I remember hearing this story in Bootcamp. it almost sounded surreal, until I heard the story from a survivor of the Bataan March. Horrifying! it could be one of the worst treatment of any prisoners in the history of modern warfare.

Probably right concerning American prisoners but it is actually surpassed in cruelty by their treatment of the Chinese in their war before WW2.

Stories like the Bataan Death March surfaced barely 4 months after Pearl Harbor. It goes a long way to explain, in context, the American attitude towards the Japanese and made the eventual decision to drop the war ending bombs no conflict for the American public at the time.

My father was captured on the island of Corregidor, in Manila Bay, less than a month after the fall of Bataan. He was a prisoner of war of the Japanese until the end of the war, almost 3 1/2 years. They were unbelievably cruel, beating him and other men beyond unconsciousness merely to cause injury for even minor infractions of arbitrary rules. Everyone needs to know these awful stories - and pray that they are never repeated.

Dad belonged for years to the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, mentioned in the article. As it says, they are rapidly dying and soon the organization will no longer exist. The rest of us have to remember.