The Bataan Death March

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April 9 (tomorrow) is a holiday but it's a commemoration of a loss during the Second World War. The Second World War brought about a cheerless Christmas than Odette ever did. It's been some time since I studied history and this blog is just a random history blog. I would like to give my reaction to the brutal Bataan Death March. This was when Japan used to be the Empire of Japan, an enemy of the Philippines, all before Modern Japan. The Japanese Empire deserved to crumble after its atrocities. Today, the Philippines is allied with the former AXIS forces of Germany, Japan, and Italy. 

I searched on The History Channel to find some information on the Fall of Bataan. The details can be very gruesome. The very description of how the tragedy started isn't very pretty.

The surrendered Filipinos and Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese in April 1942 and forced to march some 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando. The men were divided into groups of approximately 100, and the march typically took each group around five days to complete.

Thousands of troops died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and beat the marchers, and bayoneted those too weak to walk. Survivors were taken by rail from San Fernando to POW camps, where thousands more died from disease, murder and starvation.

It's no wonder some people still have anti-Japanese sentiments. Some South Koreans have it. The Empire of Japan had a lot of atrocities. Maybe, one can read how China fell to Japan. If one saw the IP Man movie starring Donnie Yen--one might get a glimpse of Japanese brutality. A historical series on Netflix named Hymn of Death may provide a glimpse of Korea (still unified) under the Japanese empire. There are a couple of Filipino films about Japanese wartime brutality. I might recommend a documentary instead of a film. The films tend to portray violence as realistically as possible.

I could imagine marching under harsh conditions. I was wondering was the whole exercise meant to play for entertainment? How can one expect starving people to perform a long march? I guess, it was intended to amuse the Imperial Japanese military when they performed the death march. I was wondering if the whole act was performed because it'd be too boring to just shoot them, right?

The war crimes and atrocities would be a good reason why it's better to watch a documentary over a movie:

Survivors of the Bataan Death March have reported countless atrocities suffered during the march and later imprisonment, including starvation, random beatings and stabbings, and a lack of any water, shelter or basic first-aid supplies.

“One of the POWs had a ring on and the Japanese guard attempted to get the ring off,” said one U.S. prisoner. “He couldn't get it off and he took a machete and cut the man's wrist off and when he did that, of course, the man was bleeding profusely. [I tried to help him] but when I looked back I saw a Japanese guard sticking a bayonet through his stomach.”

The mistreatment of POWs was an order from the Japanese War Ministry, which read in part: “Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups, and whether it is accomplished by means of mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, or decapitation, dispose of them as the situation dictates. It is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces.”

If Germany had Adolf Hitler's cruel genocide, I could compare the Imperial Japanese to Nazi Germany. Just reading about the aftermath makes me think why the Second World War was a really bad thing.

Estimates vary widely, but the Department of Veteran’s Affairs estimates that 650 American and 16,500 Filipino soldiers were killed during and after the Bataan Death March. Other researchers claim the total number of deaths—including Filipino civilians who tried to help the marchers—is even higher.

America avenged its defeat in the Philippines with the invasion of the island of Leyte in October 1944. General Douglas MacArthur, who in 1942 had famously promised to return to the Philippines, made good on his word. In February 1945, U.S.-Filipino forces recaptured the Bataan Peninsula, and Manila was liberated in early March.

After the war, an American military tribunal tried Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march, a war crime, and was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946.

Pretty much, I believe Masaharu's execution shouldn't be a strain between the Philippines and Japan. I don't think Masaharu was ignorant of the war crimes as he said he was. The fall of Imperial Japan was a necessary event of reconciliation. I believe no reconcilation can happen until justice is administered. 

Something about Homma himself

With the death march, I think it's interesting to know how the Fall of Bataan happened. The World War II Database also shares this about the person held responsible behind the tragedy:

Given command of the Japanese Fourteenth Army for the invasion of the Philippines (Dec 1941) his strategy, although somewhat erratic, was essentially brilliant (as even MacArthur would later admit). Had the Americans counter-attacked at Lingayen Gulf the invasion might have turned into a disaster, but his conviction that MacArthur was ill-prepared was proven correct. It was his failure to complete the Philippines conquest on schedule (largely as a result of American resistance at Bataan), coupled with later charges that he was too lenient with Filipinos, which led in Aug 1942 to his disgrace and dismissal. Thereafter he retired from the military and lived in semi-seclusion in Japan until the end of the war.

In 1945, for his accused involvement with the atrocities known collectively as the Bataan Death March, Homma was arrested by the Americans and sent back to Manila to face trial as a war criminal. Homma was sentenced by an American military commission to death. Upon learning of the atrocities, Emperor Showa stripped Homma of his military commission and revoked all his medals and decorations. His wife sought a personal meeting with MacArthur, which was granted, to ask for his pardon, but MacArthur refused. MacArthur wrote in his 21 Mar 1946 review of the case:

If this defendant does not deserve his judicial fate, none in jurisdictional history ever did. There can be no greater, more heinous or more dangerous crime than the mass destruction, under guise of military authority or military necessity, of helpless men incapable of further contribution to war effort. A failure of law process to punish such acts of criminal enormity would threaten the very fabric of world society.

Nevertheless, like that of Tomoyuki Yamashita, Homma's verdict remained controversial. Many were not convinced that Homma was directly involved with the atrocities, and believed MacArthur engaged in an act of personal revenge by rushing Homma's (and Yamashita's) trial to a speedy end. Homma's defense claimed that he had been preoccupied with war plans and had delegated the treatment of prisoners to his subordinate officers, but the court refused to accept this and sentenced Homma to execution by firing squad. The sentence being carried out on 3 Apr 1946 at Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.

It can be controversial if MacArthur was just vindictive against a loss. However, I think both Yamashita and Masahuru both had it coming. If these people weren't sentenced, I doubt that relations between Japan and the Philippines would be fixed. It was just necessary to dismantle the Empire of Japan permanently. Otherwise, Japan wouldn't be a great innovator in today's global market. 


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