A Visit to the Manila American Cemetery

I’ve been meaning to visit the Manila American Cemetery at the Fort, Taguig since last year but never got around it.  But last week, a friend and I were able to squeeze in a quick visit. 

The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines occupies 152 acres and contains the largest number of graves of military men from World War II, totaling 17,202, most of whom lost their lives in operations in the Philippines and New Guinea.

The17,000+  headstones are arranged in a circular pattern around the memorial and are divided into sections arranged alphabetically. 

At the center of the memorial are 2 hemicycles.  Here’s one of the hemicycles.

What looks like columns in the hemicyles are actually the Tablets of the Missing - where names of military men, who served during the war but whose remains were never found, are inscribed on the walls.

 
The Tablets of the Missing contain 36,285 names. And these include some Filipino scouts who helped US soldiers in the defense and liberation of the Philippines in 1941-1945.

Once in a while, you’ll see a golden yellow rosette on the walls (like the one in the photo below).  The rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

Inside the hemicycles are twenty-five beautiful mosaic maps which depict the achievements of the American Armed Forces in the Pacific, China, India and Burma.

Here’s a close up of a mosaic. Check out the markers of war planes (the blacks and reds)…

and submarines (the greens)!

And while checking the mosaics, don’t forget to look up to see the beautiful sky.

At the point where the 2 hemicycles meet is a  60 ft high Chapel.  Inside the chapel is a beautiful mosaic of a lady.  Both the sculpture at the chapel entrance and the mosaic were designed by an artist named Boris Lovet-Lorski of New York.

 

Construction workers are busy re-painting the walls of the chapel.   Everything is well-maintained.

including the trees and shrubberies.

Anyway, if you want to visit the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial and pay homage to the unsung heroes of World War II, it is open daily to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the whole year except December 25 and January 1. 

Remember, families of these deceased are miles away and some of them may not have had visitors since they were buried here.  It would be nice to say a prayer for these souls. May they rest in peace.

A visit to the Malacanang Palace Museum

I’ve had the opportunity to visit Malacanang 3 times so far on varied occasions.

The first time was when I was still a student during Pres. Corazon Aquino’s time – on a field trip to see the Marcos’ treasures, including Imelda’s famous shoe collection.  The second time was a few years’ back during a courtesy visit which was work-related.  And the third was yesterday – where we had the opportunity to tour the Malacanang Palace Museum.  

There were a lot of interesting things in the museum – most of which are important elements of Philippine history. Sharing with you some highlights of our tour:

Here is the desk where President Ferdinand Marcos once declared Martial Law.

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sit on this historical chair and get a posterity shot. Haha...

And this was the famous balcony where the Marcoses stood before the public one last time before fleeing the Philippines.

The museum has a lot of interesting rooms but this was the most beautiful for me.  It’s the Quirino Room.  The museum guide said that the table top is made from a single slab of a narra trunk.  Wow, that’s one fat narra trunk!

Each past Philippine president also had a cabinet-ful of memorabilia.  Here are some of President Emilio Aguinaldo’s memorabilia -

And President Manuel Quezon's memorabilia -

Shelves of books owned by the past Philippine presidents also lined up one big hall.  Among the First Ladies, Imelda had her own shelves of books – guess what kind of books? Books about the lives of European royalty no less!

But what awed us most in this section were copies of Jose Rizal’s manuscripts of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.  Check these out – complete with Jose Rizal’s edits. Whoa…

Rizal had such beautiful handwriting!  A friend jokingly justified that since they didn’t have computers then, they wrote a lot and thus, had more developed skills.  But I couldn't use this as an excuse for myself because I had ugly handwriting even before I learned how to type using the computer!  Haha…

There were also a  lot of paintings, sculptures and artworks displayed in the museum but what I liked most was this -

Entitled “The First Baptism”, this is a sculpture made by Juan C. Flores, a native of Betis, Pampanga, who is credited for the renaissance of wood carving in Pampanga in the 1920s. 

In the 1930s, Pres Manuel L Quezon commissioned him and Fernando Amorsolo to do some artworks and this started a friendship between the 2 artists. 

In 1939, Amorsolo invited Flores to view his painting entitled “The First Baptism” and Flores was so impressed that it inspired him to do a wood carving version.  It took him 10 years to finish the sculpture due to the Second World War. 

Finally, what struck me most in the museum (which also happens to be the last image I saw before we left the museum) wasn’t any of the presidents but this -

It's the chest of a person who had a heart surgery.  Very powerful and moving image. :)