On the west side of the sculpture.

Plaque

A rectangular metal plaque, mounted on a stone pedestal, features engraved English text commemorating the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942, during World War II, and includes an excerpt from a historic radio broadcast from Corregidor. The final note adds that the war in the Philippines has ended signifying final victory and liberation.

Source of photos: googlemaps

VOICE OF FREEDOM

9 April 1942

Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms…

…They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more than three months. Besieged on land… the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear.

For what sustained them through all these months of incessant battle was a force that was more than merely physical. It was the force of an unconquerable faith… It was the thought of native land… the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in these most priceless of all our human prerogatives.

…Our men have fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the most superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last in the face of overwhelming odds.

But the decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of unshakable faith are made of something more than flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come.

Bataan has fallen; but the spirit that made it stand—a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world—cannot fall!

—EXCERPTS FROM A RADIO BROADCAST FROM CORREGIDOR

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POSTSCRIPT

World War II ended in the Philippines with surrender of Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita and more than 50,000 Japanese troops to Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright in Baguio City on 2 September 1945.