Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Congressional Gold Medal Act

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

Congress finds the following:

(1) Hours after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on December 7, 1941, Imperial Japanese forces launched coordinated attacks throughout Asia, striking Malaya, Thailand, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the United States territories of Guam, Midway Island, Wake Island, and Howland Island.

(2) For the next 7 months, undermanned United States forces in the Pacific fought with outdated weapons, expired ammunition, and without reinforcement or resupply to their besieged island posts.

(3) On the first day of United States participation in World War II, December 8, 1941, the “first to fire” in the Philippines at the Imperial Japanese were the New Mexico National Guardsmen from the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery (AA) regiments, the successors to the famed “Rough Riders” of the Spanish-American War, who had only recently arrived in the Philippines where they were stationed at Fort Stotsenburg north of Manila with the mission of defending Clark Field.

(4) Filipino soldiers and civilians valiantly fought alongside and as part of the United States Armed Forces and were integral to their war efforts.

(5) By the end of December 1941, all United States forces on Luzon Island in the Philippines withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula of the island, where, for the next 4 months, with neither air nor sea defenses, an estimated 12,000 United States and at least 63,000 Filipino troops and 20,000 Filipino civilians endured siege conditions.

(6) On April 9, 1942, Major General Edward P. King, Jr. surrendered the United States and Filipino forces on the Bataan Peninsula. The Imperial Japanese Army forced thousands of troops and civilians to assemble at the port of Mariveles at the tip of Bataan and other locations along the peninsula for a 65-mile forced march. This forced trek came to be known as the “Bataan Death March”.

(7) During the Bataan Death March, approximately 700 people of the United States and 6,000 to 10,000 Filipinos were killed. Survivors were sent to Camp O’Donnell where 26,000 more Filipino prisoners died.

(8) On May 6, 1942, Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrendered the fortress islands of Corregidor (Fort Mills), Fort Drum, Fort Frank, and Fort Hughes in Manila Bay. The complete surrender of the remaining United States and Filipino forces in the Philippines occurred on June 9, 1942.

(9) Included in the surrenders in the Philippines were female nurses of the United States Army and Navy and the Philippine Army and civilian volunteers who became the first large group of United States women in combat and, counted with the Army and Navy nurses surrendered on Guam in December 1941, comprised the first group of United States military women taken captive and imprisoned by an enemy.

(10) Between January 1942 and August 1945, thousands of prisoners of war from the United States who had survived the surrenders throughout the Pacific were shipped in unmarked freighters and vessels.

(11) It is time to recognize the defenders of Bataan, Corregidor, and other places throughout the Pacific who were ordinary men and women who found uncommon courage in extraordinary circumstances.

In this Act:

(1) Individuals who fought for or with the United States.— The term individuals who fought for or with the United States—

(A) includes any individual who—

(i) was in the Pacific theater at any time during the period beginning on December 8, 1941, and ending on August 15, 1945; and

(ii)

(I) served honorably as a member of the United States Armed Forces or at the command of the United States Armed Forces in the defensive battles in the Pacific from December 8, 1941, to June 9, 1942; or

(II) became a prisoner of war of Imperial Japan during World War II until August 15, 1945, including civilians who the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces considered military prisoners of war and received veterans status after the war; and

(B) does not include a member of the Pacific Fleet or the Hawaiian Department.

(2) Pacific theater.— The term Pacific theater means Shanghai, the Central Pacific Area, and the Southwest Pacific Area.

(3) Resistance or battle.— The term resistance or battle includes an action in and around Shanghai, Tientsin, Guam, Wake Island, the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, the Philippines, or Midway Island.

(4) Secretary.— The term Secretary means the Secretary of the Treasury.

(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 individuals who fought for or with the United States to defend Bataan, Corregidor, and other places in the Pacific theater, and became prisoners of war, 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 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 National Museum of American History of 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 National Museum of American History of 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—

(A) the defensive battles of World War II in the Pacific theater from December 8, 1941, to August 15, 1945;

(B) the prisoners of war of Imperial Japan; and

(C) the defense of the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Midway Island, and Java.

The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck under section 4, at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses.

(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 sections 5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items.

(a) Authority To use fund amounts.— There is authorized to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs of the medals struck under this Act.

(b) Proceeds of sale.— Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 5 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.