The Bataan Death March experiences told by Edgar McIlvain himself a few days after the surrender on April 9, 1942:
We started at Clark Field and the destination was San Fernando in the Philippines. This was a distance of 187 kilometers (1 kilometer is 5/8 mile) which took those who survived eight days to complete. Friday before the death march, I came down with malaria and had walked with it through the whole ordeal. The only medication I received was carried by the Army medics on the march. The march was done day and night. The temperature reached 120 degrees during the day and in the evening it would only get down to between 90 to 95 degrees. Many marchers went crazy because of thirst. If someone ran to a nearby sugarcane field to sip the sugarcane sprout he was bayonetted or shot. Many American lives were lost for just wanting a sip of water.
When we hit camp beatings were a daily occurrence. We called them reform bats or vitamin sticks. We were put in 10 men work teams and worked 10 hour days, seven days a week. We never had a day off. It seemed to us as if the Japanese were hoping that we would all just give up and die. As for escape, one could say that the chances of escape were plenty. Given many examples of the escape rule and consequences the Japanese only had one rule, if one escapes, the other nine in his work group had to go outside of the camp as a group and dig their own graves. Then they would be executed. This was a sight that would be witnessed by the entire camp. It left one to give escape a long thought. It also led everyone in a group to keep a close eye on his mates.
This home was built by the Dunkirk community for Edgar McIlvain, at left.
From San Fernando, I was shipped to Cabanatuan, and from there to the prison camp at Camp O'Donnell near Cabanatuan. Records shown that 2,641 Americans died on this march. At Camp O'Donnell another 1,806 Americans died. Being somewhat skilled from my CCC experience I was then in September shipped to Manila. Then we were put on a boat and sailed to Japan proper. When I reached my destination I found my weight had gone from 187 pounds at Clark Field to 83 pounds.
I was allowed to receive medical help at the makeshift aid station and upon feeling better I was sent to a Japanese prison camp named Oaska No. 1, in Hirohti, a few miles from Oaska. This camp provided labor to work the Japanese war steel plant mills. While working in the steel mills I first noticed my sight was leaving me. It was because of malnutrition and lack of vitamins. At the steel mills the food improved. We were rationed 520 grams of food each day which was about three-quarter of a pound of food.
We did get a little revenge while working the steel mills. In our group of prisoners we had a member who knew a lot about metals and making molds and castings. We put crushed tea leaves we had saved from our daily rations in the product. The Japanese never could understand why the problems existed and never blamed us for this on-going problem. On Thanksgiving Day, 1945 we heard the first wave of bombing of Japan's mainland. Then the day in August when the atomic bomb was dropped was a day we in the mills will never forget. The guards were occupied with protecting Japan's mainland. We were basically left unattended with only a handful of scared Japanese guards. We were still in camp but now had a light at the end of the tunnel.
On Sept. 9, 1945 our camp was liberated. I had contracted diseases including scurvy, pellagra, beriberi, malaria and dysentery as a POW. while in Japan.
Now free we boarded ships and sailed to Manilla. At sea many POWs came down with Bell's palsy immediately. When we docked in Manilla I was transported to the air field and was airlifted to Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco. I was finally going home! Next I was shipped to Valley Forge Hospital in Pennsylvania and was in treatment until March of 1946. When I was done with treatment the army sent me to Avon, Conn. to receive rehabilitation for my handicap. In September 1946 the army air corp honorably discharged me.
While in rehab I was given the opportunity to work myself back to normal life doing the simple things at first; building a small model airplane, painting and leatherwork. It all made me come back and since I enjoyed that so much I decided to go into the craft business. That very well could be the reason why the hobby shop came into my life.
This was Edgar's story of a man who had lived a normal life for just 23 years. Then at age 23 his life became controlled by the Japanese soldier. If McIlvain stopped to just smile or stop a second to rest his life would have been taken away. People need to read or view the real story about the Bataan Death March to understand what our soldiers like Edgar McIlvain went through. Many would say the stories couldn't have occurred, yet the same stories told by Japanese soldiers who were there agreed that those crimes against humanity did happen. An earlier OBSERVER local hero story featuring Leola Coniglio of Fredonia, U.S. army nurse, actually was invited to witness the Japanese war crimes trails which included charges placed for crimes in the Bataan Death March.
War makes different rules. Japanese soldiers that are still alive today were interviewed by the History Channel stated that the Japanese soldier had been trained with the thought to treat any captured American soldier as a "rabid mad dog." This Japanese soldier agreed that during this march the captured Americans were actually considered rabid mad dogs. The treatment given to them was simply because they had been captured. That was also the reason why the U.S. witnessed so few surrenders from the Japanese later on in the war at Iwo Jima, Midway, Okinawa and other island battles. The Japanese felt that surrender had no honor. This march in Bataan is seldom talked about. It happened only hours after Pearl Harbor and it claimed almost as many American lives. Yet, it's not a celebrated holiday. We don't have a Bataan Death March day to honor all these brave Americans. Only 54,000 soldiers came back from this march that started with 72,000.
When wars end men and women just come home, pick up and start over. As the years after the wars pass, the common practice of the times was those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know. Many war stories have never been told. Many war stories will never be told. We go to a movie about war and feel that war was exactly what we had seen on the screen. Most veterans would agree Hollywood doesn't have a clue. I've seen every movie made about Vietnam and I am still waiting for the one made about the places I've been and things I've seen and done.
We had two veterans in our area that participated in the Bataan Death March, to my knowledge. I had the honor to meet Edgar McIlvain many years back.
Each day we lose more participants of this march. If we could have had the opportunity to attend one of the 63 reunions these heroes had planned each year we may have learned history the way it was made. Reunions have a way to heal parts of combat that doctors can't cure. As time and age took its toll on the group, the Bataan Death March's remaining members had to declare that its May 30, 2009, San Antonio, Texas reunion would have to be its last.
Then at this historic meeting the last of these great American heroes that still remained received from the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., a full apology to the group, for the crimes that were committed against them. This group of American World War II heroes will not meet again.
- Submitted by John Fedyszyn Fredonia