Filipino women rescued by American soldiers, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines, March 1945
Filipino women rescued by American soldiers, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines, March 1945
WWII Battle for Manila, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines March 1945. Filipino survivors from the Santa Clara Monastery, being rescued by American soldiers right after being liberated from the Japanese. They are being lead and carried if needed to a safer place.
They were in the monastery through the battle that raged around them, and they are lucky to be alive. They are mostly women because the men had been lead away by the Japanese to Fort Santiago and the Palacio del Gobernador air raid shelter where they were viciously killed.
The building behind is the warehouse besides the Aduana (Intendencia) building.
RELATED HISTORY
MEMORARE: A MEMORIAL FOR THE UNBURIED.
We have featured a lot of our cemeteries—places where our dear departed are blissfully buried and memorialised. But what about those who never have had the dignity of a decent grave?
One of the the worst tragedies of World War 2 occurred during the Battle of the Liberation of Manila, which raged from February 3 to March 3, 1945. As Filipino and American forces fought against Imperial Japanese troops, over 100,000 lives were lost.
While many of these innocent victims of war were hastily consigned to a common grave, others suffered the worst indignity of all: their bodies were obliterated by the effects of constant bombardment, consumed by fire or crushed by rubble.
In Plazuela de Santa Isabel in the old Walled City of Intramuros is a monument that serves as a fitting grave marker for the men, women, children and infants killed. Unveiled in 1995, it was erected by the Memorare – Manila 1945 Foundation Inc., an organization founded by the remaining survivors and descendants of the Battle of Manila.
“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. 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.” (from malacanang.gov.ph/75085-briefer-memorare-manila-1945-monument/)
The inscription on the monument was penned by no less than Nick Joaquin, National Artist for Literature. “Let this monument be a gravestone for each and every one of the over 100,000 men, women, children and infants killed,” he writes. “We have never forgotten them. Nor shall we ever forget.”
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