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What would you have seen had you been in Manila in 1945,
 just after the Battle?


MANILA 1945 - AFTERMATH -
Tales of Men, Myths & Memes
by  Prof. Dr. Ricardo T. Jose, Richard B. Meixsel, Peter C. Parsons, P.C.'Tip' Whitman & Paul F. Whitman
Edited by Paul F. Whitman
12 x 12 inch (33 x 28 cm) format, 
 364 pages, and with more than 600 images. 
Shipping weight:  3 lbs.

As an educational resource without parallel, it probably presents the most comprehensive collection of images of Manila in 1945 generally available.



ABOUT THE BOOK.


"The more I see of Manila the more it comes home to a person of the horrors of war. It is really past any description that one could give, and unless one had previously seen it one could not really appreciate just how much damage had been done. Beautiful buildings, public and private, churches schools, residences and the like are just masses of rubble, made more tragic because they had been up so long. Some even since the early 1600’s. I met a G.I. taking photos and passed the casual statement, “S’pose you are getting some good pictures?“ and he answered, “They may be good pictures but I’m not getting any pleasure out of taking them“ and he expresses the opinion of any one who has been to that city. "

That's what my father wrote in one of his letters home from Manila in 1945. He hadn't been fighting - his job had been to prepare TOP SECRET communiques within MacArthur's GHQ, and his proximity to typewriters allowed him to maintain a constant stream of commentaries on what he found in Manila when the HQ arrived. These were the seeds from which the book grew, drawing from extensive collections of contemporaneous photographs of Manila.

The book contains the most comprehensive collection of images of Manila 1945 available today. It also features three articles which put the historic experience into a historic, non-revisionist perspective.

Perspective is something the serious student of history Battle of Manila needs to acquire, and it's not easy to come by.  Revisionism has really done a job on the Battle of Manila, what with its attempt to whitewash Yamashita, and attributing the atrocities which occurred throughout  the battle to Japanese soldiers who were facing death and so were somehow justified in going out in a blaze of vindictive glory. Then there's the allegation that the Americans bombed Manila and killed more than a hundred thousand Filipinos.  If its not the bombing, the Americans are blamed for using artillery. (As if the Japanese didn't?) To all this, add more than a soupçon of MacArthur bashing, an industry which has grown in time under the heady influence of ivy league
academia.

Most people don't realize that had the Americans just let Yamashita go,  there was a line of countries that had gathered evidence against him for atrocities committed,  including the Australians, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and even the Chinese. Yamashita had been a hard man, the very sort of bully that the Japanese called for when it was necessary to bash a population into submission.  Times were tough in Manila, but people didn't start dying of hunger until Yamashita took over.

That this Revisionism has survived until now is largely due, in the early days,  to the failure to teach history, and in the more recent times, the belief that mass ignorance constitutes truth.  Facebook has been particularly good at spreading disinformation. Revisionism isn't recent, nor is it the result of social media - though it is fed by the social media. It managed to get its foot in the door  as long ago as the 1950's, when America found itself in a war on the Korean peninsular  with a Communist Chinese proxy, and it needed to justify bases in Japan. It was just an expediency, the sort of expediency of which politicians are so adept at manipulating, such that a creeping ignorance as to what had happened during the war became endemic.

You can generally recognise revisionism by its failure to tell you the whole truth. It doesn't tell you why Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi was chosen for his role, it doesn't tell you the many steps Yamashita took to prepare for the battle, it doesn't mention that Yamashita was never out of radio contact, it doesn't tell you that Yamashita had detached some of his troops to remain in Manila, it doesn't tell you about the numerous atrocities outside of Manila, it doesn't tell you about the 'kill all civilians on the battlefield' orders being given. Most of all, revisionism doesn't mention that the orders came from a much higher source than Yamashita. Those governing the war in Tokyo had decided to show the Americans how costly an invasion of the Japanese homeland would be, by teaching them what a relatively small number of defenders were capable of in a protracted defence of an urban area. Yamashta was the errand boy, Iwabuchi his most willing tool.

But it was the ignorance of Facebook revisionism which pissed me off so much, I created a website to try and set it right, and which caused me to write this book.

THE SECOND EDITION

Issued in 2024, the second edition now contains an extra 20 pages featuring the definitive article by Richard B. Meixsel who examines the widely-known  figure of the number of deaths suffered in the battle, 100,000. He traces this figure to its origins, and finds that it, too, has been a widely accepted myth. 


     
Q: Can I see a preview?   A: Sure, we don't expect you to judge the book by its cover. Click here for the preview.
     
Q: What is the price of the book?   A: It depends on the edition.

US$320 for Library Quality Image Wrap

US$9.99 for the Adobe.PDF Version

The eBOOK version   is available only in the 1st Edition - $9.99.
     
Q: That's outrageous!! Why is it so poisonously expensive? A: The book was designed prepared for offset printing and distribution in Manila. The target price was $55.  This didn't happen as  our former "so-called" literary agent, after obtaining our pre-publication version, had ideas to bring out his own book. Being in possession of my files, he used them. He even managed to publish my typos under his own name.

Had this been anywhere but Manila,  I would have sued his worthless hide.

Consequently, "AFTERMATH" has had to be released as print-on-demand product by the Blurb printing company ex San Francisco. The cost of print-on-demand books depends on their physical size and  the number of pages which they contain, the type of cover, quality of end-pages, etcetera.. This book is hardcover,  full color on quality paper, and presented in a large coffee-table size of  12 x 12 inch (30 x 30 cm) format,  and delivers in at 364 pages.   Blurb's actual printing costs are 95% of the price that you pay.  You heard that right!   Complain to them, not to me, I have to pay their prices too. 

PRINT ON DEMAND books are, of their nature, expensive beasts. Think of a book like this as 364 separate color  photographs , each twelve-inch square. Then have them custom bound, with expensive end-papers.
     
Q: Are there discount vouchers or  coupons available to lower the price?   A: Yes, but you have to look for them.  I suggest you Google the words "Blurb.com,  Discount, Coupon" and the current month.  Sometimes you can score between 10% and 30% depending on how much they need their cash-flow in San Francisco.

If you write me that you want to get a copy, and can't afford the Blurb ransome,  I can keep my eye out for a 30% discount when Blurb offers one to their authors.  They have a few each year. You'll have to trust me on this, because I'll want your credit card details, delivery address, and even your phone number (they say they need it for the delivery process.) I will destroy your details after a single use. I do not keep info on my computer.
     
Q: I have heard there are different versions of this book. What's with that? A: That's right. It's "print-on-demand product" and special versions have been printed for Australian and American distribution.  The most recent version, the 2nd Edition,  has been prepared for the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk VA.

Special Versions can be ordered which reflect a brand or sponsorship.  
     
     
     
Q: I have an Apple iPad tablet. Is there a version for it?    A: Yes.  The FIRST EDITION is  optimized for Apple products and sells at $9.99.  Click below and the link will take you to the preview.

Unfortunately, Blurb no longer produces ePub files, because they had to licence the fonts for each publication.
   
     
Q: I have an an Android tablet. Will there be an Android version released?   The publisher creates an ePub file. It works with Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, iPhone, Android and Mac OS. 
     
Q: How do I buy it?    Only through the publisher - and you get there via the PREVIEW PAGE.




(BACK COVER - THE MAP PROVIDED TO THE ARMORED COLUMN ENTERING MANILA
INDICATED THE WIDTH OF STREETS AVAILABLE TO THE TANKS)


CLICK HERE AND THE LINK WILL TAKE YOU TO THE BLURB PREVIEW PAGE



(BELOW: THE 1ST EDITION  AT A SINGLE GLANCE)
CLICK FOR MORE DETAILS