The 62-hectare burial ground that is Manila’s American Cemetery is located at the former American military base of Fort Bonifacio. Here lie the graves of around 17,000 American military personnel killed during the Second World War, as well as more than 500 Filipinos who served with them.
The rows of white marble crosses that mark the graves are divided into 11 burial plots and each cross is engraved with the name of the soldier who died. Some of these crosses have no engraving and these mark the burial sites of those who died during the war but remain unidentified.
The cemetery is the final resting place for 29 soldiers who received America’s most prestigious military award – the Medal of Honor – and among the connections that have been noted between the dead here are 20 sets of brothers.
The crosses fan out from the Memorial in the middle of the cemetery, which has a central tower and inside a little church. The decor in the Memorial is well worth a look, including the mosaic of the Madonna clutching flowers, which has been painstakingly created in blue glass and the stone relief of St George fighting a dragon above the church door.
The cemetery Visitor’s Building is always staffed if you have questions about the graves, the Memorial or the Wall of Missing, which honours more than 36,000 missing military personnel. If you want to learn about the campaigns in which the soldiers died there are four map rooms, with enormous plans showing key Pacific land and sea campaigns. During your visit, listen out for the chimes that are rung to honour the memories of those who died.
The American Cemetery is open every day except for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Whilst admission is free, visitors will need to bring some form of personal identification to get past security. The cemetery is around ten kilometres southeast of Manila, easily reached by taxi. If you’re driving, there are free car parking spaces behind the memorial in the Visitors’ Building Plaza.
