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.
