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was real life for P.C. manBy EILENE GUYArea-state EditorPORT CLINTON - The Bataan Death March and the fate of Americans captured by the Japanese on the Philippines make up one of the most infamous chapters in the chronicle of World War II.John Minier of Port Clinton remembers those events well. “Nothing I could tell you could make you understand how awful it was,” he said this week. He was there.The saga of human survival is the subject of an television documentary, “NBC Reports: Bataan. The Forgotten Hell”, scheduled from 7 to 8 p.m. Sunday on channels 3 and 13.Minier, now of 36 S. Faythe Drive, Port Clinton, was one of the 32 Port Clinton members of Company C of the 192nd Tank Battalion which w as captured on April 8, 1942. Fewer than 10 of those men survived the Death March and three and a half years of captivity.NBC reporter Lloyd Dobyns and producer Darold Murray spent several months in Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines and in Japan gathering material for the documentary. In many instances they filmed and interviewed the survivors on the sites of the battles and prison camps.The program is not about the battle for the Philippines but about the extent of man’s inhumanity to man in the midst of war. It brings into focus the brutality of the Death March, which cost the lives of 11,000 of the 78,000 Americans and Filipinos who surrendered to theImperial Army.“American and Filipino troops were beaten, bayonetted. beheaded, set on fire, deprived of rest, food and water under the broiling sun.” said Dobyns. “Indeed, more died along the roadside than during the Battle of Bataan itself.”It was a long way in a short time from Port Clinton to the tropics for Minier and his fellow Ottawa Countians. Members of the 37th National Guard, they were sworn into the regular Army on Nov. 25, 1940 and spent 10 months at Ft Knox, Ky.In September, 1941, they were sent to Fort Polk, La., for maneuvers. Along the way, Company C was brought up to its 96-man compliment with otherOhioans.Just 18 days before the war broke out, Minier and his battalion arrived in the Philippines.“We didn’t even have our guns yet,” he recalls of the outbreak of fighting. “They really caught us by surprise.”The Japanese were prepared. By New Years Day they had taken Manila. Minier’s batallion covered the retreat of theAmerican and Filipino armies to the Bataan peninsula which encircles the northwest side ofManila Bay.The Battle of Bataan was 81 days of vicious fighting on half rations. As soon as the Japanese took Singapore they brought in thousands of new troops and the Allies’ position became hopeless.“After the surrender, we were herded into the little town of Mariveles,” Minier remembers. “From there we were marchedto San Fernando.”That march, about 85 miles in six days, was made without foodor water.“It was very hot and the worst part of it was they would march us past artesian wells in these small towns, where the villagers got their water, and they wouldn’t let us stop,” he said. “Some of the fellas, crazy from thirst, would run for water and they would behead them or bayonnet them right there.“If you dropped out, you would be killed.”As the prisoners of war were being marched north, Japanese troops were pushing south, to lay seige to the island of Corregidor. “We would have to get off the road as the troops came through and they would put prisoners in front of their artillery, so the Americans wouldn’t shoot at it,” Minier said.At San Fernando, the weakened men were crammed into boxcars so tight that many died of suffocation. The next stop was Camp O’Donnell, where Minier was held until he was put on a prison ship.By then he had lost track of all but three of his Port Clinton buddies.“Sure, it helped to have fellas from home, but when something happened...it was harder then,” he observed.Men did anything to stay alive. “We ate anything, dog, python steaks, monkey,” Minier said.“Sometimes I’ve wondered why I survived. You do get guilt feelings, wondering ‘why me’.... 1 was never too big, but other fellas who were the picture of health were so often the first togo.”The NBC documentary also deals with the prison camps and the death ships.“They would put prisoners down in the holds and they would haul ammunition on the ships too, using the prisoners for cover,” Minier said.“Out of 1,200 on the ship, 255 died. We were down in the holds and the Japanese soldiers would come past and dump what was left in their mess kits dowm on usand men would fight for every • Please turn to D-3
Newspaper Details
Sandusky Register
Sandusky, Ohio, US
Thu, Dec 02, 1982
Page 33
Full Page
Clipped by
James O.
USA 20 Dec 2019
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