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I would like to comment on the recent article written by Ms. Yukie Sasa, on her historical trip on the Infamous Bataan Death March. Although many books have been written in the United States reflecting the history of the Bataan Death March, Ms. Sasa states that the Japanese perspective of the March has been sorely missing, Because of that, I am pleased that Ms. Sasa took the time and effort to evaluate the effects of that March on we survivors. After closely reviewing the article I could not help but conclude that the author went on the route of the Bataan Death March to prove that the March was not as bad as the victims said it was, and that the stories told by we survivors of the Death March were false and without merit. A most insulting conclusion. Let’s examine a few of the author’s remarks as they relate to actual experience of many former POWs. In Ms. Sasa’s opening remarks she stated that the POWs carried no weapons (correct, we had just been captured and prisoners do not carry weapons) and just had a canteen of water. Well the real story was that we had with us only that which we had on our bodies the minute the Japanese soldier arrived in our area and took us as prisoners. If we were lucky we had a canteen, and a hat, but for many of us, the Japanese soldiers arrived in our area at 6:00 A.M. on April 10, 1942, and after a few minutes of hollering and seeking cigarettes, they herded us together and forced us to walk to the main road on Bataan and we took with us only those possessions we had on our bodies at that time. Many had no canteen and no head covering. So we marched for the first four days without food or water. Secondly, Ms. Sasa stated she was in similar health as were the POWs because she just had diarrhea and was in a state of malnutrition. Does she understand what malnutrition is? Having diarrhea for a day or two does not mean you have malnutrition. We POWs were on a diet of 500 calories a day for the last 60 days. Our diet had little or no protein, no vitamins, and we underwent hard and severe daily exercise due to the constant military fighting necessary to stay alive. Many had malaria and dysentery which occurred on the March due to the POWs drinking tainted water from Caribou wallows. Then she stated that the area of the March had “Green trees and there was a lot of shade.” The author’s trip to the Philippines was 64 years after the Bataan Death March, and certainly in that period of time you would have green trees and lots of shade available to you. Ms. Sasa then stated that if the Japanese Army had planned the atrocity they would have held them on the spot where they were captured. That of course was impossible, as stated later in her report, the Japanese main objective was to capture Corregidor, and large shell bombing was necessary to achieve this objective. Having 70,000 Filipino and American forces on Bataan at that time would have rendered the objective difficult if not impossible. So removing the prisoners as fast as possible was of the utmost importance to the Japanese high command, not how the prisoners were going to be treated. Now for a few additional items of difference: Ms. Sasa walked from 8:30 in the morning to about 4:30 in the afternoon, with a break for lunch. Then she had a nice dinner, a hot bath, and went to sleep in a bed in a hotel. I wonder, did she have a change of clothing? Then after a good night’s sleep she started the next day refreshed. Does that sound like a day in the life of a POW on the Bataan Death March? We walked from sun up to sun down. No lunch break, no dinner, and sleeping was in a large warehouse that could easily hold 500 men but was crowded with 1,200 men who had little if any space to lay down. And when you had to remove your body waste you were forced to do it on the floor where you slept. Does that sound like what Ms. Sasa underwent on her March? Where in the world did she get the information that stated the POWs marched only in the early morning and at night, and rested during the day? How preposterous a story! Tell me, how was it possible that the editors of the honorable and prestigious Bungei Shunju would publish such obvious biased reporting and conclusions? Ms. Sasa voiced opinions that had no relationship to actual events that took place 64 years ago. In fact, she walked those many kilometers, but learned so very little. Please remember we POWs walked with Japanese soldiers constantly hollering at us, and if we didn’t walk fast enough they beat us with whatever they had available, the butt of a rifle, a sword, a cane or a piece of bamboo. Did Ms. Sasa have anyone hollering at her or threatening to beat her for not walking fast enough, or for stopping to eat? What happened to the author when she had to defecate or urinate? If we stopped for such an important body function we would be badly beaten or killed, depending only on the mood of the soldier at that time and at that place. Now for the necessities of life; water. The author states that, “there were paddy fields, irrigation ditches, and reservoirs. There could not have been a problem with water supply.” Once again we are led to believe that the land and environment conditions in the year 2005 were the same as they were in 1942. How foolish an assumption. During the fighting on Bataan there were many battles where high exploding shells of both the Japanese and the Americans destroyed the land. Where now there are paddy fields, irrigation ditches and reservoirs, 60 years ago no such environment conditions existed. Why bring up conditions today and try to compare them with conditions of yesteryear? But lets not stop there; lets continue discussing the water situation. I saw with my own eyes a POW being killed with a bayonet into his back because he stopped at a free flowing artesian well for a cup of water. Killed for a drink of water. And what about the Caribou wallows that lined every road in the Philippines where the animals sat during the hot days. The water in those wallows was filthy, and contained among other things, animal dung. But when you are thirsty and without water for days on end, a desire for water takes over your sense of right and wrong and you leap from the line of marchers and push the scum on top of the water away so you could get a drink of this so called water. Dysentery was the end result, and death followed closely behind. I wonder where did Ms. Sasa get her water? And how much water did she drink during a day on her March? Lastly, a Japanese war reporter was told by a Japanese soldier that they gave the POWs their food, tobaccos and water, and, as they supposed to have said, “ended up having nothing.” Who is going to believe that? What is the author trying to prove by putting that quotation in her article? In addition, when former POWs gave their testimony as to their mistreatment by Japanese soldiers, and how they were deprived of food and water, Ms. Sasa quickly tried to show how unreliable the testimony of former POWs was. It appears that the author is twisting the story about the POW testimony to fit her agenda and thus prove her point. Please Ms. Sasa, stop listening to those who have been trying for years to make the Japanese people believe the Death March never happened. Your article gave credence to those who want the world to think only good of the Japanese soldiers from WW II. It appears to me that you, as a journalist, should be held responsible for portraying conditions on the Bataan Death March as accurately as possible, taking into account the differences of land uses, the environment and other general conditions that exist today as compared with those conditions from yesteryear. Also please remember, from the beginning of the war the American and Japanese soldiers were trying to kill each other, so when the war ended triumphantly for the Japanese there was a jubilant feeling of victory, and victors always celebrate. Much has changed Ms. Sasa between the years 1942 and 2005. I am concerned that the readers of your article may have been misled into believing things on the March were not as bad as we survivors of the Bataan March know them to be. Well, when the surrender came on April 9, 1942, fifty-percent of the Americans on Bataan were on sick call due to battle wounds or sickness from malaria. Walking any distance would be difficult if not impossible, but being forced to walk, or the alternative of being killed, made many of the men do the impossible, they survived the March to their first prison camp, Camp O’Donnell, but even then, after surviving the March to our first camp many more died due to Malaria, dysentery contracted from the tainted water from Caribou wallows, and wounds suffered from the Japanese guards. And so the authors story ends, ends with the statement, “When we know the facts it will become apparent that there is no such thing that only one side is to blame.” So tell me Ms. Sasa, what did my many friends or I do to share the blame for the tragic events of the Bataan Death March? We surrendered and gave up our guns and ammunition, we responded to every Japanese command; we didn’t talk back or try to hit any of the Japanese soldiers. I for one walked on the March with a broken nose, two teeth knocked out, a gash on my head and a sword wound on my shoulder, all from Japanese soldiers while on the March. So what did I do to be labeled “also blamed for the tragic events of the Bataan Death March?” Publishing your article as you did, is not only an insult to a person’s intelligence, it is an insult to we survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. In closing this review of the Bataan Death March: Fact or Fiction, I am saddened by the fact that so few of we survivors are still around to contradict these erroneous reports of what happened on the Death March. Maybe that is why the research project of Ms. Sasa was undertaken at this late date, with not many around to dispute the results. The tragic events of those days must be told, and should be told by those who were there because we survivors know the conflict better than most researchers or journalists will ever know. I am reminded of the importance of good communication as well as the consequences of miscommunication. With this in mind it is my belief that the Japanese people should be more informed of events from WW II and not be deprived of the History of their great and honorable country. The war has been over for sixty plus years, long enough for anybody to be able to come to grips with their past, and to be better able to move forward in a strong and positive way. Let us not continue finding ways to justify a wrong, for a wrong is always wrong, no matter how many people say otherwise. Lester Tenney, Ph.D. |