Capas the terminus of the famous Bataan Death March
Capas is a 1st class municipality in the province of Tarlac, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a papulation of 95,219 people in 18,333 households.
The minicipality contains the Capas National Shrine (Paggunita Sa Capas) in Capas Tarlac which was built and is maintained by the Philippines government as a memorial to the Filipino and American soldiers who died in Camp O'Donnell at the end of the Bataan Death March. This is an important site relate to Veterans Day in the Philippines (Araw ng Kagitingan), every 9 April, the anniversary of the surrender of the combined US and Philippines force to the Japanese in 1942.
The area around where the Bataan Death March ended was proclaimed by President Corazon Aquino to become Capas National Shrine on 1991/12/07. The shrine encompasses 54 hectares of Parkland , 35 hectares of whick have been planted with rows of trees to represent each of the deceased. On 2003/04/09, a new memorial wall and obelisk was unveiled. The 70-meter obelisk towers above the grounds of the former interment camp. The obelisk is surrounded by a black marble wall engraved with the name of the Filipinos and Americans known to have died at the location. On the three large wall segment that almost encircle the obelisk, there are statistics about the total numbers of prisoners and deaths, together with poems for peace.
Nearby is a small museum and a smaller monument built by an American Group calling themselves the Battling Bastards of Bataan, honoring the American dead of the period.
