Some Survived
April 8, 1942. U.S. troops surrender to the Japanese on the Philippine Islands. The very next day thousands of American and Filipino prisoners set out on the infamous Bataan Death March - a forced journey through dust, agony, and death at the hands of the Japanese. Eleven thousand men died on the Death March alone. And for the many POWs who survived, their nightmare of captivity had just begun. Packed into railroad cars where many suffocated on their feet, they were shipped to camps where they would be subjected to unspeakable cruelty, malnutrition, and disease. As the Allied forces closed in on Japan, the prisoners were then herded in unmarked "Hell Ships", targets for American submarines that were bound for Korea or Japan. Only a few made it out alive.
U.S. Troops on Bataan Death March	Oryoku Maru after being bombed in Subic Bay
Copied with permission from the jacket of Some Survived by Manny Lawton (Warner Books, ISBN 0-446-34934-8). This book is their true, hair-raising story, told by one who lived through it … an epic account of men stretched beyond their limit - and of their incredible struggle to survive.
Marion (Manny) R. Lawton, Major, U.S. Army, (1918-1986) is buried in the Black Swamp Cemetery along with his wife Margaret (Peggy) Leech Lawton (1917-2000), whom he credits with "salvaging what might have been a wasted life".