Mount Samat Shrine History

Bataan Peninsula was the scene of harsh fighting between American-Filipino Forces
and the invading japanese forces. on April 09.1942. the Bataan Defenders Surrendered
to the Japanese. About 70,000 U.S. and Filipino Soldiers were captured.

The Shrine of Valor (Dambana ng Kagitingan) atop Mt. Samat in Pilar was built in 1966

in memory of those soldiers of World War II.

It consists of the “Colonnade”, a marble capped structure with an altar, 

esplanade and a museum. Inside the museum you can learn more about the 

battle of Bataan and the Death March that followed. The captured US & Filipino 

soldiers were forced to march more than a hundred kilometers from Bataan to Tarlac.

The Memorial Cross is a towering structure made of concrete, steel and marble.

It is 92 meters high and the arms’ length is 15 meter on each side. It is 555 meters 

above sea level. An elevator goes up to the arms of the cross where the viewing 

galleries are found. The exterior finish of the cross at the base up to an 

11-meter level is capped with “Nabiag Nga Bato” sculptural bas relief’s depicting

significant battles and historical events.

The Shrine is visited annually by war veterans from different places on Bataan Day (April 9) to recall and honor the past.

Where: Mt. Samat is only 130 km away from Manila and travel time is about two to three hours by land and an hour by ferry.

My rating: 8/10 Impressive structure. Mount Samat Shrine is an ideal place to brush up your history lessons or learn more about the battle of Bataan & the Death March. It is a nice one day excursion.

 PICTURES IN MOUNT SAMAT SHRINE
 

 

 

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CORREGIDOR BATAAN HISTORY 

A few hours after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941), Japanese air units from Taiwan attacked Clark Field to destroy the backbone of American air power in the Philippines. Major landings by Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma's Fourteenth Army on Manila on 22 and 24 December caught defending forces under General Douglas MacArthur in a trap, forcing a retreat to the Bataan peninsula. When the Japanese attacked on 7 January 1942, MacArthur's largely Filipino reservist army, backed up by a division of American and Filipino Scout regulars, retreated to a secondary line and then held, inflicting heavy losses.

By February, MacArthur's men were gravely short of food, quinine to combat malaria, and supplies of all sorts. A tight Japanese blockade had isolated the Philippines. In early March, at President Franklin D. Roosevelt's order, MacArthur slipped through the blockade by PT boat to escape to Australia. Homma attacked again on 3 April and quickly cut through the starving defenders. On 9 April 1942 Bataan surrendered; 79,500 men laid down their arms; and many hundreds perished afterward from weakness and brutal treatment by guards on the infamous death march to prison camps in central Luzon.

Corregidor, a fortress island in Manila Bay, held out for three weeks more under MacArthur's former subordinate, General Jonathan M. Wainwright. Japanese artillery and aircraft bombarded the island, forcing thousands to take shelter in tunnels, including the famous Malinta Tunnel, which contained the headquarters, hospital, and nurses' quarters. The Japanese Fourth Division troops broke through on 5 May, inducing Wainwright to surrender the 16,000 defenders the next day. After the war Homma was tried as a war criminal in Manila and executed.

CORREGIDOR BATAAN PICTURES