The New Mexico Military Museum is proud to present “Flags of Freedom: Honoring the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Our Bataan Prisoners of War.”
Opening Reception: January 30, 2025, at 5 P.M.
Featuring an exhibition discussion by Author Hampton Sides and Museum Director Laureta Huit.
The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of our Bataan Veterans. We will honor their freedom by commemorating key events: the raid at Cabanatuan in January and the Japanese surrender in September.
This exhibition reflects on the final year of internment for our Bataan Prisoners of War, highlighting rescues, raids, escapes, and their ultimate release.
We will tell this harrowing story by focusing on three flags we received and that are now a part of our permanent collection. We received a clandestine American Flag that was secreted away by a group of Bataan Prisoners of War when they saw surrender was imminent and kept hidden through the entirety of The Bataan Death March and throughout their internment.
Oscar Avery Cox and three fellow POWs risked their lives to protect this worn flag. Passing the tightly folded flag from one to another throughout the brutal 65-mile Bataan Death March, death was assured if the flag was ever discovered. They went to great lengths to protect the flag, moving hiding spots, from one place to another. Finally, upon arrival at Fukuoka Prison Camp #17, the group hid the flag in the coal mine where they were working.
On September 2,1945 in his Prisoner of War Camp, PVT Cox arose and realized the camp was abandoned, fear and hesitation flooding through him, he decided to go for it, he ran, retrieved the American Flag from its hiding place in the coal mine. He returned to the center of the camp, risking his life, tore the Japanese flag from the pole and hoisted the clandestine flag in its place solidifying American Victory in the minds of all his fellow POWs.
From William Cox, son of Avery Cox, we received several invaluable artifacts: the clandestine American flag flown at Fukuoka Prison Camp #17, the Japanese flag taken down by Avery and signed by the POWs in the camp, and one additional flag retrieved from the cabin of Asao Fukuhara, the Camp Commandant. The Japanese flag was later quartered and shared among the four brave men who risked their lives to keep the American flag hidden throughout their years of internment.
We are so grateful to Mr. Cox and his family for considering our museum to place these items and to Colonel Rod Kontny USAF (ret) for his support and connecting us with the Family of Oscar Avery Cox.
1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87505
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