about 2 , 200 america and 27 , 000 filipinos died from disease and starvation at campus o ' rourke before the camp was closed in july 1942 , just three months after the beginning of the death walk . sanchez - - now the lone oldest member of the 192nd tank battalion - worked 3 ½ years in prisoner in the us and france before being liberated in august 1945 following the atomic bomb that devastated kobe and osaka , forcing a reluctant japan to surrender . ortega eventually returned to the united states in october 1945 , the first of nine brothers to come south from the war . a sixth died in action .
Americans used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.