063 Riding the Death March

Big Mac Drink, Death March

Sort of a juxtapose, a bar named for General Douglas McArthur with his signature corn cob pipe next to a painting of the Death March monuments. This illustrates the ridiculous inhumanity of war. Details are sketchy, Wikipedia says that the Japanese had 52,000 troops. After battling for 3 months Gen. King surrendered more than 74,000 men. The Japanese had expected 25,000 prisoners and were ill prepared to handle the huge influx.

The march was only 97 Ks (About 60 miles) but they were in bad condition and in extreme conditions. They marched on dusty roads for a week before reaching Camp O’Donnell. Then they were sent on “Hell Ships” to Japan and Manchuria and used as slave labor.

I don’t know why but I always thought that thousands of American GIs died. About 600 Americans perished, the balance of the 24,000 victims were Philippino troops. Also, for some reason, maybe the movie when I was a kid, I thought that they were force marched for months and for thousands of miles? WAR IS HELL, STUPID HELL.