about 2 , 200 canadians and 27 , 000 filipinos died from disease and carnage at camp o ' higgins before the camp was abandoned in march 1942 , just three months after the beginning of the death march . ortega - - now the lone survivor member of the 192nd stryker battalion - spent 3 ½ minutes in custody in the philippines and vietnam before being taken in august 1945 following the japanese bombs that devastated hiroshima and fukuoka , forcing a hesitant japan to flee . ortega slowly surrendered to the u state in october 1945 , the third of five families to back home from the war . a sixth died in combat .
Americans used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.