Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Plaques - State Street Bridge, Chicago,IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 41° 53.222 W 087° 37.682
16T E 447895 N 4637424
Three plaques on the SE pylon of the State Street Bridge over the Chicago River, commemorating the Heroic Fall of Bataan and Chicago area veterans who served in the conflict.
Waymark Code: WM8QKA
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 05/03/2010
Views: 11
Inscriptions on the plaques:
Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge
1949
City Of Chicago
Martin H. Kennelly - Mayor
Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge
Dedicated to the memory of those gallant heroes from the Chicago area who were members of the besieged garrison on the Bataan Peninsula and at Corregidor, Philippine Islands, in World War II. May the courage and fortitude displayed by this group in the face of adversity be a constant inspiration to our citizens.
1949
In commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Philippine Independence, and on the occasion of Bataan Day, April 9, 1998, this bridge has been rededicated by Mayor Richard M. Daley in honor of all the Filipino and American Veterans who fought side-by-side during the Heroic Fall of Bataan and Corregidor Island, Philippines in 1942.
signed, donated by Philippine Department of Tourism
From the City of Chicago website for the bridge (
visit link)
"The next time you cross the State Street Bridge, you might want to pause and reflect on one of our country's greatest sacrifices, memorialized here by a plaque honoring Bataan and Corregidor.
On April 9, 1942, the 76,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan surrendered the peninsula to the Japanese. The troops had held Bataan for 14 weeks. Only one month later, the 13,000 defenders of Corregidor gave up the island at the entrance of Manila Bay. Except for scattered guerrilla resistance, the fall of the Philippines was complete.
For one week, Corregidor prisoners were not fed; later they were hauled ashore in freighters, driven like cattle through the streets of Manila and then shipped on a train to an improvised prison camp at Cabantuan.
Bataan's survivors were treated worse yet. Food, water and medicine were in short supply for the more than 50,000 captives. Most captives had to walk 65 miles north to Camp O'Donnell. Some of the captors treated soldiers well, but most exhibited cruel behavior. Seven thousand men died on this march to Camp O'Donnell, which is now called the Bataan Death March. A soldier ? poet who would later die in captivity wrote of Bataan's benumbed marchers: The suffering column moves. I leave behind/Only another corpse, beside the road."