Pfc. Jack Brady, 228th Signal Operations Company | Alfred X. Burgos | Richard Gordon

First Hand Accounts

Many first hand accounts have surfaced about the Japanese atrocities that occurred on the Bataan Death March. Many different people experienced many different things on this march. Here is a look at a few of the first hand accounts.

Pfc. Jack Brady, 228th Signal Operations Company

"There were a couple of things that still bother me about the Death March. One of them was having to leave a friend behind because he couldn't go on and we couldn't carry him any longer. The other experience was when I tried to get some water. I guess you might say I was thirsty and I tried to get some water at one of those artesian wells. One of the Jap guards came up to me and with the butt of his rifle got me right between the shoulder blades. From the time I was hit until I got to O'Donnell I really don't remember a whole lot, because I just hurt to much."

Alfred X. Burgos

"Well, when Bataan surrendered, they gathered all of us in Mariveles, Bataan, and they told us that we had to march all the way to San Fernando Pampana because we were all going to beaccounted for and taken to prison camps. Of course,the Americans that were there were made to walk on the right side of the street to distinguish them from the Filipinos, and on the left side were all the Filipino troops. Unfortunately, as you see me, I was mistaken very many times as not being a Filipino. And always I was yanked out and put in the American group, and there of course I got slapped so many times for
crossing, but I knew very well, inside of me I said, "I am sure they are going to treat the Americans in a worse way than they're going to treat the Filipinos." And all along they started saying, "Well, you Filipinos, you know, you should have been on our side, why are you fighting for these Americans, anyway. There is no chance of them winning this war."

Richard Gordon

"As we were marching out of Bataan, men were very desperate for water. And they would break ranks and the Japanese wouldn't tolerate that. And they'd run to the side of the road to get some water. And along the side of the road would be caribou wallows, which were puddles of water that the caribou used to wallow in ...so they'd keep away flies and mosquitoes. And the Americans and the Filipinos both would actually lap up that water like a kitten would lap up milk. And of course the water was contaminated. So many of them became very ill as a result of drinking that. Several who broke ranks ...would be shot by the Japanese who were part of that detail. I saw a beheading of a Filipino who had broke ranks and ran for that type of water. So killings, yes, we saw a number of them along that march at different places."

Pvt. Leon Beck, Antitank Company, 31st Infantry

"When it came daylight the Japanese would wake you up, make you form columns of four columns of four and stand at attention. Maybe once or twice they would allow an individual to collect a bunch of canteens so that he could go and get water. Then again maybe he wouldn't. It depended on the individual guards you were with. First thing we would try to do is get all the men who were in the worst shape up to the front of the columns. That way as they got tired, and the men who were helping them wore out, we could pass them slowly back through the column taking turns holding them or helping them. We knew if a man reached a point where he couldn't walk any more , he was going to killed. So, we tried to take turns helping the sick and injured. Sometimes we would prevail upon the guards to let us regroup and we'd be able to put the sick back up front. Sometimes we couldn't. The Jap guards wanted their little moments of glory. Sometimes they'd make you run at double-time. When you got all scattered out, and the guards couldn't adequately control you, they'd stop and bunch you up again. Then they'd make you double-time again until you straggled out some more, and the same procedures would happen again. The most abusive guards I found were the Koreans. They looked different and wore a little different insignia. These Koreans had been conscripted into the Japanese Army and were used as service troops, because the Japs didn't trust them in combat. These guards hadn't seen any fighting and now they wanted to get a little bit of blood on their bayonets---gung ho."

Conclusions

This exhibit and museum were created during an introductory seminar on the Asia-Pacific War, taught at Wake Forest University during the spring semester 2002.

The material and opinions are those of their respective authors and do not represent the views of the University or the Department of History.

This exhibit was researched and designed by Vance Gonzales.