Today we left Manila and took a 26 mile boat ride out to Corrigidor Island. For those of you who don't know, Manilla Bay has about 4-5 islands at its mouth to the South China Sea. These were espacially important during WWII. Anyways today that is where we went and it is the second most bombed island ever second only to Malta. It was a beautiful day as we left Manila's smog and traveled over the part trash/part water bay. There is literally trash piling up on the island from Manila so that is not so happy.
We recieved a guided tour on the island and it was really solid and I learned a lot. We got to see all kinds of anti-aircraft, and anti-ship guns as well as a bunch of 12 inch mortars. These guns were huge, and many of them had marks from scrapnel that hit them during WWII. The island was occupied by American and Filipino troops, and was bombed shortly after Pearl Harbor.
There is lots of history, but now back to some interesting things that I saw. One was a Japanese mass grave where over 5,000 Japanese are buried, and there is a memorial and anti-aircraft guns overlooking some of the other islands. The place is truly beautiful. I'm sure many of you have heard of the Bataan Death March. We saw where this happened across the sea a ways on the peninsula, and that it was the soldiers on this island that it happened to.
The Pacific War Memorial is also on the island and WWII is so hard to imagine for me. We saw tons of ruins on the island from battery's barracks, and all sorts of other things. There was a 12 inch mortar gun that had been blown over 200 yards up a hill. I can post some pictures tomorrow maybe so stay tuned. Also kind of cool is that the steel used to build many of the barracks was from the Bethlehem Steel Company. Johnstown anybody?
I think I am finally getting adjusted to the oppisite time zone so that means it is dinner time pretty soon. I got some sun today but no burns so that is sweet too.
P.S. I tried to find a map of the Philippines to post, but everything on this computer is in Chinese.
더ㅑ대ㅐㅑ너덜
3 comments:
The Bataan Death March was after the fall of Bataan and before the surrender of Corregidor.
The soldiers on Corregidor were marched up Dewey Blvd in Manila to Old Bilibid (prison). This was not a part of the Death March.
sue thanks for the correction, my brain was so overwhelmed with knowledge from the tour that it was hard to keep everything straight
You are quite welcome.
You impressed me with your enthusiasm for gathering knowledge of people and your strong desire to pass it on, plus within it was an affirmation of life that made it beautiful.
The fact of the matter is this, many sons and daughters of the veterans of Bata'an and Corregidor do not know the difference. One day when you have nothing to do, and several hours to spare, drop by and really spend time touring this site: The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor at http://www.west-point.org/family/adbc/
and the related web pages at
http://www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/
and if you find that you are interested, join the list.
sue
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