The Legacy of Bataan
"We are all ghosts now, but once, we were men."
-The men of Cabanatuan
The total cost of these atrocities numbered to more than 100,000 Filipino, American and other Allied soldiers' lives. The American and other foreign Allied soldiers who perished would never see their beloved homes, family, and friends again. The Filipino soldiers who died would never see their country and their people free from the Japanese.
The sacrifice that these men had given to their allies and countries had given way to the freedom of the Philippine Islands. These atrocities have shown us how mankind can be cruel and how much evil we are capable of. The Japanese guards beat, tortured and executed men who were already defenseless for fun, for trying to survive, and for small reasons that gave them excuses to do this.
But they have also shown how we can hold onto hope in the midst of the direst of circumstances and the courage we have to fight for what we believe in, even in the face of certain death. The Allied soldiers of Bataan and Corregidor never gave up on the struggle to keep the Philippines free and never gave into the enemy until they were ordered to stand down. After they became prisoners, they never gave up on their countrymen and allies that they knew would come back for them, even after the beatings, the torture ad the suffering.
These events have also given America and their allies more resolve and more reason to come back to the Philippine Islands. They needed to free the men, women and children they had left behind.
The legacy left behind by the tragic and horrible events following the fall of Bataan and the fall of Corregidor is a legacy that has faded away from most minds in the wake of The Holocaust and the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but it is not completely forgotten and hopefully never will.
The best we can do now for those who have lost their lives in the Bataan Death March, the Holocaust, and every other atrocity or "necessary course of action" committed during World War II, including the entire war itself, is to remember them, remember what they have done and remember the mistakes that we have made, not as opposing sides in a war that left the entire world devastated, but as brothers and sisters who want to make the world a better place.
Though I write these about the future with enough hope and optimism to believe that this will happen, I am still scared that the future is not as bright as many of us think it to be. It seems that humanity has only learned very little, if anything, from these tragedies. Tensions are rising between and within countries and wars are sure to be brewing. The path humanity presently walks on is a dark one. If we stay on this path, will there be enough humanity left to fix a world that has been broken by the destruction we brought and the blood we have shed?
-The men of Cabanatuan
The total cost of these atrocities numbered to more than 100,000 Filipino, American and other Allied soldiers' lives. The American and other foreign Allied soldiers who perished would never see their beloved homes, family, and friends again. The Filipino soldiers who died would never see their country and their people free from the Japanese.
The sacrifice that these men had given to their allies and countries had given way to the freedom of the Philippine Islands. These atrocities have shown us how mankind can be cruel and how much evil we are capable of. The Japanese guards beat, tortured and executed men who were already defenseless for fun, for trying to survive, and for small reasons that gave them excuses to do this.
But they have also shown how we can hold onto hope in the midst of the direst of circumstances and the courage we have to fight for what we believe in, even in the face of certain death. The Allied soldiers of Bataan and Corregidor never gave up on the struggle to keep the Philippines free and never gave into the enemy until they were ordered to stand down. After they became prisoners, they never gave up on their countrymen and allies that they knew would come back for them, even after the beatings, the torture ad the suffering.
These events have also given America and their allies more resolve and more reason to come back to the Philippine Islands. They needed to free the men, women and children they had left behind.
The legacy left behind by the tragic and horrible events following the fall of Bataan and the fall of Corregidor is a legacy that has faded away from most minds in the wake of The Holocaust and the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but it is not completely forgotten and hopefully never will.
The best we can do now for those who have lost their lives in the Bataan Death March, the Holocaust, and every other atrocity or "necessary course of action" committed during World War II, including the entire war itself, is to remember them, remember what they have done and remember the mistakes that we have made, not as opposing sides in a war that left the entire world devastated, but as brothers and sisters who want to make the world a better place.
Though I write these about the future with enough hope and optimism to believe that this will happen, I am still scared that the future is not as bright as many of us think it to be. It seems that humanity has only learned very little, if anything, from these tragedies. Tensions are rising between and within countries and wars are sure to be brewing. The path humanity presently walks on is a dark one. If we stay on this path, will there be enough humanity left to fix a world that has been broken by the destruction we brought and the blood we have shed?