Hot and Sweaty Manila

Hello friends and family!

Greetings from hot and sweaty Manila! It has been in the mid-80's every day and about 80-90% humidity. We arrived safely in Manila after our 16 1/2 hour flight from San Franscisco and hit the ground running going from place to place. There is lots to tell, so I will just give the highlights (and because internet is $15 for 30 minutes).

Arrival day in Manila

Visited University of Santo Thomas which was one of the prison camps that grandma was in. Grandma pointed out the window of her room that she and my great grandma stayed in (along with many other women).

Toured the museum in the University. One of the staff members was telling the story about a group of women that refused to bow to the Japanese soldiers. Grandma leaned over and said that her mother was one of them. She would not bow to the Japanese and was repeated beaten because of it. The Japanese finally told her that they were going to punish everyone in her room and that is when she finally gave in. It was a good reminder for me that I come from a long line of strong women.

Manila Hotel- This is a beautiful old hotel that survived the war. Our tour guide said this is where the uppercrust of society gathered before the war. It has beautiful carved doors and ceilings. Grandma told me that her mother used to go to the hotel weekly to get her hair done and also to visit Mrs. MacArthur (General MacArthur and his family lived there). My great grandmother was friends with Mrs. MacArthur.

Sunset- We watched a beautiful sunset over Manila bay. The smog creates amazing pink skies.

2nd day

Went on a tour of Corrgidor Island. This is an amazing island 30 nautical miles from Manila that is filled with tunnels that were built by the American military before the war. This was one of the last strongholds before the Japanese took it over and MacArthur retreated to Austraila (his famous line of "I shall return"). The US then fought very hard to win it back from the Japanese 3 years later and they were successful.

Today

City tour of Manila. Visited the American Memorial Cemetery, that has thousands of white marble crosses for all the Americans who died fighting the war here.

Visited Bilibid which is now the Manila city jail, but in WWII was another prison camp. Yes, we went to the jail.

Tour of Intramuros- Intramuros was originally built by the Spanish in the 1500's and is a walled complex. During the war it was used as a prison and hundreds of people died there. Two of the people on the tour with us, Rosie and her brother Frank were taken there for a week and a half during the war. They had fled to the mountains when the Japanese invaded but were eventually captured by the Japanese when someone else ratted them out for 30 pesos (less than a dollar today). The whole family was taken there and Frank told us at night all you could hear were the screams of those who were being tortured in the dungeons. They were eventually taken to Santo Thomas.

It has been a very busy trip so far, but I am thoroughly enjoying hearing all the stories around me. I especially treasure the stories about my great grandparents as I never knew my great grandfather and I was very young when my great grandmother passed away.

I hope you are all doing well at home. I will try to write more later if I can. Tomorrow we try to find the area where grandma's home used to be and then on Monday we head to Los Banos, the 2nd camp that my grandma was in.