News-Info-Alerts

Re: Bataan Survivor Remembers

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: April 15, 2002

"March of death POW recalls Bataan

John Ingle - Times Record News

Henry King recalled passing Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay in June 1941 on his way to Clark Field, a U.S. Army Air Corps base in the Philippines.

He remembered several of his fellow soldiers and he saying, "I'm glad we're not there."

   Little did he know it would be four years before he would see it again.

   King, now 84 years old, was a member of the more than 70,000 United States and Filipino soldiers who began a march on April 9, 1942, as prisoners of war. It was fittingly called The Bataan Death March because thousands lost their lives during the 65-mile trek to Cabana Tuan, the final destination of the march.

   It was sheer will power and self-distraction that led King on that march.

   "A lot of it I blocked out," he said. "Instead of keeping my mind on it, I counted my steps. When I got to 1,000, I would start over."

   April 9, 2002, marked the 60th Anniversary of the Bataan Death March.

   Maj. Gen. Edward P. King Jr. surrendered to the Japanese forces surrounding Clark Field against the orders of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, King said. MacArthur wanted the men to fight until the end, he said, but his commander saw it differently.

   Gen. King told his men that he had surrendered to the invading force and that he was promised that U.S. and Filipino forces would be "treated nicely," King said. It was a promise that was short lived.

   Their Japanese captors made a circle with Jeeps and tanks, King said.
   "I didn't know if they were going to march us in there and shoot us all down or what," he said.

   The Japanese began sorting the POWs into groups of 100 and then began the march - so did the brutality at the hands of Japanese soldiers.

   "They would run their trucks through our lines just to see how many they could kill," King said. "They were a bunch of cruel people. Don't let anyone tell you different."

   The POWs were fed, King said, but not enough to completely nourish the captives.

   "As we marched, they gave us, as a ration, 5 gallons of cooked rice per 100 men," he said. "We did take a break for a few minutes to rest. There were plenty of shade trees off to the side, but they put us in the hot sun."

   Camp O'Donnell was the first stop on the march, he said. The men were so weak that they began dying at a rate of about 75 a day.

   A mass grave was dug to bury the men because of the extreme death rate, King said.

   "At some point, they moved us from Camp O'Donnell to Cabana Tuan," he said.

"The conditions were a little better because the camp was cleaner."

   King was initially left at Camp O'Donnell because the Japanese thought he was going to die. A truck later picked him up and took him to the new site of the prison camp.

   In 1944, King was one of 500 men selected to go to a location 41 miles from Nagasaki and work in a Mitsubishi coal mine. He said he was in the mine when U.S. aircraft dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

   "The guys that were supposed to relieve me were all excited," he said. "They said, 'There must have been 1,000 planes hit Nagasaki because there is a lot of smoke.'"

   Saturday, a statue was unveiled in Las Cruces, N.M., remembering those who survived and died during the Bataan Death March.

   King said he didn't think he would be able to go see the statue, but said it is an important chapter in the book about the men of Bataan.

   "We need something to remind people there was a Bataan," King said. "When you try to compare that with any other activity of the war, it was the most horrific because it did last for 3 1/2 years."

 John Ingle may be contacted at (940) 763-7532, (800) 627-1646 Ext. 532 or by e-mail at inglej@wtr.com. "