The “Unknown” Clark Cemetery and Death March Marker

“One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.”

Sounds really deep, huh? These are the words of a wise tortoise, named Master Oogway in the animated movie Kung Fu Panda (kids seem to have this tendency of watching the flavor-of-the-month cartoon over and over again, wait till you have your own). That line doesn’t squarely apply to what we’re about to discuss, but it somehow is related. Besides, it’s more impressive to start an article with a nice quote.

Anyway, what I’m trying to drive at is this – we sometimes discover things that we won’t have discovered if we didn’t get lost. Doesn’t make any sense? Let’s put it another way. I’m sure we all experienced a time when we keep on looking for something, but we can’t find it. We spend the whole day looking for it, but we still can’t find what we’re looking for (I guess this is common, even U2 titled a song from this). Then the moment we stop looking for it, we find it.

Have that kind of experience? Good. It’s a bit like that, except that in this case, it’s about something that you weren’t looking for in the first place. Still doesn’t make any sense? Let me just describe it.

It was a sunny morning, a leisurely drive into the labyrinth of roads within Clarkfield (Pampanga) after a hearty breakfast at the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). We were looking for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), a task which should be easy considering that we’ve been here a couple of times. That includes visits to Montevista/Mimosa, Clearwater Country Club and, of course, the fun experience at the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Incidentally, the 15th International Hot Air Balloon Festival, scheduled from 11-14 February 2010, is fast approaching. You should go there.

That time was the first we’re actually going inside DMIA. We made it a point to leave early from Metro Manila, even if the DMIA is just an hour’s drive away, to make allowance for the possibility that we’ll get lost. And got lost, we did, which is not really a bad thing because, one, we had plenty of time to kill, and, two, we stumbled on something interesting.

But let’s backtrack a bit. As noted in a previous article, it’s easy to know that Mt. Samat is near — you’ll see the Dambana ng Kagitingan even from a distance and you’ll see the Death March markers along the way.

When Bataan fell on April 9, 1942, it was just a matter of time that the last Filipino-American stronghold in Corregidor would fall. The Philippines would commemorate April 9 as an annual holiday – Araw ng Kagitingan or Day of Valor, also known as the Bataan and Corregidor Day. On May 6, 1942, after months of heavy bombing, the little island of Corregidor surrendered.

Around 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers surrendered. Only around 54,000 reached the destination after what is now infamously known as the Death March.

Many more died in the prison camps. The more than 100-kilometer walk was characterized by inhumane physical abuse and murder (click here for more story).

Today, the path of suffering is marked by white markers, designating the kilometer number. The intersection that leads to Mt. Samat is Kilometer 19 (different in usage from the regular Kilometer 0).

Kilometer 100 is in Clark, marking the entrance of the Clark Cemetery. This cemetery is the final resting place of around 7,559 individuals (World War II casualties were relocated in Fort McKinley, which lies between Makati City and Taguig City) — those who died from the Philippine-American War, Spanish-American War, their civilian family members, some remains of non-WWII Japanese civilians, Philippine Scouts, Chinese/Vietnamese refugees.

More than 1,600 individuals are still unidentified, their graves simply marked as “Unknown”. It’s no surprise that many of us wouldn’t know this place exists, except by accident. (Or, ahem, when you’re subscribed to this blog.)