Are you an American Tully? Cause what you write is what Americans want us to believe
Yes I'm an American, no I'm not a propagandist.
For someone who doesn't even know how to spell Filipino correctly, you sure know a lot.
Sorry about that.
My opinion is that Manila & the rest of the Philippines was devastated due to the unnecessary return of MacArthur. How come you couldn't answer directly if his return was necessary?
I thought I was clear. Pacific Command, i.e., Admiral Nimitz, planned for a direct thrust at the Japanese homeland after establishing bases in the Mariana and the Ryuku islands. MacArthur used political clout to go over his head and have FDR order the liberation of the Phillipines. If you want me to apologize for MacArthur pointless liberation of your country I will. I apologize. OTOH someone could point out that during the war the Japanese are believed to have deliberately murdered about 10 million civilians, not only Chinese, but also Indochinese, Malaysians, Indonesians, and, yes, Filipinos. These murders didn't stop with Hirohito's order for the cessation of hostilities, in many areas of Asia Japanese troops went beserk when they heard of the surrender and went on a final orgy of killing. That could have happened in the Phillipines as well.
Cause it's not! Japan knew that Germany is gone, and so is Italy. Do you think Japan would consider carrying on with the war rather than to surrender? Especially they already knew about the a-bomb. Do you think the Japanese intelligence is dumb enough not to know about it? And do you also think MacArthur, the highest ranking military officer in Asia didn't know about the a-bomb? You've got to be kidding!
First, Admiral Nimitz, not General MacArthur, was Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Theater. Second every major power, including Japan had its own atomic weapons program during the war, so each suspected that the others were working on the same weapons. Japan's pre-war intelligence program in the US consisted of a relatively small number of Japanese-Americans, but as you may be aware of the United States imprisoned its Japanese community, so Japan lost its spy network in the US. Finally, the liberation of the Phillipines began in October 1944, the battle of Manila began in February 1945. The Manhattan Project was a secret organisation directly under the command of Seretary Stimson. The air unit responsible for dropping the bomb was organised in the US, the targets were selected in Washington in May 1945 completely independent of Pacific C-in-C headquarters. The first weapon wasn't test fired until July 1945 and the final decision to use it wasn''t made until the Japanese failed to respond to the Potsdam Ultimatum in July 1945. As a point of fact the delivery of the bombers and the bombs to Tinian airbase were kept secret from the regular hierachy of the Army and Navy in order to minimze the possiblity of enemy interception. The ship delviering the bomb payloads was a cruiser which had been recently repaired at a US shipyard. It was loaded and sent on its way without informing the regional naval command. After the delivery it was struck by a torpedo. Because the Navy didn't know the whereabouts of the ship no rescue mission was launched until 3 days later a passing plane spotted life rafts. That's how tightly the secrecy of the atomic bomb was kept. It may be possible that MacArthur had heard rumors of the development of "superweapon" but he wouldn't have known any details.
The americans killed more Filipinos than Japanese in their 'heroic return.' The Japanese didn't just open fire because their boat that was sank as you said. They did that upon hearing about the return of the americans. Kamikaze, take as many down with them. You just can't say they were killing the population anyway. It's because of the return of the Yanks.
The 100,000 killed in Manila are just a fraction of the 1,000,000 killed during the war. The Japanese Army followed "The Three Alls" policy in occupied territories - "kill all, burn all, loot all", a policy coined by Emporer Hirohito himself. Medical testimony after the Battle of Manila found large numbers of people, of all ages, beheaded, bayoneted, shot in the back of the head, garroted and burned with gasoline. I'm not denying that civilinas weren't killed by allied bombs, artillery or gunfire and unfortunately I don't have access to the breakdown of the number killed by each various cause.
MacArthur wasn't napping when the Japanese first invaded you say? Then how come we have Air Bases named only after Filipino pilots who were able to take off & defend our country when the invasion came? That's because not a single American plane was able to. In fact, all american planes were wiped out before take off! Sure, your hero was well prepared. You said that the american planes were able to take off but were only refueling? You mean ALL of them were refueling at the same time? Maybe that's why they were wiped out! Do you realize how ridiculous your claim is?
"The 20th Pursuit Squadron's Curtiss P-40B interceptors patrolled the area while the bombers landed at Clark Field between 10:30 and 10:45, then landed and dispersed to their revetments for servicing. The 17th Pursuit Squadron, based at Nichols Field, also landed at Clark and had its aircraft refueled while its pilots ate lunch, then put its pilots on alert shortly after 11:00.[29] All but two of the Clark Field B-17s were on the ground.
At 11:27 a.m. and 11:29 a.m., the radar post at Iba Field detected two incoming raids while the closest was still 130 miles out. It alerted FEAF headquarters and the command post at Clark Field, a warning that reached only the pursuit group commander, Major Orrin L. Grover, who apparently became confused by multiple and conflicting reports. The 3rd Pursuit Squadron took off from Iba at 11:45 with instructions to intercept the western force, which was thought to have Manila as its target, but dust problems during its takeoff resulted in the fragmentation of its flights. Two flights of the 21st PS at Nichols Field, six P-40Es, took off at 11:45, led by 1st Lt. William Dyess. They started for Clark but were diverted to Manila Bay as a second line of defense if the 3rd PS failed to intercept its force. The 21st's third flight, taking off five minutes later, headed toward Clark, although engine problems with its brand-new P-40Es reduced its numbers by two. The 17th Pursuit Squadron took off at 12:15 p.m. from Clark, ordered to patrol Bataan and Manila Bay, while the 34th PS at Del Carmen never received its orders to protect Clark Field and did not launch. The 20th PS, dispersed at Clark, was ready to take off but did not receive orders from group headquarters. Instead a line chief saw the incoming formation of Japanese bombers and the section commander, 1st Lt. Joseph H. Moore, ordered the scramble himself.
Even though tracked by radar and with three U.S. pursuit squadrons in the air, when Japanese bombers of the 11th Kōkūkantai attacked Clark Field at 12:40 p.m., they achieved tactical surprise. Two squadrons of B-17s were dispersed on the ground. Most of the P-40s of the 20th PS were preparing to taxi and were struck by the first wave of 27 Japanese twin-engine "Nell" bombers; only four of the 20th PS P-40Bs managed to take off as the bombs were falling.
A second bomber attack (26 "Betty" bombers) followed closely, then escorting Zero fighters strafed the field for 30 minutes, destroying 12 of the 17 American heavy bombers present and seriously damaging three others.
A near-simultaneous attack on the auxiliary field at Iba to the northwest by 54 "Betty" bombers was also successful: all but four of the 3rd Pursuit Squadron's P-40s, short on fuel and caught in their landing pattern, were destroyed in combat or from lack of fuel. Twelve P-40s from the 20th (four), 21st (two), and 3rd (six) Squadrons attacked the strafers but with little success, losing at least four of their own.
The Far East Air Force lost fully half its planes in the 45-minute attack, and was all but destroyed over the next few days, including a number of the surviving B-17s lost to takeoff crashes of other planes. The 24th Pursuit Group flew its last interception on December 10, losing 11 of the 40 or so P-40s it sent up, and the surviving P-35s of the 34th PS were destroyed on the ground at Del Carmen. That night FEAF combat strength had been reduced to 12 operable B-17s, 22 P-40s, and 8 P-35s. Clark Field was abandoned as a bomber field on December 11 after being used as a staging base for a handful of B-17 missions. Between December 17 and 20, the 14 surviving B-17s were withdrawn to Australia. Every other aircraft of the FEAF was destroyed or captured."
I'm not gonna answer every point, that'll take forever, you have so many inaccuracies to begin with. Dewey did not defeat the Spaniards. It was a mock battle! The outcome was already done under the table in Paris for $20M! Called the Treaty of Paris. The Yanks paid the Spaniards for something they no longer posses.
War was declared April 21 - 23, the Battle for Manila occurred on May 1, a truce was signed in Washington in August, treaty negotiations began in October and the treaty was signed in December, so the battle had been over for 5 months even before the Spanish and American represntatives met to hash out details like payment. Mind you I'm no fan of the American occupation of the Phillipines and if you want an apology you can have it. I apologize for the American occupation of the Phillipines and especially for the brutal suppression of the Phillipine rebellion and the Moro rebellion. Of course, if Dewey had simply taken the Spanish garrison prisoner and sailed off, the Germans had a landing force already prepared. Regardless of how a German occupation would have turned out during WW I control of the Phillipines would have passed to the Japanese, who took over all of Germany's Pacfic possessions.
I'm sure you still have so many things to say, but i'm done with history in school. Like i said, i rarely go to the off topics, was just answering a fellow poster who called the attention of Filipinos. You can think whatever you want. Doesn't matter anymore. The Americans may have fooled our ancestors, including my grandparents, but that won't work anymore with this whole new generation.
As the saying goes, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all the time." If you're disappointed that you lived long enough to see that the story the americans wanted us to believe didn't last, well Deal with it!
Maybe naive of me to think I would just get a few nice links and titles of books/movies to read up on Philippine history myself. Quite frankly I had no idea what to expect when starting this topic which was the main reason to do so in the first place. So now I know a bit more 