The “Madonna of Japan” is a Philippine–Japanese peace monument in Tacloban, formally known as Maria Kannon or Madonna Maria Kannon. It stands in the Philippine–Japan Commemorative Peace Park near Kanhuraw Hill and Tacloban City Hall, overlooking the Magsaysay Boulevard area.
The popular label “Goddess of Peace” is descriptive rather than doctrinally precise: Kannon is technically a bodhisattva, not a goddess in the Western theological sense. Nor is the statue an officially venerated Catholic image of the Virgin Mary. It is best understood as a hybrid peace memorial using both Christian and Japanese Buddhist symbolism.
I just felt sad that the monument’s surroundings appear unkempt at the time I took the photo above.
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