MacTheKnife
Gold Member
- Jul 20, 2018
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Memorial Day or Decoration Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday is currently observed every year on the last Monday of May.
I wanted to point that out because I am sure many perhaps even most of the younger generation....aka millenials have no idea what it is all about.....to them just another opportunity to party.
Anyhow.....let us remember those who have fallen in our defense...let us pause if just for a moment to give thanks for their service.
Far too many do not realize just how much so many have sacrificed.
I have been reading a book "The Rising Sun" by John Toland.
I was just reading the part talking about the Bataan Death March....last night. Let me take the time...to post some of it.
I thank the Lord..that I have the time because I well could have been just a statistic as so many have been.
Now the following is not pleasant or nice....in fact it is horrible.....so some may wish to skip this...I do not blame you...I find it exceedingly hard to read...I do not cry easily but this brings tears to my eyes. I pray to The Lord America never lets this happen again.
"inching their way along the road came a ragged formation of dirty, unkempt, unshaven, ragged, half naked forms, pale, bloated, lifeless. They staggered and stumbled, some plodded , others uncertain of their balance and strength lay down only to be urged to continue by the attendants who in many instances were only slightly more able than those they were assisting(to fall down and not be able to get up meant getting bayoneted) Limbs grotesquely swollen to double their size. Faces devoid of expression--form or life. Aged incredibly beyond their years. Bare feet on the stony road. Remnants of ragged gunny sacks as loin cloths. Some stark naked. Bloodshot eyes and cracked lips. Smeared with excreta from their bowels. Thus they came...to the end of the road," by Colonel James Gillespie Medical Officer.
These were some of those who made it to the end of the Battaan Death March....but whose suffering was far from over....the remnants of the once strong, young, and alert Americans of the 31st Infantry--and the Air Corps.
These prisoners had been forced to eat cats, dog, baby rats and garbage to remain alive; by now they had lost an average of fifty-five pounds.
In the first year at Cabanatuan 2,644 of the complement of about 6,500 who had survived the actual march to the end --had died from malaria, dsysetery, diptheria and other diseases.
Their deaths according to Dr. Samuel M. Bloom , a captain, were directly attributed to the neglect of the Japanese, the result of a deliberate policy of starvation and the withholding of medical supplies.
Many of the prisoners who were still alive at the time MacArthur invaded the phillipines were put on ships...the so called 'hell ships'...to be shipped to Japan for slave labor.
Major Bodine one of the survivors kept a clandestine diary.
He along with 700 other surviviors were herded into a dungeon like forward hold of the ship.
It's previous occupants had been horses and no one had cleaned up after them.
In a few minutes the air was dead and hot....they became soaked with perspiration, the only ventilation came through a small hatch. A few pails had been tossed down to them for human waste...they quickly began to over-flow. The hold reeked from urine and feces scattered on the floor. From the darkness came a shriek "Oh my God" a man had urinated into a canteen and drank it. A inhuman noise rose over the sighs and moans...it sounded like the gobbling of turkeys.
It was crazed men babbling. They were given no water. The men stripped in the oven-like heat. In the darkness they shouted for water. The guards ignored them. The prisoners slowly exhausted the oxygen from the air. One man suffocating toppled over silently with incredible restraint....but others gasping for breath slashed about wildly before collapsing and dying. A dozen crazed by thirst went beserk--they slashed at the throats and wrists of their companions to drink their blood. The panic turned the hold into bedlam.
As the dimlight of dawn filtered through the hatch scores lay lifeless....suffocated or murdered.
and they had not even left the port yet.
I wanted to point that out because I am sure many perhaps even most of the younger generation....aka millenials have no idea what it is all about.....to them just another opportunity to party.
Anyhow.....let us remember those who have fallen in our defense...let us pause if just for a moment to give thanks for their service.
Far too many do not realize just how much so many have sacrificed.
I have been reading a book "The Rising Sun" by John Toland.
I was just reading the part talking about the Bataan Death March....last night. Let me take the time...to post some of it.
I thank the Lord..that I have the time because I well could have been just a statistic as so many have been.
Now the following is not pleasant or nice....in fact it is horrible.....so some may wish to skip this...I do not blame you...I find it exceedingly hard to read...I do not cry easily but this brings tears to my eyes. I pray to The Lord America never lets this happen again.
"inching their way along the road came a ragged formation of dirty, unkempt, unshaven, ragged, half naked forms, pale, bloated, lifeless. They staggered and stumbled, some plodded , others uncertain of their balance and strength lay down only to be urged to continue by the attendants who in many instances were only slightly more able than those they were assisting(to fall down and not be able to get up meant getting bayoneted) Limbs grotesquely swollen to double their size. Faces devoid of expression--form or life. Aged incredibly beyond their years. Bare feet on the stony road. Remnants of ragged gunny sacks as loin cloths. Some stark naked. Bloodshot eyes and cracked lips. Smeared with excreta from their bowels. Thus they came...to the end of the road," by Colonel James Gillespie Medical Officer.
These were some of those who made it to the end of the Battaan Death March....but whose suffering was far from over....the remnants of the once strong, young, and alert Americans of the 31st Infantry--and the Air Corps.
These prisoners had been forced to eat cats, dog, baby rats and garbage to remain alive; by now they had lost an average of fifty-five pounds.
In the first year at Cabanatuan 2,644 of the complement of about 6,500 who had survived the actual march to the end --had died from malaria, dsysetery, diptheria and other diseases.
Their deaths according to Dr. Samuel M. Bloom , a captain, were directly attributed to the neglect of the Japanese, the result of a deliberate policy of starvation and the withholding of medical supplies.
Many of the prisoners who were still alive at the time MacArthur invaded the phillipines were put on ships...the so called 'hell ships'...to be shipped to Japan for slave labor.
Major Bodine one of the survivors kept a clandestine diary.
He along with 700 other surviviors were herded into a dungeon like forward hold of the ship.
It's previous occupants had been horses and no one had cleaned up after them.
In a few minutes the air was dead and hot....they became soaked with perspiration, the only ventilation came through a small hatch. A few pails had been tossed down to them for human waste...they quickly began to over-flow. The hold reeked from urine and feces scattered on the floor. From the darkness came a shriek "Oh my God" a man had urinated into a canteen and drank it. A inhuman noise rose over the sighs and moans...it sounded like the gobbling of turkeys.
It was crazed men babbling. They were given no water. The men stripped in the oven-like heat. In the darkness they shouted for water. The guards ignored them. The prisoners slowly exhausted the oxygen from the air. One man suffocating toppled over silently with incredible restraint....but others gasping for breath slashed about wildly before collapsing and dying. A dozen crazed by thirst went beserk--they slashed at the throats and wrists of their companions to drink their blood. The panic turned the hold into bedlam.
As the dimlight of dawn filtered through the hatch scores lay lifeless....suffocated or murdered.
and they had not even left the port yet.
