Mount Samat National Shrine

Outside the Philippine city of Balanga (which has taxis and hotels) is the Mt. Samat Memorial Cross and Shrine, associated with the battle of Bataan, and the subsequent Death March. It was a location of heavy resistance during the Battle of Bataan in 1942.

After days of fierce fighting, 78,000 American and Filipino soldiers surrendered to the Japanese forces on 9 April 1942. From here on they were forced to the Bataan Death March.

Balanga is about fifty kilometers from KM Zero at Mariveles, and from there it’s short taxi ride or drive to Mt. Samat. Balanga is about a three hour drive from Manila.

On Mt. Samat there’s a shrine, memorial, and military museum. Also there’s a soaring crossing that has an elevator to the top, from which it’s possible to look down on the topography of Bataan. Other than the coastal road, along which the Death March was carried out, Bataan is covered with thick jungle.

The museum, in the basement of the shrine and memorial, offers the best outline of the campaign that ended with the American and Filipino surrender, and the subsequent Death March to Capas.

In 1945 John Wayne made the film "Back to Bataan," about the freeing of some American prisoners of war who had survived the Death March. To paraphrase the American poet Walt Whitman, the real war will never get into the movies...

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Source

• Text: Matthew Stevenson + Fedor de Vries
• Photos: IJVelas (1), Kleervyu (2), Matthew Stevenson (3, 4, 5)