Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Congressional Gold Medal Act
Bill: H.R.3603 | Sponsor: Rep. Leger Fernandez, Teresa (D-NM)
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Congressional Gold Medal Act
This bill provides for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to the troops from the United States and the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, in recognition of their personal sacrifice and service during World War II.

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the troops from the United 
   States and the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, in 
 recognition of their personal sacrifice and service during World War 
                                  II.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor 
Congressional Gold Medal Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Hours after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 
        Imperial Japanese forces launched an attack on the Philippines, 
        cutting off vital lines of communication to members of the 
        Armed Forces of the United States (referred to in this Act as 
        the ``Armed Forces'') and Filipino troops in the Far East under 
        the command of General Douglas MacArthur.
            (2) On December 8, 1941, the 200th and 515th Coast 
        Artillery Regiments, successors to the New Mexico National 
        Guardsmen who made up part of the famed ``Rough Riders'' of the 
        Spanish-American War, were the ``first to fire''.
            (3) Despite being cut off from supply lines and 
        reinforcements, members of the Armed Forces and Philippine 
        troops quickly executed a plan to delay the Japanese invasion 
        and defend the Philippines against that invasion.
            (4) Combined Armed Forces and Filipino ground forces fought 
        a prolonged 6-month resistance to Imperial Japan's invasion of 
        the Philippines. With the Armed Forces unable to deliver 
        reinforcements, the Armed Forces and Filipino forces slowly 
        deteriorated in combat effectiveness from--
                    (A) lack of food, supplies, and ammunition;
                    (B) disease; and
                    (C) no air and naval support.
            (5) By December 10, 1941, the United States Army Air Corps 
        airfields at Del Carmen, Clark, Nichols, and Nielson on Luzon 
        in the Philippines, as well as the nearby United States naval 
        facilities at Cavite and Olongapo, had been destroyed. The 
        surviving sailors, marines, and airmen were organized into 
        provisional infantry units and sent to fight on the Bataan 
        Peninsula.
            (6) By April 1942, troops from the United States and the 
        Philippines had bravely and staunchly fought off enemy attacks 
        in Bataan for more than 4 months under strenuous conditions 
        that resulted in widespread starvation and disease.
            (7) Securing the withdrawal of Armed Forces on Luzon to the 
        Bataan Peninsula were the following:
                    (A) 1,809 New Mexico National Guardsmen from 200th 
                and 515th Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) regiments. 
                First stationed at Fort Stotsenberg north of Manila, 
                they are credited as being the ``first to fire'' in the 
                defense of the Philippines on December 8, 1941.
                    (B) 1,006 National Guardsmen of the 192nd GHQ Light 
                Tank Battalion (596) composed of Company A from 
                Janesville, Wisconsin, Company B from Maywood, 
                Illinois, Company C from Port Clinton, Ohio, and 
                Company D from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and the 194th 
                Light Tank Battalion (410) composed of Company A from 
                Brainerd, Minnesota, Company B from Saint Joseph, 
                Missouri, and Company C from Salinas, California. The 
                192nd and 194th Tank Battalions had arrived in the 
                Philippines on or before Thanksgiving Day, 1941.
            (8) Barely \1/2\ of the men from the National Guard units 
        described in paragraph (7) returned home at the end of the war, 
        with the majority dying as prisoners of war of the Imperial 
        Japanese Army.
            (9) By maintaining their position and engaging the enemy 
        for as long as they did, the troops at Bataan were able to 
        change the momentum of the war, delaying the Japanese timetable 
        to take control of the Southeast Pacific for needed war 
        materials. Because of the heroic actions of the defenders of 
        Bataan, members of the Armed Forces and other Allied forces 
        throughout the Pacific had time to regroup and prepare for the 
        successful liberation of the Pacific and the Philippines.
            (10) On April 9, 1942, approximately 12,000 members of the 
        Armed Forces and 66,000 Filipino soldiers became prisoners of 
        war with the surrender of the Armed Forces and Filipino forces 
        on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines by Major General 
        Edward P. King.
            (11) Beginning on April 9, 1942, and lasting for almost 2 
        weeks, troops from the Armed Forces and the Philippines were 
        taken prisoner and forced to march 65 miles without any food, 
        water, or medical care in what came to be known as the ``Bataan 
        Death March''. They marched from Marviveles north to the San 
        Fernando train station. At San Fernando, the men were packed 
        standing in unventilated boxcars for the 24-mile journey by 
        rail to Capas. Survivors then marched an additional 3 miles to 
        the makeshift prisoner-of-war camp at Camp O'Donnell, an 
        unfinished Philippine Army training facility.
            (12) During this forced march, an estimated 700 members of 
        the Armed Forces and possibly 10,000 Filipino soldiers died 
        from starvation, lack of medical care, sheer exhaustion, or 
        abuse by their captors. Hundreds of men on the Death March 
        remain unaccounted for from the march and its immediate 
        aftermath.
            (13) Conditions at the prisoner-of-war camps were 
        appalling, leading to increased disease and malnutrition, which 
        precipitated extraordinary death rates of as high as 300 per 
        day.
            (14) Thousands of troops fought under siege conditions on 
        Corregidor (Fort Mills), a fortress island in Manila Bay, the 
        headquarters of the wartime U.S. Army Forces in the Far East, 
        and the nearby fortified islands of Fort Hughes, Fort Drum, and 
        Fort Frank until May 6, 1942.
            (15) On May 6, 1942, Corregidor, which had become the 
        military command center for all the Philippines, United States 
        Forces in the Philippines (USFIP), was surrendered by Lt. 
        General Jonathan M. Wainwright. Nearly 10,000 members of the 
        Armed Forces as well as more than 3,000 Filipino soldiers and 
        nurses became prisoners of war of Imperial Japan.
            (16) On June 6, 1942, the prisoners at Camp O'Donnell were 
        transferred to Camp Cabanatuan, north of Camp O'Donnell.
            (17) Nearly 26,000 of the 50,000 Filipino prisoners of war 
        died at Camp O'Donnell and survivors were gradually paroled 
        from September through December 1942.
            (18) Between September of 1942 and December of 1944, 
        prisoners of war from the Armed Forces who had survived the 
        horrific Death March were shipped north for forced labor aboard 
        ``hell ships'' and succumbed in great numbers because of the 
        abysmal conditions. Many of those ships were mistakenly 
        targeted by Allied naval forces because the Japanese military 
        convoys were not properly labeled as carrying prisoners of war. 
        The sinking of the Arisan Maru alone claimed nearly 1,800 lives 
        of members of the Armed Forces.
            (19) The prisoners who remained in the camps suffered from 
        continued mistreatment, malnutrition, lack of medical care, and 
        horrific conditions until they were liberated in 1945.
            (20) The veterans of Bataan and Corregidor represented the 
        best of the United States and the Philippines, hailed from 
        various locales across both countries, and represented true 
        diversity.
            (21) Over the subsequent decades, the veterans of Bataan 
        and Corregidor formed support groups, were honored in local and 
        State memorials, and told their stories to all people of the 
        United States.
            (22) The United States Navy has continued to honor the 
        history and stories of the veterans of Bataan by naming 2 ships 
        after the battle, including 1 ship that is still in service, 
        the USS Bataan (LHD-5), in memory of their valor and honorable 
        resistance against Imperial Japanese forces.
            (23) Many of the survivors of Bataan and Corregidor have 
        died and those who remain continue to tell their stories.
            (24) The people of the United States and the Philippines 
        are forever indebted to these men for--
                    (A) the courage and tenacity they demonstrated 
                during the first 4 months of World War II fighting 
                against enemy soldiers; and
                    (B) the perseverance they demonstrated during 3 
                years of capture, imprisonment, and atrocious 
                conditions, while maintaining dignity, honor, 
                patriotism, and loyalty.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Award Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of Representatives 
and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate 
arrangements for the collective award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold 
medal of appropriate design to the troops from the United States and 
the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, in recognition of 
their personal sacrifice and service during World War II.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the award under 
subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in this Act 
as the ``Secretary'') shall strike the gold medal with suitable 
emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
    (c) Smithsonian Institution.--
            (1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal 
        under subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the 
        Smithsonian Institution, where it shall be displayed as 
        appropriate and made available for research.
            (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
        the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal received 
        under paragraph (1) available for display at other locations, 
        particularly at locations that are associated with the 
        prisoners of war at Bataan and the troops from the United 
        States and the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    (a) Striking of Duplicates.--Under such regulations as the 
Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may strike duplicates in bronze 
of the gold medal struck under section 3.
    (b) Selling of Duplicates.--The Secretary may sell such duplicates 
under subsection (a) at a price sufficient to cover the costs of such 
duplicates, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses.
    (c) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate 
bronze medals under subsection (b) shall be deposited in the United 
States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.

SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.

    (a) National Medals.--Medals struck under this Act are national 
medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of title 31, 
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.
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