Answer to Question #297277 in English for AIRA

Question

1.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.

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2.Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand—a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world—cannot fall!

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3.Today, on the commemoration of that Resurrection, we can humbly and without presumption declare our faith and hope in our own resurrection, our own inevitable victory.

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Answer 1

1.

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…

“Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand—a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world—cannot fall!”

The ordeal of the PH-US forces didn’t end with Bataan’s surrender, or with the fall of Corregidor a month later. The Japanese, infuriated at the delay imposed on their war timetable by the unexpected resistance of these two strongholds, punished the survivors in the most gruesome way imaginable. From Mariveles, Bataan, they forced the soldiers to march day and night through heat and hunger, disease and disability, beating and bayoneting those that couldn’t take another step, letting the wounded die along the way and starving the rest until the bedraggled fallen army of some 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war reached San Fernando, Pampanga. From there, they were loaded on a box train and transported to Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac.

What came to be known as the Bataan Death March claimed the lives of about 10,000 Filipino and 650 American soldiers, and entered the annals as among the most horrific episodes of World War II. It would lead to the prosecution of Lt. Gen. Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines, for war crimes, for which he was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946, or merely six days short of four years since the white flag of surrender was waved by the valiant defenders of Bataan.

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All of us know the story of Easter Sunday. It was the triumph of light over darkness, life over death. It was the vindication of a seemingly unreasonable faith. It was the glorious resurrection of a leader, only three days before defeated and executed like a common felon.

Today, on the commemoration of that Resurrection, we can humbly and without presumption declare our faith and hope in our own resurrection, our own inevitable victory.

We, too, were betrayed by Judases. We were taken in the night by force of arms, and though we had done wrong to no man, our people were bound and delivered into the hands of our enemies. We have been with mock symbols of sovereignty, denied by weaklings, lashed with repeated oppression, tortured and starved. We have been given gall to drink, and we have shed our blood. To those who look upon us from afar it must seem the Filipino people have descended into hell, into the valley of death. But we know that the patient and watching men who said their simple prayers in the hills of Bataan, have not lost faith, and we know that the hushed congregations in the churches throughout the land, drew from the gospel as Mass renewed hope in their resurrection. To all of them we give today the message of the angel of Easter morning: “Be not afraid, for He is risen.”

We, too, shall rise. After we have paid the full price of our redemption, we shall return to show the scars of sacrifices that all may touch and believe. When the trumpets sound the hour we shall roll aside the stone before the tomb and the tyrant guards shall scatter in confusion. No wall of stone shall then be strong enough to contain us, no human force shall suffice to hold us in subjection, we shall rise in the name of freedom and the East shall be alight with the glory of our liberation.

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We, too, shall rise. After we have paid the full price of our redemption, we shall return to show the scars of sacrifices that all may touch and believe. . . . No wall of stone shall be strong enough to contain us, no human force shall suffice to hold us in subjection, we shall rise in the name of freedom, and the East shall be alight with the glory of our liberation.

Despite the clear mishandling of the pandemic situation by our government, and the thousands of deaths we’ve suffered, even as we call on the government to be accountable and remind our people to practice safety protocols at all times, the call is the same as it was on April 9, 1942 — we refuse to give up, and we stubbornly put our faith and hope on that future victory, not only against the virus but also against the tyranny and incompetence that was exposed by this calamity.