Bataan "a secular Good Friday...."

Today is Good Friday 2006...

A time Manila goes quiet to remember the passion of Christ...
Last year I covered a event on Mt. Samat.

A speech was read that put things into historical context.

From Remarks of US embassy Chargé d’Affaires Joseph Mussomeli at “Araw ng Kagitingan” (Day of Valor) ceremony, Mt. Samat, Bataan Province, April 9, 2005...

" Exactly 63 years ago, at 8 o’clock in the night on April 9, 1942, the Voice of Freedom radio station announced, “Bataan has fallen.”

"With that pronouncement, 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers surrendered in one of the worst military defeats in our collective history."

"Not since our own American Civil War had American forces suffered such a devastating setback."

"And, perhaps not so coincidentally, that other great defeat also took place on this same date, April 9, at Appomattox in Virginia. And both defeats fell near Holy Week...."


What struck me about the comments was one line in the speech that really put things into context.

"we are too inclined to forget that after the fall of Bataan the situation looked hopeless. " Mussomeli went on to point out that hot april day... "That it seemed impossible to stop the onslaught of the imperial forces. "
That the enslavement of the world seemed at hand." Putting it into context "That a secular Good Friday had broken upon us."