HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

GROUP 6

MEMBERS:

AGUSTIN, SETH JARL

CUARIO, ELAISHA DAWN

OLEGARIO, ELLYNNE

WANG, CLAIRE MELOANN

MARCH 13, 2020

NESTOR ASUNCION
Professor
 MEMORARE MANILA 1945
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Memorare – Manila 1945 Monument commemorates the lives lost during the battle
for the liberation of Manila, waged by Filipino and American forces against Imperial Japanese
troops from February 3, 1945, to March 3, 1945.
The Battle of Manila, Labanan sa Maynila, lasted from the 3rd of February to the 3rd of
March 1945, was a major battle of the Philippine campaign of 1944-45, during the Second World
War. It was fought by American forces from both the U.S. mainland and the Philippines against
Japanese troops in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. The month-long battle, which
resulted in the death of over 100,000 civilians and the complete devastation of the city, was the
scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater. Japanese forces committed mass murder
against Filipino civilians during the battle. Along with massive loss of life, the battle also destroyed
architectural and cultural heritage dating back to the city's founding, and Manila became one of
the most devastated capital cities during the entire war, alongside Berlin and Warsaw. The battle
ended the almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines (1942–1945). The
city's capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthur's key to victory in the campaign of
reconquest. It is the last of the many battles fought within Manila's history.
 Before the Battle of Manila, the United States captured the Philippines along with Cuba
during the Spanish-American war. But unlike Cuba, for which we granted independence, America
decided to hold on to the Philippines. The rationale was best described by Arthur MacArthur,
father of Douglas MacArthur who helped capture Manila during the war and later served as
military governor. “The archipelago,” he told Congress in 1902, “is the finest group of islands in
the world. Its strategic position is unexcelled by that of any other position on the globe.”

Policy makers realized that Manila, which would serve as the nation’s front door to the
business markets of China, India and Malaya, needed a face-lift to help attract industry and reflect
America’s growing global status. To spearhead that transformation, the U.S. recruited famed
architect and municipal planner Daniel Burnham, who over the course of his career helped cities
such as Chicago, San Francisco and Cleveland. He oversaw the renovation of the National Mall in
Washington and designed Union Station. Burnham saw great potential in Manila with its vast
natural resources, old Spanish churches and the ancient walled city of Intramuros, the 160-acre
historic heart of Manila, built soon after the city’s founding in 1571.

“Possessing the bay of Naples, the winding river of Paris, and the canals of Venice,”
Burnham wrote in his plan, “Manila has before it an opportunity unique in the history of modern
times, the opportunity to create a unified city equal to the greatest of the Western World with the
unparalleled and priceless addition of a tropical setting.”

In the four decades leading up to World War II, Manila developed into a small slice of
America, home not only to thousands of U.S. service members, but also employees of companies
like General Electric, Del Monte and B.F. Goodrich. Often called the Pearl of the Orient, the city
boasted a great quality of life with department stores and social clubs, golf courses and swimming
pools. “Manila is by far the most beautiful of all cities in the Orient,” declared the New York Times
in 1932. “From the top of the University Club it seems half hidden in a canopy of trees, green
everywhere, a city within a park.”

On the eve of World War II, one of Manila’s most prominent residents was none other than
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who lived with his wife and four-year-old son in the penthouse atop the
luxurious Manila Hotel. Like his father, Douglas MacArthur’s life was intertwined with the
Philippines, where he had served often throughout his career. “In this city,” he once said, “my
mother had died, my wife had been courted, my son had been born.” For MacArthur, the son of a
career officer who had spent his life pinballing around the world, Manila was the closest thing he
had to a hometown. More than just the MacArthur’s enjoyed it. “To live in Manila in 1941,”
remembered CBS news correspondent Bill Dunn, “was to experience the good life.”

But the good life ended on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and
invaded the Philippines, launching the United States into war. Hoping to avoid a bloody battle in
the capital, MacArthur declared Manila an Open City and evacuated his forces to Bataan and the
fortified island of Corregidor. For MacArthur, this was far more than just a strategic retreat. He
was abandoning his home, forced to reduce his entire life into the contents of two suitcases.

Japanese troops fanned out through the capital in January 1942, rounding up the thousands
of American civilians and interning them at the University of Santo Tomas, a 50-acre school just
north of the Pasig River. MacArthur endured 77 days in the tunnels of Corregidor, before escaping
under the cover of darkness on March 11, 1942, in a torpedo boat with his family and staff. For
the general, it was an agonizing event, forced to leave behind thousands of Filipino and American
soldiers, troops who had trusted him and would soon face the Death March followed by years in
Japan’s notorious prisoner of war camps. Upon reaching Australia, MacArthur made a public vow:
“I shall return.” That promise would drive him as the days turned to weeks and then years.

Between Japanese demolitions and American artillery, Manila was being destroyed from
the inside and out. Men, women and children retreated below ground, where conditions inside
cramped air raid shelters deteriorated as the hours turned to days. Bunkers built to house a single
family at times held multiple. With so many bodies pressed together, the air inside stagnated and
the heat soared. Austrian Hans Steiner, in a letter to his mother, recounted his experience. “We
lived like dogs,” he wrote. “All around us there were fires and explosions; it was the best
imagination of hell one could get.” In his diary, Santo Tomas internee Robert Wygle described the
parade of wounded who came to the university in search of help. “They are so far beyond
recognition that, in many cases, one can’t tell whether they are men or women, boys or girls, dead
or alive.”

On March 3rd 1945, 29 days after American troops rolled into the city, the Battle of Manila
finally ended. The fight to retake the Philippine capital had resulted in the deaths of 16,665
Japanese, the near total destruction of Admiral Iwabuchi’s forces. In contrast, MacArthur’s men
suffered 1,010 killed and another 5,565 wounded.

Civilians bore brunt of the horror with an estimated 100,000 killed, many of those
slaughtered by the Japanese. The dead were often so disfigured that relatives had to identify them
through clothes, cigarette cases and key chains.

Those who found remains were the lucky ones. Others would have no resolution, a
sentiment best captured in a letter by Santo Tomas internee John Osborn. “With a heavy heart full
of pity, I have, during these recent days and weeks, observed the searchers, the seekers after lost
loved ones. Daily have they gone out the España Gate hoping to find some trace of relative or
friend to change the dreadful uncertainty to certainty, though it be the certainty of death. First they
visit the site of the old home, now probably but a heap of ashes and broken walls. Then to the
homes of relatives and friends for news of the lost. Finally they just walk the streets looking at the
dead, who are today numerous.”

Over the city of Manila hung the awful stench of the dead. Worse than the smell,
remembered Major Chunk Henne, was the taste of death, which settled on the tongue. “No amount
of spitting,” he recalled, “could clear it away.”
 The battle for Manila had destroyed 613 city blocks, an area containing 11,000 buildings,
ranging from banks and schools to churches and houses. More than 200,000 residents were left
homeless. Beyond the structural losses, were the cultural ones, from historic churches and museum
paintings and statues to priceless literary works. And, of course, the economy was in shambles, a
condition best described by A.V.H. Hartendorp: “The manager of one of the Manila oil companies,
in speaking of the rebuilding of his plant, stated that he would have to begin again at the beginning
with a land survey.”

Amid this sea of destruction, MacArthur returned to the Manila Hotel to find his home in
ruins. Gone was his vast personal library, his father’s Civil War mementos, his son Arthur’s baby
book, a loss that crushed Jean MacArthur. “You wanted to know about my apartment at the hotel,”
she wrote in a letter to a friend. “Of that, as well as everything else almost that I know in Manila
is gone.”

Nearly a half century after the battle, survivors formed an organization, the Memorare
Manila 1945 Foundation, dedicated to preserving the story of the civilian sacrifices during the
city’s liberation. To memorialize those killed, the organization erected a statue in Intramuros of a
weeping mother cradling a dead infant, surrounded by other dead or dying figures. The inscription
provides a powerful epitaph: “This memorial is dedicated to all those innocent victims of war,
many of whom went nameless and unknown to a common grave, or never even knew a grave at
all, their bodies having been consumed by fire or crushed to dust beneath the rubble of ruins,” the
inscription reads. “Let this monument be the gravestone for each and every one.”
The monument was unveiled on February 18, 1995. It is located at the center of Intramuros,
in Plaza de Sta. Isabel at the corner of General Luna and Anda Streets. It was constructed mainly
through the efforts of the Memorare Manila 1945 Foundation Inc., a private, non-profit
organization founded by the civilian survivors of the Battle of Manila and their descendants.

LAWS
There were no laws implemented nor in relation to the Memorare Manila 1945.

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

There are no problems that the monument is currently facing, location wise, it is historical.
As of financial needs, there is also no problem since the visiting has no charge and the organization
formed by the survivors is a non-profit one, and the monument was dedicated to those innocent
victims’ of war.
ARCHITECT
Memorare Manila 1945 was sculpted by Peter de Guzman, the monument’s main feature
is the figure of a hooded woman slumped on the ground in great despair for the lifeless child she
cradles in her arms. The woman is the motherland, and the child represents hope. However, the
infant is dead, therefore, it represent lost hope. Six suffering figures surround her, a glimpse of the
great despair brought about by the gruesome massacres that were perpetrated all over the city
inflicted by Imperial Japanese soldiers on civilians during the liberation of the city. The female
figure on the right side is a victim of rape. On the other hand, the male figure on the left side is
alive, but seems confused and hopeless. The dead children represents the youth that the country
have lost while the dead old man portrays the elders who were caught in the battle.
 In Barangay Banlat, Quezon City lies the great shrine of Melchora Aquino de Ramos who
is also known as the revolutionary heroine, “Tandang Sora”. The park where the shrine is built is
the site where the house of Tandang Sora stood, even until now. The shrine portrays Tandang Sora
aiding the wounded Katipuneros, and also shows six panels which signifies her life.
The great Tandang Sora Shrine was built in 2008 by Abdulmari “Toym” de Leon Imao
who came from a family of artists. He started as an architecture student at the University of the
Philippines, however, his interest in arts was simply to strong that he decided to become a sculptor
and even took Master’s in fine art at the Maryland Institute College of Art as a Fulbright Scholar.
Moreover, aside from sculpting historical figures, Imao also contrived on production design work
for theater and films.
Melchora Aquino or Tandang Sora was born in
Balintawak in 1812. She grew up without receiving any
formal education, but despite that, she was still able to
learn how to read and write. During her youth, she was
nicknamed, “Sora” because of her known beauty as
well as her talent on singing. Furthermore, she was
often picked for the role ‘Reyna Elena’ everytime
Santacruzan is celebrated.
Her exceptional beauty and prominence in the
community has caught the eyes of the local cabeza de
barrio or Village Chief, Fulgencio Ramos. Later then,
she was married to Fulgencio and was able to bore six
children who were Romualdo, Saturnina, Simon,
Estefania, Juan, and Juana. Eventually, Fulgencio
would pass away leaving Sora to manage their
businesses as well as raising their children on her own.
During that time, Sora would eventually take the place
of her husband as the Hermana mayor of the
community. She also managed the daily affairs of
the people, as well as participating in major
celebrations such as weddings, baptisms and fiestas
at that time. Tandang Sora was already 80 years old
during the time where Andres Bonifacio and the
other Katipuneros initiated a revolution against the
Spanish Colonist. She also would advise Bonifacio
during clandestine meeting at her home. Moreover,
it was believed that Andres Bonifacio met Tandang
Sora through her son Juan because him also being involved in the revolutionary movement.
When the Spaniards discovered the Katipunan
revolutionary movement in 1896, Andres Bonifacio
assembled his men and together they tore their
cedulas as a declaration of breaking free from the
rules of the Spanish Empire. Some historians
believed that this took place in the Balintawak, while
others believed it took place in Tandang Sora’s home
in Banlat, Quezon City. Moreover, when the
revolution begun, Tandang Sora would treat and
shelter the injured katipuneros, and feed the rest of the revolutionaries.
During that same year, Tandang Sora was captured by
the Spanish authorities and interrogated her. When she
refused to answer their query, the Spanish authorities
decided to exile her in the Island of Guam and stayed
there with a fellow Filipina revolutionary, Segunda
Puentes y Santiago, until 1903. Furthermore, they were
also placed under house arrest for doing housework for a
certain Don Justo Dungca.
In 1898, the United Stated of America took the
Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Cuba from
the Spanish government, as an agreement at end
of the Spanish-American War (1898). However,
this did not sit very well with the Filipino
revolutionaries, led by General Emilio
Aguinaldo (1869-1964), and the Philippine-
American War broke out in February 4, 1899.
When the war was declared officially over in
1902, the American colonial government made
amends by bringing home the Katipunan exiles,
among them was Tandang Sora. She arrived in Manila in 1903, on board the U.S.S. Thomas. Upon
her return to the Philippines, Tandang Sora would stay at the home of her daughter, Saturnina.
Although she spent the rest of her life at her daughter’s home, Sora was still fiercely supporting of
Philippine Independence, until her death in 1919, at the age of 107.
Immediately after her death, Aquino was
buried at the buried at the Panteón de los
Veteranos de la Revolución (Mausoleum of
the Veterans of the Revolution) in the
Manila North Cemetery, along with other
heroes of the Katipunan uprising. The
mausoleum was designed by fellow
revolutionary Arch. Arcadio de Guzmán
Arellano (1872-1920). In 1969, Aquino’s
remains were transferred to the Himlayang Pilipino Memorial Park in Banlat, and in 1972 a shrine
was erected to commemorate Tandang Sora. This first shrine was designed and sculpted by
Florante “Boy” Beltran Caedo (1939-2004), which is just a few hundred meters from Aquino’s old
home.