Runners retrace 1942 ‘Death March’

MARIVELES, Bataan – For 16 years now, a group of marathoners has faithfully paid tribute each year to the dead and the survivors of the infamous Death March that started in this town on April 9, 1942.

Today, the marathoners wind up in San Fernando, Pampanga their 104-kilometer non-competitive relay run which began here yesterday with a 20-meter "Walking with the Heroes."

The heroes are the handful of the 44,000 to 50,000 Filipino prisoners of war who survived the Death March and an atrocious imprisonment at Camp O’Donnel in Capas, Tarlac.

"Ours is the longest running ultramarathon retracing the Death March," said Ed Paez of the San Fernando Runners Unlimited Inc., which organizes the memorial run.

"It is something we will do in the next many years more to rekindle the heroism of those who either died or survived the march," Paez said.

Survivors recalled that the Death March was actually a series of marches, each lasting about three days, that began in large fields outside of this town and ended at the railway station in San Fernando.

Survivor Richard Gordon of Burnt Hills, New York, said when the marchers reached the train station, they were packed in 1918 model railroad boxcars used in France in World War I.

Some 100 prisoners were cramped into each boxcar, measuring 40 feet long by eight feet wide, and were brought to Camp O’Donnel where more of them would die.

The Japanese, led by Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, captured on April 3, 1942 more than 130,000 Filipinos and Americans in Bataan which was the last stronghold after Japan invaded the country in December 1941.

"Tons of precious rice were left in the warehouses upon the withdrawal into Bataan and were destroyed by the Japanese," Gordon recalled.

"Mass confusion reigned in these areas and when darkness fell, it became impossible to recognize anyone," Gordon said.

At sunrise, the Japanese would herd the marchers back on Bataan’s only concrete road and continue the march north. They would bayonet those who were too weak to continue.

"Each day and night passed without water, the marchers began breaking from their group to run to anything that resembled water," Gordon said, adding most of the men lapped up water from the mud holes where carabaos wallowed.

"Most of them would hurl themselves into a water puddle alongside the road and lap up, similar to a cat lapping milk from a saucer," Gordon added.

Official figures place the total number of marchers who reached Camp O’Donnel at between 44,000 and 50,000 while 12,000 to 18,000 were unaccounted for.

"What happened to them is unknown, but a safe guess is that between 5,000 to 10,000 of them lost their lives in the Death March," Gordon said.

At Camp O’Donnel, malnutrition, disease and atrocities further caused the death of 25,000 more Filipinos and 1,500 Americans.