Aquino Scolds U.S. Over Filipino Veterans : Bataan: President voices bitterness at the denial of full military benefits. Heroism of 50 years ago is honored.

Fifty years after one of the darkest days in World War II, one that saw the worst defeat in U.S. military history and the start of the infamous Bataan Death March from this bloodstained battlefield, Philippine President Corazon Aquino assured cheering war veterans that she is still bitter.

Not at the Japanese, however. At the Americans.

In a stinging rebuke before hundreds of survivors of the siege of Bataan and Corregidor, gathered here to commemorate the heroism and horrors of half a century ago, Aquino criticized Washington this week for denying full veterans’ benefits to hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who were inducted into the U.S. armed forces and served under American officers during the war.

“When the smoke of war cleared and victory was won, the services of Filipino war veterans appeared to be remembered only in word and not in deed,” Aquino said Thursday. “They continue to be denied the full range of benefits that is rightfully theirs.

“Our words extolling the joint sacrifices of Filipinos and Americans ring hollow until this is resolved,” she added, as the U.S. and Japanese envoys looked silently on. Many in the crowd applauded as she promised to seek redress of the longstanding claim.

The U.S. Congress canceled or cut benefits to Philippine veterans a year after the war ended and the former colony was granted independence. Veterans’ groups have fought in court and lobbied Congress ever since then to have the law repealed. It wasn’t until 1990 that Congress agreed to offer summary naturalization to Filipino war veterans. More than 12,000 applied, and about 2,000 already have become citizens, according to the U.S. Embassy.

Aquino’s speech wasn’t the only note of rancor on a day of quiet dignity, reflection and tears for one of the most shameful chapters in the Pacific war, both for the Japanese and the Americans.

Japanese bombers attacked the Philippines nine hours after they hit Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Despite repeated warnings that war had begun, most of the U.S. planes at Clark Air Field, neatly lined up wing to wing, were destroyed on the ground.

Historians say Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. armed forces in the Far East, exaggerated the abilities of his mostly ill-trained and ill-equipped troops. Worse, since he insisted that he could beat back the Japanese, he ignored plans to stockpile food and supplies in case his army had to retreat.

The defense quickly collapsed, however, under a massive Japanese invasion of central Luzon on Dec. 22. MacArthur abandoned Manila two days later, declaring the capital an “open city,” and ordered immediate retreat to Bataan, a rugged peninsula of steep mountains, deep ravines and thick jungle 35 miles across Manila Bay.

In what became an epic and bloody siege, more than 80,000 Filipino and American troops valiantly fought the Japanese for more than three months, their morale kept up by promises of relief convoys and reinforcements. But no help was sent. Unknown to them, President Franklin D. Roosevelt already had declared the defense of Britain and Europe a higher priority.

Without air cover and under constant bombardment, the abandoned army was left to fend for itself as food, ammunition and medicine ran out. Rations were cut in half, then halved again. Malaria and other illness raged. “No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam; we’re the battling bastards of Bataan,” was their chant.

Some veterans are still angry. “Worst of all was the false hope that they were going to send us reinforcements,” said former infantryman Rafael G. Zagala, now 73. “But the so-called convoys they were sending for us never came.”

MacArthur, who had taken his family and staff to nearby Corregidor island, was evacuated again, to Australia, on March 11. Japanese bombers and artillery relentlessly pounded the beleaguered island fortress, destroying almost everything above ground. Survivors crowded into the Malinta Tunnel, an elaborate labyrinth dug into the rock, and awaited the inevitable.

Bataan finally fell on April 9, 1942. Corregidor, and with it the Philippines, surrendered on May 6. Military historians still debate whether the heroic five-month struggle significantly delayed Japanese plans for conquest.

But no one disputes what happened next. An estimated 75,000 half-starved, sick and exhausted prisoners, including 12,000 Americans, were force-marched 55 miles north from Bataan to San Fernando on a dusty road under a broiling sun. Japanese guards beheaded and bayoneted the sick, whipped the slow and brutalized many of the rest. Up to 10,000 died in what was one of the war’s most barbaric episodes.

The prisoners’ new home was the hastily built Camp O’Donnell prison in Capas, where conditions were even worse. Up to 550 POWs died each day of malaria, dengue fever, beriberi, dysentery and abuse; nearly 30,000 died there by war’s end.