SF ‘Valor Run, ’ rites for 75th anniversary of Bataan Death March

SAN FRANCISCO — Bataan Legacy Historical Society in partnership with the Presidio Trust, the National Park Service, American Battle Monuments Commission and Fil-Am Racing will commemorate the 75^th Anniversary of the Bataan Death March on Saturday, April 8, 2017 at the Presidio Officers’ Club at 50 Moraga Ave., San Francisco, CA to honor the thousands of Filipino and American soldiers who perished during this tragic moment of history.

The event starts at 8:30 a.m. with the Bataan Legacy 7.5K Valor Run, which will wind through the scenic Presidio trail system. At 9 a.m. memorial wreaths will be placed at the American Battle Monuments Commission WWII West Coast Memorial.

At 10 a.m., the Commemorative Program will start with a parade on the Presidio Grounds by Bay Area High School ROTC cadets led by Master Sargeant Stanley Kamiya of the 91^st Division.   They will then proceed to Moraga Hall of the Presidio Officers’ Club where the rest of the program will take place.

Veterans of the Battle of Bataan as well as WWII in the Philippines will be honored during the ceremony. Major Generals (Ret.) Eldon Regua and Antonio Taguba, Filipino-Americans whose father and uncle fought in Bataan, are among the speakers.

The Bataan Death March is a seminal event in WWII history that took place in the Philippines starting on April 9, 1942. 75,000 Filipino and American troops of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), mostly suffering from major disease and starvation, were forced to surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army.

They marched approximately 60 miles to their prison camp at Camp O’Donnell under extreme tropical conditions with no provisions for food, water, shelter or medicine. Those who could no longer go on were beaten, bayoneted, shot and some were even beheaded by their Japanese captors.

Approximately 10,000 Filipino and 650 American soldiers died during the march. They fought in the Bataan Peninsula for 99 days without any reinforcement or air support but they were able to disrupt the 50-day timetable of the Imperial Japanese Army before their surrender. This delay prevented Japan from reaching Australia.

Bataan Legacy Historical Society worked successfully with the California Department of Education to include the Bataan Death March and WWII in the Philippines in the U.S. history curriculum framework for Grade 11. It is now starting the next phase to help enable its implementation by creating sample lesson plans.

(To register for the Bataan Legacy Valor Run, please go to www.filamracing.com. Proceeds from the run will benefit Bataan Legacy Historical Society and the Congressional Gold Medal for the WWII Filipino Veterans. To RSVP for the commemorative program, go to https://bit.ly/BDMCommemoration. For more information about the commemorative program, contact (510) 520-8540 or [email protected] or go to www.bataanlegacy.org. For more information about the Valor Run, contact (973) 713-8053 or [email protected].   #BataanLegacy, #Filamracing, #ValorRun. )