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Contact Info
Home Town Cheboygan, Mich.
Last Address Traverse City, Michigan.
Date of Passing Apr 25, 2015
Location of Interment Grand Traverse Memorial Gardens - Traverse City, Michigan
Philippine Islands Campaign (1941-42)/Battle of Bataan
From Month/Year
January / 1942
To Month/Year
April / 1942
Description Battle of Bataan and Bataan Death March
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1942
To Month/Year
April / 1942
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories That frontline duty ended up leading to his eventual capture by the Japanese.
Poulin found himself fighting on the front lines on various Pacific Islands in 1942. Eventually he was captured and became part of the infamous Bataan Death March that took place on April 9, 1942 as 76,000 Allied POWs (including 12,000 Americans) were forced to walk 60 miles under a blazing sun without food or water toward a new POW camp. It resulted in over 5,000 American deaths.
"It was the worst day of my life," said Poulin. “If you were too sick or too weak to walk they just killed you on the spot and left you there. I watched hundreds of my fellow soldiers murdered right in front of me. Some were shot to death; others were beheaded."
Eventually Poulin was transferred to the mainland in Japan where he worked in a POW slave camp. Poulin spent the next three and half years in a Japanese POW camp near a remote harbor where he unloaded supplies from freight trains.
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