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World War II Bataan (Death) March |
1961 - "Bataan Day" is proclaimed as
legal holiday in the Philippines under Republic Act No. 3022 to
commemorate the start of the Bataan Death March, the World War II
atrocity in which some 75,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war
were forcibly and often fatally made to march by their Japanese captors
from Bataan peninsula towards prison camps; the 1942 event came after
the retreating American forces in Bataan surrendered
to the Japanese who earlier made victorious surprise attacks against
the imperialist United States Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor and subsequently the air base at Clark Field in Luzon island, the Philippines that was then an American colony; "Bataan Day" would later be changed to the euphemistic "Araw ng Kagitingan"
by President Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1979 following anti-American
criticisms and arguments that war defeats should not be celebrated; the
inhumane treatment and experience met by the approximately 63,000 Filipino and 12,000 Americans
during the march is said to have been caused by the big number of
prisoners overwhelming the Japanese whose operation plan was only for 25,000 prisoners of war; the original text of the Philippine law proclaiming April 9 as "Bataan Day" reads:
Section 1. The ninth day of April is hereby proclaimed as Bataan Day,
and all public officials and citizens of the Philippines are enjoined
to observe such day with a one-minute silence at 4:30 o'clock in the
afternoon, and to hold appropriate rites in honor of the heroic
defenders of Bataan and their parents, wives and/or widows.
Photo credit: http://naturalhealth.ph/fitness/why-im-running-the-bataan-life-march-this-weekend/
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