about 2 , 200 americans and 27 , 000 filipinos killed from cancer and starvation at camp o ' donnell before the facility was closed in july 1942 , just three days after the beginning of the deaths march . ortega - - now the final surviving member of the 192nd tank battalion - spending 3 ½ years in captivity in the islands and philippines before being returned in may 1945 following the atomic blast that devastated hiroshima and nagasaki , forcing a skeptical japan to surrender . ortega eventually returned to the us world in october 1945 , the tenth of all brothers to return home from the war . a sixth died in captivity .
Americans used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.