Araw ng Kagitingan

NGAYON ay ginugunita ng sambayanang Pilipino ang Araw ng Kagitingan na mas lalong kilala bilang Bataan Day. April 9, 1942 nang bumagsak ang Bataan sa kamay ng mga Hapones. Isinuko ni Amerikan General Edward King ang Bataan kay General Nakayoma na kumakatawan kay General Masahoru Homma, ang Japanese Commander-in-Chief.

Ang Fall of Bataan ay ipinahayag sa ‘‘Voice of Freedom’’ na sinulat ng World War 2 veteran, journalist, educator at diplomat na si Salvador P. Lopez. Ito ay madamdaming binasa ng veteran radio announcer na si Norman Reyes.

Kaugnay ng pagdiriwang ngayon ng Araw ng Kagitingan, muling ilalathala ng BANTAY KAPWA ang makasaysayang ‘‘VOICE OF FREEDOM’’ ni. S.P. Lopez. ‘‘Batasan has fallen. The Philippine troops on this war-ravaged and blood stained peninsula have laid down their arms. With head bloody but unbound, they have yielded to the superior force and number of the enemy. The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan… Bataan has fallen – but the spirit that made it stand – a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of world-cannot fail.