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Bataan Death March Memorial
LAS CRUCES, NM - The country’s first federally funded monument honoring American and Filipino veterans of the Bataan Death March is on display at Veteran’s Park in Las Cruces, NM. The monument was dedicated on April 13, 2002, marking the 60th anniversary of the march.
Of the more than 70,000 American and Filipinos forced to march across the Bataan Peninsula, several hundred were New Mexicans part of the 200th Coast Artillery Anti-Aircraft units of the New Mexico National Guard stationed on the island. Before the war began, the unit was sited by the War Department as the best anti-aircraft regiment in the United States Army, and afterwords credited them as the first to fire on the enemy and the last organized unit still fighting at the time of their capture.
The monument, an 8-foot bronze statue depicting two American soldiers and one Filipino soldier supporting each other, was designed and sculpted by Las Cruces artist Kelley Hestir. Federal funding for the monument was secured by U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
Among those on hand for the dedication were several Bataan survivors paying their respects to the memories of their fallen comrades forced by the Japanese military to march 65 miles across the Bataan Peninsula during World War II. Thousands died along the way, some at the hands of their Japanese captors, others from illness, exhaustion, malnutrition and dehydration.
After the Japanese surrendered in 1942, New Mexico had the highest per capita prisoner of war population in the United States. Today, many survivors and their remaining family members still reside in southern New Mexico.
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