Travel, even Epicurean travel, will inevitably lead you to some somber places. I have been to Normandy in search of Calvados and cheese only to find myself visiting World War II battlefields and cemeteries. I explored Manila and came upon another sobering military cemetery. Rather than glorifying war, these sad memorials only serve to remind one of the terrible waste, tragedy, and horror of mankind’s biggest folly. How self-destructive is our species?!
War’s marble forest: The American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila is a grim reminder of the real cost of war. The more than 17,000 buried here, and more than 36,000 listed as missing in action, fought and died in the Pacific between 1942 and 1945.