World War II and the Philippines

While in the Philippines I was able to learn quite a bit about the Pacific theater of World War II. Most of my world war II studies have been about the war in Europe so I must admit I didn't know a lot about the Pacific war. I knew the Philippines were part of the war, but didn't understand how or why. So here is a little history lesson about what I learned. The Philippines had been under US rule since 1898 and in 1935 became a commonwealth of the US and was on a 10 year plan to full independence.


Japan wanted to control Asia, and already had control of large parts of Southeast Asia. In 1941 Japan invaded the Philippines just hours after attacking Pearl Harbor. The Americans had several military bases in the Philippines.  The Japanese defeated the combined American/Filipino army on the Bataan Peninsula (which led to the Bataan Death March) and then turned it's focus on Corregidor Island.  After holding out for several weeks, the  US surrendered the Philippines to the Japanese in April 1942.  General MacArthur escaped to Australia but said he would return to the Philippines.  Japan then occupied the Philippines for the next 3 1/2 years until the US returned and retook the Philippines. When the US returned, the Philippines were hit very hard by the bombs which left the city of Manila heavily damaged.

We visited the US military cemetery in Manila which is the 2nd largest US cemetery (Arlington is the largest) in the world. There are 17,202 graves there, and then a list of about 34,000  names of soldiers who died but their remains were not found. It was quite humbling to see so many graves and names of people who died fighting for freedom. The cemetery had great displays and maps of the various battles of the Pacific theater. I learned a lot from the maps, but could have used another few hours to learn more.

There are rows and rows of graves

The kids with Grandpa and Grandma

We also did a day trip out to Corregidor Island. It is an island at the entrance to Manila Bay. It was from there that the US surrendered all of the Philippines to Japan in 1942.  In 1945 the US returned and retook the island and began to liberate the rest of the Philippines from the Japanese. There are sections that have not been restored but have been left so we could see the condition they were in after the bombing.  Seeing the devastation that war can bring makes me appreciate our freedoms a little more.  Our freedom has come at a high price to others and I hope that I can do my small part to help preserve it.

One of the buildings destroyed by bombs

Inside the tunnel