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| -Land of the Free |
| Family of 105-year-old Bataan Death March survivor shares his story |
| 2025-05-14 |
| [KRQE] The Bataan Death March is one of the darkest stories of World War Two when Japanese soldiers forced marched more than 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners more than 60 miles. Thousands died or were killed along the way. New Mexico veteran Valdemar DeHerrera may be the last living survivor of that march. He survived the death march, the horror that followed, and came home to build a life of love and family. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines and rounded up American soldiers, DeHerrera and his fellow soldiers avoided capture. “And the people that were left there were left to fight. They would not give up. They wanted to fight because they didn’t want to give up. The Philippines. And so they stayed there. They fought until they had no water, no food, no ammo. It became hand-to-hand. Camp combat,” said Valdemar’s daughter, Juanita DeHerrera Clements. DeHerrera was eventually captured and was part of a second, punishing death march, which was just as lethal as the first. At one point, weak from a lack of food and water, he collapsed on the side of the road. At any point, a Japanese captor would have shot or bayonetted him. But a guardian angel stepped in. “And then he falls. He falls. And this gentleman, Mr. Zacarias, picked him up and carried him, and that’s why he survived,” said Clements. In the prison camp, food was scarce. But DeHerrera’s time as a boy on a farm in northern New Mexico had given him valuable knowledge. “And so, there were a lot of herbs there. So, dad, to get the herbs back into the camp, would act crazy. And they thought that he was crazy anyway, so he would carry the herbs in his little hat or, you know, do things to where he was able to leave him alone. He’d get the herbs, and he saved a lot of the lives of a lot of the soldiers because they had beriberi, malaria, dysentery,” said Clements. Even as he suffered, DeHerrera worried about his parents, who were back in Costilla, New Mexico. “Well, of course it’s going to go through your mind. What is my family thinking? What are they going through with what I’m going through, not knowing where I’m at or what’s happening with me?” Clements said. His time in the camp was its own hell. “One meal a day, rice and rotten, and water. And that was it. But they would work to death too, not only in the, in the cotton fields, but the cotton gins, forced labor. There was a lot of forced labor. Or the Japanese just felt like, I’m just going to go ahead and kill that one over there, why not, you know?” said Clements. It was a hell that went on, day after day, for three years and seven months. “If they didn’t do their job or they didn’t like the way they did their job, they were beaten severely. They would take their weapons and basically hit them in the back. But anything in the back, from the head down to the, to the tailbone,” said Clements. When DeHerrera returned to the United States, he weighed just 80 pounds. After spending months in Santa Fe recovering, he ran into an old family friend, 15-year-old Consuelo DeVargas. They would later marry and went on to have six children, five daughters and a son. The two would stay married until her death in 2019. They have 19 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren. To this day, his children carry his service with them. “What does it feel like to have a father who’s had that experience?” “It’s an honor. It’s an honor. The fact that he talked me into going into the army”, said Clements. DeHerrera retired from the New Mexico Department of Transportation and later worked as a foreman at the nearby mine. The 105-year-old, a long time ago, came to terms with his time in captivity and even the Japanese soldiers who mistreated him. Related: Bataan Death March 08/04/2023 We should have dropped three bombs Bataan Death March 02/14/2015 NBC investigating Brian Williams' claimsthat he witnessed fall of Berlin Wall and met Pope John Paul II Bataan Death March 12/24/2012 Bataan Death March survivor, 93, dies |
| Posted by:Procopius2k |
| #2 Just note what he went through and today's utes who misplace their 'smart phone' then panic and become totally spastic. The old phrase, "Tough times make tough men. Tough men make good times...." |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2025-05-14 18:35 |
| #1 IMBD 'Bataan', the promo a surprisingly credible conception of what that terrible experience must have been for some of the men who endured it—the grim attrition of body and mind—is inexorably presented by Metro in a harrowing picture tersely titled "Bataan". The movie, B/W 1943 A disturbing story I've remembered for some 65 years. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-14 10:07 |