[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[November 13, 1994]
[Pages 2071-2073]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 2071]]


Remarks at the American Cemetery in Manila, Philippines
November 13, 1994

    President and Mrs. Ramos, Secretary Christopher, Ambassador 
Negroponte, Mr. Perrine, Mr. De Ocampo, Colonel Barth; Mr. Quashan, 
thank you for that wonderful introduction; distinguished members of the 
Philippine Government, distinguished members of the diplomatic corps, 
especially to the young students and to the Peace Corps volunteers that 
are here, and most especially to the Philippine and American veterans 
here in attendance: Hillary and I are deeply honored to be with you 
today. I was told this morning that I am the first sitting President 
since President Eisenhower to visit this hallowed site, and it is a 
profound honor for me and for our entire party.
    We gather to honor and to remember. In this place, only a few miles 
from the ocean named for peacefulness, we always remember the fury of 
war, the 17,206 American and Philippine men and women who are buried 
here, arrayed in the long arcs I saw this morning as if still deployed 
in our defense, the 36,281 more whose names are engraved on these 
magnificent marble walls. Nowhere else outside the United States are so 
many American heroes honored and interred.
    Some of their brethren, heroes from American units and Filipino 
units, thankfully are still here with us today. Time has diminished none 
of our pride in them. They are among the finest people our nations have 
ever produced. Their presence here reminds us of the meaning of courage 
and determination. Their example will inspire us for ages to come. On 
behalf of a grateful nation and an increasingly free world, I thank 
them, and I ask all the Philippine and American veterans of World War II 
who are here to stand and receive the thanks of all of us. [Applause]
    We can hardly imagine today the perils that met these young men in 
the full bloom of their lives. They left families and loved ones and 
home to go to places they never heard of to confront dangers they never 
imagined. They had to liberate territory bit by bit, enduring constant 
fear of ambush in island jungles. At sea they stayed on course in the 
face of a new terror, the suicide dive bomber. On American carriers, our 
pilots took off never knowing if they would find their ships again. This 
ordeal engulfed the Philippines, our oldest friend in Asia, a nation 
that has done so much to enrich the United States.
    On the same day that Pearl Harbor was bombed, the American garrison 
in the Philippines was attacked. Troops under General MacArthur dug in 
for battle not far from here on the Bataan Peninsula and on Corregidor. 
Our joint forces in Bataan resisted for 4 months. Then, low on 
ammunition, weakened by hunger, reduced by sickness, they could fight no 
more. Their nightmare was just beginning. A death march to prison camps 
and a horrifying internment claimed the lives of about 25,000 Filipinos 
and Americans. Corregidor became the last bastion.
    Just before coming here, I had the honor of touring the island with 
the President and with a group of our veterans, including a man named 
Bill Martin who is with us here today. His road in the war was long, 
from Bataan to Corregidor to a prison camp in Manchuria. Today marks the 
first time Bill Martin has been on the rock since he was captured there 
50 years ago, the first time he has seen this place where so many of his 
friends and comrades lie at rest. Welcome back, Bill Martin, and thank 
you.
    I saw on Corregidor the remains of many evidences of Americans and 
Filipinos sharing the familiar diversions of everyday life, the fields 
where the games were played, the remnants of three movie theaters. But 
the most important thing they shared was a ferocious love of freedom. 
When a shell fragment cut the halyard on the embattled garrison's 
flagpole, it was a Philippine civilian named Panorio Punongbayan who 
braved the shelling with two Americans to catch the flag before it 
touched the ground and, under fire, to retie the line and raise the flag 
again. Their commander, General Wainwright, said what they had done was 
not only courageous but helped the battered rock's morale beyond any 
words.
    A month after Bataan fell, time ran out for Corregidor, as the sky 
over the island turned to lead with 16,000 shells a day. Relief was 
impossible; freedom's last foothold seemed lost.

[[Page 2072]]

Soon--we forget this now--Japanese forces controlled land and water 
stretching from Alaska's Aleutian Islands to Wake Island near Hawaii. 
From New Guinea, they menaced Australia. With our fleet devastated at 
Pearl Harbor and Hitler ruling Europe from the English Channel to the 
Russian heartland, free people everywhere stood in fear.
    In this, one of our Nation's darkest hours, our troops and our 
leaders might have given up, but their spirits never failed. An enlisted 
man who survived the fighting and hunger, the death march, and 3 years 
in prisoner of war camps gave voice to that spirit and to its ultimate 
source. Almost incapable of walking when he was liberated, he was still 
unbowed and said, ``When a man allows God to sustain him, he can go 
through hell if he has to. That's what I did. Yes, sir, I refused to 
die.'' That man, Corporal Ishmael Cox, is still unbowed and refusing 
today, living in Missouri.
    After the occupation, tens of thousands of Filipinos and a handful 
of Americans fought the most valiant guerrilla effort in the Pacific 
theater. Meanwhile, American forces, with Australians and New 
Zealanders, began the agonizing crawl, island by island, back across the 
Pacific. They fought their way through the Solomons, the Admiralty 
Islands, Palau; their battles at Midway, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima are 
now legends.
    Driven by General MacArthur's determination that our friends in the 
Philippines should not have their freedom delayed, Americans put to 
shore at Leyte in 1944, with an invasion force larger than that of the 
opening phase of Normandy. In the surrounding gulf, more than 800 United 
States ships stretched across the horizon and there fought and won the 
largest naval battle of all time. General MacArthur did return, and so 
would freedom. Countless horrors still lay in the way, including the 
butchery of house-to-house fighting in Manila. The savagery turned the 
Pearl of the Orient into another Warsaw. But the tide turned once and 
for all.
    When he returned to Corregidor, General MacArthur saw the now-famous 
old flagpole still standing, and he ordered, ``Hoist the colors to the 
peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down.''
    These heroes, those who rest here and those still among us, gave 
everything so that all of us might be free. Here in the Philippines, one 
million people, one in every 17, gave their lives. But the spirit of 
Bataan and Corregidor did not die. The defense of democracy, the 
determination to spread freedom, the refusal to bow before aggression 
are principles at the core of our identities as nations today.
    Those who were once our foes, Japan, Germany, and Italy, are now our 
friends because they, too, now embrace these ideals. These same 
principles saw us through the long ordeal of the cold war, and today, 
they unite us with our allies, including our friends here in the 
Philippines, who stand with us in the constant march of freedom and 
democracy.
    It is fitting that we commemorate these heroes today not only 
because of the common cause that joined our peoples 50 years ago but 
because the great wave of democracy that has swept the world in our time 
began here in the Philippines. Eight years ago, when President Ramos and 
others stood up bravely, they, too, showed the defiant courage of 
Bataan. So did the crowds that filled the streets here when people power 
blossomed and Corazon Aquino led the Philippines into a new era. What 
happened here, all of you in the Philippines should know, strengthened 
the magical current of democracy that was then sweeping all around the 
world. It encouraged events in countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia, 
Hungary, and Russia.
    We mark now the fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall 
just this past week. A new generation of democracy has come into the 
world in South Africa, South America, much of Asia, parts of the Middle 
East. What you did here encouraged the spirit of freedom for the world, 
just as surely as your defiant courage in World War II buoyed the forces 
of freedom then. We thanked you then; we thank you now.
    Like those we honor today, we must still stand against aggression 
and cede to no country the right to dominate its neighbors, its region, 
or its hemisphere. The United States looks to the Pacific not as an 
ocean that separates us from Asia but as a body of water that unites us 
with Asia. To fulfill the vision of those who fought here, we must, and 
we will, remain engaged with the Philippines and elsewhere. We will make 
the most of peace and partnership and, as President Ramos said, the 
opportunities for prosperity. But if threats arrive, we will confront 
them as well.
    On the Korean Peninsula, there has been such a threat in the 
possible proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The agreement we

[[Page 2073]]

reached with North Korea to freeze and then to dismantle North Korea's 
ability to build nuclear weapons was achieved in concert with South 
Korea and Japan. But it furthered the cause of security in the 
Philippines and, indeed, throughout all of Asia.
    Our final responsibility is to remember what those young people did 
here a half a century ago and to remember that it is undying. Today, 
when I got out with Hillary at the cemetery, the first grave I visited 
was that of a soldier from my home State. He came from a town where I 
have spent many happy days, a town like so many little towns that dot 
our wonderful country and form the backbone of America. Private First 
Class William Thomas, on April 22d, 1945, was not quite 23 years old 
when his unit entered the Zambales Mountains, 85 miles from here. They 
were assigned to help clear the enemy from Luzon. He was a long way from 
his hometown of Wynne, Arkansas, that day.
    The enemy was well dug in when his company attacked along a ridge, 
and he was hit by an explosion that blew off both his legs below the 
knees. But he refused medical help and instead continued firing until a 
bullet knocked out his gun. Still he kept on fighting, throwing his 
grenades. His heroism allowed his unit to capture that position. The 
price of his unit's victory was William Thomas' life. For his valor, he 
received the Medal of Honor, America's highest military honor, one of 28 
recipients so remembered here.
    William Thomas, for your sacrifice and for that of all others here 
laid to rest, your Nation remembers you and is forever grateful. And you 
serve us still, as do all the names and graves of those here 
commemorated serve us still, for nothing, nothing protects us and our 
freedom like the vigilance of memory.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 1:30 p.m. In his remarks, he 
referred to John D. Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines; 
World War II veterans Paul Parrine, who gave the invocation, and William 
H. Quashan; Col. Emmanuel De Ocampo, president, Veterans Federation of 
the Philippines; and Col. Wayne M. Barth, USA, Director, Joint Military 
Assistance Group.