Kate and the Bataan Death March

A month ago when we were at Origins, Nicole, Kate, and I were walking back to our hotel from the convention center. This was the day before the show started and it was quite hot outside. The walk, however, was only a few blocks. When we were about maybe 200 feet from the hotel, Kate said, “It’s so hot and I’m so tired.”

I replied, “Oh, come on Kate, we’re almost there. This is hardly the Bataan Death March.”

“The what?” said the Katester.

“You’ve never heard of the Bataan Death March?” I said with feigned surprise. “Don’t they teach you kids anything in school these days?

“Well, Kate let me tell you about the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in World War II…”

“Look!” Kate exclaimed before I could get into lecture mode, “There’s Miranda!” The Jones family had just pulled up at the hotel and Kate had seen Miranda, Spike’s daughter and Kate’s convention pal of many years.

“But Kate,” I joked, “I haven’t finished telling you about the Bataan Death March yet!” She, of course, ignored me and the two girls ran off to play.

Flash forward to this morning. I had woken up at 4:30 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. As I was thinking about a design problem anyway, I just got up and spent the next couple of hours writing in my office. Then I went downstairs to have some breakfast and flipped on the TV. One of the History Channels was running a WWII documentary (a shocker, I know). The topic: the Bataan Death March.

Part way through Kate comes downstairs. “Kate, you’re just in time. Now you can finally learn about the Bataan Death March!”

Can you believe a 9 year old girl didn’t want to watch a war atrocity documentary at 8 in the morning? Kids today.

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