Congressional gold medal sought for the "Angels of Bataan and Corrigedor"

Filipino nurses tended to the wounded in the  WWII Battles of Bataan and Corrigidor.

Cecilia Gaerlan isn't just telling a story; she’s fighting for a legacy that almost stayed buried in the jungles of Bataan. 

As we mark another Bataan and Corrigidor Day (April 8 and May 6 respectively) honoring the memory of the men who fought against overwhelming odds at the start of WWII, there is a movement to bestow Congressional Gold Medals for the women who were also in the middle of those battles to slow the Imperial Army of Japan.

For the founder of the Bataan Legacy Historical Society, the push for a Congressional Gold Medal isn’t just about a piece of metal — it’s about ensuring that the Filipino nurses and nurses' aides who bled and starved alongside American GIs are finally written into the history books as the heroes they were.

        RELATED: Why we still honor the memory of the Bataan-Corregidor soldiers

When the original drafts of the "World War II Nurses Congressional Gold Medal Act" started circulating in D.C., Gaerlan noticed a glaring, familiar omission: the Asian American and Filipino women who served under the most brutal conditions of the Pacific Theater were missing. She didn't stay quiet.

American nurses were liberated from the Santo Tomas Internment Camp.

Thanks to her relentless lobbying, the current legislation now explicitly honors these women—the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor"—who provided care in makeshift jungle hospitals and the dark, humid tunnels of Corregidor while being hunted by Japanese forces.

According to reporting by The 19th News, Cecilia Gaerlan of the Bataan Legacy Historical Society successfully lobbied to ensure Filipino and other Asian nurses are explicitly honored in the "World War II Nurses Congressional Gold Medal Act."

Bipartisan legislation is currently advancing in the 119th Congress, with S. 2195 introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and H.R. 4901 by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), seeking to honor these women for their service in the Philippines.

Out of food, medicine and ammunition, 4,000 Americans and 64,000 Filipino soldiers surrendered
to the Japanese forces in the Battles of Bataan and Corrigedor. It remains as the largest surrender
of US military forces in history. Many died in the infamous Bataan Death March.

As they waited for reinforcements and medical supplies that never came, Filipino nurses, alongside US military nurses, treated thousands of soldiers during the 1942 retreat, battling malaria and dysentery with almost no supplies.

In Corrigidor's Malinta Tunnel, while American and Filipino soldiers and sailors fought a brave, but ultimately, a losing battle, the nurses created a  makeshift hospital to treat the American and Filipino wounded. 

The Filipino and other Asian women, -- some nurses and some volunteer civilians without medical training -- worked alongside American military nurses as Japanese artillery  pounded the island. fortress. They provided a  makeshift hospital was set up to treat the American and Filipino wounded. a lifeline to the wounded even as the ceiling crumbled around them.

Filipino nurses joined US nurses to tend to the US
casualties of the battle of Bataan and Corrigidor.

In the jungles of the Bataan Peninsula, Filiipino women stepped up as volunteer nurses' aides to care the wounded American and Filipino fighters.

After the fall of the Philippines, scores of these nurses and aides were herded into the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. For three years, they survived on starvation rations while continuing to run a functional hospital for their fellow captives.

Unlike the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) or the civilian women who worked in the US factories and shipyards, "Rosie the Riveters," WWII nurses have not yet collectively received this high civilian honor despite their critical role in keeping casualty rates below 4%.

For Gaerlan and the Filipino American community, this is about more than a medal. It’s about correcting a historical narrative that has long treated their contributions as a footnote. 

There's only a handful of these heroic women -- the Americans and Filipinos -- still alive, most of them over 100 years old. As Gaerlan often reminds lawmakers, these women were the first American women in combat—and they deserve to be remembered as the pioneers they were before the last of them are gone.

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