BATAAN DEATH MARCH
Okay, I admit I’m too lazy to walk even a half kilometer, or
even from my bed going down to our comfort room-lazy enough? I do have a lot of
complains, whether the sun giving us its heat like a fire inside our bones or
dust in the streets, but sometimes my
mind speaks, what about the kids in the streets, selling their goods under the
heat of the sun, the dusts in their face and most of all the long walks. These
made me think I am too lucky compare to them, or much more lucky compare to
those who survived and died during the BATAAN DEATH MARCH.
Today april 9 is the 71st anniversary of the now known as Bataan Death
March. Confused about your feelings of being happy about the holiday? Or sad
for the true meaning of april 9, part of me is happy and sad- happy not because
today is a non-working day/holiday, but
because our Filipino country men who fought gallantly and defended the bataan and our motherland from
the Japanese invaders,(let us not forget the bravery of the americans
too whether you like it or not). Let us thank them even the bataan fell, let us thank them for
risking their lives for us.
The death march started from the Japanese Army’s large number of Prisoners of war (POW), the
Japanese were unprepared, and so they forced to transfer the prisoners, they
started walking from Maraviles to capas, during the march the prisoners suffers
from Physical abuse, starving, thirst and the sun’s powerful heat, some of
them died along the march, and some of them died from torture, those who fell
during the march bayoneted and some are were beheaded by the Japanese officers.
Upon reaching the San Fernando, the prisoners took a train to Capas, they were
like sardines inside the boxcars with no ventilations and they suffer from heat
inside until they reached Capas, so from Capas they were forced again to
walk 9miles to Camp O’ Donell. But Even
after they arrived at the Camp the prisoners still suffers and the count of the dead prisoners are still growing,
rating from 30 to 50 prisoners per day, and a thousands more dead. Most of them
who died in the march were buried in a mass graves dug by the Japanese.
Some of the prisoners were escaped during death march, but
some are unlucky to escape as they were caught and killed, that is why it is
difficult to determined how many really died during the march. They were approximately 2,500 to
10,000 Filipino prisoners and 100 to 600 American soldiers who died before they
could reached the Camp.
Let us not forget the true meaning of today’s Anniversary,
it is not all about the holiday, it is all about the victims and the brave
soldiers who fought for us. To those who died and survived the World War 2, we
all salute you.
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