08/04/2022
Did you know? 🤔
At dawn on April 9th 1942, Major General King, of the United States Army was forced to surrender his forces of over 76,000 Filipino, Chinese and American soldiers to the Japanese.
Unprepared for the number of prisoners, the Japanese decided to walk the prisoners 150km to a prison camp in San Fernando. Over 20,000 prisoners died on this march either through starvation, exhaustion or at the hands of the Japanese. The trek became infamous as the 'Bataan Death March'.
While the holiday marks an event which was a victory for the opposing forces, the heroic defence of Bataan by those soldiers was seen as a key event in the war, as it allowed the allies time to prepare for later battles which halted the Japanese progress in the pacific and eventually led to a turn in the fortunes and allied victory.
The Bataan peninsula was eventually retaken by American and Filipino forces on February 8th 1945.
In 1961, April 9th was declared Bataan Day. In 1987, it was renamed officially as 'Araw Ng Kagitingan' (Day of Valor) to pay tribute to those who defended Bataan, Corregidor and Bessang. From 2007, the holiday was designated to be observed on the Monday nearest April 9th, but since 2009 a yearly presidential decree has meant it is observed on April 9th.
Source: https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/philippines/the-day-of-valor
