How did the Bataan Death March get its name?
1 Answer
It come from the murderous march imposed upon US and Filipino prisoners after the fall of the fortress of Corregidor by the Japanese Imperial Army in WWII.
Explanation:
During the first stages of the war in the Pacific the Japanese Army invaded the Philippine islands rapidly cornering the defending US and Filipino forces in the Bataan peninsula and naval fortress of Corregidor. Hoping, perhaps, in an improbable intervention from outside, the defendant abandoned key defensive positions to close themselves inside a supposedly impregnable fortress at Corregidor.
The result was a disaster and a lot of soldiers surrendered after a heroic but futile resistance.
The Japanese were surprised by the number of captured soldiers and didn't have any provisions to deal with them (transportation, medicines or food). On top of this the Japanese apparently couldn't understand the idea of surrender or to become a prisoner; basically the prisoner was a non-entity in their military code (and consequently not worth living or be shown any mercy)!
Anyway, the Japanese forced the prisoners to march for more or less 100 km before reaching their assembly areas from where to be placed into captivity.
This march was a murderous enterprise because the prisoners, already weakened by weeks of fighting at Corregidor, were given almost no food, water and shelter or rest/medical assistance. By the hundred prisoners were dying each day of exhaustion, sickness, aggravated wounds or killed by the guards by random executions, beatings or sadistic "games" (Filipino soldiers were a preferred target because resisting to their "liberators").
In total it is estimated that between 5,000 and 15,000 prisoners died during the march but they could far more. It is important to point out that the standing, sick and parasite ridden skeletons that survived the march probably had few chances to survive the terrible conditions of captivity expecting them.
