemy was brutal with those who lagged behind. Thousands fell along the way, Townspeople on the roadside risked their lives by slipping food and drink to the Death Marches as they stumbled by.

  In San Fernando, The Death March became a death ride by cargo train when the prisoners were pack so densely into boxcars that many of them perished from suffocation, Those who arrived alive in Capas had still to walk the last and most agonized miles of the Death March: The 6 Kilometers to Camp O" Donnell, Which was become one of the most hellish concentration camps of World War II.