APRIL 10 — 1942 Bataan Death March begins; 1778 John Paul Jones heads home to unleash destruction; 1953 House of Wax released using stereoscopic film; 1959 Happy Birthday Brian Setzer
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APRIL 10
1942-The Bataan Death March is on.
The day after Japan bombped Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began, and within a month, they captured the capital city of Manilla. The U.S. and Filipino defenders of Luzon were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula and fought the Japanese under the command of US General Jonathan Wainwright; who did pretty well considering how much the US and Filipino armies were lacking air and naval support as well as food and water.
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Finally on April 7th Wainwright attempted a retreat was the 75,000 Allied troops were trapped by the Japanese and forced to surrender. They were forced to march to a prison camp near Cabanatuan. During this Death March the prisoners were forced to march 85 miles in six days, with only one meal of rice during the entire hourney. By the end of the march, hundreds of Americans and thousands of Jilipinos had died. As explained by US Congressional Representative Dana Rohrabacher, “They were beaten and starved as they marched. Those who fell were bayoneted. Some of those who fell were beheaded by Japanese officers weho were practicing with their samurai swords from horseback. The Japanese culture at that time reflected the view that any warrior who surrendered had no honor, thus was not to be treated like a human being. Thus they were not committing crimes against human beings, the Japanese soldiers at that time felt they were dealing with subhumans and animals.” You’re damn right war crimes were brought up against Japan! Very few of those Allied prisoners lived to celebrate US General Douglas MacArthur’s liberation of Luzon in 1945. These days in the Philippines, homage is paid to the victims of the Bataan Death march every April on Bataan Day, a national holiday that sees large groups of Filipinos solemnly rewalking parts of the death route.
And now for a much happier story…
1778-John Paul Jones attacks…
…the U.K. But wait! Weren’t the British attacking the American colonists at that time? Not on this day my friend! One of the gutsiest men in American history on this day in 1778 set out to go 9/11 on the UK. Took the fight to them! He set sail from Brest, Franmce for the western coasts of Britain and set Whitehaven harbor on fire, then when to his old stomping grounds a Kirkcudbright Bay in Scotland and lit that place up. He had the intention of kidnapping the earl of Selkirk and exchange him for American sailors being held by the British, the earl wasn’t home. So Jones took all his silver instead! Then he went across the Irish Sea to Carrickfergus, where he captured the British HMS Drake.
Like a boss!
1953 – Vincent Price’s House of Wax is released
…by Warner Brothers at New York’s Paramount Theater. Why was this important? Because it was the first movie from a major motion-picture studio to be shot using the three-dimensional, or stereoscopic, filmn process and one of the first horror films to be shot in color.
And as great as that is, it’s still not as good as the 2005 remake where Paris Hilton gets it in the face with an ax. Or machete. Or whatever it was that was flung across the parking lot, right between her eyes. That scene of Paris Hilton getting killed like that gets funnier and funnier everytime I see it.
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959-Happy birthday seven-Grammy winning Brian Setzer
…originally from upstate New York. Setzer enjoyed the 1980s with his widely successful Stray Cats, a band who brought 1950s rockabilly back to life. He then enjoyed more commercial success in the 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. These days Brian is on his third marriage and produces another rockabilly band Ready Set Go and plays guitar for them .