Battles that granted us our freedom.

 

Biguenos. Filipinos. Pinoys. No matter what we call ourselves, we are citizens of a country that survived hardship against three different colonizers — the country, that no matter how defeated it was, stood up in unity against conquerors. This is the story of the Philippines and one of the battles to reach its freedom; The Historical Battle of Bataan.

It is no surprise that the Philippines has undergone many battles and hardships to reach the freedom it has attained today. One of these is the Battle of Bataan (Labanan sa Bataan) wherein around an estimate of 12,000 Americans and 63,000 Filipinos became prisoners of war, forced to participate in a devastating tragedy named the Bataan Death March. Approximately 10,000 people died during this march, with 1,000 being Americans and the rest are Filipinos. It lasted almost 3 months and two days—  with many Filipinos dying due to torture, starvation, dehydration, etc. After bombing the Pearl Harbor, the Japanese quickly took over many parts of Southeast Asia. Attempts to save the remaining troops in Bataan failed, marking April 9, 1942, a grevious day for those brave men who fought until the end.

The wars may have stopped, but this is not where we go down. We survived calamities. We survived invasions. Let us remember those who gave their lives for our freedom — and aim for a better, unified world.

source for image used: https://www.google.com/amp/s/thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2018/4/10/the-battle-of-bataan-and-the-bataan-death-march%3fformat=amp