johnlennon30
04-12-2008, 01:56 PM
Dedicated to the memory of the Filipino and American soldiers of Luzon Force, who surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army on 9 April 1942, Bataan, Philippines....
Your service shall be remembered forever
Beneath the blazing noon day sun
Guarded by Jap guards' guns
We walk, unrested, day and night
Within the guard's gun sight.
We hunger, yet are nourished not
We pause, and we are shot
Request for water or for heat:
You'll taste the soldiers' feet.
Such is the price we have to pay
Through wind, rain, night, and day
The price for love of country dear
Is loneliness and fear.
Yet stings of bullets we can bear
If we can once again
Breathe in the cool and crisp fresh air
And fearless wield a pen
(For none of us has been allowed
To write with truth thus vowed)
We can endure this cross of ours
Through all the painful hours
To see again the country dear
Serene and without fear....
The 75,000 soldiers of the Luzon Force surrendered to the sheer strength of the Japanese and were forced to walk 90 miles (140 km) from Bataan, the Philippines. They were then loaded onto rail cars toward Camp O'Donnell (previously a camp of the Philippine-American Army) and imprisoned. Many did not survive.
Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) is celebrated in the here in the Philippines to commemorate that incident.
Your service shall be remembered forever
Beneath the blazing noon day sun
Guarded by Jap guards' guns
We walk, unrested, day and night
Within the guard's gun sight.
We hunger, yet are nourished not
We pause, and we are shot
Request for water or for heat:
You'll taste the soldiers' feet.
Such is the price we have to pay
Through wind, rain, night, and day
The price for love of country dear
Is loneliness and fear.
Yet stings of bullets we can bear
If we can once again
Breathe in the cool and crisp fresh air
And fearless wield a pen
(For none of us has been allowed
To write with truth thus vowed)
We can endure this cross of ours
Through all the painful hours
To see again the country dear
Serene and without fear....
The 75,000 soldiers of the Luzon Force surrendered to the sheer strength of the Japanese and were forced to walk 90 miles (140 km) from Bataan, the Philippines. They were then loaded onto rail cars toward Camp O'Donnell (previously a camp of the Philippine-American Army) and imprisoned. Many did not survive.
Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) is celebrated in the here in the Philippines to commemorate that incident.