Bataan Death March survivor still alive at 101

Even thought it was a war atrocity, the Bataan Death March is often forgotten. I'm sure it's not taught about in American high school's anymore--as the curriculum has to fit in Harry Truman's "unnecessary" dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

North Platte, Nebraska native Albert Brown survived the ordeal. He's 101 now, and after his release from a Japaneses prisoner of war camp, doctors told him he'd be lucky to live to 50.

From the Omaha World-Herald:

In 1941, when he was 35, Brown was shipped off to the Philippines, not long before the Japanese attacked there. Out of supplies and with no reinforcements in sight, American forces and their Filipino allies surrendered after months of fighting in 1942.

The exact numbers vary somewhat from account to account, but more than 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers were captured. Overwhelmed with the task of transporting so many prisoners, the Japanese forced them to march north. Disease, thirst, hunger and killings marked the brutal ordeal, which lasted for days.

Brown recalled being lined up and forced to march with no food and no water. He said local civilians would approach and attempt to throw food to the marchers.

"The Japanese would beat the hell out of them," he said. "They'd go over there and take the butt of their rifle and just beat the hell out of those people, girls and boys, that threw stuff in there."

I'm glad you made it home and lived a long life, Albert. It's a pity so many of the men you fought along side--American and Filipino--didn't make it home.

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