• Bataan Has Fallen: A Commemoration


      Today, we celebrate Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valour). But, do you have any idea what this day commemorates? Aside from this is an extension of the long holiday, we must also bear in mind that this is a holiday for a reason.

      ***

      Radio broadcast message, as written by Captain Salvador P. Lopez, delivered by Lieutenant Normando Ildefonso “Norman” Reyes on the “Voice of Freedom” radio broadcast of April 9, 1942 from Malinta Tunnel, Corregidor:


      Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy.

      The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more than three months. Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear.

      For what sustained them through all these months of incessant battle was a force that was more than merely physical. It was the force of an unconquerable faith—something in the heart and soul that physical hardship and adversity could not destroy! It was the thought of native land and all that it holds most dear, the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in these most priceless of all our human prerogatives.

      The adversary, in the pride of his power and triumph, will credit our troops with nothing less than the courage and fortitude that his own troops have shown in battle. Our men have fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the most superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last in the face of overwhelming odds.

      But the decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of unshakable faith are made of something more that flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come.
      Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand—a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world—cannot fall!




      Researched by:

      Diego Salvador
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      Comments 3 Comments
      1. machinecult's Avatar
        machinecult -
        You can listen to the last broadcast (via morse code) detailing the final moments of the defense of Bataan and Corregidor here.



        This morse code broadcast is made by an American soldier Irving Strobing who took the time to spread the information of their final moments in defending "The Rock". It was transcribed in Hawaii by Sgt. Arnold Lappert.

        There's been a confusion in Strobing's rank, whether he is a lieutenant, sergeant, corporal, a private or an Army Signal Corps radioman. By the fall of Corregidor, and during this transmission, Strobing was likely a private and a radio operator.
      1. anggwaponi's Avatar
        anggwaponi -
        dire ikapakita nga kaya natu makigbisug sa atung West Philippine Sea
      1. wwwfernand's Avatar
        wwwfernand -
        and....nagbasa ko ani dria sa japan...toink...
        we are still economically prisoner.
        mayta ma.okay nah ang pinas para ang mga filipino dili na mag.death march as OFW T_T

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