The skies no longer rain with death – the seas bear only commerce – men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. When WWII ended, MacArthur, in his eloquence, stated: Seven thousand soldiers died during the 80-mile torturous trek. and Philippine soldiers were captured and forced to march to the capitol in what would become the Bataan Death March. President Roosevelt issued a command that MacArthur leave the island. Little military backing and diminishing supply took its toll. One day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded the Philippines. “This generation of Americans,” he declared, “ has a rendezvous with destiny.”Ī year earlier, FDR sent General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines to establish a military force in the region.
Against a backdrop of the Great Depression, his words rang in homeless shantytowns, to men without vocation, to families without food and shelter. On June 27, 1936, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his acceptance speech for nomination to a second term as President of the United States.
