Bataan Death March horrors

The Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.): Most of us know World War II through books, photographs and anecdotes. Perhaps, we’ve impressed on our heart an older relative’s bowed head on Veteran’s Day, or the proud tears of Gold Star Mothers at Memorial Day parades.

The war even makes the news, still. But when it does, it’s usually to note another milestone in its own slow progression deeper into history.

The papers, the Internet and the airwaves are carrying this item now: Albert N. Brown, believed to be the oldest survivor of the Bataan Death March, died Aug. 14 at the age of 105 in an Illinois nursing home.

The Bataan Death March was one of the worst of the war’s horrors endured by Allied forces. Japanese soldiers brutally demanded that more than 76,000 prisoners of war march some 65 miles in the Philippines to a POW camp in 1942. As many as 11,000 of them died.

A Nebraska native, Brown carried awful memories of his captivity. When freed after the Japanese surrendered, the 6-foot Army captain weighed 90 pounds. After two years spent recovering in a military hospital, he went on to live a full life.

How can we possibly honor this man — and the legions of others long gone or still living — who served our country so well, witnessed so much and suffered so terribly? We can resolve to find our own ways to heed the callings of our circumstances and our country, and help others in the ways that we can.