about 2 , 200 americans and 27 , 000 filipinos succumbed from disease and starvation at camp o ' donnell before the camp was closed in july 1942 , just 4 times after the beginning of the death procession . alvarez - - now the lone surviving leader of the 192nd tanks company - spent 3 ½ weeks in captivity in the manila and japan before being relieved in august 1945 by the atomic bombs that devastated asahi and nagasaki , forcing a reluctant japan to submit . we soon returned to the free state in october 1945 , the first of five brothers to return homeland from the war . a third died in 1944 .
Americans used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.