Capas National Shrine
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The Capas National Shrine ( tl, Pambansang Dambana ng Capas) in Barangay Aranguren,
Capas, Tarlac Capas, officially the Municipality of Capas ( pam, Balen ning Capas; tgl, Bayan ng Capas), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Tarlac, Philippines, and one of the richest towns in the province. The town also consists of numerous su ...
,
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
was built by the Philippine government as a memorial to
Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
soldiers who died at
Camp O'Donnell Camp O'Donnell is a former United States military reservation in the Philippines located on Luzon island in the municipality of Capas in Tarlac. It housed the Philippine Army's newly created 71st Division and after the Americans' return, a Unite ...
at the end of the
Bataan Death March The Bataan Death March (Filipino: ''Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan''; Spanish: ''Marcha de la muerte de Bataán'' ; Kapampangan: ''Martsa ning Kematayan quing Bataan''; Japanese: バターン死の行進, Hepburn: ''Batān Shi no Kōshin'') was ...
during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The site, which was the former
concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
for the Allied prisoners, is a focus for commemorations on
Araw ng Kagitingan The Day of Valor, officially known as , is a national observance in the Philippines which commemorates the fall of Bataan to Japanese troops during World War II. It falls every April 9, although in 2009, its celebration was moved to April 6 to ...
(Valour Day), an annual observance held on 9 April—the anniversary of the surrender of US and Philippine forces to
Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...
in 1942. There is also a memorial inside the site to the
Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...
who died fighting alongside the Filipino and US soldiers.


Description

The area where the Bataan Death March ended was proclaimed as "Capas National Shrine" by
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Corazon Aquino Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; ; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People P ...
on 7 December 1991. The shrine encompasses of parkland, of which have been planted with trees each representing the dead, at the location of the former concentration camp. Prior to the construction, the location was under the control of the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
as
U.S. Naval Radio Station, Tarlac The U.S. Naval Radio Station, Tarlac, also known as the U.S. Naval Radio Transmitter Facility, Capas, Tarlac, was a remote unit of the U.S. Naval Communication Station Philippines (NavComStaPhil), located at , near the town of Capas, Tarlac Pr ...
until 1989. On 9 April 2003, a
obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...
symbolizing peace surrounded by a new memorial wall were unveiled on a part of the grounds of the former
internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
. The obelisk is surrounded by a three-segmented, black marble wall engraved with the names of more than 30,000 Filipinos who were incarcerated in the camp. There are also statistics about the total number of prisoners and dead, accompanied by poems for peace. Nearby, on the western side of the shrine, there are three smaller memorials to the countries whose nationals died at the camp: the Philippines, the United States, and the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
(then
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
). A small museum and monument is also on the site, built by an American group called the "Battling Bastards of Bataan". Included here is a roster of Filipino officers who were appointed by the Camp Commandant to manage the
POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
. It also memorializes the daily sufferings of the POWs under the hands of the
Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
camp wards. Records have indicated that around 400 Filipino POWs died daily until August 1942.Kerr, E. Bartlett (1985), ''Surrender & Survival: The Experience of American POWs in the Pacific 1941-1945'', New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., pp. 61–63 A few hundred meters from the Obelisk is a garden separated from the rest of the shrine by a creek that can be crossed via a hanging bridge. The relics of an old livestock wagon or boxcar of the
Philippine National Railway The Philippine National Railways (PNR) ( fil, Pambansang Daang-Bakal ng Pilipinas and es, Ferrocarril Nacional de Filipinas) is a state-owned railway company in the Philippines which operates one commuter rail service between Metro Manila an ...
and railings are also found in the shrine complex. This display would be similar to the
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...
wagon displayed at the
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
, giving visitors an idea of the difficulties faced by the POWs who were herded in 80 persons per wagon volume, during hot summer conditions, without food, water, or facilities for sanitation. According to the Philippine government's master plan, the Shrine will be a part of the
New Clark City New Clark City is a planned community currently undergoing development, located within the Clark Special Economic Zone in the towns of Bamban and Capas in Tarlac province, Philippines. It has an area of approximately and will accommodate up to ...
.


Gallery

File:Omnia Pro Patria in Capas National Shrine.jpg, The Omnia Pro Patria monument at the shrine. File:Bataan Death March Testimonies.jpg, Placques of Bataan Death March testimonies. File:Name of Soldiers went to Death March.jpg, A part of the new black marble memorial wall around the Obelisk, engraved with names of soldiers who were incarcerated in the internment camp. File:CapasNationalShrinejf4210 11.JPG, The relic of one of the boxcars that carried 80 soldiers each for transport to other internment camps. File:CapasNationalShrineabcdjf4256 11.JPG, The west side of the marble memorial wall around the obelisk. File:CapasNationalShrinejf4239 05.JPG, The east side of the memorial wall around the obelisk. File:CapasNationalShrinejf4147 04.JPG, The flag at the shrine foregrounding the shrine's obelisk in the distance. File:Capas National Shrine - Flickr - The U.S. Army.jpg, A part of the memorial wall with man standing before it. File:East-side marble wall memorial poem.jpg, A poem by Juan L. Raso, a World War II veteran, at the entry way to the east side of the memorial wall. File:Dedication text at south side of Capas National Shrine wall memorial.jpg, The dedication text and statistics engraved at the south side of the shrine's memorial wall. File:Amador Daguio poem dedication at Capas National Shrine.jpg, A verse from an Amador Daguio poem engraved on a part of the memorial wall's west side. File:Visitors at Capas National Shrine.jpg, Visitors at the shrine, October 2022. File:Capas National Shrine walkway from flag pole to obelisk.jpg, The long walkway from the Shrine's flag pole to the obelisk.


References


External links


Capas
page of th
Pacific Wreck database
which has information relating to the Capas National Shrine (with pictures).

{{Central Luzon attractions Military history of the Philippines World War II memorials in the Philippines Buildings and structures in Tarlac World War II sites in the Philippines Tourist attractions in Tarlac Monuments and memorials in the Philippines Military and war museums in the Philippines National Shrines of the Philippines