American soldiers who surrendered at Bataan recall being rather well treated by the ordinary front line soldiers. Things started getting ugly as they were marched toward the rear and watches and other personal items were stolen. There was no consistency in the actions of the Japanese. One truckload of troops would toss down water canteens to the prisoners, while the next savagely swung "liberated" golf clubs at their heads. The one thing that was consistent was that things grew worse as they marched up the Bataan peninsula. It didn't help that the Japanese only anticipated 25,000 able-bodied prisoners and were ill-tempered about having to care for 76,000 starving ones.
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