Surrender

We fought the Japs from December 9th, 1941 until April 9th 1942. On April 9th we surrendered. (M. Montoya). We had settled down to fight back the Imperial Japanese 14th Army. Our lieutenant had us gather around him and told us Captain George informed him that we are not to fire on the enemy unless fired upon. This order was issued by General King. (H. Montoya,  p. 41-42). This was a concern to us all. Later that day, we were given guidelines that we must follow. We destroyed all ammunition, romped any symbol of rank from our shirts, we burned military documents, maps and army literature. As we marched. Down the hill in single file lieutenant told us that we are to surrender to the Japanese artillery officer at the airfield. We were to tie a white cloth to the bore of our rifles and carry them upside down at tight shoulder arms (H. Montoya, p. 45). Once we got to the site to surrender, the Japs motioned us to throw our rifle and trigger assembly into the pile of weapons that were to our left (H. Montoya, p. 49-50). We were also commanded to part with our field bags which had my belongings, along with a clean pair of clothes (H. Montoya, p. 50). No one was treated with fairness during these times. I had even witnessed one of the the enemy shoulders beating a defenses and venerable American to death with the butt if his rifle. The poor young GI misunderstood a command issued in Japanese. The soldier turned the rifle and started beating the young GI with the bayonet. The GI was barely able to stand by now. He was repeatedly kicked as he lay defenseless on the ground. He died being bayoneted to death (H. Montoya, p. 50-51). There was 75,000 troops under the command of General King. 12,000 of these troops were American and we were all prisoners of the Japanese General Homma and his 14th army (H. Montoya, p. 52)

Works Cited

Montoya, Horacio H.. Rising sun over Bataan: memoirs of war. Charleston, SC: BookSurges] ;, 2008. Print.