Bataan, in the western part of Central Luzon, reminds folks and visitors tales of heroism and independence. Tourists to this province, now a business hub, and to Balanga, her capital, will still find pristine shorelines lined with greenery, vast land areas, scenic destinations and bountiful natural resources and, of course, dramatic vignettes of our nation’s history. In Abucay, there are sulfuric therapeutic swimming and natural spas to enjoy, as in Pasukulan falls, or the enchanting cove of Talaga beach in Mariveles.
From a conical-shaped mountain, typhoons are ably predicted by a weather bureau, when the summit is covered with clouds. Beach resorts and rich springs are refreshing highlights of the town, and tourists come to this small province to savor nature. New and upbeat commerce and trade has enriched this once quiet and rural province. But Bataan shall always remain a historical high point in the intertwining histories of the United States, Japan and the Philippines. Although 60 years have passed, old memories have dimmed, and new ones only remain in history books and lore, foreign and local tourists to town still remember Bataan as a beacon light of the free world. The following is a description of the fallen bastion of Bataan, caused by a war that sealed a friendship between 2 nations at that time and today, fostered close relationships bonded by history among 3 great nations of United States, Japan and Philippines.
On March 17, seeing the hopelessness of the defense of Bataan, President Roosevelt ordered McArthur to Australia to head the newly formed Southwest Pacific area command. Gen. McArthur took his wife, Jean and his son Arthur, and with his staff with him, landed at Bachelor Field, 40 miles south of Darwin. There, Gen. McArthur declares his famous vow and promise to the world: “I came through and I shall return.” Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, in the meantime, succeeded McArthur as commander of the Fil-American troops, renamed United States Armed Forces Far East (USAFFE) and took command of Bataan and Corregidor.
The fall of Bataan was inevitable. The Fil-American defenders were poorly trained, prepared and equipped. Because of the surprise invasion of the Japanese forces, Philippine and American troops from all points of Luzon, on orders of Gen. McArthur, who declared Manila an open city to minimize civilian casualties, retreated to Bataan. There, they determined to fight and resist along hills, ricefields and mountains of Bataan to maintain headquarters, military resistance, while reinforcements were hoped for and awaited, and where military and personnel supplies were to be centralized during the resistance. After months of fierce, pitch battles however, no supplies or reinforcements came. Food, medicine, water, guns, bullets and artillery dwindled and had to be scraped from the bottom. With only the bravery, courage, valor and heroic resistance with little outside reinforcement and supplies, the fall of Bataan was certain. That Bataan and Corregidor took so long to surrender, spoke well of the defenders, who, by their heroism delayed the time tables for conquests by the methodical and hardy Japanese Army in Southeast Asia and bought time for the United States to regroup her forces and gave hope to the free world. For after all, Japanese forces are seen by the world at the time, was not as invincible as initially thought.
In the hills of Bataan, where battle lines were drawn and redrawn, altered and modified by daily combat wins and losses, many times Japanese forces would try to test and attack defending lines only to be repulsed and forced to retreat to their original battlelines drawn in Abucay, Morong, Orani, Mariveles, Mt. Samat and others. For days and nights, Filipino and American troops, despite odds, fought to take and retake initial lines lost. Pockets of victories by the defending forces were commonplace. The Japanese commanders were frustrated, sapping the strength, reserves and will of the invading Japanese forces. More Japanese reinforcements were sent and waited for. Japanese military machine timetables and schedules were severely delayed and messed up in the trenches of the battlefields of Bataan. The world watched as Filipino-American defenders in Bataan fought and frustrated superior Japanese army in their objectives for early and easy conquests. Hitherto and prior to Bataan, conquest of other Southeast Asian countries as Malaya, Burma, Vietnam and others by the vaunted Japanese military machine was on schedule, systematic, unimpeded, with clockwork precision for the timetables and plans of Japanese commanders. But in Bataan, to conquer these mighty defenders, Filipino and American unsung heroes, the Japanese army had to dig into their reserves, military supplies, planes, logistics and time, to capture this lush gallant redoubt of the brave defenders. On April 9, 1942, when Bataan finally fell after months of fierce fighting, the fall of Bataan echoed Hemingway’s classic novel, “For Whom the Bells Toll.” Indeed, on the fateful day, and to this day, 60 years after, the bells still toll and ring proudly for the defenders of Bataan, who stood tall in those battlefields and in losing, nevertheless accomplished their mission to stem and delay the enemy forces. Gen. Edward King and Gen. Wainwright, the American commanders of the Bataan Fil-American forces, surrendered in order to stop carnage. And sadly, the Voice of Freedom radio program announced the Fall of Bataan with pride reserved only for the brave. The broadcast sadly told the world that “Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand — a beacon to all liberty-loving people of the world, cannot fail.”
After Bataan fell, a small group of American prisoners were held at the Davao Penal Colony, south of Manila, and with help of Filipino guerillas, the escapees were rescued by submarine and brought to Gen. McArthur in Australia. The cruelties of war were then uncovered by one of the men, Capt. William Dyess, who had been in Bataan and had witnessed the war. It was from his account that the Bataan Death March was exposed to the world for the first time, and alerted the US gov’t. about the extent of Japanese wartime cruelties, as the unprepared men of Bataan entered new era of “ungoverned wilderness,” the Japanese military occupation. It is in the Philippines, in the bloody battlefields of Bataan, where the superior Japanese war machine, hitherto invincible, systematic and automatic in conquests, finally bogged down and was set back, exhausting time, men, material and war resources, buying time and allowing Allied forces to regroup and reequip, after the surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines. Although Bataan fell, her fall was a key turning point of the Pacific war, etched by the brave and outnumbered Filipino-American defenders, who, while losing, their uncommon gallant stand however, rallied the free world with a message that the Japanese enemy can be engaged and defeated after all. Fittingly, the nation’s bells still toll in remembrance of the brave Filipino and American defenders of Bataan on April 9 of every year.
When Filipino and veterans of world wars remember Bataan, not only do they remember devastations of a world at war, or many painful memories of loved ones lost or killed at war, most of them, young men and women at the prime of life, in search and defense of freedom, peace and expressions of their love of country. They shall also remember the friendship of two younger nations at crossroads early in their histories, in pursuit of and paying the cost of higher ideals. Young men and women who serve their country shall always be remembered by history, as in Bataan, when the Lord infused a spirit to the brave, so that the right may eventually defeat the wrong, a necessary process in the life and progress of any civilization.
|
