Bataan Death March and Camp O'Donnell

By

I just spent two weeks in the Philippines.  Although the visit was for business I still managed to see a few sites.  This site was humbling. I visited the Bataan Death March memorial or known locally at the Capas National Shrine.  There is a memorial on the site where the Capas Concentration Camp was located during World War II.  Thousands of people both Filipino and American died here.   The memorial for the death march indicates that about 14,908 Philippine and about 600 Americans died on the death march. 

  After the death march people were stuffed into the railroad box cars (pictured).  About 150 to 160 people were stuffed in each car.  The climate is very hot in the Philippines and it was about 110 degrees in the box cars.  More people died from suffocation due to the heat and limited ventilation of the box cars.  The survivors were taken to Camp O’Donnell a POW concentration camp.  At Camp O’Donnell another 1600 young Americans died. 






I am not sure the distance of the march.  The sign in front of the box car says 105 km however on the main road near the memorial I saw a Death March marker displaying 112 km.  Nevertheless I understand the march was brutal walking about 25 miles a day, if a person fell they were bayoneted, no food, no water, I could not imagine those harsh conditions.  I am an advocate for monuments of this type to preserve our history.  MAY WE NEVER FORGET.  Semper Fidelis.
Location: Capas, Philippines

Popular posts from this blog

By
Image
Bill & Brad's Motorcycle Adventure 2021 New York, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont Day 1 June 2nd Brad and Krista started from Butler, Pennsylvania and rode east along I-80. I started in Stafford, Virginia and followed route 15 North thru northern Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. After riding about five hours, we met in Danville, Pennsylvania. Brad and Krista were eating pie at a diner when I arrived. I ordered brunch.  I got a hot coffee because my hands were wet and cold. The temperatures were about 50 to 60 degrees with scattered showers. When we departed the diner, we had an eye on the clouds in the sky. I watched oncoming traffic for windshield wipers being used.  This will alert us if we should stop and put on rain suits.  We really don’t want to wear rain suits unless it is pouring rain.  Those rain suits will bake a person!  One goal of this year’s ride is to visit our longtime friend Earl.  He lives in northwestern Massachusetts...
Read more

2016 Ride to Glacier National Park

By
Image
Montana August 2016 The 2016 NoWhereRide took us to Glacier National Park, Montana. This was the second attempt at going to Glacier.  During the first ride near Glacier we ended up following the Louis and Clark Trail into Oregon. That year we rode the entire Oregon Coast from north to south - what an awesome detour! This year we met in Missoula. We did some white water rafting, experienced the Testy Festy and took in the sites of the huge mountains of Montana.   Tour Bus at Glacier Nat Park Bill rode west from northern Virginia toward Missoula. Wanting to travel quickly I rode over the mountains of Cumberland and got into the toll road. That toll road stretched from Maryland, thru Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and into Illinois. The toll road was nice in that most of the travelers stayed to the right except to pass - the rule or etiquette that most drivers in northern Virginia do not follow. The toll way had petroleum stands and restaur...
Read more