Araw ng Kagitingan feature, Bataan Death Marcher
Today, as we commemorate Araw ng Kagitingan, also recognized as the 80th anniversary of the fall of the Bataan peninsula during the Second World War, the #NationalMuseumPh features Bataan Death Marcher by Gene Cabrera from the National Fine Arts Collection (NFAC).
The occasion, also known as Bataan Day or Bataan and Corregidor Day commemorates April 9, 1942, when General Edward King of the US Army was forced to surrender his more than 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers to the Japanese. The Japanese forced the captive prisoners to march from Mariveles, Bataan, to Camp O’Donnel in Capas, Tarlac. Over 20,000 prisoners died of exhaustion, starvation, and brutality from the Japanese soldiers, thus known as the Bataan Death March. The Bataan Death Marcher resembles a soldier in a death skull made of metal with a military helmet, supported on a wooden base. It depicts the soldiers suffering from the brutality of the Japanese during the war. Cabrera’s sculpture serves to honor the bravery of the fallen soldiers in defending Bataan.
Gene Cabrera was born to Agustin Cabrera and Andrea Dela Cruz on March 13, 1919. He studied at the UP School of Fine Arts. Cabrera is a cartoonist and an illustrator and had exhibited with top international cartoonists. Cabrera died on April 19, 1988, at the age of 69.
This sculpture is on exhibition at the Silvina and Juan Laya Hall, Gallery VIII, National Museum of Fine Arts.
Follow this page for more features from the National Fine Arts Collection. The #NationalMuseumPH is now open to the public. View the link for the 360 degrees virtual tour of the nine select galleries at the National Museum of Fine Arts: http://pamana.ph/ncr/manila/NMFA360.html
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Text and photo by NMP FAD
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