As one of the millions of daily commuters who involuntarily
turned into participants of a "walkathon" due to the traffic of
everything in EDSA, I tend to think that such walking is hell, indeed with the
soaring temperature of the dry months.
But before we get pissed off with such routines, we must all
take time to remember of another infamous walk which took place some 74 years
ago -- the deadly Bataan Death March which will be commemorated on April 9.
An estimated 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers under
Gen. Edward King, Jr., Bataan military
commander, surrendered to a more superior and seasoned Japanese force.
King's decision is a direct violation of Gen. Douglas
McArthur's no surrender order.
Appalled at the huge numbers of Allied prisoners at their hands
and lacking the logistical means to transport and care for the latter, the
Japanese then decided the take the survivors of the fight from Bataan to Camp O' Donell in Capas, Tarlac, a hastily
converted concentration camp.
The 128-kilometer (80 miles) march was characterized by the
Japanesse Army's wide range of physical abuse inflicted upon prisoners and
civilians alike, resulting in a huge number of fatalities. This was later
judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime.
All told, approximately 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 100-650
American prisoners of war died before they could reach Camp O'Donnell
Death tolls vary, especially among Filipino prisoners of
war, because historians cannot determine how many prisoners managed to escape and
blend in with the civilian population.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=10&sid=&nid=10&rid=866689
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