Bataan Memorial

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Front page of the Dispatch, April 10, 1942.  Download and zoom in to read the copy.	Sgt. Warren Lackie, Aitkin, MN

In 1941, about 60 guys from the Brainerd area deployed to the Philippines as part of the 194^th Tank Battalion.  On April 9, 1942, they were captured by the Japanese on Bataan and endured the infamous Bataan Death March and subsequent prison camps.  Later, most were sent to labor camps in Japan in what they called the Hell Ships.  Only about half of the group survived to return home.

At the outset of the war, the Brainerd area was hit harder than probably any other location in the U.S. of its size.  Almost every family was affected one way or another, including our own.  April 9 is still celebrated in Brainerd as Bataan Day.

Uncle Warren Lackie survived the war, despite labor camp in Japan and having two prison ships sunk from under him unknowingly by the U.S. Navy when he was being shipped there.

Many of us who grew up in Brainerd knew the outlines of the story.  Much more of the history is readily available today thanks to the internet and to the stories of the guys that were finally recorded as they aged.  But I had not seen any photos of the area or known what the area looked like until now.  I was very moved by what I saw during a recent trip to the Philippines and wanted to share this with you.

The photo above shows the site of Camp O'Donnell, near the town of Capas and the destination at the end of the Death March.  Conditions were horrendous here as well, causing the deaths of 30,000 Filipinos and 1000 Americans from malnutrition and disease.  It is very beautiful now with a large memorial, known as the Capas Shrine.

One of the strong impressions I've gotten from this visit is that Bataan is high on the list of things that Filipinos honor and celebrate.  The sites and locations are all marked.  There are monuments, shrines, and memorials to the sacrifices of both Americans and Filipinos.  No one who died or suffered there has been forgotten.  April 9 is a national holiday in the Philippines, the Day of Valor.

The central tower at the Capas Shrine.  There's a wall that has the names of the 30,000 Filipinos who died here.  The Americans were later sent to the Cabanatuan camp, made famous in the movie The Great Raid, and ultimately most were sent to Japan in the Hell Ships.

A boxcar at the shrine.  At various points during their captivity, the prisoners were shipped in these boxcars, 50 or more to a car.   Many died from suffocation.

The above sketch of the Bataan Peninsula provides some orientation for the following photos and videos.  The red line is the Orion-Bagac Road, which was the final line of resistance, and where the heaviest fighting took place.  The Brainerd guys were here, just inland from Orion, which was the flattest part where tanks were best used.

Theses are views from just west of Orion.  Above left is to the SW, toward Mt. Samat.  Above right is to the NW.  I think this is close to where the Brainerd guys were and the surroundings are what they would have seen, although without the houses and fields.  There was more underbrush and jungle here at the time.

These video clips give a better view of the whole area.  This one is wide-angle which gives the best overall perspective.   This one is using zoom, which provides a little better look close up.  (Turn your sound off to avoid traffic noise, etc.)

These are views just a little further inland, on the road from Orion to Bagac.  The left view is toward the southwest and the right one is to the northwest.  Again the videos show a bit more.  This one is to the SW wide-angle, then this one with zoom.  And this one is to the NW. 

What I hadn't realized before is how stiff of a resistance they put up.  I previously had the impression that the superior Japanese forces just rolled over them.  But it took four or five months of fighting and a second large force of reinforcements to defeat the Filipinos and Americans.  Actually, what probably defeated them was malnutrition.  From what I gather, the massive quantities of food that had been stockpiled before the Japanese invasion never was sent to Bataan.  For a bit more history, click here.

Mt. Samat overlooks this area and is now the site of a large shrine.

Inside the memorial hall.

There's a huge cross above the memorial hall that is lit up at night and can be seen for miles and miles.

The view east towards Manila Bay from the Mt. Samat shrine.  It was rainy, so hard to get a good view of the valley below where the guys were.  To see more photos of roadside monuments, click here.

The view from a little lower down on Mt. Samat.  Orion is at the right in this photo.  The shore of Manila Bay is visible, although hard to distinguish from the clouds.  The Orion - Bagac Road more or less bisects the photo from right to left.  This video shows the same view a bit more clearly.  Again, this the the valley where the Brainerd guys did most of their fighting and where they were at the time of the surrender (to the best of my understanding). 

I thought Bataan was very beautiful, plus the Filipinos are really friendly and fun to be with.  Click here to see more sights of Bataan and the Philippines.

Further south down the peninsula you can see Corregidor.  It's just a mile or so away.  I don't think the Brainerd guys got down this far, but it's a nice view and, of course, the island is famous.  This video gives a panorama.

This is the road from Mariveles, the very tip of the peninsula in the south.  Many of the Filipinos and Americans were marched all the way up this road, but I have the impression that the Brainerd guys didn't start out this far south.  Rather they started from just south of Orion where they were at the surrender.  I could be wrong about this.  At any rate, this is what it looks like at the tip of the peninsula.

This is the railroad station in Tarlac, which Uncle Warren mentions in his tape.  The box cars stopped near here on Christmas Eve by a church, and when the parishioners realized who were inside and on top of the box cars, they started tossing food to the prisoners, risking their lives and well-being.

The tracks are now torn up and replaced here by a basketball court.  The building is empty.  It was impossible to determine what church it was that he referred to, since everything has been changed so much.  However, there was a small chapel immediately behind me from where I took this picture.  Here's a video clip of the same.  It's nice to see kids playing.

This chapel looks too small and new to be what he saw.  But who knows?

 

 

This statue of a Filipina giving water to Filipino and American soldiers is in Kissimmee, Florida.  Other communities were hard hit, but probably none as hard as the Brainerd area, when you take into account the small population.