A Piece of America: Manila American Cemetery and Memorial

Sometime in the first month of the second half of the year, when the first wave of the latest digital cameras became a thing of the middle class earners hit the market, five friends decided to have a photo walk to test their latest purchases. They wanted somewhere quiet, peaceful but not too crowded, and near the city center. One of them look for a possible place and saw one historical site. Just a 15 minute taxi ride from Makati city, and turned out to be a piece of America found at the southern part of the capital.

The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial serves as their resting place for the fallen warriors. Built during the 1940’s for the soldiers who protected the Philippines (Battle of the Philippines 1941-42) and died during the World War II. As it caught up in the new century, it became a favorite place for photographers to spend some weekend to practice their skills.

The new photographer-wanna-bes got carried away and started posing near the grave markers and for a split second forgot about the purpose of the place…

Written Records

With a total of 17,206 graves, 3,744 of which are unknown burials while 570 out of the total number of graves are Filipinos. It is considered as the largest cemetery in the Pacific for U.S. personnel killed during the 2^nd World War.

The headstones are made of marbles that are aligned forming a circular pattern, set among masses of a wide variety of tropical trees and shrubbery.

A chapel stands near the center of the cemetery, a tall stone structure with intricate sculpture and mosaic.

There are two large hemicycles with rooms at each end that houses twenty-five large mosaic maps that recall the achievements of United States in the Pacific, China, India and Burma.

Currently, the memorial is maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission. The cemetery is open to the public daily from 9AM – 5PM (except Christmas and New Year).

Reading a few things about the place helped this group of friends to stop goofing around and actually realize the importance of this place --- remembering the soldiers and the things they sacrifice. Some of them became emotional; others are just happy and thankful for the freedom they are experiencing.

As the group ends their photo walk, they became more aware, gain knowledge and respectful of the people who gave up everything for the love of freedom.

*Note: All information are from Wikipedia and ABMC.

My share for this month's PTB Blog Carnival with a theme of Dark Tourism:Philippines in Focus hosted by Gael Hilotin of The Pinay Solo Backpacker.

To read more of PTB Blog Carnival's past entries click here.