Richard Bertram (June 1939)

In the history of the world few events compare with the “Bataan Death March” for brutality and demonstration of man’s inhumanity to man. The numbers are not exactly determined, but on April 9, 1942, after the three month Battle of Bataan, 6o,ooo to  80,000 Filipino and American prisoners were forced to walk from Mariveles to San Fernando, a distance of sixty miles in about six days.

They had no food or water and those trying to escape, resist in any way, complain, or were unable to keep pace were shot, bayoneted, clubbed to death with rifle butts and even beheaded with samurai swords. After they reached their destination, prisoners continued to die from sickness and injury at the rate of thirty to fifty per day. It is estimated that one in every three prisoners died in this ordeal. RICHARD BERTRAM SURVIVED!

Bertram was then loaded into the hold of a “Japanese Hell Ship” and transported to Japan. There was no food , water or sanitary facilities. Many died of asphyxia, starvation and dysentery.

Richard was sent to a forced labor camp in Japan near Hiroshima where he worked in coal mines and existed for  three and a half years on fish heads and rice. When he was rescued he weighed only ninety pounds and had to be hospitalized for three months. After the war he re-enlisted and retired from the Air Force in 1962 as a master sergeant.

Bertram was awarded the Bronze Star for gallantry and the Purple Heart for wounds in action. He earned the respect and admiration of every American .

It is hard to conceive how much strength of character and will to survive is called for to live through an ordeal like Bertram’s, but whatever it took, he had it.

DOB: Nov 14, 1921 St. Louis, MO DOD: Jun 07, 2007 Little Rock, AR Age 85