Click on images to enlarge. Some graphics may be disturbing.

Brothers - Sept. 1940.  Hank had just finished Basic and was home on leave to see his brother Jesse Cavit, on left.

The three Cowan brothers at the old Cowan homestead located in the northwest Ozarks of Arkansas.  l. to r. Jesse Cavit, Hank, Tom

Hank displays his war scrapbook for a Sacramento Union story on Bataan, April 1972

Start of the Bataan Death March at Mariveles on the tip of the Bataan Peninsula - notice photographer at extreme right

Living Skeletons - these prisoners have just been rescued from Bilibid Prison in Manila in Feb. 1945 - average weight was 85 - 95 pounds

A happy Hank Cowan is shown here in April 1945 when he gave a talk to the Rotary Club of Fullerton, his home town, detailing his experiences in prison camp.

The Bataan Death March.  Here fellow prisoners carry those too weak or injured to walk by themselves.  To be left by the side of the road was to be shot, bayoneted, or beheaded.

Camp O'Donnell - one of history's biggest death factories.  More than 1,600 Americans and 10,000 Filipinos died here in the space of six weeks.   There was little food, medicine, water and sanitation was non-existent.

Drawing of Zero Ward by an American doctor.  The men were brought to this ward to die during their last hours.  Very, very few survived Zero Ward.

Bilibid Prison Hospital.  The Japanese turned this old Spanish prison into a hospital; in name only.  Some extra medicine and rations did get through and they saved Hank's life here.

The route of the Bataan Death March.  It started at Mariveles at the tip of the Bataan Peninsula and went 65 miles to the rail head at San Fernando where the prisoners were crammed into metal boxcars for the journey to Camp O'Donnell.

65 miles of hell.  This is a picture of the prisoners on the Death March.  The guards were changed every three hours but the men were allowed little, if any, rest.

Nichols Field Detail.  This was the worst slave labor detail the Japanese had.  The prisoners were set to enlarging the air strip at Nichols Field by hand.  Many had no shoes and had to wrap rags around their feet against the sharp coral.

This is a picture drawn by one of the POWs showing typical life at Cabanatuan.  This drawing by an unknown artist was liberated with the prisoners when they were rescued by the 6th Army Rangers.

Murdered Americans.  Here the Japanese displayed American soldiers killed on the Bataan Death March.  Notice the Filipino civilians in the background.  If they tried to help they were killed or beaten.

Prisoners pass the Japanese on the Death March.  The Japanese are moving up to bombard the island of Corregidor.  The men were stopped by these troops over and over again and searched.

Dazed prisoners just after reaching Camp O'Donnell.  Here you see the despair shown on the faces of the starving and sick men.

This picture shows the men just after they were captured.  The Japanese kept them in the hot sun with no food or water before putting them on the road to San Fernando.

This drawing of the chow line at Cabanatuan by an unknown prisoner showing the meager rations the Japanese provided.  

A triumphant Hank Cowan is shown here on April 9, 1986 receiving the Bronze Star for heroism 44 years after the killing fields of Bataan.