News is that the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) has approved a Feasibility Study to proceed for the proposed Mindanao Railway Project. The map above gives an indication of the scope of the proposed railway system.It's been a long time coming. An overview of railways in the past can be found in The Colonial Iron..
Read morePhilippine wartime views on the future of Indonesia, China and Japan
This 1942 New World Order map attributed to Maurice Gomberg is interesting in that it gives a snapshot of emerging thought about the United States and its sphere of influence after World War II. The map above also seems to include an expansion of the Philippines. See this detail: Which may have had..
Read moreDiary entries on the Leyte Landing: October, 1944
[caption id="attachment_5176" align="alignleft" width="300"] Philippine President Sergio Osmeña (center) and General Douglas MacArthur (right) on board a landing craft en route to the Leyte landing beaches, October 20, 1944.At left are Lieutenant General George C. Kenney and Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland. At the extreme right, with his head turned toward MacArthur, is Brigadier General..
Read moreLife, death, decisions, during the Japanese Occupation
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="403"] Filipino officials and Japanese General Homma Masaharu at the former residence of the U.S. High Commissioner, January, 1942[/caption] In October, 2013, the country will mark the 70th anniversary of the so-called Second Republic established under Japanese auspices. In anticipation of that event, the project aims to complete the publication of the..
Read moreThe debate on taking the Philippines out of the war: January 28 to February 12, 1942
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="369"] Mrs. Aurora A. Quezon, Mrs. Jean Faircloth MacArthur, President Manuel L. Quezon, Arthur MacArthur, Maria Aurora Quezon, Corregidor, 1942.[/caption] (entry updated January 25, 2016) The beginning of World War 2, despite the immediate setback represented by Pearl Harbor, was greeted with optimism and a sense of common cause between Americans and..
Read moreAugust 4 and 5, 1944
Long talk with Dr. Trepp the day after the funeral. What an extraordinary career was Quezon's!--born a village boy in Baler in 1878, of mixed Spanish and Ilongot blood, he spent his childhood in one of the most remote and inaccessible little villages of the southwest Pacific. He died as the President in exile of..
Read moreDecember 1943–May 31, 1944
Towards the middle of December 1943, Quezon moved with his family to Miami, Florida. He craved the sunshine and warmth of a climate more nearly resembling that of his own country, over which during his life in exile he constantly brooded. Reports of the state of his health were not encouraging, and the fight over..
Read moreSeptember 30, 1943
did not see Quezon this day; he had a Cabinet meeting for half an hour at 11:30 a.m. and then "slept" the rest of the day. Talked with Dr. Rotor and Bernstein. The latter says Quezon is emotionally very much upset with the editorials in Washington Post and Washington Star; and very angry with Lippman. Rotor says..
Read moreSeptember 29, 1943
Shoreham Hotel. Quezon back from Saranac in his apartment in the Shoreham; still on his back and confined to his bedroom; full of fight over the joint resolution introduced in the Senate by Mr. Tydings for immediate independence of the Philippines. No fever and yet not much strength--but the spirit burning fiercely. Tries not to..
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