More photos from Fred Hill WWII collection

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Cliff Mills

Fred Hill near Dulag, Philippines

This week, I’m continuing to show from a collection of photographs from the Pierce Library, at Eastern Oregon University, called the Fred Hill World War II Photographs. Fred served during the War and took many photographs during his service. He also collected photos from others, so some of these may have been published before in books, articles, websites, etc.

Click on any of the photos to enlarge. Unfortunately, these are not high-definition photos. For print quality images, prints, or high resolution tiff files, or for commercial uses please contact the Library Director at Eastern Oregon University. If you reference any of these photos, please cite Pierce Library, Eastern Oregon University, as the source.

Please use the comment form if you have any comments, corrections, questions or if you recognize any of the unnamed people in the photos. Thanks to Patty Gene Croft Stevens for identifying Beulah Schechter and Patricia Chittick in last week’s listings.

I am still looking for people to view a short Japanese propaganda video shot at Santo Tomás early during the War. I am hoping to annotate a version of the video with comments and identify any of the recognizable internees.

	Aerial view of Old Bilibid Prison, 1945
	Young boy sits inside STIC shanty, 1945
	STIC shanties, 1945
	Aerial view of STIC, 1945
	Manila Hotel damage, 1945
	U.S. military model of Corregidor, 1945
	Baguio rental cottages, 1945
	Samar Street cleared of mines, Manila 1945
	Aerial view of Baguio, 1945
	Japanese "Sally" bomber being shot down, 1945

Spanish family’s Battle of Manila ordeal

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Cliff Mills

The tragedy that befell a non-interned Spanish family is detailed a recent El País article titled Anna Maria: The Spaniard who survived 16 bayonet wounds during the Battle of Manila.

The 28 August 2020 article, by José Manuel Abad Liñán, begins:

“Anna Maria’s first life began in Cebu City in the Philippines on August 23, 1938. That was the day she was brought into the world by her mother Aurora, the daughter of two Catalans from Cerdanyola del Vallès who had immigrated to the Philippines to work in copra, the dried kernel of the coconut which is used in soaps and oils. Her father, Plácido Antonio, had left Onda in the Spanish province of Castellón to work for the prosperous General Tobacco Company of the Philippines (CdF), the first Spanish multinational. In the end, the family moved to Cavite, south of the capital Manila, where speaking Spanish did not clash so much with chabacano, the creole language spoken by the local population.”

Anna Maria Aguilella arriving in Barcelona in 1946

At points, it is a very difficult story for me to read, because it echos what happened to my family during the Battle of Manila. In that instance, my mother and grandmother, together with their neighbors, were taken out of their homes in Manila by the Japanese to be shot. Luckily for them, and me, that didn’t happen. However, the outcome for Anna Maria’s family was far more tragic. I think that it is important to read for those who were inside, and outside of, the camps, showing the trauma that far outlasts the experience.

Link to the full article in El País.

Another collection of Photographs

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Cliff Mills

This week, I’m showcasing a collection of photographs from the Pierce Library, at Eastern Oregon University, called the Fred Hill World War II Photographs. Fred served during the War and took many photographs during his service. He also collected photos from others, so some of these may have been published before in books, articles, websites, etc.

Please use the comment form if you have any comments, corrections, questions or if you recognize any of the unnamed people in the photos. I am also looking for people to view a short Japanese propaganda video shot at Santo Tomás early during the War. I am hoping to annotate a version of the video with comments and identify any of the recognizable internees.

	Fred Hill near Dulag, Philippines
	Santo Tomás Internment Camp (STIC) shown from street, 1945
	Beulah Mae Schechter and Patricia Muriel Chittick at STIC after liberation, 1945
	U.S. Captain Price with two internee children, 1945
	Two young women handling mail at STIC after liberation, 1945
	Indoor mail call at STIC, 1945
	View of Manila from the tower at STIC, 1945
	Aerial view of Corregidor on 16 February 1945
	U.S. infantryman near the mouth of Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor, 1945
	Fred Hill and pals taking a break, 1944

Another batch of NARA photos

Posted on August 16, 2020 by Cliff Mills

Following is but another set of ten photographs downloaded from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). They are all in the public domain and can be freely printed, downloaded, or circulated. Many of these photos have been used before in books, magazines and websites. The description for each of the photos is to the right of the photo. Photos in this, and future, series will include STIC, Los Baños, Baguio, Old Bilibid, the Battle of Manila, Liberation, etc. If you publish any of these photographs, please cite the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as the source.

Because there are so many photos, I will continue to post them in weekly batches of ten. Eventually, they will be collected into various photo albums on this site. Click any of the photos to enlarge. Please use the comment form if you have any questions or if you recognize any of the people in the photos.

Many thanks to Lexi Zotomayor for identifying last week’s photo of some former internees in the shade of an Army transport plane as that of Chief Nurse, Laura Mae Cobb, and the rest of the liberated U.S. Navy nurses from Los Baños.

Next week, I will begin publishing photographs from other sources.

	Liberated Los Baños internees, Albertina Janssens and Mary Martha Brown, talk with U.S. liberators, February 1945
	Some newly liberated Los Baños internees during evacuation, February 1945
	U.S. bombing raid on Cebu City, 1945
	Captured Japanese soldiers, 1945
	Carabao amunition-train on Leyte, 1945
	Filipino guerrilla unit on Luzon, 1945
	Three liberated POWs from Old Bilibid Prison being fed, February 1945
	Ex-POW Arthur Raynolds visiting Old Bilibid Prison graveyard, 1945
	U.S. tank-destroyer outside Manila Legislature Building, February 1945
	Repatriation of STIC U.S. Army nurses, 1945

Brooks family mentioned in new online article

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Cliff Mills

Curtis Brooks, and his family, are mentioned and pictured in a recent CBS News article about VJ Day titled The day of U.S. victory in the Pacific is often forgotten. Survivors hope its lessons won’t be. The article, by Cindy Sui, begins:

Robert Rosendahl was just 19 — too young in those days to drink a beer or cast a vote — when he was sent to Pacific theater in World War II. There, in that deadliest of the war’s arenas, he would see things that no man, let alone a boy, should ever see.

He had just graduated from high school in a small town in Minnesota. His parents couldn’t afford to send him to college, so in 1941, he joined the army.

Soon after arriving in the Philippines, he was sent to the front during the Battle of Bataan. In that bloody struggle, American and Philippine forces tried to hold fast against the Japanese invasion of the Philippines — and failed.

More than 30 million soldiers and civilians were killed in the Pacific theater during the course of the war, compared with the 15 million to 20 million killed in Europe.

But remarkably, as the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Asia approaches, on Saturday, Aug. 15, few remembrance ceremonies are planned…

Curtis is quoted in this article. Follow this link to the entire article.

Yet more NARA photos

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Cliff Mills

Following is yet another set of ten photographs downloaded from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). They are all in the public domain and can be freely printed, downloaded, or circulated. Many of these photos have been used before in books, magazines and websites. The description for each of the photos is to the right of the photo. Photos in this, and future, series will include STIC, Los Baños, Baguio, Old Bilibid, the Battle of Manila, Liberation, etc. If you publish any of these photographs, please cite the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as the source.

	Liberated Los Baños internees lining up for meal at New Bilibid Prison, February1945
	Liberated Los Baños internees being fed in meal hall a New Bilibid Prison, February 1945
	Liberated Los Baños internees being checked into New Bilibid Prison, 1945, with the Red Cross giving out cigarettes and chocolate.
	Baguio bombing damage, 1945
	Filipino guerrillas conferring with American GIs, 1945
	First helicopter in the Philippines, Leyte 1944
	American paratroopers landing on Corregidor, 1945
	American pilot walks away from his crashed P-38 Lightning
	U.S. Navy nurses wait beneath aircraft on the way to being first of the former Los Baños internees to be evacuated in 1945. Chief Nurse, Laura Mae Cobb, can be seen on the right conversing with a U.S. serviceman.
	Civilians bombed-out by the Japanese in Tacloban, Leyte 1945

Still more NARA photos

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Cliff Mills

Following is another set of ten photographs downloaded from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). They are all in the public domain and can be freely printed, downloaded, or circulated. Many of these photos have been used before in books, magazines and websites. The description for each of the photos is to the right of the photo. Photos in this, and future, series will include STIC, Los Baños, Baguio, Old Bilibid, the Battle of Manila, Liberation, etc. If you publish any of these photographs, please cite the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as the source.

	Three young former Santo Tomás internees speak with U.S. Army personnel, 1945. Elizabeth Lautzenhiser, later known as Liz Irvine, is the third person on the right.
	Newly liberated Los Baños internees enjoying a meal at New Bilibid Prison, February 1945
	Newly liberated children from Los Baños eating at New Bilibid Prison, February 1945
	The rescuing of two downed American pilots, a former San Francisco banker, and a guerrilla leader on a lake on Luzon, 1945
	3-year-old Robert Tangen with U.S. Air Force personnel after Bobby's liberation from Old Bilibid Prison, 1945
	Elmer Mocklin and Charles Bradfield pushing a cart with the caskets of two other internees killed in Japanese shelling of STIC, February 1945
	Allied troops advancing past Manila's heavily damaged Post Office, February 1945
	American actor Lew Ayres, aka "Dr. Kildare," serving in the Philippines in 1944.
	Former Los Baños internees clean their meal kits at New Bilibid Prison, February 1945
	U.S. Army troops with newly liberated Japanese beer, found on Luzon,1945