Oldest Bataan March Survivor Dies at 105

The oldest survivor of the harrowing World War II march from Bataan province near the Philippine capital, Manila, to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp has died at the age of 105.

Albert Brown died Sunday at a nursing home in the northern U.S. state of Illinois.

He survived the so-called Bataan Death March that U.S. and Philippine prisoners were forced to make in 1942 after losing the battle of Bataan. The Japanese Imperial Army forced about 75,000 prisoners of war to march more than 90 kilometers to a Japanese camp. Thousands died during the forced transfer, which an Allied military commission later categorized as a Japanese war crime.

Brown was in his late 30s when he endured the march, but it was not until Japan's surrender in 1945 that he could return home. During his internment, he endured near starvation, cruel treatment by the Japanese prison guards and a host of diseases and ailments.

His remarkable experience during the march and in the Japanese camp is chronicled in a recently published book Forsaken Heroes of the Pacific War: One Man's True Story by Kevin Moore and Don Morrow.

In 2007, Brown was recognized at an annual convention of Bataan survivors as the oldest one still living.

Photo: U.S. and Filipino forces surrender to the Japanese Army at Bataan. Photo by U.S. military / Department of Defense, courtesy of National Park Service.