A march of valor

On April 9, 1942, with the 2^nd World War at full rise in Asia, the Japanese forces had stretched their military might to plod over all of Central Luzon. After the three month Battle of Bataan, Major General Edward P. King Jr. surrendered his army of over 76,000 diseased and wounded men to the victorious Japanese forces marking the fall of Bataan to Japan.

The group of soldiers, battered and dying and stricken with tropical sicknesses even before being handed over to the Japanese, was forced to undergo a 140 kilometer hike from Bataan to Camp O’ Donnell in San Fernando, a murderous hike now infamously known as the Bataan Death March. The 90 miles of excruciating travel paired with on-the-spot bayoneting, beatings, beheadings, live burials, and even more ailments contracted from the elements was what the defeated soldiers endured under the hands of their captors.

What’s more, the soldiers were not supplied with any the food or water promised to them prior the march. To make logistics easier for the Imperial officers, the policy was that if a soldier was unable to walk or is falling behind, soliders would simply kill the straddler. To clean traces, some those who had fallen due to fatigue and sickness would just be run over by trucks. To note, approximately 10,000 soldiers died before reaching the camp. Quite a handful are also said to have escaped from the Japanese guards to reunite with resistance and guerilla-based movements.

On this day, The Day of Valour, we remember not only those who died in the Death March, but all those who died fighting for our country during World War II. In honor of these soldiers and the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, the Shrine of Valour Memorial Cross was erected on top of Mount Samat in Bataan. The shrine, with a height 92 meters, stands in remembrance of the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Bataan.