The QUAN
July 2001

REMARKS
by Hon. Anthony J. Principi
Secretary of Veteran Affairs
American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor

Hampton, VA
May 19, 2001

The great historian David McCullough has written: "History is a guide to navigation in perilous times." It is easy for today's statesmen to chart an incorrect course by confusing a cinematic version of the war with the war's true history. Hollywood would have it that an aroused nation, awakened to its peril, armed itself after Pearl Harbor and achieved victory after glorious victory, culminating in the Japanese surrender on the battleship Missouri.

It is easy to tell the story of our involvement in World War II as a tale of inevitable victory. But that would result in a false understanding of history, because it would omit the contribution that men and women like you made at a time when our victory was far from certain. And your contribution is a story that needs to be told.

Your story includes the heroism of the 31st infantry regiment, and the 4th Marines, and the 28th Bomb Group, and the sailors at Cavite, and the other brave American men and women stationed throughout the Western Pacific on December 7, 1941.

All of these men and women woke up on December 8 cut off from their country and the world -- without a realistic chance to defeat the enemy if they were not reinforced; without a realistic prospect of receiving that reinforcement; and even without a realistic chance to be evacuated.

Every new generation needs to be told that Americans lived and fought in 1941 and 1942 with no chance of victory for themselves, but with only the hope of delaying the enemy while our nation woke up to the consequences of war.

Every new generation needs to be told that three days after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese sent three cruisers, six destroyers, and four transport ships to attack the four hundred and forty-nine Marines on Wake Island. And that the attackers were driven off by those Marines, and only a second attack group with heavy cruisers, more destroyers, two aircraft carriers and thousands of Japanese Marines could defeat these men.

At the beginning of the war, only you and your comrades stood between the enemy and victory. And you held the line, and did so magnificently, even at a terrible cost. As General Mac Arthur said: "The Bataan Garrison was destroyed due to its dreadful handicaps, but no Army in history more thoroughly accomplished its mission."

Without you, the sacrifices of the crew of the Arizona would have been in vain. The Doolittle raid would have been an empty gesture. And the name of Dorie Miller would have long been forgotten.

I am reminded of the words of President John F. Kennedy. He said: "Without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment, but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy."

Many men died at Pearl Harbor, at Wake Island, at Bataan and Corregidor, and throughout the Pacific theatre of war.

Many who were taken captive along with you died in the course of their captivity.

Next weekend, on Memorial Day, we will once again honor those who died alongside you, as we honor all our war dead. We honor them for their faithfulness to our nation, for their service and sacrifice, and for their unsurpassed courage.

But we must also honor you, who fought so valiantly and endured so much in the name of freedom.

Your story of steadfastness and loyalty again needs to be told.

We must again tell the story of Bataan and Corregidor: of the 10,000 Americans of Bataan who surrendered and were led on the Bataan death march, the thousand who died -- and the 9,000 who survived to face years of brutal and deadly captivity.

We must again tell the story of the men of Corregidor, kept prisoner for three and one half years, and all who were held by the Japanese in conditions so horrible that more than 87% of all those imprisoned died in captivity.

We must remind a new generation of the slave labor you were forced to endure, and the cruel and unusual punishments, and the medical experiments.

Your story must be told because your courage -- and your heroism -- was what led us on to victory.

Most Americans have no idea what it is like to be in combat.

But you have all known combat -- both the physical kind, and the special kind that a prisoner of war faces.

In combat, the enemy is largely unseen. He is somewhere out there, until the moment the shooting begins, and even afterwards. And when the shooting stops, the battle stops. There are opportunities for a hot meal, for a furlough, even for reassignment once physical limits are reached.

But to a prisoner of war, the enemy is everywhere. He controls your fate, your future, even your bodily functions. You are at war at every second. Your diet is always the same. You are never given leave. You can never leave the combat zone. Even today, more than fifty-five years after the end of your captivity, your lives are still shaped by your experiences.

Your victory was measured in your survival; and in maintaining your faith and your loyalty to your country, when the reward for maintaining that loyalty was continued starvation -- and death.

Your strong heart, great spirit, and unyielding faith served as an inspiration to the rest of us. You placed honor before everything, even before having a whole self.

You absorbed with your own bodies the blows that were intended by our enemies for our nation and its people, and you sacrificed your own freedom for the freedom of the world.

And finally, you returned from your service, regained your rightful place in our society, and strengthened your families, your communities, and our nation through your example of courage, and loyalty and continued good citizenship.

Your role in rebuilding America after the war is a story that also must be told.

We at the Department of Veterans Affairs honor your service, and are grateful for your sacrifices.

As former Prisoners of War, you are entitled to special benefits from our department. We recognize that the physical hardships and psychological stress you endured in your captivity has had a life-long effect on the health of many of you, and on your readjustment to society.

We provide compensation for many disabilities that may have been brought on by your captivity -- and are still looking for other linkages that may become manifest as you age.

Our national outreach program works to educate all former prisoners of wars about VA benefits and services you may be entitled to.

And it is my highest priority as Secretary to improve the timeliness and accuracy with which we process benefits claims, both yours and those of every other veteran.

Some of you may know that it now takes nearly nine months for us to process the average claim for benefits. You have earned better service than that. And you will get it.

Let me conclude with the words of television commentator Tom Brokaw. I'm sure most of you know his book, The Greatest Generation. It is about the men and women who, like you, came of age in the 1940's. This generation heard first-hand of your ordeals; was inspired by your example, and rejoiced at your freedom.

You are among the greatest of the greatest generation. This is what Brokaw wrote of you, and those who served with you: "At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workday world, (American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coastguardsmen) answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs. They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest. They succeeded on every front. They won the war; they saved the world."

So do not despair if you go to see the movie about Pearl Harbor, and you do not recognize yourself and your experiences in Hollywood's depiction of your war.

Remember that others know of your loyalty to our country, your contribution to our victory, and the many sacrifices you have offered for her freedom.

And of the strength you showed in resisting the enemy despite hopeless odds, and in continuing to resist despite your captivity.

When they were asked what they needed, they asked only one thing. "Send us more Japs," the commanding officer said. "Send us more Japs."

And though these American troops knew that they faced certain captivity or death, they fought as bravely and as well as any man in the United States has ever sent into battle. Fifteen hundred Japanese were killed in the assault on Wake Island. Only forty-nine Marines and three sailors died.

And every new generation needs to be told that fifteen days after Pearl Harbor, in Lingayen Bay, the Japanese fourteenth army invaded Luzon. And though desperately short of food, medicine and ammunition, the Battling Bastards of Bataan and the defenders of the Rock fought ferociously until the following May.

Those who fought on Bataan and Corregidor did more than resist the enemy to the utmost of their ability. They stopped the Japanese in their tracks, and gave our nation precious time to recruit and train the men and women who would eventually win the war -- and build the ships, planes and guns that were the tools we needed to win.

And they rallied a nation made fearful by Pearl Harbor -- and reminded our citizens that the American fighting man was the equal, or the superior, of any other fighting man on the face of the earth.

The Japanese won great tactical victories at the beginning of the war. We were not ready for the preparations a totalitarian nation, shaped by leaders who glorified war, had made for conquest.

Remember, too, that our ultimate victory in World War II, and our continued prosperity today, rests in no small measure on your accomplishments during that war.

And that the tales of your great heroism will be told, again and again, from generation to generation, for as long as our republic shall stand.

You are but mortal men and women, but your steadfast courage and dedication gave you the strength to achieve immortal acts. And those acts must be acknowledged in perpetual stone.

Your story, your service, and your sacrifice are irrefutable testimony that a memorial to the veterans of World War II must be built on the National Mall in Washington -- now!

May God bless all of you.