Bataan Memorial Military Museum & Library

Lonely Planet review

A labor of both love and war, the Bataan Memorial Military Museum & Library exhibits an unusual collection of military mementoes. It began in 1947 as a display in the state capitol honoring the 'Battling Bastards of Bataan.' Today the museum occupies the former home base of the NM 200th Coast Artillery, captured when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1942, and the very last unit to surrender.

Some 70,000 POWs, most Filipino, were forced to walk the brutal, 75-mile Bataan Death March. Of 1800 mostly Hispanic New Mexicans stationed in Bataan, only 900 returned. In addition to exhibits that tell their story, interesting examples of psychological-warfare leaflets from WWII to the first Gulf War plaster the walls, along with an amazing collection of military patches. Uniforms, weaponry and other gear date as far back as the Spanish conquest. It's the old photos and letters, however, that really hammer the point home and tug at your heart.