Remembering infamy

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of Japan.”

- Franklin D. Roosevelt to the U.S. Congress, 1941

Nearly seven decades old, yet, this speech addressed in the august halls of the American Congress still brings the familiar pain caused by one of the world's worst aerial attacks. President Roosevelt's words have lived on long after his time, and to this day, after 68 years, still echoes the collective grief and anger felt by the United States and its World War II allies at the attacks of the Japanese colonial empire.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

On a fateful Sunday morning on December 7, 1941, Japanese military forces launched a surprise attack against the US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The offensive caught American defenses unprepared, thus resulted in the death of thousands and the destruction of billions-worth of infrastructures and military fleets.

Japan, which was waging a war in the South East Asian region against Britain, the Netherlands and the US, was threatened by the political and economic influence of the US in East Asian nations. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, then devised a plan to immobilize the country's navy fleet with an unannounced aerial attack.

The assault began at dawn, with six Japanese carriers launching a first wave of 181 planes comprised of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters.

Nancy Shea, an American author and wife of a former military service man described the aerial spectacle:

“The noise was ear-splitting; tracer bullets made the sky look like a Fourth-of-July celebration; shell splinters rained like hailstones on the tiled roofs. Enemy planes came in waves. The bombs were dropping dangerously near, I saw a stray bomb enter a neighbor's garage across the street. Attacks lasted for ten to 20 minutes...it seemed an eternity.”

The attacks were swift, at well past 9:00 in the morning, it was all over, leaving unimagined destruction in its tracks.

The attack in Pearl Harbor sank four American battle ships and damaged four others. It also damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, one minelayer and about 188 other warcrafts. Around 2,402 military personnel and civilians perished, while 1,282 were injured.

The Philippines remembers

The sneak attack in Pearl Harbor was a prelude to a series of parallel attacks against American-allied countries – including the Philippines.

Only 10 hours after the Pearl Harbor bombing, Japanese troops simultaneously bombed various places in the country, while Japanese ground troops landed in Luzon.

After declaring an all-out war against Japan, the U.S. government enlisted around 470,000 Filipinos to fight in the name of the American flag.

Alfredo Diaz was an active sportsman at the University of the Philippines in Diliman when the war broke in 1941. The state university's student body president at the time was another young athlete, Ferdinand E. Marcos, who would eventually become president of the Philippines.

Diaz, now in his 90's remembers an oath he, Marcos and other ROTC cadets were made to recite following America's declaration of war against Japan:

“I, [name], do solemny swear...that I will bear true faith and allegiance...to the United States of America... that I will serve them honestly and faithfully... against all their enemies whomsoever...”

In April 1942, in the fall of the U.S.-Philippine forces in Bataan, an estimated 75,000 prisoners of war were forced to walk 60 miles from Bataan to a prison camp 150 kilometers up north.

Diaz resisted surrender orders and along with some of his comrades, escaped to Hagonoy, Bulacan. He was able to migrate to the US much later with a war veteran status.

Marcos on the other hand, survived the 'death march' and was widely celebrated as the Philippine's youngest war hero. The bemedalled Marcos later topped the bar exams and went on to become the country's longest serving president.

Unfortunately, not everyone had been as lucky.

The remaining prisoners were forced to march under the tropical heat while being subjected to extreme means of torture. They were starved, beheaded, stabbed with bayonets, raped and disemboweled – stripped of any human dignity even after death.

Towards the end of the notorious Bataan march, as many as 10,000 prisoners perished in the hands of their Japanese captors.

The march goes on...

The war is over.

While the Philippines now enjoys friendly relations with Japan, the bitter reminder of the Pearl Harbor attacks and its subsequent effects in the Philippines linger in the hearts of Filipino war veterans.

GMAnews.tv featured Death march survivor Isaac De Leon who despite his own limited resources and frailing health condition, still actively lobbies for improved benefits for war veterans in the Philippines.

De Leon, now in his late 80s, marches up regularly to the halls of the U.S. Congress, fighting for the due $300 monthly pension war veterans were promised to receive by the American government. But until now, his requests seem only to fall on deaf ears.

“We are already old, We need this pension because most of us could no longer work,” he told GMA.

For the meantime, De Leon has taken on odd jobs to augment his and his wife's earnings by pulling out weeds from a neighbor's lawn.

Only around 18,000 war veterans are still alive – and many are dying without even seeing their rightful compensation.

On the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing, Filipinos do not only remember the atrocity. For many war veterans and their families, the true tragedy lies in the denial of our war veterans' rightful claim to benefits that were promised them in return of their sworn allegiance to the American flag.

Photo: Pearl Harbor Attack by escapetowisconsin, uploaded via flickr, some rights reserved.

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