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Today, April 9, marks another important holiday in the Philippine calendar. The nation commemorates ‘Araw ng Kagitingan’ (Day of Valour), the day when 76,000 prisoners of war were surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army and were forced to march 90 miles to Bataan.
You can Google the full history of Araw ng Kagitingan or of the Bataan Death March. I can’t imagine how gruesome the scenes were during those days when the prisoners of war endured horrifying treatment from the Japanese army, leading to the fall of Bataan.
We may not be as selfless as those brave soldiers were – sacrificing their lives for the love of country – but we can be as courageous as any war veteran was before, right here, right now.
It might be impossible for us to decipher every little thing that happened seven decades ago. I’ve heard bits of stories from way back because of a late relative who was one of the 76,000 men who marched to Bataan at that time. But I never understood what it was all for back then.
We all fight for something each and every day. Sometimes, against other people, sometimes we try to win against our own selves. We endure difficult times on varied levels and in some ways, we die a little. Or perhaps that’s what we think.
I hope we can share this day to everyone who are battling with anything or for anything today — against illness, against animosity, against hard feelings, etc. Celebrate this day for the people you consider your own HERO. And if you are your own hero, let’s celebrate this day and extend the celebration every single day.
We all have our own battlefield. We all have our own armors. Because in many events of our lives, we all have our own brave moments.
