Sometimes we need to find ourselves first before we can ever know what we’re really looking for.

When in Bataan: Mt. Samat

On the first day of our field trip in the eighth grade, we took a trip to Bataan, but all I could remember was sleeping on the bus, and goofing around with my friends. We had to take pictures and compose essays about the trip for our projects in school, so we had to open our eyes and enjoy the aesthetics of the different locations with an objective perspective, as well. We’ve been up since the wee hours of the morning, and we’ve already visited a few places and we were bombarded with so much history and information during those tours, so we were all tired. 

We were all asleep as we arrived at our next destination. We were all wondering why it felt like we were going up to Baguio city because of the curviness of the road and the slight ringing in our ears. We all went out of the bus and it felt like we arrived at some random campsite, so we wondered about what our teachers could have prepared for us in this destination. We then looked around, but we didn’t bother to look up. The teachers pointed to the long flight of stairs and told us that we’re gonna have to climb, before we get to really reach the destination. We groaned at the big flight of stairs, but when we looked up to see what was waiting for us at the end, it felt as if the long walk to the top seemed like child’s play. The entire scene was captivating, but what caught my attention the most was what was waiting for us on the summit of Mt. Samat— the Shrine of Valor or the Dambana ng Kagitingan. The shrine is a whopping 92 meter-tall cross and it was built to commemorate the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Bataan. 

History tells us that this very place was the site of one of the bloodiest battles between the Allied forces and the Japanese army during the battle of Bataan in 1942. The US and Philippine armies eventually surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army which led to the tragic deaths of thousands of men due to the Bataan Death March. This moment in history was considered the largest surrender of US soldiers ever recorded, with 78,000 starving, injured, and exhausted troops under Major General Edward P. King. 

As I’m writing this, it’s been 5 years since I’ve visited the shrine, but it was the first location that popped into my head while I prepared to write this post. I hardly remember anything else from the trip, but it only seems like only yesterday that we went to Mt. Samat, and that has to count for something.

REFERENCE: 

Mt. Samat National Shrine

Buwis buhay magpicture nito. Nilabas ko talaga ang phone ko sa bintana para makuha ang mga litratong ito.

Relief sculptures surrounding the base of the Shrine of Valor in Mt. Samat.

Kuha ko ito ng mga litrato (at yung noose) sa museo sa Mt. Samat. Kulang nga lang kasi limited ang time namin sa museo.