Post by buster on Jun 25, 2009 20:40:43 GMT 8
An e-mail hit my desk today that, after I had replied to it, I felt that it was of continuing worth to reply to it again, but this time in public.
The fellow had mentioned the photograph in the National Geographic magazine from July 1986, specifically on p127
He also asked a bit about the state of Drum and Frank.
The letter raises questions we get from time to time, and some of them I am getting a little tired of answering multiple times. So I will crank up the old steam powered word machine, and see what come out:-
If I had my way, and I never do (as my wife will surely testify) CFI's powers would be extended beyond Corregidor to the other historic islands in the bay*, and funded too. Any suggestion that any other commanders, generals, admirals, commissions, committees, mayors or maharajas, should have control over these national shrines, and former battlefields, should be looked at beyond mere askance.
* Too late for Subic Bay's Grande Is., which wasn't all that grande, and is now a tourist trap. Though it is a pretty good example of what Corregidor should never be allowed to become.
The fellow had mentioned the photograph in the National Geographic magazine from July 1986, specifically on p127
"....sparks from a scrap dealer's cutting torch ... bathes a six-inch gun mount at Corregidor's Battery Morrison...". The gun mount concerned is the left hand one - barrel at approx. 30 degrees, breech missing and breech end on the ground. Both gun mounts have been stripped of quite a lot of metal. I believe that some if not most probably were removed by the Japanese and Americans (and the Corregidor Trust for safety reasons) as both guns and their mounts show signs of accessive war damage.
On p288 of E.M Flanagan, Jr.'s 'Recollections From Corregidor' (July 1989:Jove Edition), the author quotes word for word from p131.
I believe that the National Geographic article is bordering on racism implying that the Filipinos have deliberately 'desecrated' this very important (US) War Memorial. I noticed that the guns of Battery Smith had been removed long ago and, I believe relocated to the Japanese Memorial.
He also asked a bit about the state of Drum and Frank.
The letter raises questions we get from time to time, and some of them I am getting a little tired of answering multiple times. So I will crank up the old steam powered word machine, and see what come out:-
I recall the National Geographic photo of the scrapper. I got the inside story on it. In truth, it is a fake - a photo set up to appear like a scrapper – actually the fellow involved had been a scrapper some years before, and the photographer had asked him to re-enact some of his previous profession. They weren’t really cutting into Morrison, of course, just a bit of stray metal to make the sparks.
As you know, I pour over the 1945 photos, whatever I can find. So I get an idea of how far the Japanese were able to strip Corregidor – and I feel that it wasn’t all that much – they took the easy stuff, – the rails, and whatever was laying around.
They didn't use acetylene torches. They didn't cut up building foundations and load bearing beams.
Post war, it was the Filipino military in control of the island who did the destructive stripping. I heard a story about the taking of the lead sheeting under the tile roofing of the barracks and the hospital – money changes hands, a public asset is used for private purposes, history is sold for scrap metal prices. The loss of the roof lets the weather in big-time, of course, and things went bad from then. The major destruction was under the control of the commanders who ran the place – these are honorable men, they wear the class rings, they come from families of power and influence, and they are immune from outside control within their “fief.”
Thus the guns of Ft. Frank were scrapped (ie allowed to be stolen) and comparatively recently too.
In Drum, every pillar which holds up the roof has been scrapped. There was a portion of a broken barrel which lay on the deck for many years – I was told that they managed to get it off by hanging it underwater between two bankas.
It is not racist to say that Corregidor was desecrated, and by whom, you thin skinned dill! – it happens to be a statement of fact – we know for sure that post war, it sure wasn’t the Lithuanians or the Eskimos or the Swahilis doing it! Somebody scrapped it, during peacetime, and at a time under which the military had governance of the island, and you think it's racist to call them out? Of course, there'll be some idiot who would say "well, it wasn't a shrine when they scrapped it", to which I would ask "is it only by the passing of a local by-law that places become sacred shrines? Do you wait around for an elected representative to declare your sacred shrines for you?"
Whether something is racist, or not racist, I think is a complete misdirection.
I do think that it is better for us to accept that the history of Corregidor suffered a post-war “dark ages” period, corresponding to the time that it fell under “local military control, without there being any investment in, or care for its preservation” and that this “dark age” continued until the recognition that, if things didn't change, a national treasure was being pissed against the wall.
Actually, it got so bad, a US Congressional investigation was made of it, and a "fact finding" mission occurred, and the report was used to shame someone or other into pulling their finger out of the pie.
Facing the prospects of an utterly despoiled Corregidor under the "former management," I consider it fortunate, in every meaning of the word, that steps were taken so that CFI could be incorporated. I don't always see eye to eye with CFI, but I thank great Caesar's ghost that they are there.
If I had my way, and I never do (as my wife will surely testify) CFI's powers would be extended beyond Corregidor to the other historic islands in the bay*, and funded too. Any suggestion that any other commanders, generals, admirals, commissions, committees, mayors or maharajas, should have control over these national shrines, and former battlefields, should be looked at beyond mere askance.
* Too late for Subic Bay's Grande Is., which wasn't all that grande, and is now a tourist trap. Though it is a pretty good example of what Corregidor should never be allowed to become.