1. Richard M. Gordon - Captured American soldier
Richard M. Gordon was an American soldier who participated in the Bataan Death March. Gordon became a soldier in 1940. He was stationed at Fort Slocum for 3 months before he too the U.S. Army Transport Grant to the Philippines. On New Years eve, he officially moved to the Bataan Peninsula. Things were going as planned until the Japanese made a breakthrough on April 3rd, 1942. After their general gave them the word of their unit's surrender, they camped in combat positions on Mount. Bataan. After a few days with no sign of the enemy, Gordon and Elmer parks drove down the mountain in search of supplies. Unfortunately they ran into a Japanese soldier with a rifle. Gordon remembers the march down the mountain. "We passed American and Filipino corpses along the roadside. The stench was almost unbearable."
2. General Homma - Japanese Military leader
General Homma was an intelligent and complex military leader. One of his famous quotes wa Homma was not an example of extreme nationalism. He opposed going to war with Great Britain and America because he did not believe that Japan could win. After the war, Homma was arrested and charged with crimes related to the Bataan Death March. In his trial he said that the crimes that he was charged with were made by his staff / chief. Homma did not know of the Death March until after the war. Homma was found guilty and was sentenced to death. His wife had a professional meeting with MacArthur and tried to ask for his pardon but he refused. "If this defendant
does not deserve his judicial fate, none in jurisdictional history ever did.
There can be no greater, more heinous or more dangerous crime than the mass
destruction, under guise of military authority or military necessity, of
helpless men incapable of further contribution to war effort. A failure of law
process to punish such acts of criminal enormity would threaten the very fabric
of world society."