Camp Pangatian Memorial Shrine (WWII) (Cabanatuan)

Philippines / Central Luzon / Bangad / Cabanatuan
 memorial, Second World War 1939-1945
This was the largest continuously-running prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines. Through the course of WWII, about 9000 American POWs were held here by the Japanese. US Army Rangers freed the prisoners near the end of WWII.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Cabanatuan
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   15°30'37"N   121°2'39"E

Comments

  • My father, Major General Chester Lee Chittenden Johnson, U. S. Army, who died in 1997, was one of the senior american prisoners, at the Cabanatuan prisoner of war camp, following the death march. Following his retirement from the Army in 1972, he spent most of the rest of his life planning, researching and heading up the building of this memorial, to his fallen comrads. This was a very important task for him to accomplish, which he finished after many years of work and to a large part, with his own retirement income. The later part of his own incarceration, saw him being transported by the Jap's, by the "hell ships", two of which having been sunk out from under him by Army Air Forces, he had to swim back to land to be recaptured twice, before on the third ship, he made it to Japan and then on to Korea, where in the fall of 1945, he was repatriated by the 7th Division, U. S. Army, which he was proud to command in Korea 20 years later, as a Major General (2 stars). Full story is told in a book, written by Margarita Johnson, my wife, "Major General Chester Lee Johnson, in his own words", in the U. S. Library of Congress. Major Peter Lee Chittenden Johnson, Air Force, retired. Also, grandson of Brigadier General Sylvester DeWitt Downs and great grandson of Colonel Truman Oscar Murphy. All three of my ancestors above, were West Point graduates, who along with myself and others, fought in many wars for our county, as far back as 1638. Murphy also played for Army in the very first "Army-Navy" football game, in 1890.
  • Sorry, correction on General Johnson's retirement, not 1972 but early 1973, following his having been in charge of planning and the burial of President Truman in December 1972 and PresidentJohnson in January 1973. Probably the only person in US history, to have been in charge of two Presidential funerals. The amazing story about LBJ's funeral, a story that is known only by a handfull of people, my small family, is that LBJ did not even get his own funeral. It should be in my wife's book? Pete the pilot.
  • My grandfather, Charles S Swain was one of the 6th Battalion Rangers who freed the POW's.
This article was last modified 11 years ago