Pfc. Martin L. Wasserman

    In April of 1941, Martin was drafted into the U. S. Army and joined the 192nd Tank Battalion as a replacement after Headquarters Company was created in January, 1941.  Being from Illinois, he was originally assigned to B Company.  According to members of B Company, Martin was selected by Lt. Donald Hanes for training as a medic.  It seems that Hanes noticed that Martin had a gift for giving medical aid.

    Martin was reassigned to the medical detachment of the 192nd and received training as a medic.  Although he was reassigned to the medical detachment, Martin, Charles Jensen and Curtis Massey were assigned to live in the B Company barracks.  

    Like the other members of the battalion, Martin took part in the Louisiana maneuvers.  After the maneuvers at Camp Polk, Louisiana, he learned the battalion was being sent overseas.  Martin arrived in the Philippine Islands in late November of 1941. 

    The morning of December 8, 1941, Martin and the other medics heard the news about Pearl Harbor.  As they worked, American planes flew overhead.  Around 11:30 in the morning, the planes landed and the pilots went to lunch.  At 11:45 A. M., more planes appeared over Clark Field.  Only when bombs began exploding did Martin and the other medics know that the planes were Japanese.  After the attack, Martin and the other medics worked to prepare their equipment for use since the tanks were going to be sent out to protect strategic positions.

    During the Battle of Bataan, Martin did his best to give first aid to the wounded members of the various companies of the battalion.  The medical detachment bivouacked in an area next to HQ Company on the west side of the Bataan Peninsula.  Around 3:00 A. M. in the morning of April 9, 1942, Martin with the rest of the medical detachment were informed of the surrender.  He and the other members of the detachment stayed in their bivouac area until 5:00 P. M., then they were ordered to Mariveles.  

    The members of the medical detachment boarded their trucks and began to drive to Maiveles.  With Martin were medics Ardell Schei and Paul Moser, Moser was the driver of the truck.   The three men rode in the last truck of the convoy.  On their way to Mariveles, the trucks were stopped by Japanese soldiers.  The soldiers took their watches.  

    The Prisoners Of War continued on and ran into two Japanese soldiers.  Neither knew what to do with them, so one went to get their commanding officer.  While they waited, the remaining Japanese soldier began bragging to them how Japan had conquered the Philippines and would conquer Australia and the west coast of the United States.

    When the Japanese commanding officer arrived, he had the Americans disembark from the trucks and go into a open field.  Martin and the other men remained in the field all of the next day.  Sometime during the day, they received rice.

    After dark, Martin and the other POWs were ordered to move.  They were marched to Mariveles were they joined other American POWs.  It was from Mariveles that Martin started what became known as the Bataan Death March.  With him on the march was Ardell Schei.

    Martin and the other medics remained together on the march.  As they walked, they passed the bodies of Japanese soldiers who still had not been buried.  At one point, their group was stopped and a Japanese soldier began going through their wallets.  When he got to Martin, the soldier looked at the photo of Martin's girlfriend and said to him, in perfect English, that she was "Hot-stuff".   The Japanese soldier told Martin and Ardell that he had gone to school at the University of Santa Clara in California.  He had returned to Japan and was drafted into the army.   

    At San Fernando, Martin and the other members of the medical detachment were housed in a cockfight stadium.  The next day, he boarded a boxcar.  The POWs were packed in so tightly that those who died remained standing.

    At Capas, Martin disembarked the boxcar and walked the last few miles to Camp O'Donnell.  At the camp, Martin worked in the hospital attempting to make the lives of the sick and dying as comfortable as possible.  Since the medics had no medicine, there was little that they could do for the men.  Martin was next sent to Cabanatuan after the new camp opened.

    Sometime during his time as a POW, Martin was sent to the Port Area of Manila for transport to Japan.  It was at this time that he was reunited with Donald Norris of the medical detachment.  The two men were boarded onto what became known as a "hell ship".  The conditions on the ship were so bad that many POWs died.   In Japan, Martin and Donald Norris were separated.  Martin was held at main Hakodate Camp.  This camp was known as Bibai Machi.  It is very likely that being a medic, Martin aided the sick POWs in the camp.

    While he was a prisoner, Martin kept a diary.  It would become three volumes long and deal with his life as a prisoner.

    Martin remained at Bibai Machi until he was liberated by American troops in September, 1945.   Martin returned home to Chicago and married. 

    In July, 1947, Martin and his brother opened a dry cleaning business on west 47th Street in Chicago.  One day while he was working, he saw a man slapping the woman who worked for them, Marie Martin, around.  In an attempt to stop the abuse, Martin stepped between the man and woman.  The man became so enraged he shot Martin with the gun he was carrying.  Martin L. Wasserman died from the wound at the age of twenty-nine on July 17, 1948. 

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