The bipartisan bill would honor World War II service members who defended Bataan, Corregidor and other Pacific sites, including New Mexico National Guardsmen forced into the Bataan Death March.

Organ Mountain News report

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández have reintroduced bipartisan legislation to award a collective Congressional Gold Medal to service members who defended Bataan, Corregidor and other Pacific sites during World War II.

The Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Congressional Gold Medal Act would honor people who fought for or with the United States in the Pacific Theater, including those who defended Bataan, Corregidor, Guam, Wake Island, Midway Island and Java.

The Congressional Gold Medal is the nation’s highest civilian honor.

After the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, many service members endured the Bataan Death March, forced labor and torture in prisoner of war camps.

“Nearly 2,000 New Mexico National Guardsmen fought alongside Allied forces in the Pacific Theater during World War II,” Heinrich said. “These brave Americans endured the unimaginably harrowing Bataan Death March, and years of forced labor and torture in prisoner of war camps.”

Heinrich said the legislation would recognize those veterans with the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Leger Fernández said the American and Filipino defenders of Bataan and Corregidor endured “an unimaginable level of abuse” and responded with courage and strength.

“The Bataan Death March was a horrific example of cruelty and inhumanity,” Leger Fernández said. “As our Bataan veterans are passing, it’s time we recognize the Bataan and Corregidor service members — including many New Mexican heroes — with the highest honor.”

The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján and U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Gabe Vasquez.

The measure is also backed by the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, the New Mexico National Guard and the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico.

On Dec. 8, 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers attacked U.S. military stations in the Philippines. American and Filipino forces mounted a months-long defense of the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island despite being cut off from supply lines and reinforcements.

After the Battle of Bataan, about 75,000 U.S. and Filipino troops were taken prisoner by Japanese forces on April 9, 1942. They were forced to march more than 60 miles to prison camps in what became known as the Bataan Death March.

An estimated 10,000 men, including thousands of Filipinos and hundreds of Americans, died from starvation, exhaustion and abuse, according to Heinrich’s office.

Survivors were sent to Japanese prison camps for more than three years, where they endured further torture, undernourishment and forced labor. Others died while being transported out of the Philippines on unmarked Japanese Navy ships targeted by Allied forces.

Of the 1,816 New Mexico National Guardsmen in the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery who deployed to defend the Philippines in 1941, 829 never returned home.

A one-pager of the bill can be found here. The full text of the bill is here.