Ghost Soldiers of Bataan and the Hellships: A WWII Tour of the Philippines

After breakfast you will visit the MacArthur Suite and the hotel’s archives room. The suite was the General’s residence from 1935 to 1941, and the archives hold photographs and memorabilia from those years. From there you will go to Intramuros, the walled city of Old Manila that the Spanish built and the Americans and Japanese fought over twice. The tour ends with time to browse the handicraft shops inside the walls and a late lunch at Ilustrado Restaurant. 

The afternoon is yours to enjoy at leisure, followed by dinner at the hotel.

Today you will take an early morning ferry across Manila Bay to Corregidor, the island fortress that held out for a month after Bataan fell. On a guided tour of the island, you will see the gun batteries, the bombed-out barracks and the tunnels of Malinta Hill, where the American command held out until the final surrender in May 1942. After a buffet lunch on the island, you will return to Manila.

dinner at the hotel.

Today you will travel by coach to Kilometer Marker Zero at Mariveles. In April 1942, some 76,000 Filipino and American prisoners started north on foot from this point. Nearby are the sites of General Hospitals No. 1 and No. 2, the open-air wards where Army nurses worked under bombing until the surrender. From there you will follow the actual Death March route north through Cabcaben, Lamao and Limay, stopping at surviving kilometer markers along the way. After lunch en route you will continue through Orion and Pilar to Balanga. There you will visit the Bataan World War II Museum and the Surrender Site Monument behind Balanga Elementary School.

Dinner and overnight in Balanga.

You will drive up Mount Samat to the Dambana ng Kagitingan, the Shrine of Valor, on the height that anchored the final defensive line on Bataan. It comprises the Colonnade, the war museum and the Memorial Cross. The view from the cross takes in the whole peninsula and explains the battle better than any map. You will then stop at the Pantingan River, where Japanese troops massacred several hundred Filipino officers in the days after the surrender. The next stop is Morong, where in January 1942 the 26th Cavalry (Philippine Scouts) made the last horse-mounted charge in the history of the United States Army. After lunch you will continue to Subic Bay.

The evening is yours to explore Subic Bay.

Overnight in Subic Bay.

The morning begins at the Hellships Memorial and the adjacent Subic Bay Historical Center. The memorial commemorates the prisoners of war moved to Japan and Manchuria in the holds of unmarked transports. Because the ships carried no markings, many were attacked by American submarines and aircraft, and thousands of POWs died in the water or below deck. You will then visit the Jungle Survival Training program, where American aircrews were later taught to live off the same terrain the defenders of Bataan had starved in.

The evening is yours to explore on your own.

Overnight in Subic Bay.

Leaving Subic Bay you will stop at Layac Junction, the scene of the first major delaying action of the Bataan campaign. The monument there honors Jose Calugas, the Philippine Scouts sergeant who won the Medal of Honor serving a gun under fire. The route then takes you to the San Fernando railway station, where the Bataan Death March ended and the surviving prisoners were forced into boxcars for Capas. You will then visit Clark Field, the main American airbase in the Philippines, where Japanese bombers destroyed most of the American planes on the ground just hours after Pearl Harbor. Here you will see the gate posts and parade grounds of neighboring Fort Stotsenberg, the Death March marker at the entrance to the Clark Veterans Cemetery, and the Clark Museum, with lunch nearby.

In the afternoon you will reach the Capas National Shrine at Camp O’Donnell, the first of the prison camps and the deadliest, and the Battling Bastards of Bataan Memorial. The day ends at the Cabanatuan American Memorial. It stands on the site of the POW camp where the last prisoners from Bataan and Corregidor were still held in January 1945. The Great Raid that emptied the camp was carried out by Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrillas, and it is the subject of Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers.

Dinner and overnight in Cabanatuan City.

You will return to Manila this morning for the civilian side of the Japanese occupation. At the University of Santo Tomas you will walk the campus of the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. More than 3,000 American and Allied civilians, including the nurses taken on Bataan and Corregidor, were held there for three years. They were freed when the flying column of the 1st Cavalry Division reached them in February 1945. You will then stop outside Old Bilibid Prison, which held Allied POWs before their transfer to Cabanatuan and the other camps. After lunch you will pass through the Makati business district and the site of Nichols Field on the way to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial at Fort Bonifacio. A private wreath laying can be arranged there with advance notice.

You will return to the Manila Hotel for dinner and the night.

After breakfast you will transfer to the domestic airport for the flight to Tacloban. On arrival you will be met and taken to your hotel at MacArthur Park in Palo, a short walk from the beach where the liberation of the Philippines began.

The morning begins at the MacArthur Landing Memorial on Red Beach. On October 20, 1944, MacArthur waded ashore here and broadcast the promise he had made on leaving Corregidor, now kept. Nearby is Palo Cathedral, which was turned into a field hospital for wounded Allied soldiers during the Leyte campaign. In Tacloban you will visit the Sto. Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum and the Leyte Provincial Capitol, on whose steps MacArthur declared the restoration of civil government. After lunch you will visit Hill 120 and the memorial to the 96th Infantry Division, which took the hill on the first day of the landings.

Dinner and overnight in Palo.

This morning you will cross the San Juanico Bridge, the longest in the Philippines, for a brief stop on the Samar side. You will then return for a tour of Tacloban’s city hall and heritage sites and an early lunch.

The afternoon is at leisure, with a group dinner at the hotel.

After an early flight back to Manila you will visit Rizal Park and the monument marking the site where José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, was executed by the Spanish in 1896. You will then check into your hotel near the airport and freshen up.

The day closes with a Farewell Dinner.

After breakfast you will transfer to the international airport for your flight home.