Philippines: April 9

The Bataan Death March (also known as The Death March of Bataan) (Batān Shi no Kōshin バターン死の行進)

 April 9, 1942 was not just an important moment in the Philippines but in the history of humankind. If the Germans were the infamous villains in Europe, in Asia are the Japanese. After the Japanese army’s successful raid in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, they turned their forces to the American controlled Philippines. For three months, the joint Filipino American forces defended Bataan. They have fought bravely until their supplies were exhausted.

At dawn on 9 April, and against the orders of Generals Douglas MacArthur and Jonathan Wainwright, Major General Edward P. King, Jr., commanding Luzon Force, Bataan, Philippine Islands, surrendered more than 75,000 (67,000 Filipinos, 1,000 Chinese Filipinos, and 11,796 Americans) starving and disease-ridden men. He inquired of Colonel Motoo Nakayama, the Japanese colonel to whom he tendered his pistol in lieu of his lost sword, whether the Americans and Filipinos would be well treated. The Japanese aide-de-camp replied: “We are not barbarians.”

The prisoners of war were immediately robbed of their keepsakes and belongings and what follows is one of the most inhumane incidents in human history.
The 75,000 prisoners of war forced to endure a 61-mile (98 km) march in deep dust, over vehicle-broken macadam roads, and crammed into rail cars to captivity at Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac. Thousands died en route from disease, starvation, dehydration, heat prostration, untreated wounds, and wanton execution.
Those few who were lucky enough to travel to San Fernando on trucks still had to endure more than 25 miles of marching.

Physical abuse and murder resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon the prisoners and civilians along the route by the armed forces of the Empire of Japan. Beheadings, cutting of throats and casual shootings were the more common actions—compared to instances of bayonet stabbing, rape, disembowelment, rifle butt beating and a deliberate refusal to allow the prisoners food or water while keeping them continually marching for nearly a week in tropical heat. Falling down or inability to continue moving was tantamount to a death sentence, as was any degree of protest or expression of displeasure.

Prisoners were attacked for assisting someone falling due to weakness, or for no apparent reason whatsoever. Strings of Japanese trucks were known to drive over anyone who fell. Riders in vehicles would casually stick out a rifle bayonet and cut a string of throats in the lines of men marching alongside the road. Accounts of being forcibly marched for five to six days with no food and a single sip of water are in postwar archives including filmed reports.

The exact death count has been impossible to determine as thousands of captives were able to escape from their guards, but some historians have placed the minimum death toll between six and eleven thousand men; whereas other postwar Allied reports have tabulated that only 54,000 of the 75,000 prisoners reached their destination—taken together, the figures document a casual killing rate of one in four up to two in seven (25% to 28.6%) of those brutalized by the forcible march. The number of deaths that took place in the internment camps from delayed effects of the march is uncertain, but believed to be high. All told, approximately 5,000–10,000 Filipino and 600–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach Camp O'Donnell.

After the surrender of Japan in 1945, an Allied commission convicted Masaharu Homma of war crimes, including the atrocities of the death march out of Bataan, and the following atrocities at Camp O'Donnell and Cabanatuan. He was executed on April 3, 1946 outside Manila.

Philippines: April 7

After arriving to Samar on March 16, 1521, Magellan decided to explore more of the islands that will later become the Philippines. On April 7, 1521 Magellan reached Cebu and meet with Rajah Humabon. The two performed a sacred tradition of the native people called the blood compact as part of the tribal tradition to seal their friendship and treaty.

Seven days later,Rajah Jumabon and 500 of his men were baptized as the first Christians (Catholics) in the Philippines. Humabon was named Carlos in honour of king Charles I of Spain, while his principal wife Hara Amihan was named Juana, after king Charles' mother, Johanna.

According to Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian scholar born in Vicenza who was traveling with Magellan, it was Humabon who had requested Magellan to kill his rival Datu Lapu Lapu, the Datu (chieftain) of nearby Mactan island. Humabon's conversion to Christianity however, had an adverse affect of allowing the Spaniards to control Humabon and his people. After quarrel and mis-understanding erupted between the Spaniards and the Cebuanos, Rajah Humabon and his warriors plotted to poison the remaining Spanish soldiers in Cebu after the death of Magellan at the Battle of Mactan.


On April 7, 1976, the Philippines Arts Center was inaugurated in Mt. Makiling, Laguna by First Lady Imelda Marcos as a haven for young and aspiring artists. Its various buildings and facilities are scattered over 13.5 hectares of the Makiling Forest Reservation and also houses the Philippine High School for the Arts, a government-run secondary educational institution for gifted young artists.

Philippines: April 6

On April 6, 1924, the first Balagtasan was held in Manila between Jose Corazon de Jesus and Florante T. Collantes. They are both from Bulacan.



José Corazón de Jesús, also known by his pen name Huseng Batute, was a Filipino poet who used Tagalog poetry to express the Filipinos' desire for independence specially during the American occupation of the Philippines, a period that lasted from 1901 to 1946. He is best known for being the lyricist of the Filipino song Bayan Ko.

On March 28, 1924, De Jesús and other leading Tagalog writers met at Instituto de Mujeres (Women's Institute)in Tondo, Manila to discuss how to celebrate the birth anniversary of Tagalog poet Francisco Balagtas on April 2. They decided to hold a traditional duplo, or a dramatic debate in verse that was in its waning days in the 1920s. They changed the format of the duplo and renamed it balagtasan in honor of Balagtas.

There were three pairs of poets who participated in the first balagtasan on April 6, 1924 at the institution, but the audience were most impressed by De Jesús and another Filipino poet, Florentino Collantes.

The balagtasan was an instant hit and it later became a common feature in Manila's biggest and most expensive theaters until the 1950s. De Jesus and Collantes were pitted against each other in a contrived rivalry and a showdown was set for Oct. 18, 1925 at the Olympic Stadium. De Jesús was acclaimed winner of the showdown and was dubbed "Hari ng Balagtasan" (king of versified debate). He held the title until his death in 1932.