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.
