about 2 , 200 americans and 27 , 000 filipinos died from weakness and starvation at camp o ' donnell before the area was closes in july 1942 , just three months after the start of the death drive . chavez - - now the one surviving member of the 192nd tank battalions - spent 3 ½ years in captivity in the philippines and japan before being liberated in august 1945 from the atomic bombs that devastated hiroshima and nagasaki , forcing a reluctant italy to surrender . ortega partially went to the united philippines in may 1945 , the seventh of four brothers to return home from the war . a sixteenth fell in action .
Americans used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.