Please note that the sites listed below are not the only tour destinations or attractions around Tacloban that we will visit. These are simply the sites that have WWII significance. Instead of trying to tackle all of these in one day, it is much better time management for us to visit the bulk of these sites while we are traveling from one place to another, which also yields a brief respite to stretch legs and re-hydrate.

I will make another noteworthy statement that you will start to realize yourself as you read the description of these sites and will become all to obvious when you are at these sites. As an American, a former US NAVY submarine sailor and having an uncle that was a US NAVY pilot during WWII, flew many missions over the Philippines, was shot down over Okinawa, Japan and survived almost 2 years in a Japanese POW camp before being liberated, it is very refreshing that the people of Japan have memorialized these sites in memory of their fallen countrymen and also as tributes to reconciliation and everlasting peace with the people of the Philippines. It is equally depressing that the countries representing the Allied Forces in WWII seem to have forgotten about the places their loved ones gave the supreme sacrifice in the cause of freedom and liberty and have made virtually no attempt to memorialize these sites to the same.

 Day 1 - Travel from Surigao to Tacloban

On this day we will stop at 2 of the more distant sites from Tacloban which just happen to be directly on our travel route. Site 1 - Japanese War Memorial Cemetery, Burauen, Leyte, 52 km. from Tacloban City. Located in Barangay San Diego is the site of one of the fiercest battles fought in Leyte for the liberation of the Philippines. At this site is a WWII cemetery where the bodies of many Japanese soldiers who died in battle on this spot, now rest in peace. Also found on this site are remnants of an airfield built by the Japanese soldiers during World War II and a flower garden where the Japanese visitors offer gifts and prayer for their dead. Site 2 - Hill 120, Dulag, Leyte, 34 km. from Tacloban City. Commonly called Catmon Hill, it is the site where the first American flag was raised by the Liberation Forces of the U.S. Army on October 20, 1944 after the Fall of Bataan. Battle sites of Leyte Valley can be found here. The site offers a panoramic view of the Leyte Gulf and surrounding coastal towns, a landscaped garden with tropical flowers and shrubs, benches, concrete tables with canopies, restroom facilities and an open-air stage where memorial programs are held. Site 2 - Blue Beach, Dulag, Leyte, 34 km. from Tacloban City. One of the 3 main beaches (White Beach in Tacloban and Red Beach in Palo) where the Allied forces landed during the Battle of Leyte. Within Blue Beach are several areas that are known as Yellow, Orange and Violet beaches. The assignment of names to the beaches was done by the Allied Forces to mark the spots where they would make their landing. The Battle of Leyte, in the Pacific campaign of World War II, was the invasion and conquest of Leyte by American and Filipino guerrilla forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, and was fought against the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by General Tomoyuki Yamashita, from October 17, 1944 thru December 31, 1944. The battle launched the Philippines campaign of 1944-45 for the recapture and liberation of the entire Philippine Archipelago and to end almost three years of Japanese occupation.