The Philippines was a critical location in the Pacific Theater during World War II. We spent three weeks in the Philippines in May of 2017 and visited two of the major sites in and around Manila. It was a sober reminder of the many lives that were lost in this part of the world during the second world war.
I certainly learned more about the history of the war in the Pacific. It also gave my wife and I more insight to where her father served in the war and what he might have done. My father-in-law was a torpedo man on the SS Scabardbfish, a submarine that he shipped out on for the first time from Pearl Harbor. He didn’t talk much about the war, but we do know that he mentioned the Mariana Islands and that they were instructed to pull back from Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped.
My father-in-law and one of his brothers served in the Pacific during World War II. Three others of my wife’s uncles served in the war in Europe. I have three great-uncles who served in the Canadian Armed Forces during the war. Fortunately, all of them came home. I am grateful for their service and of all those who served to defend their country and the freedom of peoples around the world.
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
We stayed in a condo that overlooked the American Cemetery and Memorial for our two weeks stay in Manila. The cemetery and memorial cover 152 acres and contains the graves of 16,632 American Military personnel and 570 Philippine nationals serving with US forces. Also on site is a memorial where the names of 36,286 missing in battle are inscribed.
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial from our 37th story window
Over 17,000 headstones. The most graves of American WWII soldiers in any cemetery in the world
The site is open to the public every day except Christmas and New Year’s Day. We visited for a few hours one day to pay our respects. My wife’s father and uncle served in the Pacific and three other uncles served in Europe. Fortunately, all of them came home. To our knowledge, we don’t personally know anyone or know the family of anyone buried in the cemetery. However, we did notice the name of Paul Begay on a list of those buried there. Begay is a very common Navajo name. The maiden name of one of our best friends is Begay. We suspected that Private First Class Paul Begay of the US Marines was a Navajo code talker. Further investigation confirmed that he was a code talker from Arizona.
We asked at the office if they could tell us where the grave of Paul Begay was. They staff were very helpful and located his grave on the map and took us to the headstone in an electric golf cart. They brought along a small cup of wet sand and rubbed the sand into the engraving in the headstone to make it show up better for a picture. We took a few moments to pay our respects and then walked over to the hemicycle memorial.
The staff at the cemetery will look up the location of a particular grave and take you out there in a golf cart if desired. They bring along a cup of wet sand to rub into the engraving to make the lettering more visible.
We don’t personally know the family of Paul Begay, but one of our closest friends is Navajo and her maiden name is Begay. We admire the code talkers and the unique service they provided in the war
The memorial consists of a left and right hemicycle with the names of the missing engraved in large partitions holding up the structure. A chapel stands in the south between the left and right hemicycles. There are 25 large mosaic maps showing battles and information about the Pacific theater operations. The mosaics helped me understand specifics about the war, strategies, battles, etc. and helped me imagine where my father-in-law might have sailed.
Panoramic photo of the hemicycles with the chapel in the center
Over 36,000 names of the missing are engraved in the partitions of the hemicycles
View from inside one hemicycle looking across to the other
One of the 25 mosaics describing battles and strategies of World War II in the Pacific
My father-in-law served on a submarine in the Pacific during the war. He didn’t talk much about the war. This mosaic gave us a little better idea of where he might have served during the war
Albert Norman Erickson, my wife’s father. He was a torpedo man on the SS Scabardfish in WWII
Corregidor Island
Many people know the words of General Douglas MacArthur, “I shall return.” Corregidor Island was where the General was when he received the orders to leave the Philippines and go to Australia to become the Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area. Generally, MacArthur was referring to the Philippines when he spoke of returning. Specifically, he made a point of returning to Corregidor Island.
Corregidor Island stands at the entrance of Manila Bay and offers an excellent position of defense of Manila, the largest city in the Philippines. The island has a very rocky landscape, making it ideal for fortified tunnels and protection from bombs. It has been used since Spanish colonial times in the 1500’s as a fortress.
During World War II, the Philippine government headquartered at Corregidor. It was also used as Allied headquarters until March of 1942. The Japanese captured Corregidor in May of 1942, completing their conquest of the Philippines. Although Corregidor fell, the forces there held out from December 29, 1942 to May 5, 1942. Japanese intelligence had predicted that they would capture the island in 14 days. This took a great toll on the Japanese and they had to divert forces from other areas of the Pacific to eventually take Corregidor.
In February of 1945 the Allied forces retook Corregidor and on March 7, 1945, MacArthur returned to the island.
To get to the island we took a day long tour. The boat left Manila harbor at about 7:30 AM. It took about an hour and a half to reach the island where we boarded open sided trolley buses. Each trolley had its own guide and we made numerous stops on the island to view ruins and memorials. We boarded the boat back to Manilla at about 3:00 PM. It was an interesting tour and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Manila.
When General Douglas MacArthur uttered the famous words, “I shall return,” he was speaking of Corregidor Island, Philippines. He ignored the first two orders to leave and finally obeyed when the President sent him a message directly and threatened him with court martial if he disobeyed a third time. MacArthur did return in 1945.
A memorial to the Filipino soldiers who fought alongside the Americans. The statue shows a Filipino with a rifle over his shoulder and a plow at his feet symbolizing that these soldiers were farmers by day and soldiers by night. They were not professional soldiers in the sense that they were not paid for fighting and still had to continue their daily work to support their families.
One of the many guns still on the island
Notice the shrapnel damage on the barrel
These guns were literally blown apart and some parts ended up hundreds of yards from their original position
Brothers in arms
Pacific War Memorial
Eternal Flame
Malinta Tunnel was a tunnel with many branches carved out of rock that offered protection from the bombs raining from overhead
Today, in Malinta tunnel there is a “Sound and Light Show.” Basically, this is a life size diorama in many of the branches of the main Malinta tunnel that have narration about the events on Corregidor and lights focusing on different parts of the display in time to the narration.
Ruins of some of the barracks
Notice the bomb craters. Japanese planes dropped more than 17,000 bombs on this small island
Additional War Sites in the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia
The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial and Corregidor Island are two of the largest memorial sites in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. One of the things that really hit home to me as we have traveled in Southeast Asia is the extent and brutality of the Japanese occupation throughout Asia. Most Americans and Canadians probably associate the war with Japan beginning with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1944. However, for decades before Pearl Harbor, Japan had been invading and occupying most of Southeast Asia. In China, we saw whole museums regarding the Japanese occupation. In history museums Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam we have seen at least some mention or exhibit about the period of time where the country had been under Japanese occupation.
As we travel, we get to see first hand the history and effects of war on countries around the world. It is interesting and very sobering to see the conflict that has occurred throughout history. I am grateful that since the US Civil War, those of us that grew up in Canada and the United States have never seen the ravages of war on home soil. It makes me grateful for those who have served abroad in the military, keeping our countries safe.
I was in the Marines in the 1960s and was in Subic Bay for one month. I visited four or five WWII memorials and took pictures. However I did not label the pictures and I’m trying to find out which ones I visited but I’m not able to find pictures of any of them. Could you advise how to find pictures and identify for me? Thank You
Hello. One thing you could try is to scan your photos into individual files and do a reverse image search on Google. I have done a reverse image search many times when I forget where I took a photo and it can work surprisingly well. Good luck with your search!
Thank you for your post. As we plan our trip to the Philippines (Feb. 2023), your insights helped me prioritize what’s most important to see while visiting. We prefer delving into the history, culture, and peoples of a country/region rather than focusing on strictly tourist sites, although as visitors, it’s inevitable from time to time.
How was your trip? My D and I are thinking of visiting Feb 2024 (both of us are women).. I want to see where my Dad fought and was badly injured in Feb 1945 (Cavalry/Recon). We’d also like to do other sightseeing and snorkeling. We have 10 days there. Thought/tips appreciated.
Sorry for the late reply. We have visited the Philippines a number of times. We also love snorkeling and some of the best snorkeling we have ever done is in Taytay, Palawan. To get to snorkeling, you have to hire a boat. Taytay is a small village in between Puerto Princesa and El Nido. We were there pre-covid and there was a Swiss gentleman that had set up a scuba/snorkel business. I am not sure if the business survived covid. El Nido has some good snorkeling as well.