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CLEVELAND SKYLINE
BORN HERE RAISED HERE AND MOST LIKELY WILL PASS AWAY AND BE BURIED HERE AS WELL.

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I've been in my own boat sitting out in this water looking at this view. Awesome!-Sandee. This is a Tip of The Hat to Sandee, my Co-Author and blog wizard.

The Blogger's Prayer

Lord help me to learn to spell without spellcheck, manage to visit all that visit me, and post regularly - all in 5 minutes a day, so that I can clean house and take care of my family. Help me to not look at every occurrence in my life as a blog post, and to quit taking pictures of weird things to share as well. Please Lord, help me to stop talking about my blog friends as though they are next door neighbors or someone I have known all of my life. And help me dear Lord, to think of something witty and wise to post tomorrow.


Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wednesday's hero

Wednesday Hero has never been issued a warning before but I felt it necessary for this one. This post contains graphic descriptions of torture and brutality that some may find it difficult to read.



This weeks Wednesday Hero is dedicated to thousands of men who lost their lives in April of 1942 in what has become known as the Bataan Death March.

On April 9, 1942 Major General Edward P. King, Jr. surrendered 75,000+ men (Filipinos, Chinese Filipinos, and Americans) who had been fighting the Japanese since January of that year when they launched a full scale invasion of The Philippines. They were starving and wracked with disease. Upon their surrender the men were robbed of their possessions and forced into a 61 mile, 5-12 day, march to Camp O'Donnell. Along the way men were brutally beaten, staved of food and water, some had their throats cut, some were beheaded, some died to disease or exposure or untreated wounds and others were simply executed. In all the death tally is unknown but it's estimated that between 6,000 to as many as 20,000 men didn't survive the march.

Maj. Richard Gordon: "I didn't come down with a surrender group. They caught me actually two days after the surrender took place. First thing I did was receive a good beating. And everything I had in my wallet, in my pockets was taken from me. And as I was marched down that road, where they captured me, I passed my battalion commander, Major James Ivy, and he had been tied to a tree and he was stripped to the waist and he was just covered with bayonet holes. He was dead obviously. And he had bled profusely. He had been bayonetted by many, many bayonets. And that's when I knew we had some troubles on our hands. We were in for deep trouble. And they brought us down into a staging area and put me in with the rest of the thousands that were assembled on the side of the road, and that's where I spent my first night."

Here's a great link with more information and interviews with survivors.

The sacrifice and Hell that these men went through will not be forgotten. I don't know about anyone else, but I never learned about this while in school. If you're children aren't being taught this piece of history make sure that you do it for them. These men must be remembered and honored.



These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
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5 comments:

  1. This was indeed a very sad time in our history. Very sad indeed.

    Have a terrific day Mike. Big hug. :)

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  2. Sandee, and Wanda's Wings,extremely sad indeed.It seems that history is just filled with cases of extreme cruelity to P.O.W.s.

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  3. They are heroes. Thanks for highlighting this sad time.

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  4. Mari,for one minuite I thought that it might be a little tough to read but I decided that this had to be shared.

    ReplyDelete

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