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Contact Info
Home Town Urbana, OH
Last Address Urbana, OH
Date of Passing Sep 26, 1961
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Robert Lawrence Eichelberger (9 March 1886 – 26 September 1961) was a general in the United States Army, who commanded the US Eighth Army in the South West Pacific Area during World War II.
Pre-World War II service
Eichelberger was born at Urbana, Ohio. He entered the Army as an infantry lieutenant from the U.S. Military Academy in 1909. For the next several years, he saw service in Panama and the U.S.-Mexico border before joining the American Expeditionary Force Siberia. In the years 1918 to 1920, Major Eichelberger observed the Japanese incursion into Siberia and studied Japanese military strategy. He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for repeated acts of bravery while assigned to the Expeditionary Force.
After further overseas duty in the Philippines and China, Eichelberger returned to the U.S. attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and the Army War College, progressing through promotions to Brigadier General in October 1940.
Eichelberger became Superintendent of the Military Academy in 1940 but left West Point for active duty in 1942.
World War II Service
After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, many military men returned their Japanese decorations and medals by sending them to the U.S. Air Force so they could be attached to bombs marked "return to sender." Thrice decorated Eichelberger held on to his Imperial Order of Meiji, Order of the Sacred Treasure and Order of the Rising Sun. When asked about letting the Air Force return the honors, he is famously reported to have said, "Hell, no. I'm going to take them back myself."
Eichelberger was appointed Commanding General of US I Corps and left for Australia in 1942. In October 1942 he was promoted to Lieutenant General.
General Douglas MacArthur ordered him to "take Buna, or don't come back alive". Eichelberger led the Australian-US Advanced New Guinea Force to victory over the Japanese at Buna, in early 1943.
In 1944, Eichelberger also had notable victories at Hollandia and Biak, in Dutch New Guinea.
As Commanding General of the newly formed Eighth Army, he led the invasion of the Philippines clearing the islands of Mindoro, Marinduque, Panay, Negros, Cebu and Bohol. By July 1945, Eichelberger's forces had defeated the Japanese on Mindanao.
In August 1945, Eichelberger's Eighth Army began a three-year stint as part of the Occupation of Japan, where he was also responsible for the review of sentences passed to Class B or C war criminals at Yokohama.
Retirement and death
After nearly 40 years service, he retired in September 1948. He wrote Our Jungle Road to Tokyo, the story of the army's ground war in the Pacific. Congress, in recognition of his service, promoted Eichelberger to full General in 1954 (Public Law 83-508, July 19, 1954).
He died at Asheville, North Carolina, on 26 September 1961 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Eichelberger, Robert L.
Lieutenant Colonel (Infantry), U.S. Army
General Staff Corps, A.E.F. (Siberia)
Date of Action: June 28 - July 3, 1919
Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Robert L. Eichelberger, Lieutenant Colonel (Infantry), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in Siberia, June 28 - July 3, 1919, while serving as assistant chief of staff, G-2, American Expeditionary Forces, Siberia. On July 2, 1919, after the capture by American troops of Novitskaya, an American platoon detailed to clear hostile patrols from a commanding ridge was halted by enemy enfilading fire, seriously wounding the members of the patrol. Colonel Eichelberger, without regard to his own safety and armed with a rifle, voluntarily covered the withdrawal of the platoon. On June 28, at the imminent danger of his own life, he entered the partisan lines and effected the release of one American officer and three enlisted men in exchange for a Russian prisoner. On July 3 an American column being fired upon when debouching from a mountain pass, Colonel Eichelberger voluntarily assisted in establishing the firing line, prevented confusion, and, by his total disregard for his own safety, raised the morale of the American forces to a high pitch.
· General Orders No. 9, W.D., 1923
Home Town: Urbana, OH
Other Comments:
Eichelberger was born in 1886 in Urbana, Ohio, the son of a prominent lawyer. After attending Ohio State University, he went to West Point, graduating in 1909 68th in his class of 103.
During the First World War Eichelberger served on the War Department General Staff, working for Major General W. S. Graves, the executive assistant to the Army Chief of Staff. In July 1918 Graves was given command of a division, and Eichelberger became his operations officer (G3).
This division didn’t reach France, and instead Graves was sent to Vladivostok, to command the small American expeditionary force sent to Siberia in September 1918. Eichelberger served as both his intelligence and operations officers (G2 and G3) during this expedition. The American expedition had been sent to Vladivostok to help a 70,000 strong Czech army, one of the stronger forces opposing the Bolshevik government. In 1918 the main objective of the Allied intervention in Russia was to revive the eastern front, or at least prevent the Germans from moving too many troops from east to west, and it was hoped that the Czechs would be able to advance west to directly threaten the Germans.
Amongst the forces sent to Vladivostok was a very large Japanese force, which took control of the Chinese Eastern Railway. By the end of November 1918 the Japanese had 72,400 men in Siberia and northern Manchuria. Eichelberger thus has a good chance to work with his future opponents in the Pacific, and was thus more aware than most Western soldiers of the good discipline and tactical skills of the Japanese soldiers.
Eichelberger emerged from the failure in Russia with the DSC and DSM, both one during fighting around Novitskaya on 2 July 1919. Between the wars he spend most of his time serving in intelligence, the Adjutants General’s Department and in the office of the Secretary of the General Staff (SGS). He was promoted to brigadier general in 1940, became superintendant of West Point in November 1940, and was promoted again to major general in 1941.
New Guinea
In March 1942, after the American entry into the Second World War, Eichelberger was given command of the newly formed 77th Division. On 22 June 1942 he was moved again, this time to command I Corps, which was taking shape in Australia. Eichelberger reached Australia in August, and with Brigadier General Clovis E. Byers, his chief of staff, set up the Corps head quarters at Rockhampton, on the east coast. On 5 September the 32nd and 41st Divisions were allocated to the Corps, and on 15 October Eichelberger was promoted to lieutenant general, his last wartime promotion.
Of his two divisions, the 41st was undergoing training at Rockhampton, but elements of the 32nd had been rushed to New Guinea, with the first elements reaching Port Moresby on 15 September. They had then marched or been flown across Papua, in preparation for an attack on the Japanese strongholds at Buna and Gona, at the northern end of the Kokoda Trail, the route taken by the Japanese in their unsuccessful attempt to capture Port Moresby by land.
The Allied offensive began on 16 November 1942. The Australians were responsible for the attack on Gona, while the US 32nd Division carried out the attack on Buna. This was the 32nd Division’s first combat experience, and it came in some of the most difficult jungle terrain, mixed with waterlogged swamps and more open plantations. The inexperienced American soldiers made very little progress against the well dug-in Japanese defenders of Buna, much to the fury of General MacArthur.
On 29 November he ordered Eichelburger to come to New Guinea, and on 1 December Eichelburger took over command of all troops in the Buna sector. At this stage Eichelburger reported to General Edmund Herring, the Australian commander of Advance New Guinea Force, who in turn reported to General Thomas Blamey, commander-in-chief of the Australian Army and Commander, Allied Ground Forces under MacArthur, who at this point was also commander of New Guinea Force.
On 2 December Eichelburger visited the front line, and in the aftermath of his visit replaced the commanders of both task forces involved (Warren and Urbana forces), and the commander of the 32nd Division (Albert W. Waldron replaced Edwin F. Harding). On 5 December Waldron was wounded while observing the fighting, and replaced by Eichelburger’s Chief of Staff, General Clovis Byers, who was in turn wounded on 16 December, forcing Eichelburger to take direct command of the division. Despite all of these changes progress was still slow, and the Japanese held out until late December. On 31 December the two American task forces finally made contact, and on 2 January Buna mission finally fell.
On 13 January General Herring became commander of New Guinea Force, and Eichelberger replaced him as commander of Advance New Guinea Force. He was thus in overall command on the Buna-Gona front for the final successful assault on the last Japanese strongholds, which ended in success on 22 January 1943.
I Corps and Eighth Army
On 16 February 1943 the American forces in the South West Pacific Area were organised into the US Sixth Army, under the command of General Walter Krueger. Eichelberger returned to his original post, as commander of I Corps within the Sixth Army. Over the next nineteen months I Corps took part in the campaigns on the northern coast of New Guinea as well as on New Britain, the Admiralty Islands, Biak, Numfoor and Morotai. Finally, in May 1944 Eichelberger began the planning for the attack on Hollandia.
On 7 September 1944, three days after the start of the Hollandia offensive, Eichelberger was promoted to command of the US Eighth Army. This new army’s first offensive was an attack on the Mapia Islands, which began on 15 November, followed on 20 November by an attack on the Asia Islands.
The Eighth Army then moved into the Philippines, relieving the Sixth Army in the Leyte-Samar area on 25 December 1944. The clear-up on Leyte lasted until May 1945.
On 31 January 1945 the Eighth Army made its first landing on Luzon, a successful assault on the Nasugbu area that soon turned into a thrust towards Manila. Eichelberger was also responsible for attacks on Palawan, the Zamboanga Peninsula on Mindanao) and in the San Bernardino Strait.
After the end of the war Eichelberger served as commander of the Allied Occupation Forces in Japan, remaining in that post until 3 September 1948. In 1954, after he had retired, Eichelberger was promoted to full general. He died in 1961.
Place of birth
Urbana, Ohio
Place of death
Asheville, North Carolina
Allegiance
United States of America
Years of service
1909 – 1948
Rank
General
Commands held
77th Infantry Division
Eighth United States Army
US I Corps
United States Military Academy
Battles/wars
World War I:
Siberian Intervention
World War II:
Battle of Buna-Gona
Operations Reckless and Persecution
Battle of Biak
Battle of Leyte
Battle of Luzon
Battle of the Visayas
Invasion of Palawan
Battle of Mindanao
Awards
Distinguished Service Cross (2)
Army Distinguished Service Medal (4)
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
Imperial Order of Meiji (Japan)
Order of the Sacred Treasure (Japan)
Order of the Rising Sun (Japan)
Other work
Our Jungle Road to Tokyo
Robert Lawrence Eichelberger was a highly popular commander who led many successful operations in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
He was the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at time of the Pearl Harbor attack. He was then appointed Commanding General of the 77th Infantry Division in January 1942, and then commander of the United States First Corps, whose staff he took to General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area command in Australia in August of that year with orders to turn back Japanese Papuan offensive.
He was the only senior United States land commander in the Pacific able to maintain good relationships with his Australian colleagues, in contrast to MacArthur. In December was sent to Buna front in Papau, New Guinea, to revitalize the stalled offensive, winning the first small but important victory against Japanese ground forces there before he took the First Corps on through New Guinea to the Huon peninsula and then to American landings at Hollandia in April 1944. Operating as Operation Reckless Task Force, the First Corps Corps began a lightning campaign from Hollandia which secured a major base site for the support of subsequent Allied operations.
He was then Commander of the newly formed Eighth Army from September 1944, and was responsible for all American forces in Dutch New Guinea, for mounting of operations in the southern Philippines and for the cleaning-up operations on Leyte and later Luzon. After fighting in the Philippines ceased, he and his command supervised the surrender of over 50,000 Japanese troops from northern Luzon alone.
He was aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Harbor and attended the Japanese surrender there.
After the Japanese surrender, he commanded the first occupation forces in Japan and retired in 1948 as overall commander of Allied ground forces in the Japanese home islands.
General Eichelberger died at Asheville, North Carolina, on September 26, 1961. He was buried with full military honors in Section 2, Grave 4737, Arlington National Cemetery.
He has been born at Urbana, Ohio, on March 9, 1886. His family had come from Switzerland in 1726 and had members in every war this country fought. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1909.
During his career he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the United States Navy Distinguished Service Medal.
His wife, Emmaline Guder Eichelberger (Miss 'Em). August 12, 1888-February 11, 1972, is buried with him.
OUR JUNGLE ROAD TO TOKYO (306 pp.)—Robert L. Eichelberger with Milton MacKaye— Viking
It was the kind of order a second lieutenant sometimes gets, but not a 56-year-old lieutenant general, a corps commander and former superintendent of West Point. General MacArthur stopped pacing up & down his headquarters veranda, turned to General Robert Eichelberger and said: "Bob, I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive."
That was at Port Moresby on the afternoon of Nov. 30, 1942. Bob Eichelberger flew to Buna the next morning and what he found was a jungle Valley Forge. The 32nd Division troops were hungry, ragged, sick and demoralized. Attacks were ordered and never made—in one such "attack" by a regimental combat team, only 150 men got up to the front lines to face the Japanese, while the rest of the 2,000 were allowed to straggle in the rear.
Writes Eichelberger in Our Jungle Road to Tokyo: "When I went to the front on December 2 I couldn't find a front." It didn't take him long to establish one, or to fire the 32nd's commanding general. Eichelberger bucked up morale by getting into the front lines where his riflemen could see him. Officers were shot down at his side (three of his brigadiers were wounded), but he was never hit, even escaped malaria. He lost 30 pounds in 30 days, but on Jan. 3, 1943 the troops had Buna. It was the first Allied ground victory of the Pacific war.
52 D-days. Jungle Road is General Bob's story of the infantry in that war. Coming after such chesty accounts as Seaman "Bull" Halsey's and Airman George Kenney's, it seems almost sober and reflective, but it is a tribute to the embattled foot soldier and a deeply felt one. No army general spent so much time at the front and few appreciated so clearly what they were asking of their men.
Eichelberger was seldom still. During the Philippines campaign, he flew on 70 out of 90 days, once ordered his personal B-17 Miss Em (named for his wife) down to 200 ft. to make strafing runs in support of his troops. If the Sixth Army's General Krueger was MacArthur's power-play fullback, Eichelberger was the team's imaginative, elusive halfback who took daring chances and made touchdowns. From Christmas Day 1944 to the Japanese surrender, his Eighth Army had 52 D-days, used tactics that constantly kept the Japs off balance.
Photo Courtesy of Christopher W. Hart
Luzon Campaign (1944-45)/Battle for Manila
From Month/Year
February / 1945
To Month/Year
March / 1945
Description The Battle of Manila (Tagalog: Laban ng Maynila ng 1945), also known as the Liberation of Manila, fought from 3 February-3 March 1945 by American, Filipino, and Japanese forces, was part of the 1945 Philippine campaign. The one-month battle, which culminated in a terrible bloodbath and total devastation of the city, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater, and ended almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines (1942–1945). The city's capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthur's key to victory in the campaign of reconquest.
On 3 February, elements of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division under Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudge pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and seized a vital bridge across the Tullahan River, which separated them from the city proper. A squadron of Brig. Gen. William C. Chase's 8th Cavalry, the first unit to arrive in the city, began a drive toward the sprawling campus of the University of Santo Tomas which had been turned into an internment camp for civilians and the US Army and Navy nurses sometimes known as the "Angels of Bataan".
Since 4 January 1942, a total of thirty-seven months, the university’s main building had been used to hold civilians. Out of 4,255 prisoners, 466 died in captivity, three were killed while attempting to escape on 15 February 1942, and one made a successful breakout in early January 1945.
At 21:00, a lead jeep crashed into the main gate, triggering a firefight, and its driver, Capt. Manuel Colayco, a USAFFE guerrilla officer, became the first known Allied casualty of the city's liberation. He and his companion Lt. Diosdado Guytingco guided the American First Cavalry. Both were unarmed. Colayco died seven days later in Legarda Elementary School, which became a field hospital. Simultaneously, a single tank of the 44th Tank Battalion, named "Battlin' Basic," rammed through the university walls, Sgt Austin E. Aulds from Texas, a combat medic was the second US Soldier to enter, while four others entered through the Calle España entrance. American troops and Filipino guerrillas immediately followed and, after a brief skirmish, freed many of the internees.
The Japanese, commanded by Lt. Col. Toshio Hayashi, gathered the remaining internees together in the Education Building as hostages, and exchanged pot shots with the Americans and Filipinos. The next day, 4 February, they negotiated with the Americans to allow them to rejoin Japanese troops to the south of the city. The Filipinos and Americans agreed but only allowed them to carry their rifles, pistols and swords. That same day, a patrol from the 37th Infantry Division and 31st Infantry Division came upon more than 1,000 prisoners of war, mostly former defenders of Bataan and Corregidor held at Bilibid Prison, which had been abandoned by the Japanese.
On the morning of 5 February, 47 Japanese were escorted out of the university to the spot they requested. Each group saluted each other and departed. The Japanese were unaware the area they requested was near the American-occupied Malacañan Palace and soon afterwards were fired upon and several were killed including Hayashi. Later in the afternoon, the survivors returned to the university and were captured.
In total, 5,785 prisoners were freed: 3,000 Filipinos, 2,870 Americans, 745 British, 100 Australians, 61 Canadians, 50 Dutch, 25 Poles, 7 French, 2 Egyptians, 2 Spanish, one Swiss, one German, and one Slovak.
Encirclement and massacres
Earlier on 4 February, General MacArthur had announced the imminent recapture of the capital while his staff planned a victory parade. But the battle for Manila had barely begun. Almost at once the 1st Cavalry Division in the north and the 11th Airborne Division in the south reported stiffening Japanese resistance to further advances into the city.
Following the initial American breakthrough on 4 February, fighting raged throughout the city for almost a month. The battle quickly came down to a series of bitter street-to-street and house-to-house struggles. In the north, General Griswold continued to push elements of the XIV Corps south from Santo Tomas University toward the Pasig River. Late on the afternoon on 4 February, he ordered the 2nd Squadron, 5th Cavalry, to seize Quezon Bridge, the only crossing over the Pasig that the Japanese had not destroyed. As the squadron approached the bridge, Japanese heavy machine guns opened fire from a formidable roadblock thrown up across Quezon Boulevard, forcing the cavalry to stop its advance and withdraw until nightfall. As the Americans and Filipinos pulled back, the Japanese blew up the bridge.
On 5 February, the 37th Infantry Division began to move into Manila, and Griswold divided the northern section of the city into two sectors, with the 37th responsible for the western half and the 1st Cavalry Division responsible for the eastern sector. By the afternoon of 8 February, 37th Division units had cleared most of the Japanese from their sector, although the damage done to the residential districts was extensive. The Japanese added to the destruction by demolishing buildings and military installations as they withdrew.
The bitterest fighting for Manila—which proved costliest to the 37th—occurred on Provisor Island, a small industrial center on the Pasig River. The Japanese garrison, probably less than a battalion, managed to hold off Beightler's infantrymen until 11 February.
Mudge's 1st Cavalry Division had an easier time, encountering little opposition in the suburbs east of Manila. Although the division's 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments fought pitched battles near two water supply installations north of the city, by 10 February, the cavalrymen had extended their control south of the river. That night, the XIV Corps established for the first time separate bridgeheads on both banks of the Pasig River.
The final attack on the outer Japanese defenses came from the 11th Airborne Division, under XIV Corps control since 10 February. The division had been halted at Nichols Field on 4 February and since then had been battling firmly entrenched Japanese naval troops, backed up by heavy fire from concealed artillery. The airfield finally fell to the paratroopers the next day, and the acquisition allowed Maj. Gen. Swing's division to complete the U.S. encirclement of Manila on the night of 12 February.
In an attempt to protect the city and its civilians, MacArthur had placed stringent restrictions on U.S. artillery and air support. But massive devastation to the urban area was not avoided. Iwabuchi's sailors, marines and Army reinforcements, having initially successfully resisted American infantrymen armed with flamethrowers, grenades and bazookas, faced direct fire from tanks, tank destroyers, and howitzers, who attacked one building after another and killed the Japanese—and often the trapped civilians—inside, without differentiation.[5]
Subjected to incessant pounding and facing certain death or capture, the beleaguered Japanese troops took out their anger and frustration on the civilians caught in the crossfire, committing multiple acts of severe brutality, which later would be known as the Manila Massacre. Violent mutilations, rapes, and massacres on the populace accompanied the battle for control of the city, which lay practically in ruins. General Yamashita was subsequently blamed for the massacres and hanged for war crimes in 1946 even though he had no responsibility for the battle itself.
Intramuros devastated
The fighting for Intramuros, where Iwabuchi held around 4,000 civilian hostages, continued from 23 February to 28 February. Already having decimated the Japanese forces by bombing, American forces used artillery to try to root out the Japanese defenders. However, the centuries-old stone ramparts, underground edifices, the Sta. Lucia Barracks, Fort Santiago, and villages within the city walls all provided excellent cover. Fewer than 3,000 civilians escaped the assault, mostly women and children who were released on 23 February afternoon. Colonel Noguchi's soldiers and sailors killed 1,000 men and women, while the other hostages died during the American shelling.
The last pocket of Japanese resistance at the Finance Building, which was already reduced to rubble, was flushed out by heavy artillery on 3 March. Iwabachi was said to have committed seppuku (ritual suicide) on February 25, but his body was never found.
Army Historian Robert R. Smith wrote:
"Griswold and Beightler were not willing to attempt the assault with infantry alone. Not expressly enjoined from employing artillery, they now planned a massive artillery preparation that would last from 17 to 23 February and would include indirect fire at ranges up to 8,000 yards as well as direct, point-blank fire from ranges as short as 250 yards. They would employ all available corps and division artillery, from 240mm howitzers down. (...) Just how civilian lives could be saved by this type of preparation, as opposed to aerial bombardment, is unknown. The net result would be the same: Intramuros would be practically razed." "That the artillery had almost razed the ancient Walled City could not be helped. To the XIV Corps and the 37th Division at this state of the battle for Manila, American lives were understandably far more valuable than historic landmarks. The destruction stemmed from the American decision to save lives in a battle against Japanese troops who had decided to sacrifice their lives as dearly as possible."
Before the fighting ended, MacArthur summoned a provisional assembly of prominent Filipinos to Malacañan Palace and in their presence declared the Commonwealth of the Philippines to be permanently reestablished. "My country kept the faith," he told the gathered assembly. "Your capital city, cruelly punished though it be, has regained its rightful place—citadel of democracy in the East."
Aftermath
For the rest of the month the Americans and Filipino guerrillas mopped up resistance throughout the city. With Intramuros secured on 4 March, Manila was officially liberated, but large areas of the city had been leveled. The battle left 1,010 U.S. soldiers dead and 5,565 wounded. An estimated 100,000 Filipinos civilians were killed, both deliberately by the Japanese and from artillery and aerial bombardment by the U.S. military force. 16,665 Japanese dead were counted within Intramuros alone.
In the month-long battle, the Americans and Japanese inflicted worse destruction on Manila than the German Luftwaffe had exacted upon London, which resulted in the destruction of the city and in a death toll comparable to that of the Tokyo firebombing or the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Destruction of the city
The battle for Manila was the first and fiercest urban fighting in the entire Pacific War, from the time MacArthur started his leapfrogging campaign from New Guinea in 1942, leading to the invasion of Japan in 1945. Few battles in the closing months of World War II exceeded the destruction and the brutality of the massacres and savagery of the fighting in Manila.
A steel flagpole stands at the entrance to the old U.S. Embassy building in Ermita, which was pockmarked by numerous bullet and shrapnel hits, and still stands today, a testament to the intense, bitter fighting for the walled city. In this category, Manila joined Stalingrad as being the host to some of the fiercest urban fighting during the war.
Filipinos lost an irreplaceable cultural and historical treasure in the resulting carnage and devastation of Manila, remembered today as a national tragedy. Countless government buildings, universities and colleges, convents, monasteries and churches, and their accompanying treasures dating to the founding of the city, were ruined. The cultural patrimony (including art, literature, and especially architecture) of the Orient's first truly international melting pot - the confluence of Spanish, American and Asian cultures - was eviscerated. Manila, once touted as the "Pearl of the Orient" and famed as a living monument to the meeting of Asian and European cultures, was virtually wiped out.
Most of the buildings damaged during the war were demolished in the name of "Progress" after the Liberation, as part of rebuilding Manila, replacing European style architecture during the Spanish and early American era with modern American style architecture. Only a few old buildings remain intact.
Historical commemoration
The Memorare Manila Monument at Intramuros, Manila.
On 18 February 1995, the Shrine of Freedom also known as Memorare Manila Monument was erected in dedication and memory to the war victims. This monument is located at the Plaza de Santa Isabel, also known as the Plaza Sinampalukan, located at the corner of General Luna and Anda Streets in Intramuros, Manila. The inscription reads:
"This memorial is dedicated to all those innocent victims of war, many of whom went nameless and unknown to a common grave, or even never knew a grave at all, their bodies having been consumed by fire or crushed to dust beneath the rubble of ruins."
"Let this monument be the gravestone for each and every one of the over 100,000 men, women, children and infants killed in Manila during its battle of liberation, February 3 - March 3, 1945. We have not forgotten them, nor shall we ever forget."
"May they rest in peace as part now of the sacred ground of this city: the Manila of our affections."
