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 71^st  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.