#V08 image is the Death March Boxcar at Capas National Shrine. Filipino American Memorial Endowment, Inc. (FAME) has a page for this boxcar, click here:
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Joint Tribute To All Filipino Heroes at the Capas National Shrine on the 10th April 2025. It was only one of many commemorations held in the annual Philippine Veterans Week of 2025, held in early April. This event was original scheduled on Corregidor at the All Filipino Heroes Shrine there and I had signed up for it. For various reasons it was rescheduled to this site. The Capas National Shrine is located at the site of the former Japanese POW Camp O’Donnell where they held their Allied POWs. Wikipedia has a short description for this shrine, click here:
For me this place is a solemn ground, full of WWII history and a reminder the price that was paid by thousands of Allied POWs, mostly the Filipinos and the Americans but also other nationalities!
The event was well organized and well attended; I participated and took these pictures. Another interesting point is the establishment of the New Clark City in the area of the former Camp O’Donnell, practically next to the Capas Shrine and two brand new major roads were constructed, one comes from the Clark Economy Zone and the other is the new Capas exit of the SCTEX toll way, look it up!
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This is a short presentation of 26 images and in low resolution. All 36 images, in high resolution, are in this Flickr album, in the Luzon Other Albums No.1 Collection, click here:
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#V00 image is the Capas National Shrine from Wikipedia. Across the street, north, from the Capas Shrine, in the now densely residential area which used to be the POW camp where the Americans were kept and died, perhaps more than 1500 of the Battling Bastards of Bataan and who built a fair size concrete Cross there, which veterans later were able to transfer it to the US National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia.
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#V00a image and text is from Wikipedia, it shows the American Cross from the POW Camp O’Donnell, now at the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia.
The cross symbolizes the determination and faith in their country of the American men who refused to give up, no matter how grim the outlook. Col. John E. Olsen, USA (Retired) after the fall of Bataan in 1942, 50,000 Americans and Filipino survivors became captives of the Japanese at Camp O’Donnell, Luzon, Philippine Islands. As exhaustion, disease, and starvation killed hundreds of men each day, the Japanese presented Captain Wilson, the American supply officer, with a ‘present.’ The present: a sack of cement; the command: ‘Now, courtesy of the Imperial Japanese Army, you shall make a shrine for men who die.’ And so, in memory of their fallen comrades, and in defiance of the Japanese (who no doubt expected a Shinto shrine) the Americans built cement cross. Fittingly, the inscription did not contain the word ‘prisoner,’ reflecting the men’s refusal to concede anything to their captors. It was this kind of sprit that sustained hundreds of POWs during their captivity. This same spirit drove the survivors of Camp O’Donnell to insure that the cross, which had been preserved by the American Battle Monuments Commission, had a permanent place of honor at Andersonville.
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#V01 to #V03 images of the parking in the Capas National Shrine for the Joint Tribute To All Filipino Heroes commemoration 2025.
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#V04 to #V07 pictures show the western side of the Capas Shrine, there are several smaller memorials, dedicated to the Filipino Soldiers, the American Soldiers (established by the Battling Bastards of Bataan), a separate one to Philippine Scouts and the Filipino Civilian who tried to comfort the POWs on the Death March. Another separate memorial is dedicated to the Czechs, without a country now, who saw only one choice, join the Allied Army to fight the Axis Powers.
The Filipino Soldiers Memorial included a roster of Filipino officers who were appointed by the Camp Commandant to manage the POWs. It also memorializes the daily sufferings of the POWs under the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army camp wards. Records have indicated that around 400 Filipino POWs died daily until August 1942. Much of this description above was copied from Wikipedia!
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#V08 image is the Death March Boxcar at Capas National Shrine. Filipino American Memorial Endowment, Inc. (FAME) has a page for this boxcar, click here:
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#V09 to #V12 images are of the Joint Tribute To All Filipino Heroes event at the Capas National Shrine on the 10th April 2025, visitors are arriving and looking for seats, participants are practicing their steps, like the honor guard.
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#V13 to #V16 images are shots of the ceremony. Notice the large canvas covers, the notice of the guest speaker sign. Two helicopters flew over and dropped some symbolic material.
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#V17 to #V28 images were shot after the Tribute to All Filipino Heroes ceremony and I got some closer shots of today’s tribute site, the wreathes, and participants such as an Army entertainment band, and the Tarlac Beauty Queen. The large tent, was for the VIPs I was told.
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#V29 to #V34 images show the western side of the Capas Shrine, there are several smaller memorials, dedicated to the Filipino Soldiers, the American Soldiers (established by the Battling Bastards of Bataan), a separate one to Philippine Scouts and the Filipino Civilian who tried to comfort the POWs on the Death March. Another separate memorial is dedicated to the Czechs, without a country now who saw only one choice, join the Allied Army to fight the Axis Powers.
The former museum building, pictures #V33 & #V34, seems to be condemned and it seems is to be scheduled for demolition. Hopefully they will replace it and make a better museum.
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