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MIS Capitol Bataan
On that same day April 9, 1942, the Death March began. It was a trek of close to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that began in Mariveles, Bataan, down the dusty roads that cut through the eastern towns of the province, through Lubao and Guagua, and finally, San Fernando, Pampanga, from where they were transported by trains to the concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac.[i]
The 76,000 Filipino and American Soldiers who surrendered in Bataan underwent a terrible ordeal. They were forced by the Japanese to march a distance of more than 100 kilometers, under a broiling sun with little or no food and water. Thousands of Filipino and American prisoners of war died along the way, many of them brutally killed by Japanese guards. This was the infamous “Bataan death March” for which LT. Gen. Masaharu Homma, commander of the Japanese Imperial Forces in the Philippines, was found guilty of war crimes by an Allied military tribunal after the war and was sentenced to death by hanging.[ii]
Corregidor held out for a little while longer, but it, too, capitulated to the enemy on May 6, 1942. the Fall of Corregidor signalled the end of organized Fil-American resistance to the Japanese.[iii]
The Japanese invaded the Philippines, and for three-and-a-half years, they governed the country.[iv]
[i] Fr. Wilfredo C. Paguio, Bataan Land of Valor, People of Peace, Jardi Press, 1997, p. 106
[ii] Alberto S. Abeleda Jr., The Nation in Focus, St. Bernadette Publishing House Corporation, 2007, p. 119
[iii] Alberto S. Abeleda Jr., The Nation in Focus, St. Bernadette Publishing House Corporation, 2007, p. 119
[iv] Alberto S. Abeleda Jr., The Nation in Focus, St. Bernadette Publishing House Corporation, 2007, p. 117
The 76,000 Filipino and American Soldiers who surrendered in Bataan underwent a terrible ordeal. They were forced by the Japanese to march a distance of more than 100 kilometers, under a broiling sun with little or no food and water. Thousands of Filipino and American prisoners of war died along the way, many of them brutally killed by Japanese guards. This was the infamous “Bataan death March” for which LT. Gen. Masaharu Homma, commander of the Japanese Imperial Forces in the Philippines, was found guilty of war crimes by an Allied military tribunal after the war and was sentenced to death by hanging.[ii]
Corregidor held out for a little while longer, but it, too, capitulated to the enemy on May 6, 1942. the Fall of Corregidor signalled the end of organized Fil-American resistance to the Japanese.[iii]
The Japanese invaded the Philippines, and for three-and-a-half years, they governed the country.[iv]
[i] Fr. Wilfredo C. Paguio, Bataan Land of Valor, People of Peace, Jardi Press, 1997, p. 106
[ii] Alberto S. Abeleda Jr., The Nation in Focus, St. Bernadette Publishing House Corporation, 2007, p. 119
[iii] Alberto S. Abeleda Jr., The Nation in Focus, St. Bernadette Publishing House Corporation, 2007, p. 119
[iv] Alberto S. Abeleda Jr., The Nation in Focus, St. Bernadette Publishing House Corporation, 2007, p. 117
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