Posted 13 years ago
marcobabe13
(86 items)
In January of 1945, American forces were taking back the Philippine islands. My husband’s father, a Civil Affairs officer, sent this magazine with a letter to his wife dated Jan. 3, 1945. He explains how he acquired the magazine. They were setting up headquarters in an abandoned house which was vacated so fast, he writes, “the Jap officers left hot meals on the table.” The magazine, dated March, 1943, advertises a musical, THE FALL OF SINGAPORE. You can read above how “the intrepid Japanese Army charged in with lightening speed through enemy positions” to capture Malaya and Singapore. An article titled FORGET THE US tells about how “we are literally being weaned away from the US.” The entire magazine shows the filipinos working, exercising, and happy........a far cry from reality at the time. By the way, the Civil Affairs headquarters was short-lived in this modern house. My father-in-law writes in a later letter that they were chased out by “higher-ups” in the chain of command.
Fascinating letter and nice you still have the souvenir magazine described in the letter.
Do you have all of his letter collection? I can see this one was no. 59-- he was a pretty prolific writer.
Scott
Thanks, Scott. Yes, we have over 300 of his letters, and also all of the letters his wife wrote to him. I thought his letters would be more historical and interesting so I volunteered to organize them. I've spent hours and hours reading and ordering them. Mostly it's personal stuff, but I have a few others of interest to post. When he was drafted in '41, he was a newspaper editor so I guess that's why he was a prolific writer. By the way, the book restorer I contacted agreed with you....that is, to buy an antique album for my photos. I'm going to have him restore my antique German Bible instead, however. Thanks!
Marcobabe