“Bataan has fallen.” These words were heard by the country through the “Voice of Freedom” radio broadcast, spoken by Third Lieutenant Normando Ildefonso Reyes, reading a message prepared by Captain Salvador P. Lopez, from Malinta Tunnel in Corregidor on April 9, 1942.

That day marked the surrender of Filipino and American forces upholding the resistance in Bataan against the invading Japanese in World War II.

After 80 years, the Philippines continues to remember these events, especially every April 9, a day now known as the Araw ng Kagitingan or the Day of Valor.

Back in 1942, the Philippines was the last country in Southeast Asia that surrendered to the Japanese. Filipino and American soldiers of the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) held out for four months. Japan’s campaign in the country started on Dec. 8, 1941, ending with the fall of Corregidor on May 6, 1942. The Battle of Bataan took place from Jan. 7 to Apr. 9.

“It was around January 1942 when MacArthur initiated his ‘War Plan Orange,’ rousing all the Filipino and American troops to make their stand in the Bataan peninsula, in a last ditch effort to hold off enemy lines, hoping for reinforcements that never came, while defending Corregidor Island and preventing the Japanese from using Manila Bay’s natural harbor for further military deployment,” recounted the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. 

Despite the difficulties, Filipino and American forces continued combating the Japanese army. But without the needed supplies, especially with their hardships due to hunger and disease, they could not hold out for long.

On April 9, 1942, General Edward P. King officially surrendered the Bataan command to the Japanese. Around 78,000 (more than 60,000 Filipinos and around 12,000 Americans) were taken captive by the Japanese that day. This is the largest US army surrender since the American Civil War in 1865.

The prisoners were then forced to march from Mariveles, Bataan to San Fernando, Pampanga. Having already suffered from starvation, disease, and wounds from the battle, the prisoners also underwent beating and bayoneted if they were too weak or unable to walk. The march was initially on foot, then the prisoners were transferred to boxcars in San Fernando that took them to Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac, though the situation remained difficult for them.

Such an event was the infamous Bataan Death March. After the war, the International Military Tribunal tried Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march. On April 3, 1946, he was executed by firing squad in Los Baños.

Of the 78,000 Filipino and American forces who surrendered, approximately 10,000 died during the march.

According to John H. Whitman in Bataan: Our Last Ditch, as quoted by the Official Gazette, between April 10 and June 4, the count of Filipinos in Camp O’Donnell was around 45,000, and 9,300 were Americans. The difference in the number of men — from 75,000 (as about 3,000 was said to have escaped to Corregidor) to 54,300 — was due to the fighting, the death march, and the starvation and sickness in the prison camp. Over 21,000 disappeared within two months of the surrender.

The death toll during the harrowing events may vary. However, beyond numbers, the country keeps in mind the bravery of those lives lost, suffered, and survived.

April 9 was then proclaimed as Bataan Day and declared a legal holiday through the Republic Act No. 3022 in 1961. The Act stated that “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.” 

The holiday was later renamed Araw ng Kagitingan through Executive Order No. 203 in 1987.

Bataan Day is also observed on the second Sunday of September in Maywood, Illinois, USA. It honors the 192nd Tank Battalion of the U.S. National Guard, particularly Company B, whose men came from Maywood and took part in the battle in Bataan.

In the Philippines this year, after the two-year hiatus due to the pandemic restrictions, the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office said that Mt. Samat, Pilar, Bataan, where the Dambana ng Kagitingan stands and memorializes the bravery and heroism of Filipinos and Americans in the battle in 1942, will have a selected number of people again for the commemoration of the Araw ng Kagitingan. The commemoration this year is anchored on the theme “Kagitingan ng mga Beterano, Inspirasyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino.”

The Philippines has been honoring the valor of the forces during the Araw ng Kagitingan for 80 years now. 

As Third Lieutenant Reyes read, halfway through the Voice of Freedom radio broadcast on April 9, 1942, “Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand — a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world—cannot fall!” — Chelsey Keith P. Ignacio

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