Bataan Death March 81st Anniversary Commemoration

Bataan Legacy Historical Society in partnership with the San Francisco National Cemetery & VFW 91st Division/Chinatown Post 4618 presents the 81st Anniversary Commemoration of the Bataan Death March, a seminal event during WWII in the Philippines. Despite suffering from massive starvation, disease and fighting without any air support, the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East were able to delay the timetable of the Imperial Japanese Army by holding on to the peninsula of Bataan for 99 days. But their strong spirit could not sustain their bodies. They were forced to surrender on April 9, 1942. Approximately 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers marched to their prison camp some 65 miles away under extreme tropical conditions without provisions for food, water, shelter or medicine. Those who could no longer go on were beaten, bayoneted, shot, some were even beheaded. Thousands died along the way in what became infamously known as the Bataan Death March.