Plaza Cuartel Memorial Park in Puerto Princesa

Description and is it worth a visit

Plaza Cuartel is one of the few, or rather even the only historical Tourist attraction in Puerto Princesa. And if you look more broadly, it's even one of the very few historical places in the whole of Palawan, because besides it, only the fortress in Taytay comes to mind, and nothing else. To be honest, there's not much to see here, he'll spend 5 minutes here. It's just something like a square or a memorial park, and not very well maintained, as, indeed, almost everything in Puerto Princesa. However, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of this place and the drama of the events that took place here.

On December 14, 1944, 139 American prisoners of war were burned alive by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army at the site of this memorial, only 11 managed to escape. The brutal massacre was committed so that the prisoners of war would not be saved by the advancing Allied forces.

The background of the events began on August 12, 1942, when 300 American prisoners of war, survivors and captured in the battles for Bataan and Corregidor, were taken to Palawan and placed in the Palawan prisoner of war camp 10A. The prisoners were engaged in clearing the territory and building the runway, made spare parts for aircraft, and were generally used as slave labor. Sick and useless soldiers were replaced with new batches of healthy prisoners of war from Manila. In October 1944, the already completed runway began to be attacked by the advancing Allied forces. To escape from the bombing, the prisoners had to dig bomb shelters inside the camp. They were trenches one and a half meters deep and 1.2 meters wide. Shelter A could accommodate 50 people, shelter B - 35, and shelter C – up to 30 people. Small shelters for two or three people were also built. The entrance to the shelter led through a secret passage outside the camp, which was located on an 18-meter-high cliff overlooking the bay. Against the background of the Allied offensive, the prisoners were subjected to severe beatings, the food was reduced to one pot of rice per day. The prisoners made four escape attempts, two of which were successful and 8 soldiers escaped from the camp.

On December 14, 1944, the next stage of the Allied offensive began. In order not to allow the rescue of prisoners of war by the advancing Allied forces, the soldiers of the Japanese 14th Front group, under the command of General Tomoyuki Yamashita, drove them into bomb shelters dug by them, poured gasoline out of barrels and set them on fire. Prisoners trying to jump out of the fire were mowed down by machine gun fire. Some managed to climb up the cliff that adjoined the other side of the trenches, but they were later tracked down and killed. Only 11 prisoners managed to escape, 139 died. The bones of the victims were found in early 1945, 123 bodies were buried in a mass grave at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, USA.

We also recommend to see the possible options for other excursions on Palawan, which can be booked online:

• Excursions around the island of Palawan on Tripster.ru