Posted: 4/10/02

New Bataan memorial on Capitol lawn

by T.W. Budig
Capitol reporter

Thereís a new memorial on the Capitol lawn, commemorating heroism and endurance exhibited on the other side of the world 60 years ago.

A plaque commemorating the survivors and victims of the Bataan Death March, the murderous herding of American and Philippino captives by the Japanese in the Philippines at the outset of the Second World War, was dedicated Tuesday (April 9).

Sen. Don Samuelson, DFL, Brainerd, whose father Walter was a member of Company A, 194th Tank Battalion of the Minnesota National Guard, who perished during the Japanese attack on Bataan, carried the memorial legislation in the Senate.

ìIím pleased to to be honoring his memory, that of the tens of thousands of other soldiers who lost their lives, and the 1,100 who survived the Death March and the Japanese prison camps on the 60th anniversary,î said Samuelson.

The Brainerd lost a large number of the young men who belonged to the 34th Tank Company of the Minnesota National Guard ó a Brainerd outfit.

The company, federalized and joined by other units, was redesignated as the 194th Tank Battalion, according a history provided by Samuelson.

The battalion was stationed at Ft. Stotsenberg, near Clark Air Field, on the island of Luzon.

Engaged in the defense of the Bataan Peninsula, American and Philippino troops, isolated and without hope of reinforcements, fell into Japanese hands with the surrender of Bataan on April 9, 1942.

Shortly after, on April 10, the POWs were marched and shipped about 100 miles without food or water to a prisoner of war camp.

During the infamous march, about 10,000 prisoners died of mistreatment or were murdered by Japanese troops.

From the first prisoner of war camp, captives were shipped to other camps throughout the Philippines or shipped to Japan in the reeking holds of unmarked Japanese ìHell Shipsî for use as slave labor.

Many of the unmarked ships were torpedoed by U.S. Navy submarines, taking even a greater toll of prisoners.

Of the original 82 officers and men of the 34th Tank Company, 61 went overseas. One man was wounded and evacuated, three killed in action, and 28 died in POW camps.

Twenty-nine survived captivity.

Less than half of the original 61 Brainerd soldiers returned home at the end of the war.

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