On April 9, 1942, at daybreak, Major General King of the United States Army was compelled to surrender his forces of nearly 76,000 Filipino, Chinese, and American men to the Japanese.
The Japanese were unprepared for the quantity of detainees, so they chose to walk them 150 km to a prison camp at San Fernando. Over 20,000 POWs perished during this march, either from malnutrition, weariness, or at the hands of the Japanese. The walk became known as the 'Bataan Death March'.
While the holiday commemorates an event that resulted in a victory for the opposing forces, the heroic defence of Bataan by those soldiers was regarded as a pivotal event in the war, as it gave the allies time to prepare for later battles that halted Japanese progress in the Pacific, eventually leading to a turn of fortunes and allied victory.
On February 8th, 1945, American and Filipino soldiers retook the Bataan Peninsula.
April 9th was named Bataan Day in 1961. In 1987, it was formally renamed 'Araw Ng Kagitingan' (Day of Valour) to honour those who defended Bataan, Corregidor, and Bessang. Since 2007, the holiday has been designated to be observed on the Monday closest to April 9th, but since 2009, a yearly presidential decree has required that it be observed on April 9th.
