History Lesson

Today we commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Fall of Bataan or as we call it "Araw ng Kagitingan" ("Day of Valor").

On April 9, 1942, approximately 75,000 Filipino and United States soldiers, commanded by Major General Edward "Ned" P. King, Jr., were formally surrendered to a Japanese army of 50,000 men under Lt. General Masaharu Homma. This required Japan to accept emaciated captives who vastly outnumbered them. The Japanese, having expected the fighting to continue longer, had only expected 25,000 prisoners of war and did not have the facilities to properly care for them.

Click here to read more.

Since you are already online, you might as well read the story of Alf R. Larson, who was a Bataan Death March survivor. I found his interesting website when I googled "Bataan", this morning.

Sometimes in our daily toxic existence, we fail to look back and reflect on some historical events which shaped our country. It is easy to just dismiss past events because they occurred so many years ago but I think it is important especially for the future generation to know what really happened, today 65 years ago.
I mean sure, we complain endlessly about the deteriorating economy, civil liberties violation and human rights abuses but can you imagine what those men went through during World War2?
Would we as a nation pampered with our iPods, our malls, our annual vacations and our cushy DSL connection be able to survive an atrocity like daily bombardments and a mighty enemy invading our homes?

I don't think so.


My point is we need to be thankful we are the only democratic nation in Asia. Instead of maligning and blaming government for every single thing that goes wrong in this country, we should be supportive and unite for the sake of the terribly spoiled future generation so we may continue to enjoy our much envied freedom.

OK I'm done preaching here.

I'm posting some pictures from Corregidor c/o my sister who visited it last month.