Manila, 1945 (also Shanghai mid-'30s)

[Simplicius]

I mostly came back to share these with you folks; they've got a bit more international interest than most of the photos I take/collect.

My father picked up an old book of navigation tables and found this packet of photographs inside. They seem to have been taken soon after the battle for Manila, so March or early April 1945. The photographer was crew aboard a freighter, as a note was enclosed with the photos: "We run between Manila and New Guinea. Nothing at all to worry about."

Images link to big versions; captions are all original. (Edited to change file host, and for new versions of photos.)


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Letran University


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Jap [sic, for all instances] freighter sabotaged at Pier 7--burnt out Manila hotel beyond ship


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
American dead on field before walled city. City Hall--MacArthur's Hdqts.--in background


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Pier Seven (copy)


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Ruins silhouetting Santa Cruz church


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Ruined business district


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Pasig River over which American had to cross


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
San Juan de Dios hospital building devastated inside walled city


Manila Bay, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Tanker--note how forward deck has been blown out


Manila Bay, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
What happened to the rising sun


Manila Bay, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
A few more of the Jap ships sunk


Manila Bay, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
One of the 286 ships sunk in Manila harbor. She looks good here but aboard an old steam freighter. The Jap ships must have been in terrible condition.


Manila Bay, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Sunken Jap freighters


Manila Bay, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Where artillery fired point blank at Intramuros wall to make a storming point. It took 6 days to breach it.


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Manila's shell-battered government building


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Japs lined up Manila's street cars to make barrier


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
Manila's ruined legislative building


Manila, 1945 by bdstickney, on Flickr
The once beautiful post office. The Japs hidden in basement had to be blasted out with grenades. Note shell scarred tree, also trenches to left.

[Shroom Man 777]

man

[timmy]

Good collection there. Really like that last frame.

[Phantasee]

The last two are really moving. I was just at our legislature last two days, for speaker elections and opening ceremonies, and they are beautiful buildings (legislatures generally), so to see one so thoroughly gutted and destroyed...

[Oxymoron]

Does it bother anyone if I bump this to New Testing, so that it get preserved ?

[Zod]

nobody cares if you do anything to threads

[Phantasee]

Nothing is getting pruned in OT anyway.

[Oxymoron]

Nothing is getting pruned in OT anyway.

False. It does. It's just more "a week or so" rather than "24 hours".

Anyway, I'll be abusing my mod powers now.

[diverpawl@gmail.com]

These are good pics. I'd like to use 3 or 4 of them for a book Im writing on Salvage in the war. Does anyone, including the poster, know if they can be used?
many thanks,
paolo

[Oxymoron]

You'll have to send a private message to Simplicius and hope he get a notification mail, because it seems that he hasn't come here in quite a while.

[diverpawl@gmail.com]

hi,
thanks. ive tried but always say "This message may not have been sent by: " and i cant PM yet. any ideas?
cheers,
paul

[Oxymoron]

I sent him a PM encouraging him to contact you.

[RogueIce]

Do we really have newbie restrictions up in here? C'mon guys.

[Phantasee]

Bounty or phongn might have his email.

[diverpawl@gmail.com]

Thanks fellas, the messages got thru, tho they went to my inactive flickr accnt. oh well!

[Simplicius]

Oxymoron's message brought me here, albeit a little late. I'll try e-mailing diverpawl directly since it would seem to be easiest, but if that doesn't work I'll keep an eye out for him on this board.

Thanks for dropping me a line, by the way.

[Oxymoron]

No problem.

[Phantasee]

Where you been bro

[Simplicius]

Working a lot. I have a great (volunteer) gig in a local museum in their photo archive, I've been scanning and cataloging my grandfather's substantial collection of photos, and I try to squeeze in a little shooting when I can (am only just getting some film after month without, though, and I need to re-stock chemicals too). Trying to devise an actual career out of all this, but grad school seems hell of expensive on my small income and the museum needs some big grants to do the hiring they'd like, so...

Got married last fall, too. That was really nice.

How've you been?

[Simplicius]

Also, since I had this one edited (again, new file host):


Shanghai, China, 1932-1937 by bdstickney, on Flickr

Shanghai, China, between the January 28 Incident in 1932 and the 1937 Battle of Shanghai. Japanese Special Naval Landing Force soldiers drive through the intersection of Jiangxi Road and Fuzhou Road. I don't know whether the two guys in the background between the vehicles are Japanese or Chinese, but they have cloth caps and armbands while the SNLF motorcyclist has no bands--maybe they're Chinese police? Whatever the occasion, there is plenty of civilian sidewalk and automobile traffic.

Hamilton House is one of a pair of Art Deco buildings near the Bund, the other being the Metropole Hotel. As near as I can tell, the armored car is a Sumida Type 2593.

The calm before the storm, pretty much.

[phongn]

Glad to hear you're doing well.

[Oxymoron]

I must express the fact I like you sharing these old pictures and their context with us. They give life to what would otherwise only be sterile words in insipid books.

[Bounty]

Also, since I had this one edited:



Shanghai, China, between the January 28 Incident in 1932 and the 1937 Battle of Shanghai. Japanese Special Naval Landing Force soldiers drive through the intersection of Jiangxi Road and Fuzhou Road. I don't know whether the two guys in the background between the vehicles are Japanese or Chinese, but they have cloth caps and armbands while the SNLF motorcyclist has no bands--maybe they're Chinese police? Whatever the occasion, there is plenty of civilian sidewalk and automobile traffic.

Hamilton House is one of a pair of Art Deco buildings near the Bund, the other being the Metropole Hotel. As near as I can tell, the armored car is a Sumida Type 2593.

The calm before the storm, pretty much.

I was there at Chinese New Year's. Weird.

[Simplicius]

I must express the fact I like you sharing these old pictures and their context with us. They give life to what would otherwise only be sterile words in insipid books.

Sadly almost all of my old photos couldn't even be fairly called of national interest, let alone international, or else I'd happily keep on a-postin'.

@Bounty: From what I was reading when I was researching that photo, Shanghai is a very good place for surviving Art Deco architecture. Have you encountered much of it?