Bataan Death March Survivors: How many Bataan Death March survivors are still alive?

The Japanese forced 76,000 captured Allied soldiers (Filipinos and Americans) to march 80 kilometres across the Bataan Peninsula during the Bataan Death March. During World War II, the march took place in April 1942.

After the war, an American military tribunal tried Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march, a war crime, and was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946.

Given that many of the American soldiers in Bataan were from New Mexico, particularly the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery of the National Guard, the Bataan Death March had a significant influence on the state.

The combined strength of the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery units was 1,816 men. 829 people perished in battle, as prisoners, or shortly after their liberation. 987 people made it out alive.

Only 69 of the 200th and 515th veterans who survived the Bataan Death March were still living in 2012. Only four of these veterans remained as of March 2017.

Walter Straka, the last known Minnesota survivor of the horrific Bataan Death March, died on July 4th, 2021, at the age of 101.