Well, still in Manila.  My return date is still set for September 24th.  There is still a small chance that my trip may be extended, but so far I think I'm pretty safe.  I'm looking forward to coming back too... it's been along time away from home.

We've seen and done some really cool stuff here, culturally speaking.  Just recently we took a tour of Corregidor Island.  It was quite amazing!  This little island saw many brutal battles throughout WWII and even before that during the "Battle of Manila Bay" in 1898 during the American-Spanish war when an American squadron destroyed the entire Spanish fleet within a few hours.  Metal warships vs. wooden boats... you know how it is.

During WWII the Philippines was highly regarded and sought after by both sides of the war due to its perfect strategic positioning within the South China Sea.  The American's had military bases in the Philippines; one of which was on Corregidor Island.  The island itself is actually in quite a strategic position too, located at the mouth of Manila Bay, just south of the city of Manila.  On December 7th, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii which prompted the American's to declare war on Japan.  Ten hours after the attack of Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked the American military bases in the Philippines, including the one on Corregidor Island.  The Japanese then invaded the Philippines and began to fight their way across the country toward Manila.

American General Douglas MacArthur along with several thousand American and Filipino troops were already stationed in and around Manila at this time.  The Philippines President Quezon and General MacArthur declared Manila an open city and retreated to Bataan and Corregidor.  The Japanese bombed Manila anyways.  This began the Japanese occupation of Manila.  The battle raged on as the Japanese advanced on MacArthur's troops in Bataan.  The Americans and Filipinos retreated down the Bataan Peninsula as the battle continued.  MacArthur himself ended up retreating from Corregidor to Australia so he could command his army from a safe location.  When he arrived in Australia, he was quoted to say is most famous line, "I shall return."

The Americans and Filipinos fought very hard on Bataan and Corregidor as they awaited American reinforcement, which would never come due to the very recent devastation of Pearl Harbor.  Being totally surrounded, the American and Filipino troops eventually surrendered to the Japanese on April 9th, 1942.  Because so many American and Filipino troops surrendered, the Japanese were ill-prepared to deal with that many prisoners, so they led their sick and starving captives on a cruel and criminal 105 KM march, labeled the "Bataan Death March" on which 7-10,000 died or were murdered before arriving at the internment camps ten days later.  Check out the movie The Great Raid.  It's movie made in 2005 based on true occurrences about the amazing rescue of these prisoners of war.  It's a pretty good movie, in my opinion... and I must say it was pretty cool watching it here in the Philippines... paying only $3 to watch it in a kick-ass theatre that makes Silver City look like Rainbow Cinemas.

Anyways, about three years later MacArthur returned to The Philippines, true to his word.  His troops laid some serious smack down on the Japanese and took back Manila, fighting street by street.  The battle ended in the walled city of Intramuros, which is like Old Manila.  Sheila and I plan to visit Intramuros this weekend and get some pics.

So, with Manila back under American Military occupation instead of Japanese, the Americans moved toward Bataan and Corregidor, spanking the Japanese the whole way.  Since the Japanese believed that surrender was weak and cowardly, and they knew the end was coming, many of them took out their bayonets, stabbed themselves in the stomach and jumped off a cliff located on Corregidor Island.  It is now dubbed "Suicide Cliff".  The Americans took Corregidor back by attacking it by sea and at the same time sending paratroopers in for a day time suicide jump onto the middle of the island.  They actually jumped from only 300 feet up, if you can believe that, because any higher and the wind would have blown them out to sea.  That's just amazing.

Anyways, We took a day trip out to Corregidor Island and got some pretty cool pics.  It was quite a unique experience, to say the least.  There is supposed to be monkeys on the island, but we didn't see any.  And I was really hoping some ballsy monkey would nail me in the side of the head with a hunk is his own dung, but no luck.  :-)

Well, that's it for now.  25 more days and counting...