Bataan Journey

We were privileged to be guests of the Governor of Bataan for a tour of this historic and scenic province. We began our tour at the welcome center of Bataan where we viewed a video about the province and a museum about the history. A van and tourguide took us to Mount Samat where the large cross was placed to memorialize the Bataan death march. In 1942 the Bataan Death March was a 65 mile trek in which 78,000 prisoners of war, both American and Filipino, were forced by the Japanese to walk to a Japanese POW camp. As many as 11,000 died along the way, American and Filipino. They walked in the hot sun without food and water and the ones who survived the walk were herded into cattle cars and shipped to POW camps. Actually, the oldest Bataan March survivor recently died at age 105 in Illinois, “Doc” Brown. A book about his life has been published by Kevin Moore, titled “Forsaken Heroes of the Pacific War: One Man’s True Story.” We saw many photos, newspaper clippings, etc. about the death march and camps. We took the elevator to the top of the large cross and the view was breath taking, you could see the entire peninsula of the province. Wild monkeys still exist on the mountain. The Japanese later gave the Filipinos a friendship bell monument after the war to encourage peace.

Our Bataan journey took us across the province, we briefly viewed Corrigidor Island, which had an important role to play in WWII, we arrived at the western shore of the large island of Luzon, on the newly termed West Philippine Sea, at the town of Morong. We were treated to a visit about the sea turtle conservation efforts of a volunteer organization, the Pawikan Conservation Society, we even got to release some baby turtles into the sea. They will return in 25 years, if not eaten by a predator, to lay eggs on the same beach.

My Tagalog teacher, Yoly, and I (I am the tall one)

See the wild monkey?

What about that final caption?

View from the Refugee Camp

Voyage of Refugees to Philippines

Bats just hanging out

We visited a very interesting site that brought back memories after the Vietnam War. I remember vaguely hearing about the “boat people” when I was younger. We got to visit the location of the refugee camp that accepted and processed the thousands of refugees that fled Vietnam and Laos from about 1980-94. Many were relocated to the US. They are in the process of building a museum there, photo also of the Pope’s visit, interesting caption. The view from the camp was magnificent, it was quiet and peaceful since the camp has long been abandoned, but you could imagine the thousands of refugees who lived and awaited a permanent home.

We concluded our tour via Subic Bay, again an important military location in WWII and a former US military base. We saw Filipino military troops training by walking up the steep mountain slopes and then back down again toting heavy packs in the hot sun. We stopped by some trees on the way home that had huge bats hanging in them.

It was a real treat to sight see and learn about the history of the Philippines.