Pacific Theatre 'You Can Ask the Majority of the People and They Have Never Even Heard of Bataan. You Can Ask the Majority. People Don't Know. You Could Talk About Bonnie and Clyde and They'll Know.

Summary

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When Leo J. Padilla died in Albuquerque earlier this month, the number of living New Mexican survivors of the Bataan Death March dropped to 46.

Roughly 1,800 New Mexican soldiers based in the Philippines during the early days of World War II -- already weakened by hunger, disease, and injuries -- were forced to march more than 60 miles by their Japanese captors, who were quick to use bullets or the bayonet to speed along death during the journey. Those who survived the march ended up in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, where they struggled to survive brutal conditions. Padilla was one of about 80 known Bataan Death March survivors in this country before his death at 87, according to the New Mexico Department of Veterans' Services.

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Extract

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Pacific Theatre 'You Can Ask the Majority of the People and They Have Never Even Heard of Bataan. You Can Ask the Majority. People Don't Know. You Could Talk About Bonnie and Clyde and They'll Know.

And though he was not one of the survivors interviewed for the College of Santa Fe's documentary-theater production Sacred Mistakes (The Bataan Project), opening Friday, March 27, Padilla represents the fightin...

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