04.09.08
66 Years Ago Today
Today, April 9th, marks the 66th anniversary of the Fil-American surrender to the Japanese on Bataan, Philippines. I’ve read that that surrender was the largest surrender in history.
The other day I finished reading another book called, Parade of the Dead: a U.S. Army Physician’s Memoir of Imprisonment by the Japanese, 1942-1945, by John R. Bumgarner, M.D. When I was younger, I remember my parents used to say that the Japanese were monsters, and I also remember the Chinese students at my school didn’t get along very well with the Japanese students. After reading more about what happened during WWII in Asia and the Pacific, I can see why they thought that way. I don’t have much time to do much of a thoughtful post on the subject today, but it’s easy enough to do a little research on the net to see what types of things transpired during WWII. One example would be Nanking in 1938. After reading Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides, and Bumgarners Memoirs, I’m left numb with the knowledge of what atrocities take place during war and how dehumanizing war can make men. I realize that brutality is not limited only to the Japanese, nor are all Japanese so brutal and heartless. However, reading the accounts of what the prisoners had to endure is mind boggling, and it’s amazing that anyone survived all that. Bumgarner did not participate in the Bataan Death March, but he did end up in the Cabanatuan Prison, the largest POW camp at the time, and where many of the men who endured the Bataan Death March were later imprisoned. Starvation along with the many diseases that accompany starvation ravaged the men by the thousands. As a medical doctor, Bumgarner writes of some of his observations while he cared for many of the sick prisoners. Since they had very little medications to treat the ill soldiers, most of what Bumgarner did was observe and document the diseased conditions that resulted from malnutrition. Since I am interested in health and nutrition, I found much of his observations very interesting such as it took about 3 to 4 weeks of lack of food to start seeing clinical signs of malnutrition in the men. I had written a post a while ago regarding the Ukranian Genocide and how it is said that they suffered “10 million” victims during 1932-1933 as a result of a government planned famine. I couldn’t believe it when I read “10 million!” in “one year.” It made me wonder how long people could go on without food, but now after reading Bumgarner’s accounts, it starts to make more sense. Apparently it can only take less than a month of starvation to start seeing very severe illnesses cropping up, and to also start to become susceptible to many other opportunistic diseases. War does this time and time again. Living here in a very sheltered world, I have only seen pictures and a little footage of people starving in far away countries. Little have I realized that much of it occurs during wartime.
Okay, I’ve gotta dash for now, but I did want to acknowledge today in remembrance of the thousands who died 66 years ago in the Philippines during WWII. I can see now why my dad has been so captivated by WWII history in the Pacific. He lived through it, and only recently have I started to see why he can never forget it. I called him the other day to tell him about Bumgarner’s book, and if he had read it already. Turns out it is one that he hasn’t read yet, so I dropped it off for him the other night. I told my dad, “Look what you’ve done to me! Now I’m hooked on WWII history.” I have another book reserved on the battle of Midway. His reply to me was, “Oh, finally I’m not alone.” Certainly there are many, many more people who have many memories of WWII, but I think among our family of girls, he was the only one still carrying the memories of WWII.
Oh, wait, one last comment. For anyone interested in history of WWII in the Pacific or even anyone just interested in health and the effects of malnutrition on the human body, I recommend Parade of the Dead. Don’t ever believe anyone who tells you food isn’t linked to disease and cure. Obviously they have no clue.
Marlakins
