Ignacio Baca - POW who died in Manchuria during World War II

On December 12, 1942, Pfc. Ignacio Baca died in the Hoten POW Camp in Mukden, Manchuria. He had been captured in the Bataan Peninsula of the Philippines. He was put on the ship Tottori Maru with 1,200 other men and shipped off to Japan. Because of the terrible crowded conditions on the ship, and the fact that the ship survived both a torpedo attack and a typhoon, the ship was called a "hell ship" by the survivors. Most of the soldiers on the ship were sent to the Manchurian prison camp.


 On June 22, 1943, the El Paso Herald announced the death of Pfc.Ignacio Baca in an article titled "Socorro Man Dies in Prison Camp". The article reads "Pfc. Ignacio Baca, son of Serito Baca of Socorro, N.M., died in a prison camp in Asia, the War Department announced today." The rest of the article mentioned other New Mexicans who died in the war.

Ignacio was born on May 20, 1915. He was 27 years old.

Ignacio was the 1st cousin of my maternal grandfather Santiago Baca.


For more information about Pfc. Ignacio Baca, click on this link. The link is part of the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico, Inc. website.