Memorial Day, which is celebrated on the last Monday of May (this year on May 29) in the United States, may not be a national holiday here but it is celebrated at the 61.5-hectare, sobering but serenely beautiful Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. It is the largest of 26 cemeteries and 29 memorials, monuments and markers in 16 countries built and administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), both in area and number of graves, and the only overseas American cemetery in the Pacific.
On that very day, American and Filipino flags are placed beside each marble headstone and a program spearheaded by the US Embassy, the American Association of the Philippines, the ABMC and the Armed Forces of the Philippines is held. Today, this tranquil, park-like space, in the midst of bustling Taguig City, is a major tourist destination and the environment here is beautiful and the atmosphere is solemn. Every hour, between 9 am and 5 pm, a carillon sounds to mark the hour and half hour. At 5 pm, the carillon plays the national anthems of both the US and the Philippines, followed by a volley of rifles and the playing of “Taps.”
The memorial had its beginnings 75 years ago when, on April 1, 1948, right after the war, the Philippine government granted the US permission to establish a memorial cemetery on the site of Fort McKinley (now Fort Bonifacio). Designed by American Architect Gardener A. Dailey, construction started soon after but the cemetery was only dedicated, more than a decade later, on December 8, 1960.
Buried brothers
Within the cemetery are 17,206 graves of soldiers killed during World War II. Of the total, 16,636 personnel were mostly Americans from every state in the US and District of Columbia while others were from other countries. They include 20 sets of brothers (including the five Sullivan Brothers whose deaths influenced the creation of the Sole Survivor Policy) lying next to one another. Also buried are 570 Filipinos who served with US forces as Philippine Scouts. Many of the personnel whose remains are interred or represented were killed in New Guinea, or during the epic defense during the Battle of the Philippines (1941 to ’42) and East Indies and the long but victorious return of American forces through the vast island chain up. Twenty-nine Medal of Honor recipients are also buried or memorialized here.
The solid white marble (the majority quarried and fabricated from Lasa or Carrara in Italy and more than a 100 from Romblon, Philippines) headstones, all in a straight line, mark each grave mostly with a Latin Cross (with a Star of David for 166 others of the Jewish faith). They are simply inscribed with the name, rank, branch of service, home state and date of death of the one interred. The headstones are aligned in 11 plots forming a generally circular pattern.
A 60-foot-high white masonry tower, enriched with sculpture and mosaic, stands near the center of the cemetery. Its exterior has a bas-relief of superimposed groups, designed by Boris Lovet Lorski of New York City and executed by Filipino Cecchetti (who also furnished the stone for the memorial), portraying a young American warrior, symbolized by St. George, fighting a dragon in jungle characteristic of the Pacific islands. Above them are the personifications of ideals which he fought for: Liberty, Justice and Country. At the very zenith of the relief stands Columbia (a symbol of the United States) and a child that symbolizes the future. The rear façade is inscribed with “Take unto thyself O Lord the souls of the valiant.”
Devotional chapel
Bronze grill doors open into the small devotional chapel dedicated to St. George with stained-glass windows and an altar, crafted from Pentato di Sicilia marble, where you can kneel and pray. To the left is an Episcopal prayer set in gold tesserae. The prie dieu and benches are made with narra while the altar ornaments are made of bronze.
Above is an unnamed, tall and graceful female figure (which reminded me of the Virgin Mary) scattering flowers in memory of the heroic dead, decorated with mosaic on a predominantly blue background. In front of the tower, on a wide terrace, are two large hemicycle structures, each with 24 pairs of fin walls. Across, from the parking lot, is the Memorial Visitors’ Center, opened in 2019. Its main gallery explains, in great detail, the many battles (Bataan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Peleliu, etc.) within the Western Pacific during World War II via powerful, graphic and searing photos accompanied by clear, hard-hitting descriptions that show the extent of the true horror that was caused.
On rectangular Trani (quarried near Bari on the east coast of Italy) limestone piers, within the hemicycles, are inscribed the Tablets of the Missing, grouped by Armed Service and arranged alphabetically from the south ends of each hemicycle, containing 36,284 names of people (32,532 Americans and 3,752 Philippine nationals) whose remains were never recovered or not identified.
The west hemicycle lists the missing servicemen from the Navy and Marines, while the east hemicycle lists the missing from the Coast Guard, the Army and Army Air Force (it wasn’t established as a separate armed service until after the war) and part of the missing from the US Marines. A bronze rosette marks the names of those who were subsequently found, recovered and identified, while 3,660 headstones mark the graves of 7,744 “unknowns.” Four bronze plaques mark graves containing multiple remains that could not be separately identified.
Before I got to the four rooms with the Tablets of the Missing, I passed by the walls where I found some of the 25 larger-than-life, 10-foot-high mosaic maps, designed by Margaret Bruton (from Carmel, California) and fabricated by P. Grassi American Terrazo Company of South San Francisco, recalling the timeline of how World War II started and ended, recalling the actions of the United States Armed Forces in the Pacific, China, India and Burma. Carved on the floors are the Great Seal of the United States and the seals of the States of the Union, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Image credits: Mindaugas Dulinskas | Dreamstime.com, Benjamin Layug, Phuongphoto | Dreamstime.com