As Miramax previews its new World War II motion picture The Great Raid, the true story about how Filipino guerillas helped rescue more than 500 American and British prisoners of war, the film is also a reminder of the drive to provide military benefits for Filipino veterans of that conflict.
John Vieira was at one of the screenings in Northern California. He wanted to learn more about his grandfather [Charles Mortimer].
“My grandfather was part of the Bataan Death March, and he was in Cabanatuan (Prison Camp),” Vieira remarked. “He was freed by the Army rangers. He died in 1957 of jungle rot and malaria … before I was born. It’s been very hard for my mom and my uncle to talk about it, so I came here to get a little more history.”
General Douglas MacArthur had fulfilled his promise of returning to the Philippine Islands. Victorious American troops soon discovered that retreating Japanese soldiers had massacred many prisoners. With great urgency, a small group of 121 elite rangers from the U.S. Army 6th Battalion was assigned to slip behind enemy lines, through 30 miles of Japanese-controlled territory, and to rescue the prisoners at Cabanatuan.
Director John Dahl says his own father was a World War II veteran serving in the Philippine Islands. “So many things could have gone wrong in that secretive march of theirs,” Dahl remarked. “Moving 120 people across 30 miles to get to the camp really required the complete cooperation of the Filipinos.”
More than 200-plus Japanese soldiers manned the camp, which was surrounded by flat land with no vegetation or trees to hide behind. Captain Bob Prince of Tacoma, Washington, now a retired apple distributor, says the Filipino guerillas and local residents provided much of the intelligence, help and support.
“We shot the guards out of the towers immediately,” he recounted. “We shot the locks off the gate and were inside so quickly, the Japanese guards had no chance to react effectively at all. They were wiped out in the first five or ten minutes.”
James Hildebrand of Orangevale, California, was one of the rescued POWs. He says the Filipino guerrillas covered two flanks protecting the Army Rangers. They fought off a Japanese regiment, helped to evacuate many of the sick prisoners –– many with water buffalo and carts, and made good their escape.
“The Filipino guerillas came from all parts of the Luzon, the Central Luzon area. They really put up a good fight with the Japanese soldiers. They didn’t lose a single one of them,” Hildebrand recounted.
“It reminds the American public again what transpired in the Philippines,” said Filipino veteran Franco Arcebal of Los Angeles, “but I hope something more than that should be shown.”
Arcebal is referring to bills pending in Congress that would provide benefits for Filipino veterans who served during World War II. They include: Senate Bill S-146, the Filipino Veterans Equity Act of Senator Daniel Inouye [D-Hawai‘i] and HR-302 (introduced by Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.) or HR-170 (by Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.). Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose) has also endorsed this effort, although President Bush has thus far withheld his support.
Peping Baclig of Whittier, California, escaped the Bataan Death March and fought as a guerrilla. He became an American citizen in 1987, and is frustrated at the Washington, D.C. gridlock.
“I am happy that I’m an American,” he stated. “It’s so sarcastic and so ironic that you fight for something and you become a victim of what you’re fighting for.”
The movie itself concentrates on the rescue of the POWs, and only alludes to the torture and atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers.
Robert Loya, a Vietnam veteran, stated, “The movie was very realistic and close to what was described in the book Ghost Soldiers. It made me feel good as an American.”
“It was a hell of movie,” Mike Nordling stated. “It was suspenseful, although you already knew the outcome. I thought it was very well done.”