[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2192 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2192
To grant the Congressional Gold Medal to the troops from the United
States and the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, in
recognition of their personal sacrifice and service during World War
II.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 9, 2019
Ms. Torres Small of New Mexico (for herself, Mr. Lujan, and Ms.
Haaland) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on
House Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To grant the Congressional Gold Medal to the troops from the United
States and the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, in
recognition of their personal sacrifice and service during World War
II.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor
Congressional Gold Medal Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Hours after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,
Imperial Japanese forces launched an attack on the Philippines,
cutting off vital lines of communication to members of the
Armed Forces of the United States (referred to in this Act as
the ``Armed Forces'') and Filipino troops in the Far East under
the command of General Douglas MacArthur.
(2) On December 8, 1941, the 200th and 515th Coast
Artillery Regiments, successors to the New Mexico National
Guardsmen who made up part of the famed ``Rough Riders'' of the
Spanish-American War, were the ``first to fire''.
(3) Despite being cut off from supply lines and
reinforcements, members of the Armed Forces and Philippine
troops quickly executed a plan to delay the Japanese invasion
and defend the Philippines against that invasion.
(4) Combined U.S.-Filipino ground forces fight a prolonged
six-month resistance to Imperial Japan's invasion of the
Philippines. With the U.S. unable to deliver reinforcements,
the U.S.-Filipino forces slowly deteriorate in combat
effectiveness through lack of food, supplies, ammunition, and
disease as well as from no air and naval support.
(5) By December 10, 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps airfields
at Del Carmen, Clark, Nichols, and Nielson on Luzon in the
Philippines, as well as the nearby U.S. Naval facilities at
Cavite and Olongapo had been destroyed. The surviving sailors,
Marines, and airmen were organized into provisional infantry
units and sent to fight on the Bataan Peninsula.
(6) By April 1942, troops from the United States and the
Philippines had bravely and staunchly fought off enemy attacks
in Bataan for more than 4 months under strenuous conditions
that resulted in widespread starvation and disease.
(7) Securing the withdrawal of United States forces on
Luzon to the Bataan Peninsula were--
(A) 1,809 New Mexico National Guardsmen from 200th
and 515th Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) regiments.
First stationed at Fort Stotsenberg north of Manila,
they are credited as being the ``First to Fire'' in the
defense of the Philippines on December 8, 1941;
(B) 1,006 National Guardsmen of the 192nd GHQ Light
Tank Battalion (596) composed of Company A from
Janesville, Wisconsin; Company B from Maywood,
Illinois; Company C from Port Clinton, Ohio; and
Company D from Harrodsburg, Kentucky; and the 194th
Light Tank Battalion (410) composed of Company A from
Brainerd, Minnesota; Company B from Saint Joseph,
Missouri; and Company C from Salinas, California. The
192nd and 194th Tank Battalions had arrived in the
Philippines on or before Thanksgiving Day 1941; and
(C) barely half of the men from these National
Guard units returned home at the end of the war, with
the majority dying as POWs of the Imperial Japanese
Army.
(8) By maintaining their position and engaging the enemy
for as long as they did, the troops at Bataan were able to
change the momentum of the war, delaying the Japanese timetable
to take control of the Southeast Pacific for needed war
materials. Because of the heroic actions of the defenders of
Bataan, members of the Armed Forces and other Allied forces
throughout the Pacific had time to regroup and prepare for the
successful liberation of the Pacific and the Philippines.
(9) On April 9, 1942, approximately 12,000 United States
military personnel and 66,000 Filipino soldiers became POWs
with the surrender of the American-Filipino forces on the
Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines by Major General Edward P.
King.
(10) Beginning on April 9 and lasting for almost two weeks,
troops from the Armed Forces and the Philippines were taken
prisoner and forced to march 65 miles without any food, water,
or medical care in what came to be known as the ``Bataan Death
March''. They marched from Marviveles north to the San Fernando
train station. At San Fernando, the men were packed standing in
unventilated boxcars for 24-mile journey by rail to Capas.
Survivors then marched an additional three miles to the make-
shift POW camp at Camp O'Donnell, an unfinished Philippine Army
training facility.
(11) During this forced march, an estimated 700 American
and possibly 10,000 thousand Filipino soldiers died from
starvation, lack of medical care, sheer exhaustion, or abuse by
their captors. Hundreds of men on the Death March remain
unaccounted for from the march and its immediate aftermath.
(12) Conditions at the prisoner of war camps were
appalling, leading to increased disease and malnutrition, which
precipitated extraordinary death rates of as high as 300 per
day.
(13) Thousands of troops fought under siege conditions on
Corregidor (Fort Mills), a fortress island in Manila Bay, the
headquarters of the wartime U.S. Army Forces in the Far East,
and the nearby fortified islands of Fort Hughes, Fort Drum, and
Fort Frank until May 6, 1942.
(14) On May 6, 1942, Corregidor, which had become the
military command center for all the Philippines, United States
Forces in the Philippines (USFIP), was surrendered by Lt.
General Jonathan M. Wainwright. Nearly 10,000 American
soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines as well as over 3,000
Filipino soldiers and nurses become POWs of Imperial Japan.
(15) On June 6, 1942, the prisoners at Camp O'Donnell were
transferred to Camp Cabanatuan, north of Camp O'Donnell.
(16) Nearly 26,000 of the 50,000 Filipino prisoners of war
died at Camp O'Donnell and survivors were gradually paroled
from September through December 1942.
(17) Between September of 1942 and December of 1944,
prisoners of war from the Armed Forces who had survived the
horrific death march were shipped north for forced labor aboard
``hell ships'' and succumbed in great numbers because of the
abysmal conditions. Many of those ships were mistakenly
targeted by Allied naval forces because the Japanese military
convoys were not properly labeled as carrying prisoners of war.
The sinking of the Arisan Maru alone claimed nearly 1,800 lives
of members of the Armed Forces.
(18) The prisoners who remained in the camps suffered from
continued mistreatment, malnutrition, lack of medical care, and
horrific conditions until they were liberated in 1945.
(19) The veterans of Bataan and Corregidor represented the
best of the United States and the Philippines, hailed from
various locales across both countries, and represented true
diversity.
(20) Over the subsequent decades, the veterans of Bataan
and Corregidor formed support groups, were honored in local and
State memorials, and told their stories to all people of the
United States.
(21) The United States Navy has continued to honor the
history and stories of the veterans of Bataan by naming 2 ships
after the battle, including 1 ship that is still in service,
the USS Bataan (LHD-5), in memory of their valor and honorable
resistance against Imperial Japanese forces.
(22) Many of the survivors of Bataan and Corregidor have
died and those who remain continue to tell their stories.
(23) The people of the United States and the Philippines
are forever indebted to these men for--
(A) the courage and tenacity they demonstrated
during the first 4 months of World War II fighting
against enemy soldiers; and
(B) the perseverance they demonstrated during 3
years of capture, imprisonment, and atrocious
conditions, while maintaining dignity, honor,
patriotism, and loyalty.
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Award Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of Representatives
and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate
arrangements for the collective award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold
medal of appropriate design to the troops from the United States and
the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, in recognition of
their personal sacrifice and service during World War II.
(b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the award under
subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in this Act
as the ``Secretary'') shall strike the gold medal with suitable
emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
(c) Smithsonian Institution.--
(1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal
under subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the
Smithsonian Institution, where it shall be displayed as
appropriate and made available for research.
(2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal received
under paragraph (1) available for display elsewhere,
particularly at other appropriate locations that are associated
with the troops from the United States and the Philippines who
defended Bataan and Corregidor.
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold
medal struck pursuant to section 3 under such regulations as the
Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost
thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and
overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.
(a) National Medals.--The medals struck pursuant to this Act are
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States
Code.
(b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of title 31,
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be
considered to be numismatic items.
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