Retrato: Filipinas Photo Collection

[Jase Calvin]

Those 1930s pics are excellent!

[Jase Calvin]

Those 1930s pics are excellent!

[Askal82]

Wow, looking an old photo in color gives it a whole new perspective of the Old Manila

[Askal82]

Wow, looking an old photo in color gives it a whole new perspective of the Old Manila

[Hawayano]

Originally Posted by Askal82

Wow, looking an old photo in color gives it a whole new perspective of the Old Manila

You're right--I have seen some US military photos of Manila in ruins in 1945, but rarely ever have I seen the city in depicted color before its destruction. It's sad that so much was lost, and to recreate it so daunting. Like, I'm always wondering what the two-tone colors were on the old Post Office building or the Legislative Building back then.

[Hawayano]

Originally Posted by Askal82

Wow, looking an old photo in color gives it a whole new perspective of the Old Manila

You're right--I have seen some US military photos of Manila in ruins in 1945, but rarely ever have I seen the city in depicted color before its destruction. It's sad that so much was lost, and to recreate it so daunting. Like, I'm always wondering what the two-tone colors were on the old Post Office building or the Legislative Building back then.

[Hawayano]

Originally Posted by Wonderboy

Yikes! Feeling talaga!

Hey--look where MacArthur's posing: on the balcony of City Hall with the smashed-up hulk of ruins that was our Legislative Building (now rebuilt as the National Museum) behind him in the distance. Can anyone find the same view today for the "then and now" thread?

[Hawayano]

Originally Posted by Wonderboy

Yikes! Feeling talaga!

Hey--look where MacArthur's posing: on the balcony of City Hall with the smashed-up hulk of ruins that was our Legislative Building (now rebuilt as the National Museum) behind him in the distance. Can anyone find the same view today for the "then and now" thread?

[manileño]

"Liberation" of Manila recalled
Carmen Guerrero Nakpil


THE FINAL STAGE in the "liberation" of the city of Manila by the Americans from the Japanese Imperial Army took place on February 27, 1945 in a simple, heartwrenching ceremony held under the famous and miraculously undamaged Belgian chandeliers in the great hall of Malacañang Palace.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East, in will-pressed khakis and nobly purple prose, formally turned over the government of the Philippine Commonwealth to Sergio Osmeña with these words: "Mr. President, more than three years have elapsed--years of bitterness, struggle and sacrifice--since I withdrew our forces and installations from this beautiful city that, open and undefended, its churches, monuments and cultural centers might, in accordance with the rules of warfare, be spared the violence of military ravage. The enemy would not have it so, and much that I sought to preserve has been unnecessarily destroyed by his desperate action at bay--but by these ashes he has wantonly fixed the future pattern of his doom...."

The idolized, quasi-mythical hero of the tormented Filipinos, MacArthur had driven to Malacañang through the streets of Manila (he was to write in his memoirs) "with their burned out piles of rubble, the air still filled with the stench of decaying unburied dead... the tall stately trees that had been the mark of a gracious city... nothing but ugly scrubs pointing broken fingers at the sky...once famous buildings were now shells."

He continued addressing the small assemblage of American officers and Filipino leaders summoned hastily from their hovels or air-raid shelters, dressed in pitiful, prewar suits, frayed shirts and khaki uniforms, while Japanese and American shells zoomed overhead: "Your country thus is again at liberty to pursue its destiny to an honored position in the family of nations. Your capital city, cruelly punished though it be, has regained its rightful place--citadel of democracy in the East."

Outside, the battle of liberation still raged and the systematic destruction of the city by American shells and Japanese massacre continued. Tondo and Santa Cruz had been leveled by Japanese guns, and Paco, Malate, Ermita, Intramuros were "a gigantic pyre" (wrote one eyewitness afterwards), a fragment of hell carpet-bombed and shelled by American guns, inhabited only by half-crazed, wild-eyed survivors of Japanese torture and massacre.

President Osmeña, surrounded by his Cabinet (Confesor, Jaranilla, Cabili, Basilio Valdes, Maximo Kalaw, Cabahug, Executive Secretary Jose R. Reyes and the future Resident Commissioner in Washington, Carlos P. Romulo) replied in a weak voice, for he was both physically ill and sick at heart: "My fellow countrymen, this is an historic city."

He spoke of the Malay city built 800 years ago that now lay around him in ruins, of the murder of thousands of innocent people by Japanese "vandals," of the wartime pledge of President Roosevelt, and announced that the executive and judicial branches would be re-established "with utmost vigor and dispatch." He called all members of Congress to be ready to meet in Manila "as soon as conditions permitted."

But he also announced unequivocally that "our independence is a settled question," and hoped that it would be accomplished on August 13, 1945 (referring to the American Occupation of 1898), "so that Occupation Day would also be Independence Day."

They were brave words in the face of the almost total devastation of Manila and the Philippine archipelago. Admiral Nimitz's original plan of cutting across the Pacific to Japan and bypassing the Philippines and other islands had been discarded at a meeting in Honolulu during which MacArthur had succeeded in persuading President Franklin Roosevelt to adopt his plan of island-hopping and returning to Manila in triumph.

The vainglorious MacArthur had returned all rights as he had promised but at a heart-breaking cost to Filipinos who, decades later, would remain the last true believers in the MacArthur legend.

[manileño]

"Liberation" of Manila recalled
Carmen Guerrero Nakpil


THE FINAL STAGE in the "liberation" of the city of Manila by the Americans from the Japanese Imperial Army took place on February 27, 1945 in a simple, heartwrenching ceremony held under the famous and miraculously undamaged Belgian chandeliers in the great hall of Malacañang Palace.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East, in will-pressed khakis and nobly purple prose, formally turned over the government of the Philippine Commonwealth to Sergio Osmeña with these words: "Mr. President, more than three years have elapsed--years of bitterness, struggle and sacrifice--since I withdrew our forces and installations from this beautiful city that, open and undefended, its churches, monuments and cultural centers might, in accordance with the rules of warfare, be spared the violence of military ravage. The enemy would not have it so, and much that I sought to preserve has been unnecessarily destroyed by his desperate action at bay--but by these ashes he has wantonly fixed the future pattern of his doom...."

The idolized, quasi-mythical hero of the tormented Filipinos, MacArthur had driven to Malacañang through the streets of Manila (he was to write in his memoirs) "with their burned out piles of rubble, the air still filled with the stench of decaying unburied dead... the tall stately trees that had been the mark of a gracious city... nothing but ugly scrubs pointing broken fingers at the sky...once famous buildings were now shells."

He continued addressing the small assemblage of American officers and Filipino leaders summoned hastily from their hovels or air-raid shelters, dressed in pitiful, prewar suits, frayed shirts and khaki uniforms, while Japanese and American shells zoomed overhead: "Your country thus is again at liberty to pursue its destiny to an honored position in the family of nations. Your capital city, cruelly punished though it be, has regained its rightful place--citadel of democracy in the East."

Outside, the battle of liberation still raged and the systematic destruction of the city by American shells and Japanese massacre continued. Tondo and Santa Cruz had been leveled by Japanese guns, and Paco, Malate, Ermita, Intramuros were "a gigantic pyre" (wrote one eyewitness afterwards), a fragment of hell carpet-bombed and shelled by American guns, inhabited only by half-crazed, wild-eyed survivors of Japanese torture and massacre.

President Osmeña, surrounded by his Cabinet (Confesor, Jaranilla, Cabili, Basilio Valdes, Maximo Kalaw, Cabahug, Executive Secretary Jose R. Reyes and the future Resident Commissioner in Washington, Carlos P. Romulo) replied in a weak voice, for he was both physically ill and sick at heart: "My fellow countrymen, this is an historic city."

He spoke of the Malay city built 800 years ago that now lay around him in ruins, of the murder of thousands of innocent people by Japanese "vandals," of the wartime pledge of President Roosevelt, and announced that the executive and judicial branches would be re-established "with utmost vigor and dispatch." He called all members of Congress to be ready to meet in Manila "as soon as conditions permitted."

But he also announced unequivocally that "our independence is a settled question," and hoped that it would be accomplished on August 13, 1945 (referring to the American Occupation of 1898), "so that Occupation Day would also be Independence Day."

They were brave words in the face of the almost total devastation of Manila and the Philippine archipelago. Admiral Nimitz's original plan of cutting across the Pacific to Japan and bypassing the Philippines and other islands had been discarded at a meeting in Honolulu during which MacArthur had succeeded in persuading President Franklin Roosevelt to adopt his plan of island-hopping and returning to Manila in triumph.

The vainglorious MacArthur had returned all rights as he had promised but at a heart-breaking cost to Filipinos who, decades later, would remain the last true believers in the MacArthur legend.

[tigidig14]

Originally Posted by Hawayano

Hey--look where MacArthur's posing: on the balcony of City Hall with the smashed-up hulk of ruins that was our Legislative Building (now rebuilt as the National Museum) behind him in the distance. Can anyone find the same view today for the "then and now" thread?

may i give a hint: its not one of those old ass popeye cartoons

[tigidig14]

Originally Posted by Hawayano

Hey--look where MacArthur's posing: on the balcony of City Hall with the smashed-up hulk of ruins that was our Legislative Building (now rebuilt as the National Museum) behind him in the distance. Can anyone find the same view today for the "then and now" thread?

may i give a hint: its not one of those old ass popeye cartoons

[Hawayano]

Originally Posted by tigidig14

may i give a hint: its not one of those old ass popeye cartoons

Uh huh--all he needs is a can of spinach in his other hand!

[Hawayano]

Originally Posted by tigidig14

may i give a hint: its not one of those old ass popeye cartoons

Uh huh--all he needs is a can of spinach in his other hand!

[jbkayaker12]

[QUOTE=Animo]

I have read a long time ago that WWII destroyed 10 square miles of Manila. The photo above shows the damage in the area around Intramuros.

[jbkayaker12]

[QUOTE=Animo]

I have read a long time ago that WWII destroyed 10 square miles of Manila. The photo above shows the damage in the area around Intramuros.

[ThisFire]

^ That picture makes me so sad

[ThisFire]

^ That picture makes me so sad

[ashley12]

[QUOTE=jbkayaker12]

Originally Posted by Animo

I have read a long time ago that WWII destroyed 10 square miles of Manila. The photo above shows the damage in the area around Intramuros.

So did they already demolished all the remaining structures there??

[ashley12]

[QUOTE=jbkayaker12]

Originally Posted by Animo

I have read a long time ago that WWII destroyed 10 square miles of Manila. The photo above shows the damage in the area around Intramuros.

So did they already demolished all the remaining structures there??