A museum in Puerto Princesa, the largest city on the Philippines’ westernmost island province, boasts an impressive collection of weapons, photographs, uniforms, vehicles and other relics of World War II.

The Palawan Special Battalion World War II Memorial Museum includes a half-dozen displays in a large shed near Puerto Princesa International Airport and Antonio Bautista Air Base.

The base, built by American prisoners of war between 1942 and 1944, is one of nine sites approved for shared use with U.S. forces under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

The museum, which opened in 2011, was created by Higinio “Buddy” Clark Mendoza, son of a former Palawan war veteran.

A helmet and flagpole near the entrance honors the “Palawan Fighting 1,000” — guerillas and members of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East.

The largest items in the collection are part of a fleet of Jeeps, including a pair of “MacArthur” vehicles — survivors of World War II, according to museum signage.

One room is full of Japanese artifacts such as Rising Sun flags, a mannequin dressed in a 1940s-era uniform and various weapons, including samurai swords.

The America room includes more weapons, medals and photographs of veterans.

Another part of the facility is devoted to other nations involved in World War II, including Australia, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and Nationalist China.

There’s a display of an ancient Filipino warrior armed with knives as well as a collection of very old pistols.

The museum includes modern military uniforms of the sort worn by American and Filipino troops at annual Balikatan - shoulder to shoulder – exercises.

The most important part of the collection, according to volunteers working there, is an area that honors the Palawan Special Battalion.

The display includes more weapons and the names of those who served in the battalion, formed from guerrilla groups on the island after Japanese forces landed there in 1942.

The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, tasked the guerrillas with collecting intelligence and reorganized them as a rifle battalion in 1943.

The guerrillas helped shelter survivors of a Dec. 14, 1944, massacre of 140 American prisoners of war by their Japanese guards at Plaza Cuartel, not far from the museum.

The Americans, wrote British journalist Brian MacArthur in “Surviving the Sword — Prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East 1942-45,” were “herded into air-raid shelters, doused with petrol, and set alight. When they tried to escape they were gunned down or killed with clubs and bayonets.”

A few survivors swam three miles across Puerto Princesa Bay to Iwahig, site of a “prison without walls” erected in 1904 by the American colonizers and still a prison compound today.

One of them, Army Pfc. Eugene Nielsen, was shot twice but reached the far shore and stumbled through a swamp, according to a July 22, 2022, article posted by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Nielsen came across a Filipino wielding a bolo knife, who gave him water.

“You have friends here,” the man said and led him to a jungle hideout used by the Palawan Special Battalion and sheltering other escaped prisoners, according to the article.

On the QT

Directions: The Palawan Special Battalion World War II Memorial Museum is at 506 Rizal Ave., Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines, near the southeast corner of Puerto Princesa International Airport. It’s 10-minute drive from the terminal.

Times: Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., every day except Sunday.

Costs: Fifty pesos (less than $1) for adults; 30 pesos for seniors, and free for children.

Food: The museum is a 10-minute bicycle taxi ride from the SM City Mall, which has numerous restaurants.

Information: Phone: 63-917-326-4342