April 9, 1942... 6 days, 60 miles.... more than 75,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war...
Mike was out of town for two days. He went to Bataan for a shoot on a documentary he is doing about the Bataan Death March.
The infamous Bataan Death March, where thousands of starving and disease-ridden Filipinos and Americans captured by the Japanese in the Philippines from the Bataan peninsula were made to march to prison camps, was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse, murder, savagery, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon the prisoners and civilians along the route by the armed forces of the Empire of Japan. Thousands died en route from disease, starvation, dehydration, heat prostration, untreated wounds, and wanton execution. Prisoners were beaten randomly, and were often denied promised food and water. Those who fell behind were usually executed or left to die; the sides of the roads became littered with dead bodies and those begging for help.
When I saw some of the videos Mike brought home, I still felt goosebumps just like the first time I learned about it in my history class in elementary school. No matter how many years had passed, when you hear about it, it just breaks your heart to think about what those men had to go through 66 years ago.
On the Bataan Death March, approximately 54,000 of the 75,000 prisoners reached their destination. The death toll of the march is difficult to assess as thousands of captives were able to escape from their guards. All told, approximately 5,000-10,000 Filipino and 600-650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach Camp O'Donnell in Tarlac.
6 days, 97 kilometers, more than 10,000 Filipinos and Americans died.
"The first of April
is the day we remember
what we are the other 364 days of the year."
~By Mark Twain~
April Fools' Day or
All Fools' Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.
Origin and History
here and Top 100 Hoaxes of all time
here
Have a fun April Fool's Day! ;)
