Discovering WW2 Japanese War Tunnels in Bamban Hills

HISTORICAL SKETCH
Join me in a journey of WW2 History through the discovery, exploration, and field survey of the Japanese WW2 Tunnels of Bamban Hills. Located north and west of Clark Field, Bamban Hills were fortified by the Japanese army and navy forces, the Kembu Group in an attempt to protect Clark Field from being captured and utilized by General MacArthur’s forces coming down from Lingayen in late January 1945.

THE JAPANESE KEMBU GROUP
The Kembu Group adopted the strategy of leaving the former airfields of the Clark Center and instead moved to the fortified mountain positions of the Bamban Hills using tunnel defense system that pockmarked every hill and ridge with a front of 16 kilometers and a depth of 20 kilometers. An estimated number of 40,000 army and navy troops occupied Clark and Bamban area in January 1945 and thousands died in the battle, only 1,500 surrendered by the war’s end.

JAPANESE WW2 TUNNELS
Using historical photographs and extensive research, closed tunnels either sealed by the 40th Division during the war through massive aerial and ground artillery bombardments, or purposely sealed by the Kembu Group forces, BHS Field Recon & Investigation Team led by historian and museum curator Rhonie Dela Cruz is in the forefront of discovering and opening the lost tunnels of the Japanese Kembu Group in search of the remains of the War Dead and for preservation and promotion of these WW2 heritage sites.

BAMBAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND BAMBAN WW2 MUSEUM
Bamban Historical Society (BHS) and Bamban WW2 Museum has been conducting discovery, exploration, and field survey of these former battlefields including the Japanese tunnels since 2005 and had documented and mapped numbers of this WW2 historical sites. These tasks are part of the BHS Operation Fireflies (research and recovery of remains of war dead) and Project Discovery WW2 Tunnels for the tunnel survey and exploration.

Rhonie Dela Cruz is a descendant of WW2 veterans from Bamban, Tarlac PH, an historian, museum curator (Bamban WW2 Museum), and head of the Bamban Center for Japanese WW2 Studies and Bamban Historical Society. The latter is affiliated with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines NHCP Local Historical Committees Network (LHCN) and the Bamban Museum is in partnership with Philippine Veterans Affairs Office PVAO DND. Bamban Historical Society also conducts collaboration works with Gerald Randy Anderson, Sr.'s Pacific War Stories as well as with other personalities in history.