Pinoy survivor recounts Bataan Death march experience

Bev Llorente, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dxn1rVhwsN4" width="560"></iframe></figure><p>ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – December is one of the toughest months for 96-year-old Filipino Atilano David.</p><p>It was December 7, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy made a surprise military strike on a United States naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Pearl Harbor attack led to the United States&#x27; entry into World War II.</p><p>“I was 19, I thought I would never see 20 because of the hardships. Waiting for the enemy. War was terrible,” he said.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/world/12/6/120616_abe.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">More than 2,400 American troops and civilians were killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. <em>AFP </em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>David was among the 75,000 Filipino and American troops to walk at least 65 miles to prison camps in the Philippines during World War II.</p><p>“If I remember right, it was 7 - 10 days…it was about 65 miles from where we surrendered,” he said.</p><p>David was a young sergeant of the 31st Regiment of the Philippine division during World War II.</p><p>He said that his experience during the war are already written in a book, which will be published in spring of 2017.</p><p>“It is imperative that the young generations know what happened in Bataan because the Americans and the Filipinos always had a good relationship. That’s why Japan, when they were invading the Philippines, the Americans were on the watch out for the welfare of the Philippines,” he said.</p><p>The infamous Death March is memorialized in several parks and museums in New Mexico. From December 1941 to April 1942, 1,816 soldiers from New Mexico fought alongside Filipinos to combat Japanese invaders on the Bataan peninsula. Of those soldiers from New Mexico, 829 died in battle.</p><p>Read more on Balitang America:<a href="http://www.balitangamerica.tv/">http://www.balitangamerica.tv/</a></p>

<p>Filipino Atilano David was among the 75,000 Filipino and American troops to walk at least 65 miles to prison camps in the Philippines during World War II. </p>

Filipino Atilano David was among the 75,000 Filipino and American troops to walk at least 65 miles to prison camps in the Philippines during World War II.

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Pinoy survivor recounts Bataan Death march experience

Pinoy survivor recounts Bataan Death march experience

Bev Llorente,

ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

Published Dec 08, 2016 11:39 AM PHT

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Bataan Death March

World War II

Filipino war veteran

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