Members of Central Florida’s Filipino-American community and Americans who have lived in the Philippines, many of them military veterans, came together Saturday at Kissimmee’s Lakefront Park to celebrate Filipino-American Friendship Day.
The event centered on the Filipino Day of Valor, officially known as Araw ng Kagitingan, a Filipino national observance commemorating the fall of Bataan and the Resistance in Corregidor against Japanese troops during World War II. The day is officially celebrated every April 9, the start of the Bataan Death March, in which thousands of Filipino and American soldiers perished walking 65 miles into prisoner of war (POW) camps.
In Kissimmee, April 12 commemorates the founding of the Bataan Corregidor Memorial, located in Lakefront Park, which honors the bravery of Filipino and American soldiers who fought side by side for months in the forlorn cause, and then had to endure the Death March into captivity. The distance from the final battlefields to the camps was equivalent to walking from Kissimmee to Avon Park and, unprepared for so many prisoners and with a deep cultural disdain for the sick, starving soldiers who surrendered, Japanese authorities did not provide any food or water for the prisoners. Soldiers who fell out of the march were beaten or bayonetted to death. Any Filipino civilians caught helping the POWs faced the same fate, though many did give aid regardless.
Kissimmee’s memorial is one of the most substantial in the United States devoted to this tragic World War II event. For three and a half years, escaped U.S. and Filipino soldiers and Filipino civilians resisted the Japanese occupation until U.S. and allied forces pushed back the Japanese empire and eventually liberated the largely devastated Philippines in 1945.
At the start of Saturday’s event, the U.S. and Filipino national anthems were performed live, as an honor guard from Poinciana’s Liberty High School Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps posted the colors. Among the speakers was Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa, who welcomed those attending, many of whom traveled from Orlando, Orange County, and other locations in Central Florida. Several wreaths were laid and several more U.S. and Filipino patriotic songs were performed.
At the conclusion of the observance, the 100-plus participants adjourned to one of the park’s pavilions to enjoy traditional Filipino food. This year’s event was one of the most heavily attended in several years, and leaders of the Bataan-Corridor Memorial Foundation and the nearby American Legion Post 10 are in discussions on how to host an even larger recurring event starting next year.
For more information about the Philippine chapter of World War II history see https://bit. ly/3YuaxHE.
