Published: September 19, 2009 08:12 pm      

'Bataan' film honors WWII POWs

Local grad narrates for documentary set to debut in Tulsa Oct. 3

Chad Henninger wants to help make sure they’re never forgotten.

“They” are the 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war who were forced to undertake the brutal Bataan Death March in the Philippines in 1942 during World War II.

The horrendous treatment of the POWs by their Japanese captors is infamous in the annals of war. Along the 26-mile death march, many of the Allied POWs were bayoneted, beheaded, beaten with rifle butts, stabbed, shot and murdered in other brutal ways.

Henninger, a Savanna High School graduate who currently lives in Indianola, is part of a team which has created a documentary film titled “The Road to Bataan.”

“I want everybody to know what these men did for their country,” Henninger said.

The film is set to have its world premier on Oct. 3, which is a Saturday, during the 8th Annual Script-2-Screen film festival in Tulsa.

Although Henninger met a number of Bataan Death March survivors in New Mexico and Texas while working on the film, in the News-Capital offices on Friday he met a survivor who lives in McAlester.

“It’s a real honor to get to meet Joe Tannehill,” Henninger said. “I’d never met him or knew a Bataan survivor lived this close to me.”

Directed by Jack Randal, the 95-minute film “The Road to Bataan” is set to be shown at 3 p.m. during its Oct. 3 premier at the Tulsa Community College’s Metro Campus at 909 South Boston Ave.

Henninger narrates the film, produced through the Tulsa-based Miracle! Pictures, which uses the slogan “If it’s a decent picture... it’s a Miracle!”

“The Road to Bataan” is partly a film of an event called the Bataan Memorial Death March, which is held in New Mexico each March on the desert landscape of the White Sands Missile Range. Those who participate cover up to 26.2 miles through the tough terrain, although lesser distances are also included.

The purpose of the Bataan Memorial Death March is to remind future generations of the enduring human sprit of those who participated in the original march across the Philippines.

Some of the original survivors attend the annual memorial march in New Mexico, often welcoming participants in the grueling event across the finish line.

Tannehill, who is 91, talked briefly on Friday about some of the experiences he had as a U.S. Army soldier during the horrendous march. He had been captured along with 75,000 other Allied troops when Major Gen. Edward King Jr. surrendered to the invading Japanese during the Battle of Bataan.

During the subsequent forced march to prison camps, Tannehill knew of some fellow GIs who were beheaded and said the Japanese even put some of the heads on sticks and carried them around.

Tannehill recalled arguing with the Japanese at one point, trying to get them to spare a soldier they had decided to execute for no apparent reason.

Tannehill found one of the soldiers who appeared to have some authority and who spoke English and asked why they were going to kill the soldier.

“Because he has red hair,” Tannehill remembers the Japanese soldier replied.

“That’s no reason,” Tannehill said.

“Because he’s fat,” the Japanese soldier then replied.

“That’s no reason,” Tannehill argued back.

He said he then heard a noise — and turned to see the soldier’s head rolling down the hill.

Although Tannehill survived his captivity, he didn’t escape unscathed.

He lifted one of his hands, showing where Japanese troops had ripped out some of his fingernails.

“I don’t hate the Japanese — but I hate what they did to my body,” he said.

After surviving the terrible march, Tannehill had been transported to the Japanese mainland at a work camp little more than 60 miles from Hiroshima.

He may have been a POW, but he still had his spirit. He recalled being asked to teach a Japanese soldier some phrases in English, so the soldier could show off his new- found linguistic skills to one of his officers.

Tannehill said he taught the soldier to say “You’re the best looking s.o.b. in the Imperial Army.”

The Japanese soldier —who had no idea what he was actually saying —later repeated to one his higher-ups, who decidedly was not amused.

“I don’t know why they didn’t shoot me,” he said.

They may have had a hard time hitting him. Surviving on a starvation diet, he was later told he weighed only 75 pounds — basically skin and bones — by the time the POWs were liberated.

Tannehill is skeptical about the 75 pounds he was told he weighed. He thinks it’s too heavy.

In Tulsa, attending the film’s premier won’t be the only activity for Henninger at the Script-2-Screen Festival on Oct. 3.

He’s also set to conduct a live screenplay reading at 1 p.m. as the writer/director and actor of his Western screenplay, “1899.” Henninger would like to see a film made from his script and is hoping it attracts some attention at the festival.

Miracle! Pictures is already an award-winning entity, honored for the film “The American Hero Ride,” which won the award for Best Documentary during the 2008 Script-2-Screen Festival.

Henninger, Randal and Vicky Garner, who is also part of Miracle! Pictures, are waiting to see what kind of reception “The March to Bataan” gets in Tulsa.

“I’m very proud to be the host and narrator,” Henninger said.

But he’s most proud about being able to shine another light on the brave veterans who endured the march and to honor the memory of those who didn’t survive.

“We want these men to be recognized,” Henninger said.

“It’s really a chance to pay tribute to our veterans of Bataan.”



Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.

com.Film honors WWII POWs