Capas Death March Shrine or Pambansang Dambana ng Capas is located in Barangay Aranguren in Capas, Tarlac.
| Death March Memorial Shrine |
Today marks the 77th anniversary of the heroic march. The site is a focus for commemorations Araw ng Kagitingan ( Day of Valor) which is an annual observance held on 9 April—the anniversary of the surrender of US and Philippine forces to the imperial Japanese forces.
"Capas National Shrine" by then President Corazon C. Aquino on December 7, 1991. This was long overdue.
The area also have a 35 hectares man-made forest, but most of the trees planted were mahogany. It is good to have visited this site for at least 3 times over the past 5 years. At least 31,000 trees were planted in the memorial shrine.
| Department of Environment and Natural Resources -PENRO singage |
Hundreds of Filipinos were cramped into these box types carts before meeting their fate. Only few examples survive to this date.
A 70 meter tall obelisk made from cement, sand, gravel, steel was unveiled on April 9, 2003.
| Dendrobium anosmum or Sanggumay |
| Oncidium and Dendrobium anosmum |
three
smaller memorials to the countries whose nationals died at the camp:
the Philippines, the United States, and the Czech and Slovaks (used to
be known Czechoslovakia ). A Defenders gallery/ museum and monument is
also on the site.
Neatly manicured lawn and planted with bougainvilleas, hibiscus and native orchids. |
This
memorial marker was built by an American group called the "Battling
Bastards of Bataan". The names of the dead comrades and soldiers were
immortalized in the walls.
The obelisk is surrounded by a three-segmented, black marble wall
engraved with the names of the Filipinos known to have died during the
Death March.
| President Manuel Roxas quote |
There are also statistics about the total numbers of
prisoners and deaths, together with poems for peace.
There is a minimal entrance fees of Php 5.00 for students, adults and others Php 10.00 Use of swimming poll Php 30.00 and rental of cottage Php 150.00 big and Php 100 for small.
