Category Archives: Philippines and America

FORT ROSECRANS – HEROES’ VALHALLA IN THE MODERN DAY

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Monument to the men who lost their lives in the 1905 boiler explosion. Her crew men lie with the low granite enclosure.
Monument to the men who lost their lives in the 1905 boiler explosion. Her crew men lie with the low granite enclosure.

Stories abound in cemeteries with military cemeteries no exception partly because of all the documentation available. Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery became one of seven national cemeteries established -1934-1939 – between the two World Wars. An aging population of veterans added to the need in light of available grave space in existing national cemeteries. Veterans’ benefits included burial space. On the Pacific Coast, at the time of establishment of the cemetery here, only one national cemetery existed in San Francisco. Army and Navy officials tried earlier to change the post cemetery at Fort Rosecrans as a national cemetery only to have the Department of War turn them down. The massive expansion of the military during World War I changed the situation dramatically.

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NIELSON TOWER REINCARNATED AS THE BLACKBIRD – MANILA’S FIRST AIRPORT

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Dining al fresco at the Blackbird on the old tarmac of the Nielson Tower.
Dining al fresco at the Blackbird on the old tarmac of the Nielson Tower.

Deep in the heart of the high rises of Manila’s Makati district sits the restored Nielson Tower and air control center for the first center for commercial aviation in Manila. Nielson Airfield came about from the desire of Laurie Nielson who established the airfield along with an aviation school here on land leased from the Ayala family in 1937.

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MANILA GALLEONS – SPAIN, AMERICA AND ASIA UNITED IN MAGIC OF TRADE

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Manila galleon setting out across the Pacific.
Manila galleon setting out across the Pacific.

MANILA GALLEONS

Spain and the Philippines lay connected by only a couple of ships – the Manila Galleons – from 1573 until 1815. There was trade with Asia, mainly China, before then. Silver came to the Philippines to purchase silk, porcelain, tea and other items like beeswax. The galleon trade facilitated the exchange of culture, traditions, and culinary practices between the Philippines and Mexico.

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REVISTING BYGONE AGE OF THE SPANISH GALLEON TRADING WORLD

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Manila galleon setting out across the Pacific.
Manila galleon setting out across the Pacific.

A recent trip took me to La Palma in the Canary Islands off the northwestern coast of Africa.  At one point, La Palma (also known as La Isla Bonita – the Beautiful Island) served as an important trading post on the way from Spain to the New World. Santa Cruz de la Palma, founded in the spring of 1493, is a pretty little town on the northeastern side of the steeply rising island. A life-sized model of Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria located in the town center serves as the unique maritime museum for the town. Evidence of the once flourishing Spanish galleon trade.

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EMILIO AGUINALDO – HOME AND TOMB OF THE INSURGENT ENIGMA

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The Man - Emilio Aguinaldo - and his Shrine. Aguinaldo family home in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.
The Man – Emilio Aguinaldo – and his Shrine. Aguinaldo family home in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.

Emilio Aguinaldo is considered by many to be the “George Washington” of the Philippines.  His family home is preserved – much like Washington’s at Mount Vernon – and a museum is dedicated to his life and times. Additionally, to the Aguinaldo home, the leader himself is entombed on the grounds behind the house. The grounds became the official Aguinaldo Shrine in 1964 just after his death.

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CAPAS – FILIPINO SACRIFICE IN THE SHADOWS OF NEW CLARK CITY

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Inside the three towers of the Capas National Shrine. Three columns representing Japan, the Philippines and the United States. A desire for peace.
Inside the three towers of the Capas National Shrine. Three columns representing Japan, the Philippines and the United States. A desire for peace.

The spire of the Capas National Shrine rises 240 feet into the air above the hot, humid plains of central Luzon. There is lots of symbolism included in the site. Three parts of the towering spire represent the peoples of the Philippines, the United States and … Japan. Covering 54 hectares – 130 acres – over half of the grounds have been planted with 31,000 trees representing the 25,000 Filipinos and 6,000 Americans who perished here at Camp O’Donnell following the end of the Bataan Death March in 1942. The park was named a national shrine by President Cory Aquino in 1991 with the tower was added in 2003 with a memorial wall behind with the names of those known to have perished here at the camp.

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THE COMMONWEALTH ARMY – VALOR IN DEATH HONORED ON MOUNT SAMAT

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The Philippine flag whips in the wind atop Mount Samat with an urn representing eternal light at the entrance to the Colonnade at the Shrine of Valor.

The last post described the Dambana ng Kagitingan – Shrine of Valor – standing atop Mount Samat on the eastern side of the Bataan Peninsula. While most monuments tend to reward victory, sometimes more can be learned in defeat. Most of the defenders here on Bataan were Filipino. Most of those who died here, on the Death March and in the initial stages of the Japanese prison camps were Filipinos. With the surrender on 9 April 1942, the Army of the Philippine Commonwealth ended. It would not be resurrected again until the nation gained independence in 1946. At that time, it transformed into the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Many of the leaders of the new Forces saw prior service in the army of the Commonwealth.

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MOUNT SAMAT HONORS THE VALOR OF BATAAN

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An old 155 mm US howitzer sits beneath the Shrine on Mount Samat.

MOUNT SAMAT REMEMBERING AMERICAN SACRIFICE

Visitors to the Philippines enjoy a day’s outing, boating across Manila Bay to see the old guns of Corregidor. Off the regular path lies an even more important monument atop a mountain in the southern region of the Bataan Peninsula – the National Shrine of Mount Samat – Dambana ng Katingnan (Shrine of Valor).

Bataan, the sight of the worst defeat suffered by American forces in history. 78,000 men – the vast majority Filipinos new to soldiering – surrendered after a campaign of just over four months. As bad as the long battle against the enemy, the harsh jungle environment, malnutrition and disease was, another type of battle would fall upon the men afterwards, the battle to survive.

A two-part post with the first dealing mostly with the Shrine, the campaign and US Army units remembered here at Mount Samat. The second post will cover the Philippine Army divisions honored here. It is important to remember as hard as it was for American units to suffer on Bataan, Corregidor and throughout the islands, the Filipinos were forced to take the suffering to another level, both with the Commonwealth Army and the civilian population, as a whole.

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ARTILLERY OF CORREGIDOR – BIG GUNS ON AN ISLAND

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12-inch gun of Battery Hearn
12-inch gun of Battery Hearn, one of the few guns having a 360-degree field of fire.

On the island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay, American coastal defense came to a high point in the big gun defense theory of protecting vital areas of a homeland. Using some of the biggest guns in the American arsenal, the defenders held off the enemy for over five months. The end came swiftly though, flaws in the system exposed terribly. Capitulation meant the garrison force marched on to the horrors of Japanese prison camps. With the fall of the island fortress, the theory of coastal defense would slowly re-evolve.

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PHILIPPINE SCOUTS WITH A UNIQUE STORY – MANILA ABMC CEMETERY

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Donato Cabading was a sergeant with the 45th Infantry Regiment - Philippine Scouts
Donato Cabading – right foreground – was a sergeant with the 45th Infantry Regiment – Philippine Scouts. He died the end of January 1942.

During the early battles in the southwestern Pacific, most of the defenders against Japanese aggressions were Filipino. Among the graves and the Walls of the Missing, you will find many of their names. In this post, some of the stories of the Philippine Scouts, a truly unique unit of the American Army, come forward.

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