OCR Text |
Show ONE YEAR AGO-TIME GAINED AS YANKS HOLD ON AT BATAAN April 9, 1942 . . . Through the jagged jungle of Bataan a small, open car bearing a white flag chugged toward the Japanese lines. In the car were Maj.-Gen. E. B. King and Col. E. P. Williams who were to announce the surrender of 35,000 American and Filipino troops. Since January, these troops had been waging a valiant battle against a numerically superior and better equipped Japanese army in the tropical fastness of Bataan. From the foxholes dug out of the earth; from behind the towering brush; along thp scraggling moun- 1 ff .nk 4 tains and hitl- , sides, and under , ) the torment of f blazing sun, these i vl j men fought off VI the Invaders for tCV .. j4 four months. C-J' Those four T months gave f j United Nations M(,nu, QlM.lon nririmia time) to feverishly reform their ranks in the Southwest Pacific. Those months occupied oc-cupied the bulk of a Japonese army that might otherwise have driven Into Australasia. By April 9. however, thc limit of their resistance had been reached. Their numbers dwindling, their supplies sup-plies running low without adequate support of aircraft, tanks and guns they were being pressed farther and farther back toward the sea. A few managed to escope to thc rorkbound fortress of Corregidor, which also later surrendered. Thc spirit of this army was best described by Lieut. Norman Reyes, a young Filipino officer broadcasting from Corregidor April 9. He said: ". . . With heads bloody but unbowed, un-bowed, they have yielded to the superior su-perior force of the enemy. "The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up In the Jungle fastnessess and along the rugged rug-ged roast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant gruelling fire of the enemy for more than three months. Besieged Be-sieged on land and blockaded by ea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, these intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear." After paying due respect to the gallantry of the American army In a speech February 20. President Manuel Quezon of the Philippines then stressed the role the Filipino played in the courageous struggle on Bataan. "By our decision to fight by the side of the United States, by our heroism and by our loyalty to the American flag, we won a battle greater than we lost," Quezon said. "Our decision and our heroism hove won for our people real freedom for all time. "You know what President Roose velt said in his prorlamatfon to the Filipino people on December 18, 1941. These were his words: 'I give to Jhc people of the Philippines my solemn pledge that their freedom will be redeemed and their Independence Inde-pendence established and protrrtrd. The entire resources In men and materials or the United States stands behind that pledge.' , ' "In the name of the Philippines, I am a signatory to the Atlantic charter. We are one of thc United Nations. And whether thc war is over before or after July 4, 1940. the date fixed for thc establishment of the Philippine republic, I am certain cer-tain we shall have our own representation represen-tation in the peace conference." |