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 PUBLIC LAW 97-167—APR. 6, 1982

96 STAT. 61

Public Law 97-167 97th Congress Joint Resolution Providing for the designation of April 12, 1982, as "American Salute to Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Memorial Day".

Whereas April 9, 1982, is the fortieth anniversary of the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines to the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II; Whereas approximately thirty-six thousand Americans were captured by the Japanese at the fall; Whereas these Americans, along with Filipinos captured by the Japanese, were forced to march without food and water for up to ten days on the Bataan Death March to Camp O'Donnell, a prisoner of war camp; Whereas the International War Crimes Commission reports that ten thousand three hundred people, including women and children, died on that march; Whereas the survivors of that march, along with other Americans and Filipinos captured by the Japanese in the Philippines, were taken to a prisoner of war camp in central Luzon named Cabanatuan; Whereas the treatment of prisoners of war at Cabanatuan was extraordinarily cruel and inhumane and resulted in the death of over three thousand American prisoners of war during the period beginning May 1942 and ending February 1945; Whereas the prisoners of war at Cabanatuan were liberated on September 2, 1945; Whereas of the thirty-six thousand Americans who were captured at the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, only between six thousand to seven thousand survived until such date of liberation; and Whereas approximately three thousand fifteen Americans who survived the Bataan Death March and imprisonment at Cabanatuan are living today: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Presi-

Apr. 6, 1982 [H.J. Res. 435]

American Salute to Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Memorial Day.

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