I have lived in Manila and now in Cavite. Any information you share historically is greatly appreciated.
7 months ago
| 4
Could you please tell us the sites where the massacres took place and what are those places now 🤔
7 months ago
| 8
The lives of the Remedios Circle Massacre victims... including Maria Orosa.
7 months ago
| 6
Is that true that the Spanish speaking people were killed there?
7 months ago | 0
I would love to know more about the 19th and 20th century including the US colonial period and the Japanese occupation. I also want more on its centuries prior to Spanish rule. There really is so little in the English language here in the US about the Philippines including its cultural diversity.
6 months ago | 0
My Family has a compound/Lot in Pandacan, Manila right behind Malacañang Palace where generations of my family called home. As I kid I remember seeing a picture of it. The picture was right after the war ended. It was completely bombed out and destroyed. I believe my grandmother and the family evacuated to Cavity where her family is from. While my grandfather fought in Manila
7 months ago
| 0
My grandparents lived near UST. They didn't want want to talk how they survived but my father who was a toddler then said the Americans brought chocolates when they came
7 months ago
| 0
Honestly, I just wanna know how much was lost... in terms of culture. So much of the city's colonial architecture was either lost in the bombardment or in the fires and I wanna know more about those buildings
7 months ago
| 1
I just feel sad bc Manila lost its cultural and architectural heritage. Intramuros’ royal monastery and century-old university building and grand churches was bombed. 100,000 civilians was died and masscred. We almost lost everything.
7 months ago
| 0
Yesrs before the tv network came out with their own ww2 series, I was already writing my own. In fact the similarities to mine are creapy. It took me 6 years just to finish a treatment because of the constant need for research-based materials. My problem with my research when writing has always been funds so I fill the blanks with legit materials available online as well as anecdoctal info which always helps a lot with humanizing very general and detached textbook knowledge. What's unclear to me though to this day are the real facts on who actually pulverized Manila at that tail end of the war. We know and it's in public domain that several bridges were first bombed by the allied forces at the start of the war but the imperial forces destroyed the rest towards the end to slow down the allied forces advancing towards Intramuros. Using fite-throwing munitions, they burned down Escolta and its residential communities and Osmeña lost his wife and child. They burned down hospitals, La Salle, The Red Cross and the Yatch club, etc. A lot of details are actually available. But who dropped the bombs? It was uncalled for because troops were already winning on ground. It isn't clear as to who was really responsible for that much destruction which also claimed the lives of allied forces and civilians. Various info are contradicting each other and are really very limited. I tried watching an old (VHS era) educational material just to see the end credits for their references but I couldn't read them because they're blurry.
6 months ago (edited) | 0
After World War II, the city, and the Philippines, would never be the same again. However, most people are not aware of this tragedy. The reality is this utter devastation of what was once the "Paris of Asia," is suffering from "public amnesia." Not just native Filipinos, but many forget or neglect that The Battle of Manila was devastating for the immigrant communities as well, particularly the Spanish and Germans, among many others. There are too many atrocities to list, and they were so brutal that the Americans who came to fill out atrocity reports couldn’t even find words to describe how savage the Japanese forces were. Among the war crimes I recall are the German Club massacre, the Bayview hotel where they mostly took mestiza and Spanish-Filipinas to violate them, the De La Salle masaccre, etc. According to La Vanguardia, a newspaper based in Barcelona, Manila before ww2 was the ninth largest Spanish speaking city in the world with 324,552 speakers of about a population of around 600k. I am no way defending colonialism, but the truth is that we cannot change the past, and the Philippines as we know it would not exist if it were not for Spain and the United States. It is important to see both sides of a story, as there is much danger in limiting yourself to a single story. Both our native and Western cultures are beautiful, each in its own right Manila was a microcosm of the world. Long before New York, Manila had been a mosaic of cultures since the Manila Galleons in 1565. From Spaniards, natives, Americans, Chinese immigrants, etc., everyone was welcome in Manila. After more than 333 years of being a part of Spain, Spanish, natives and Filipinos coexisted peacefully. Although the Philippines is on the opposite side of the world from Spain and Latin America, Hispanic culture united everyone in the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. According to an article entitled "Tears over Manila" in La Verdad, "The Philippines had ceased to be a colony of Spain in 1898 ... But more than three centuries of common history are not erased overnight... A 1938 census revealed that 40% of the inhabitants of the oldest neighborhoods in Manila maintained Spanish as their first language despite the push of the powerful American culture" (Olaizola). This was evident "in the neighborhoods of the so-called Mesticería of the Philippine capital, many Spanish-speaking Spaniards and Filipinos lived or swarmed ... Spanish speakers see each other in the same churches, buy newspapers and watch films in Spanish, go to [zarzuelas] ... and they attend Basque pelota matches" (Abad). Today, many are unaware of the Philippines' rich Hispanic heritage. It is as if the war were the nail in the coffin of the Spanish legacy in the Philippines. And now, if one celebrates Hispanic-Filipino culture, one would be seen as a colonial sympathizer. The truth is that, behind the collective amnesia, misinformation and gaslighting, the cultural fabric and DNA of the Philippines continues to be deeply rooted in La Hispanidad. I don't care if someone calls me a "Hispanista," because I stay true to my heritage and my family. At best forgotten, but worse, denied, "The most affected areas of the city were where the Spanish speakers lived, who suffered many casualties, and many of the survivors left the ruined country for Spain and America" (Abad). After a month of crossfire between U.S./Philippine and Japanese forces, 100,000 lives were lost. Once the ninth largest Spanish-speaking city in the world became a city whose languages are now English and Filipino. The ornate fusion of Native, European, and American architecture has been swapped out for generic buildings that seem to belong anywhere else in the world. To this day, Japan has never formally apologized for its crimes in the Philippines. Lest we forget. May all those who fell victim rest in peace Works Cited https://english.elpais.com/arts/2020-08-28/anna-maria-the-spaniard-who-survived-16-bayonet-wounds-during-the-battle-of-manila.html?outputType=amp https://www.laverdad.es/murcia/sociedad/201505/13/lagrimas-sobre-manila-20150513015734-v.html?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.laverdad.es%2Fmurcia%2Fsociedad%2F201505%2F13%2Flagrimas-sobre-manila-20150513015734-v.html
7 months ago (edited)
| 0
Kirby Araullo (Historian)
What would you like to know about the Battle of Manila (1945)?
This month marks the 80th anniversary of one of the most brutal urban battles of World War II. From February 3 to March 3, 1945, the Battle of Manila turned the "Pearl of the Orient" into ruins. While it was seen as a liberation by U.S. forces, the cost was staggering. Over 100,000 Filipino civilians lost their lives, and the city was obliterated. The atrocities committed by Japanese forces, combined with the indiscriminate bombing by the Americans, left Manila forever changed, literally reducing the once majestic "Pearl of the Orient" to ashes.
What aspects of this tragic chapter in our history interest you the most? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll do my best to cover them in my upcoming video.
7 months ago | [YT] | 73