During World War II, there was war between Japanese verses Americans-Filipinos (1942-1945). The Japanese launched a crippling surprise attack on US-Filipino forces with a fleet of high flying aircrafts out of range of the US-Filipino forces. Bataan Death March explains the atrocities committed by Japanese to the US-Filipino soldiers after surrendering due to malnutrition, diseases, lack of enough food and ammunition. The slave soldiers were made prisoners of war (POWs). A majority trekked the more than 60 miles to prison camps like the O’Donnell camp while some were stuffed into railroad cars.
Japanese have exhibited Imperialism and Aggression towards other nations (1905-1945). This includes countries like Russia, China and towards the US-Filipino soldiers in Philippines. The infamy Bataan Death March was horrific and so inhuman that its effects continue to be felt nearly a hundred years later. Bombing of the Bataan Peninsula area and destruction of base structures like runways, cookhouses and hangers was crippling and disabling to the US’s military capability in the Pacific region. The impenetrable Corregidor intensified hatred between the Japanese and US-Filipinos as they thought they were yet to surrender it to them. General McArthur together with his troop had many reasons to surrender, that including exhaustion, disease, lack of food, guns and ammunition. Besides, they were literally unable to outmatch the large number of Japanese men with their large artillery, hence submit to Japanese Army.
Consequences of US-Filipino forces surrendering to the Japanese were torture, starvation enslavement and death. Despite the harsh conditions of the war and slavery, some soldiers like Pvt. Harold Poole of the US Army Air Corps lived to tell the story of how they fought for the freedom and protection of America. The Japanese invasion into Asian nations left the Americans with an anti-Japanese sentiment characterized by a strong outrage towards the Japanese. This difficult period consequently cultivated a strong American spirit of unity and fighting to uphold American values. In addition, Americans begun to believe in the power of technology in modern warfare.
Introduction
Deep-rooted reliance on military action post-world war I in Japan sustained the existing conflict with the US. Historians have often agreed with the argument that economic challenges fueled Japan’s resolve to acquire more territory in China and other East Asian countries. Beginning North-Eastern China, Japan’s military action enabled them to take control of more and more land often suppressing communists’ freedom of expression. This drew the attention of Western countries such as the US in forming a united front against the growing Japanese power in China. The culmination of this was marked by the capture of many American and Filipino soldiers as prisoners of war (POW) who were tortured, imprisoned and then enslaved in Japanese companies. These occurrences would then shape the attitudes and opinions of the American people towards the Japanese for the rest of the century. The thesis of this paper is that despite the prolonged hardship, torture, and bloodshed that these soldiers underwent during the World War II, many Americans are not aware of the Imperial Japanese’s committed atrocities on the Bataan Peninsula neither do they have an idea of the heroic stand by the US-Filipino Marines, soldiers and sailors.
Bataan Death March
The World War II was one that left lifetime memories. The Bataan Death March is just but one of the many impacts of this war. Bataan Death March occurred in the year 1942 through to 1994. The fierce war between the Japanese and U.S soldiers began after a surprise air attack on the Philippines sequel to that of Pearl Harbor. The “Bataan Death March” describes the historical atrocities that the American soldiers underwent leading to the death of hundreds of soldiers. This was under the direction of General Masaharu Homma, a Japanese official who made the American soldiers “Prisoners of War” (POWs). After their surrender due to malnutrition and lack of enough food and ammunition, Homma directed his troops to lead U.S and Filipino forces on a seventy mile forced torture walk to a group of prisons.[1]
Due to malnutrition and harsh conditions of the march, many soldiers lost their lives. However, a significant number of them managed to trudge the distance to various prisons in which they were held captive. Despite the prolonged hardship, torture, and bloodshed that these soldiers underwent during the World War II, many Americans are not aware of the offenses Imperial Japanese’s committed atrocities on the Bataan Peninsula neither do they have an idea of the heroic stand by the US-Filipino Marines, soldiers and sailors.
Hostility towards other States is a character overt amid Japanese. Japanese aggressive behavior started as early as in the twentieth century. Interestingly, many people did not imagine that such human conduct could intensify to the extent to which it was evident in the Philippines. The ill-fated atrocities on the Bataan Peninsula committed by the Japanese Regal Army are still not known by the whole population of America. Moreover, many of them are not informed about the heroic stand made by the POWs soldiers as well as sailors and Marines.
Japanese Imperialism
The Japanese Army is imperialist and has extended their authority or rule over other countries. Their hostile actions are evident and imperialism by the Japanese military towards the American and Filipino forces was not a new thing. For instance, the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 was after the defeat of the Russian Army by Japan.[2]
Because of the treaty, the Russians were forced to submit to Japan its concession in Southern Manchuria. As a result, Japan was henceforth recognized globally as the controller and dominating power of Korea. Two decades after this treaty, the Japanese launched a full-scale attack on Manchuria because they wanted to expand their land mass in order to reduce overcrowding and increase agricultural space. [3],[4].
Japanese Invasion in China
China is another casualty of the brutal behavior of the Japanese Empire. From Manchuria, the Japanese headed southwards into Northern China. The invasion into Northern China took place in 1937. As if that was not enough, Japan was resolute in conquering many other foreign places. They thus persistently moved into Shanghai and Peking. This was after they had established control over Manchuria (Northeast China) and felt they had the military capability to extend it and conquer on the Southern side of the Great Wall. Japanese were also aware of the rising nationalism in China that was fueled by a desire to resist the new Japanese invasion.
With training sessions being near the Marco Polo Bridge, there was an increased tension between China and Japan. Military speaking, however, the Japan were way more advanced and prepared to wage war and consequently were largely successful in many attacks. In addition to this, the Imperial Army of Japan raped women and killed thousands of people later towards the end of the year 1937 in the city of Nanking.[5],[6]..This set the stage for even cruel treatment that US-Filipino forces received in Bataan and Corregidor. [7]
The sequel to China’s cruel and inhuman invasion by the Japanese is the attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack occurred in December 1941 on a Sunday morning when a high flying Japanese fleet of bombing planes launched a disabling surprise attack on Pearl Harbor’s key military base and extending to Benghazi.[8] In a fortnight, Japanese soldiers (Hohei) invaded the area after the air attack. Admittedly, these counter-attacks against Japan were done when several allied nations came together. The US provided military support and war aircrafts directly to launch air missiles in Japan military bases. Military supplies for the Chinese were obtained from India and many Chinese fighters were being trained as pilots and engineers.
One of the American soldiers who involved and witnessed this event was Pvt. Harold Poole. Poole was a soldier in the United States Army Corps. He was stationed at Clark Field on Luzon Island. According to accounts given by Harold Poole, he heard his colleagues say, “Look, the navy is showing off.” Surprisingly, these were the enemies’ airplanes. Harold, however, could tell that it was not the US Navy when he recognized the red dots on the aircraft looking similar to the Japanese’s national flag. Not long after, the Japanese aircrafts launched air attacks, bombing the US military base from twenty-five thousand feet above, a height that the US aircrafts could not reach. The attack proved devastating because the runway, aircraft hangers and cookhouses were destroyed. Japanese tactfully aimed at crippling the air capability of the United States’ military force in the Pacific Region. [9],[10]
Implication of the Bataan Death March
The Bataan Region
The last resort for the American soldiers, which was highly forested, was the Bataan region Peninsula in the Philippines. Areas like Manila was made non-occupied by General Douglas McArthur who ordered people to evacuate the area that was later bombed in December 1941. In the following year, the occupants of this region, Bataan were the Imperial Japanese Army. [11],[12] At this time, the long tunnel hallway shaped natural rock formation (Corregidor) was not penetrable by any weapon nor bombs. Many of the higher ranking officials used this area that was near the Bataan Peninsula as a secure base. Americans soldiers who were diseased, physically and mentally exhausted, and very malnourished fought a non-ending battle with fierce gunfights, which lasted hours. To the American soldiers, the brutal attack by Japanese indicated an endless supply of invading men as well as artillery. Despite being promised backup troops or reinforcements by General McArthur from the safe haven of Corregidor, which was in vain, the US-Filipino forces kept on fighting relentlessly. They loss was nonetheless primarily because of lack of reinforcement through air attacks and because they ran out of ammunition. Consequently, the American soldiers were forced to surrender at Bataan notwithstanding the hard fight that lasted almost three months. [13]
General Edward’s Surrender
General Edward King’s surrender was influenced by many factors. Among many reasons were malnutrition, the inadequacy of ammunition and starvation of soldiers who survived on unclean water and small rice portions. Edward’s decision to admit defeat marked the beginning of the Bataan Death March. Untimely as it might look, General Edward’s had little option but yield to the strong Japanese army. Starvation, disease and the lack of ammunition rendered the US-Filipino forces weaker and weaker to the point of surrender. The heroic US-Filipino forces had been hard-pressed to the edge of starvation and hopelessness and therefore it was wise to submit to the Japanese Army. Notably, General Edward King was not aware of the consequences of surrendering his troops. The infuriated Japanese Army turned out to be cruel and were inhumanly brutal to the American troops simply because, in their view, the US soldiers were not conceding Corregidor that was still impenetrable by the Japanese. [14],[15] In spite of their submission, the American soldiers were forced to march through sixty-five miles, which today is known as Bataan Death March.
The Long Walk, Imprisonment " Torture
The American troops were being transported and directed by the Japanese military to some of the dozens of Prisoners of War camps. Camp O’Donnell is one of the most important prisons that was being used to hold captive the Americans. It is located eighty five miles away from the region of Bataan. Homma, the Japanese General transported some of the Americans to the camps through railroad cars but due a limited carriage space, some soldiers were forced to match, ill and hungry, for some sixty five miles under the scorching sun of April and May [16],[17]. In addition, the troops were brutally murdered when the Japanese military deemed the soldiers weak or disobedient.
In the prison, the US soldiers encountered a harsh treatment. A large number of the prisoners of war spent their nights outside the camps on concrete grounds despite heavy rain. As if this was not enough torture, they were forced to shower in groups of ten and wash their clothes at the same time. Not often was there soap to use during the bathing or washing times. In addition to these, some troop members fell sick from various diseases such as malaria while others ended up being blind and paralyzed particularly the legs. Not to forget, these men were only eating a bowl of rice with soup and unclean drinking water in a day. [18],[19],[20] One of the many soldiers who survived the terrifying torture, Harold Poole gives an account of his encounter with a few doctors he met at the Camp of O’Donnell. Poole reports that he visited this hospital when his legs were swollen to get some remedy only to be told that he suffered from beriberi and that there was no medicine for that disease at that time [21].
The “Hell Ships”
Another incidence of aggression by the Japanese is the “hell ships”. Emperor Hirohito in 1942 issued a notice to Japanese chiefs in charge of transport letting them know that Japan was in dire need of more labor. The captured soldiers would be enslaved at the Mitsubishi company copper mines, Hirohata Steel Works and Mitsui company coal mines. Hirohito constantly sent letters to these officials who transported the white and Filipino prisoners of war to Japan on cargo ships. The government commandeered ships that transported laborers offered uninhabitable conditions besides the ruthless treatment hence the name “hell ships”. [22] On route to Japan from the Philippines, many soldiers died as the ships they were transported with continued transporting Japan citizens, livestock and war weapons. So cruel was the Japanese rule that some prisoner-soldiers jumped overboard into the open ocean but often could not survive the strong tides, hunger and dehydration that soon followed. Moreover, inhumane working conditions were the norm as the work environments were dangerous, loads were too heavy, there was only a single day for rest in a month and very little food and dirty water was offered. [23]
Attitudes " Opinions of the American people on the Japanese
Key amongst these attitudes is the anti-Japanese sentiment by the Americans. The root cause of this was the Pearl Harbor attacks that was viewed in the US as a cowardly approach to war by Japan. Subsequent events that fueled this hatred were the brutal treatment of captured American soldiers, their murder, enslavement into Japanese companies and the Bataan Death March. So profound was this outrage in the US that it was commonplace to find anti-Japan racist columns all over magazines and dailies throughout the US. Racism against Japanese was acceptable! The need to retaliate against Japan and her allies (Germany and Italy) would bring about so much unity that the President would approve a secret research nuclear project that was assigned the name “The Manhattan Project”. Occasionally, there would be vandalism of either cars or property on grounds that it belonged to a Japanese post-world war II.
Secondly, there was a shift in attitudes concerning technology, it’s availability and use especially in war. Many Americans felt that possession and use of superior war technology would henceforth be a game-changer in modern warfare. The Pearl Harbor attacks were conducted using six aircraft carriers holding a combined total of about 500 planes. Consequently, Americans felt it was imperative that they develop more advanced military technology if they were to challenge the hitherto unrivaled Japanese power throughout East Asia. This belief was supported by the fact that Japanese also felt that the impact of the Pearl Harbor attack would be so strongly felt in the US that America would voluntarily opt out of providing military support against Japan. It is not surprising that four years later America would use this same rationale to carry out the catastrophic Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb attacks[24]. The second time, however, there was a difference because Japan lost so many civilians that Hirohito, Japan’s Emperor at the time, voluntarily and unconditionally yielded to the US through a radio address.
Today, the same attitudes prevail among the American people. Over the last 10 years, the defense budget in the US has almost approached 20% of the total budget. In 2019 alone, the congress has already allocated some $719 billion making 17% of the US GDP for defense funding alone[25]. This has enabled intensive research into developing the world’s most advanced military technology.
It gave birth to the American spirit. It has been discussed that Japan gambled that the devastating effect of the Pearl Harbor attacks would influence America’s decision to back off and withdraw military support against Japan. Instead, the American’s became more resolute to bring Japan’s influence down[26]. The US became more determine to be involved in war even if American soil was not under direct attack. In December 8, 1941, a day after the Pearl Harbor attacks, America had a record enlistment of men into the military for service. Americans felt more loyal and as a result were unified by the common interest to defeat the enemy. Americans were not only outraged and felt they should engage Japan more, they also actively signed up to serve the country in war. They believed in what they could do for their country more that what the country could do for them, one of the pillars of the American Dream.
Conclusion
Certainly, it is unfortunate that a large percentage of America’s population do not have any idea of the atrocities that the Imperial Japanese Army forced the white and Filipino soldiers to undergo in the Philippines, Bataan Peninsula as well as the troops’ heroic stand World War II in Asia. In the present-day school settings, such testaments should be taught further so that the people of America can be witnesses to the astonishing tales of these real and courageous champions who struggled, fought relentlessly and in most cases died for America’s protection and freedom.
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[1] Dyess, William Edwin. Bataan Death March: A Survivor's Account. U of Nebraska Press, 1944.
[2] Trani, Eugene P. The Treaty of Portsmouth: An Adventure in American Diplomacy. University Press of Kentucky, 2015.
[3]Young, Louise. Japan's total empire: Manchuria and the culture of wartime imperialism. Vol. 8. Univ of California Press, 1998.
4 Ogata, Sadako N. Defiance in Manchuria: the making of Japanese foreign policy, 1931-1932. Univ of California Press, 1964.
[5] Harris, Sheldon H. Factories of death: Japanese biological warfare, 1932-1945, and the American cover-up. Psychology Press, 2002.
[6] Chang, Iris. The rape of Nanking: The forgotten holocaust of World War II. Basic Books, 2014.
[7] Jackson, Calvin G. Diary of Col. Calvin G. Jackson, MD: Kept During World War II, 1941-1945. Ohio Northern University, 1992.
[8] Hancock, Larry. Surprise Attack: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11 to Benghazi. Counterpoint, 2015.
[9] Editors, History.com. 2018. "Bataan Death March Begins". HISTORY. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bataan-death-march-begins.
[10] Wohlstetter, Roberta. Pearl Harbor: warning and decision. Stanford University Press, 1962.
[11]Manchester, William. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964. Back Bay Books, 2008.
[12] Kolakowski, Christopher L. Last Stand on Bataan: The Defense of the Philippines, December 1941-May 1942. McFarland, 2016.
[13] Murphy, Kevin C. Inside the Bataan Death March: Defeat, Travail and Memory. McFarland, 2014.
[14]Murphy, Inside the Bataan Death March: Defeat, Travail and Memory. McFarland, 2014
[15]Dyess, William Edwin. Bataan Death March: A Survivor's Account. U of Nebraska Press, 1944.
[16]Tanaka, Yuki. Hidden horrors: Japanese war crimes in World War II. Rowman " Littlefield, 2017.
[17]Dyess, Lt-Colonel William. The Dyess Story-The Eye-Witness Account Of The DEATH MARCH FROM BATAAN [Illustrated Edition]. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2014.
[18]Brougher, Edward W. South to Bataan, North to Mukden: The Prison Diary of Brigadier General WE Brougher. University of Georgia Press, 2010.
[19]Tenney, Lester I. My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March. Potomac Books, Inc., 2000.
[20]Norman, Michael. Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath. Macmillan, 2009.
[21]Knox, Donald. Death march: the survivors of Bataan. Harcourt, 1981.
[22]Tenney, Lester I. My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March. Potomac Books, Inc., 2000.
[23]Knox, Donald. Death march: the survivors of Bataan. Harcourt, 1981.
[24] Ham, Paul. "The Manhattan Project." In Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath, 2nd ed., 105-146. New York: Macmillan, 2015.
[25] Harrison, Todd. Analysis of the FY 2017 Defense Budget, 1st ed. Washington DC: Rowman " Littlefield, 2016.
[26] Harris, Sheldon H. Factories of death: Japanese biological warfare, 1932-1945, and the American cover-up. Psychology Press, 2002.
