When I was young my grandfather would tell me disturbing stories about his experiences during the war. There were many times that I thought he was crazy. Only later did I find out that his experiences were in fact true and that many aging veterans are slowly dying off everyday.
My grandfather was stationed in the Philippines during WWII. Just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the Philippine islands were attacked forcing the 10,000+ U.S. troops (my grandfather included) stationed there to defend the islands.
Larger Map of Luzon >
View Larger Map
They were poorly equipped, malnourished, and facing overwhelming odds. After months of fighting in early 1942 the majority of U.S. troops were forced to withdraw to the island fortress of Corregidor. By mid-1942 the starving and demoralized troops were forced to surrender. Especially since president Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur to flee to Australia.
The abandoned troops in Corregidor along with their Filipino allies were forced to march to their prisoner of war camps in the Bataan peninsula a few dozen miles away. This arduous journey would be known as the “Bataan Death March”.
After surviving a 6-month siege, these fellow Americans now had to march 90 miles north with an Imperial Japanese soldier beating them frequently and sometimes brutally killing some of the prisoners of war as they marched in the hot tropical sun with little food and water. Numerous War crimes were committed during the march to say the least, not to mention the crimes against local Filipinos that tried to assist the U.S. troops.
When they finally reached their prisoner of war camps, the remaining soldiers that survived the march were given horrid accommodations and little food as usual. Medical assistance was rare since the Japanese government at the time did NOT abide by the Geneva conventions when treating prisoners of war. Those that survived the death march were slave laborers for the next couple of years until MacArthur returned in 1944 and eventually liberated them.
My grandfather would survive the war and remain with the U.S. Army for a time earning the rank of staff sergeant. I only met my grandfather a couple of times and never had a chance to interview him in-depth. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 83. In the near future, I intend to visit my mother and a couple of aunts & uncles to compile old photographs and stories about my grandfather during WWII.
Let us remember our veterans because their sacrifices gave us the freedom and the country from which we live in. Over 250,000 American soldiers died during WWII, remembering them and honoring them makes sure that their sacrifices were not in vain.
No comments:
Post a Comment