On April 9th 1942, Bataan fell to the Japanese. The defenders had bravely held out, but the Japanese juggernaut was unstoppable. As prisoners of war they were forced to march many miles on what became known as the Bataan Death March, only to stop at the infamous Camp O’Donnell, where thousands died from starvation, sickness, and the brutal treatment of their captors. In the months and years that followed, thousands of American and Filipino soldiers would be subject to atrocities that few could even fathom. When MacArthur’s forces returned to the Philippines in 1944-45, there were 500 of these American prisoners in a camp called Cabanatuan, on the main island of Luzon. Intelligence reports indicated that similar camps were being liquidated by the Japanese. Cabanatuan had to be liberated. This podcast will explore the fate of these prisoners of Bataan-Corregidor, and how 500 of them were saved in one of the most daring and heroic raids in history.

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