On this day in 1942, one of the most infamous chapters of military history began.

On April 9, Filipino and American forces on the island of Luzon surrendered to the Japanese. The next day, the 75,000 who surrendered began a forced march to a prison camp. They were forced to cover 85 miles in 6 days. During the entire journey, they were permitted only one meal - rice.

The list of atrocities commited during the march included:
-- One man being flattened by a tank when he collapsed in exhaustion. Other soldiers, stopped in their tracks by this horror, were hit by passing Japanese trucks.

-- P.O.W.'s being forced to stand by a fresh stream, forbidden to drink from it. When one soldier broke, ran for the stream, and fell in face first to drink, a Japanese guard drew a sword and decapitated him.

-- They were permitted to drink from a stream contaminated with a maggot-filled corpse. As they drank, the guards laughed.

Many fell and died on the road, some crying for water.

The final destination of this march was a train that would take them to the camp. Of those that survived to reach it, few lived to see General MacArthur return to liberate the island in 1945.

In the Philippines, on the national holiday of Bataan Day, large groups of Filipinos retrace the steps of the March, in solemn tribute to those who went before.

To learn more about the Bataan Death March, see:

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Websites
Wikipedia: Bataan Death March
Bataan, Corregidor, and the Death March: In Retrospect
Bataan Memorial Death March
Bataan Death March - A Survivor's Story: The Bataan Death March
Battling Bastards of Bataan
Bataan Death March - Introduction
BATAAN DEATH MARCH - Ghost of Bataan



Sgt. 1st Class Michael McNaughton greets a Bataan survivor at the memorial march's opening ceremony March 20 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. (Miriam Rodriguez)