Filipino-American community, Kowboy Air Force Junior ROTC observe Bataan Death March anniversary

This past weekend was solemn for many, with the Easter and Passover holidays. For those that know the story behind the World War II Bataan-Corregidor monument in Kissimmee’s Lakefront Park, the weekend also marked the 81st anniversary of the “Bataan Death March” that saw hundreds of American prisoners of war and thousands of Filipino soldiers, and many civilians, die at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army.

To mark the occasion, 34 cadets from the Osceola High School Air Force Junior ROTC Flight 91, led by Instructor Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Larry Schneck (Ret.), made a symbolic early morning march, starting at the monument and returning at 9 a.m.

Just as the cadets finished their observance, a group of Filipino Americans from Central Florida, many of the U.S. military veterans, placed wreaths at the memorial and joined in prayers and remembrance.

In 1942, after fighting against Japanese forces for four months and running out of ammunition, food, and medical supplies, and with no hope for reinforcements from the States, 60,000 sick and starving American and Filipino soldiers surrendered. Their Japanese military captors were not prepared for this number of prisoners, and believing good soldiers would rather die than surrender, the conditions were set for one of the cruelest episodes in World War II.

Without food or water, the prisoners marched 65 miles, the same distance as Kissimmee to Avon Park, from the southern end of the Bataan peninsula to Camp O’Donnell. Soldiers who fell out were clubbed with rifle butts, bayonetted, or shot. Any Filipino civilians caught helping the prisoners faced the same fate, though many did provide what food and water they could, at great risk. Of the 36,000 American prisoners, only 4,000 were alive by the end of the war over three years later.

The Bataan-Corregidor memorial at Lakefront Park is one of the most prominent in the U.S., erected in 1995 through the work of retired Philippine diplomat Menandoro M. de Mesa and then Kissimmee Commissioner Richard Herring, who lived in the Philippines as a boy when his father was stationed at the U.S. Clark Air Base.

Members of the Filipino American community in Kissimmee and Central Florida formed the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation to raise funds for the memorial. Sculpted by artist Sandra M. Storm, it is the only statute among the handful of Bataan memorials in the U.S.