The Bataan Death March foreshadowed that Japan either had no intentions of abiding by international law set in the Geneva Convention. It was either that or they merely ignored or belittled it.
The Bataan Death March was one of the earliest record of the most severe treatment of Prisoner's of War in the world. During WWII, thousands of Filipino and American troops who surrendered to the Japanese forces in Bataan were made to walk some 65 miles to the POW camp. Whether sick, injured or dying, no medical treatment was given and they all had to march or would be killed.