Walk to the Battle of the Points

[chadhill]

Karl, your posts have been most impressive and very detailed. I have also viewed your beautiful photos offsite, P.I. Sailor. You and Conrad are showing CONUS eyes sites that many have not been seen before, only read about. Great job, please keep it up! You have given pdh54 and I many fond memories.

I have a question for flystar626. By mentioning a Buddha statue, are we speaking of the same one that I saw on the beach at Quinauan in 1986? As I recall, it was found here:












Notice that the plaque was missing in 1986. So it has been replaced, but the statue is now missing? Just curious. Thanks, Chad

[Deleted]

Hello All ,

@ Karl Welteke - I stand corrected Karl , It seems that my niece was at Quinawan on Feb. 25 . Roughly 24 hours after you were there.

She did this as a favor to me , and she has no knowledge or interest in the historical things that we do , so confirming info with her is not as easy as I would like. She is quite charismatic , and her and her girlfriend were very popular there in Quinawan Bay. They stayed the night in Quinawan Bay , and were treated to a bonfire , fresh caught seafood , and some beer. Exactly what I want to do .

- Anyway , It seems like they took another banca ride to see the " Buddha statue " from Quinawan . She mentions Silanin Point specifically as the place where the statue base , and plaque are . I'm still trying to find out if the statue itself was washed away during a typhoon , or weather it was moved to a higher place because of the typhoon , and never returned.

One of the pictures she sent me was of the natural cove , and below here is a photo she sent of the statue base and plaque sans statue.

@ Chadhill - I think that her info and picture matches up with the photo that you took in 1986.

Question : One Bay north of Quinawan Bay is called Kinalalakan Bay . Am I correct ?

I will relay any other info I get from her.

[chadhill]

Hello flystar626,

Here is a more distant view of the Quinauan statue in 1986, lifted from my VHS tape. It's pretty clear we have two different statue bases and locations.



My charts are several decades old and would not have any recent name changes or spelling changes that might have occurred on them, but Anyasan Bay is the bay immediately north of Quinauan Bay.

[Karl Welteke]

Flystar. Look at these two maps and you will notice that Kinalalakan Bay is the bay between Longos Kawayan Point and Lapia (or Lapiay) Bay and the bays north of Quinauan Bay are Anyasan Bay Silalin Bay.






Flystar and chadhill maybe there are or were two statures. Chadhill the place you indicated (ref your 1986 picture) certainly was a perfect place to retreat to for hunted and desperate Japanese soldiers. Maybe it was the place there of their last stand.
One thing many of us are not aware of is that Japanese veterans also frequently visited the Philippines, for example, I learned at the Olongapo Zig-Zag Battle area that until a few years ago a Japanese came every year to his outpost and made offerings. The place was shown to me by the present owner. Also near the Zig-Zag wrote was a Buddha stature and the person who was going to show it me never came thru. Maybe I will come across it some day by accident. The plaque is reported gone.

[chadhill]

Karl, I'll bet you're right. There may be (or were) two statues, the one I saw at Quinauan, and the one flystar's niece saw at Silaiim. Makes me wonder if there's one somewhere on the beach at Longoskawayan, too.

I was keen on locating the big cave that a large group of Japanese holdouts took refuge in, although accounts state it collapsed under fire. But if that cave was in the area of the statue, I didn't find it.

Part of the problem was being able to see. The beach was narrow, making it difficult to get far enough away from the cliffs to be able to look upward for those caves under the cliff tops which had been outlined in 1942 by hanging sheets. When I had previously flown past the shoreline looking for caves, there was so much growth on the cliffs it was hard to get a clear view from the aircraft. While we had a zodiac boat on this trip, my buddy, who had no interest in the battle, used it to search for sea shells. When we finally sailed away, I thought I saw a strange looking place in the cliffs that looked like, for lack of a better phrase, a concreted-over sealed cave opening, as unlikely as that may seem. There was no time left to investigate. This place in the cliff was not on the shoreline either, it was part way up the cliff and would have required some climbing. And maybe it was nothing...

I did get to show Mrs. Hallie Dyess some of the Quinauan aerial pictures in January 1991. Though well into her 90s, she was still a sharp lady. I also visited Ed Dyess' grave in Albany, Texas.

[Deleted]

@ Karl Welteke - Thank you for clearing that up for me . Appreciated.
@ Chadhill - You are right sir , there does seem to be some discrepancies between the pictures.
I sent your picture of Silanin Point ( 1986 ) to my niece , and asked her if this is where she took the pictures.
She confirmed that yes , she took her pictures here , at Silanin Point , right on the water that your picture indicates.
So - Maybe the base and plaque have been re-built. ( ? ) She still confirms that the statue itself was stolen at some point.

My niece seems to get flustered when I grill her for answers , but I think that it is a fair bet that the locals at Quinawan Bay would be able to clear everything up in short order if met in person , and I would like to do that in a few months.

There is an interesting little story here , that can be made very clear to us by talking to the right people , ie: Quinawan Bay residents.

[victor]

Mar 7, 2013 9:21:54 GMT 8 cbuehler said:

There are actually more trees and brush around the edges of Quinawan today now than in Chad's pictures of '86. While on the subject, I had noted the Japanese photo on page 4 of Battery Boy's excellent posts regarding Airfield in PI (Mariveles airfield) that the point shown in the photo would be Hornos or Naiclek point (not sure which), but what I am trying to emphasize is that it is mostly clear and grassy. It appears to be essentially the same as today. No really heavy jungle to be see on Mt. Mauakis peaks either. This leads me to think that at least the points down near Longos Kawayan and Lapiay area were never dense heavy jungle. The winds on Longos Kawayan, Mauakis, Pucot, etc., are VERY high and that would preclude heavy and tall jungle or tree growth in itself.
I have always been slightly suspicious of the historical descriptions regarding the "jungles" in many locations. While I am aware that Bataan has suffered serious deforestation, certain areas such as the points along the coast would never have been likely locations for tall tree growth due to the peculiar weather conditions found on them.

CB

Hi Conrad,

I spoke with the Scout veteran I know, Capt. Nick Golla. It looks like you are right. He recalls Longoskawayan was covered in foliage and trees but they were not the tall big hardwood trees. He also recalls a big grassy clearing between Mt. Mauakis and the Longoskawayan peninsula proper. Crossing it for the attack was a big concern for them. They needed covering fire from the heavy weapons company to be able to cross the clearing.

Victor

[chadhill]

[okla]

Hey Chad....Thanks for posting. These After Action Reports are always revealing and interesting. They usually give insights that don't survive the reworked and edited "final" renditions that make the History Books. Cheers. Postscript...I couldn't help but wonder if W.F. HOGABOOM might be related to the Dallas Cowboy backup QB, Gary Hogaboom. He was Roger Staubauch's (sp???)"back up" for a short time back in the 1970s. That ain't a name that you see everyday. In fact, I have never seen it anywhere, other than the Sports Sections of that period, until viewing your post. Just wonderin'.

[victor]

Same here... thanks for posting. I haven't read all of it yet but looking forward to. Thanks.