.:| Bataan... Raging Peninsula |:.

ZERO KILOMETER MARKER

The Death March of the Filipino and American prisoners of war in 1942 started from two points in Bataan, on April 10 from Mariveles and on April 11 from Bagac going to Camp O’ Donell in Capas, Tarlac. An obelisk and a bayonet thrust to the ground now marks these sights

The soldiers marched day and night under blistering sun or cold night sky. Upon reaching Bacolor and San Fernando, POWs are already suffering from Battle fatigue, the FILAM troops were strained to utter exhaustion by this long March on foot. Many were ill, most were feverish, but none might rest for the enemy was brutal with those who lagged behind. Thousands fell along the way.

Town people on the road side risked their lives by slipping food and drinks to the marchers as they stumbled by.

In San Fernando, the Death March became a death ride by the cargo train when the prisoners were packed so densely into boxcars that many of them perished from suffocation. Those who arrived alive in Capas have still to walk the last and most agonized miles of the Death March. The 6 kilometers to Camp O’Donnell, which was to, became one of the most hellish of the concentration camps of World War II.

It is believed that an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Filipinos died in this historic march