Bataan Perspectives: Who's Bataan Death March
Conclusion
Miguel Llora

Summary

In this virtual tour, I have aimed to accomplish two things in an effort not to get history wrong: First, I have focused on the American post-war memories of the Bataan Death March.  Second, I began with the aim to undermine the notion of a stabilized past and to understand how master narratives drive memory and vice versa. Nuanced by varying textbook entries, memorials, films, and posters, the Bataan Death March and its legacy continues to challenge and reify contemporary war memory discourses. This collection of photos and videos was an attempt to understand the master narratives, cultural dynamics, positionality, and temporal forces that drove what goes into history textbooks and the construction of monuments. Through textbooks and war memorials, notions of American bravery and sacrifice are constantly being reinforced. We need not stand by, be quietly irenic, and rely solely on received truths. Rather, we have a responsibility to the past, the present, and the future to make history messy.

Corregidor Collection: The Presence of the Past

Bataan and the Death March are significant for two reasons: First, Bataan provides a space to examine what is remembered in each national context. Second, the Death March affords opportunities to examine how these national narratives and memories compete in relation to each other. It is this tri-country convergence that makes the public history discussion transnational. One example of convergence is the April 9th "Araw ng Kagitingan" or the "Day of Valor" celebration at the Capas National Shrine. In this event, the Philippine President invites the US and Japanese Ambassadors to attend a series of speeches and proceedings. In her 2003 speech, Gloria Arroyo spoke to the joint US/Philippine "Balikatan" initiative in Mindanao. Historically grounding her speech on the events in Bataan, Arroyo sought redress for the Filipino war veterans and affirmed Filipino solidarity with the world community vis-à-vis the war on terror. Although the Bataan Death March does not incite the same passions as the absence of the Comfort Women and the denial of Nanking in Japanese textbooks, or the necessity of dropping the bombs on Hiroshima or Nagasaki in American textbooks; the subtle inclusion, exclusion, and articulation of the Bataan Death March in textbooks, memorials, and film is reflective of each nation's postion. Public history and war memory research, in this case, seeks to understand how the stories that result from its articulation in history texbooks, memorials, and films provide meaning.

Left: The Rock as it was commonly called during World War II, is the location for the Pacific War Memorial. Arcade includes the Malinta Tunnel, which served as headquarters for General MacArthur and his staff.

Post 9/11, Globalization, and War Memory:
Sharing a Larger Agenda...

The Soldiers who fought in World War II, most of whom are no longer around, are pillars of courage and heroism, we’ll forever be indebted to them. This memorial that we unveil today is a tribute to them. Nothing is ever enough however to show our gratitude for their sacrifice. On the wall we unveil today, are inscribed the names of 32,285 gallant men who took part in the Bataan-Corregidor campaign and the Death March from Bataan to Capas. […] Each of those men, the 32,285 men whose names are inscribed in this wall, is a hero. An example for us in today’s difficult times, faced with a mortal crisis, they embraced a collective destiny and gave their all for the flag (President Gloria Arroyo’s Speech 2003).

Right: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo


Balikatan - "Shouldering the Load Together"
The Balikatan series is an annual event aimed at improving RP-US combined planning, combat readiness, and interoperability while enhancing security relations and demonstrating US resolve to support the Republic of the Philippines against external aggression. Balikatan is conducted to meet RP-US obligations under the Mutual Defense Treaty and to fulfill RP-US mutual training and readiness requirements. The Phillipine Constitution does not allow long-term basing by another country in the Philippines. The last of the US military bases at Subic and Clark were closed in the early 1990s. The first Balikatan exercise was conducted in 1991. In 1995 the Philippines ended Balikatan because of a dispute over the Visiting Forces Agreement. That agreement gives the United States jurisdiction over crimes committed by military personnel while on duty in a foreign country. It was reinstated in May 1999 despite protests from the Catholic Church and other anti-U.S. elements in the Philippines. The Visiting Forces Agreement provided for expanded military cooperation after coming into force in 1999. The Balikatan resumed in 1999 after being suspended.
Source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/balikatan.htm