San Francisco to mark Pearl Harbor bombing, Bataan resistance

SAN FRANCISCO – Bataan Legacy Historical Society will commemorate the 75^th Anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Philippines on Wednesday, December 7 at 6 p.m. at the War Memorial Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Ave., Room 210 in San Francisco.

The event is organized in collaboration with Memorare Manila 1945, through the sponsorship of the American Legion War Memorial Commission and VFW 4618 91^st Division Chinatown Post. Keynote speaker will be Phil Gioia, military historian and decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. Gioia served two combat tours in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 5th Cavalry Regiment of the First Cavalry Division.  He currently serves as a Director of the Friends of the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor where the United States Navy suffered loss and destruction, Japan bombed the Philippines just a few hours later on December 8.   The Battle of Bataan took place from January until April 9, 1942 when the Filipino and American soldiers of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) were forced to surrender. Despite suffering from major starvation and disease and fighting without any air support, the USAFFE troops were able to delay the timetable of the Imperial Japanese Army. What ensued is one of the greatest tragedies in the annals of U.S. history. Approximately 10,000 Filipino and 650 American soldiers died when they were forced to walk to their prison camp at Camp O’Donnell some 60 miles away with no provisions for food, water, shelter or medicine.

Bataan Legacy Historical Society has been working with the California Department of Education since 2014 to include this seminal segment of WWII history in the U.S. history curriculum framework for Grade 11 (Chapter 16) and on July 14, 2016, it was approved by the California State Board of Education. It has an ongoing exhibition at the War Memorial Veterans Building (Room 102) on WWII in the Philippines and the Role of San Francisco until December 16. The exhibition is open to the public (Free admission) from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

For further information, please contact [email protected] or call (510) 520-8540. Please visit our website at www.bataanlegacy.org for more information about our work to include WWII in the Philippines in the U.S. history curriculum framework.