NOTE: This fifth death anniversary blog post was originally created on Dec. 10, 2015 and published the next day as: “Nielsen Field Manila, Philippines: The Forgotten Airfield of WWII “.
Dec. 10, 2015 – Maria Elena G. Macario’s Fifth Death Anniversary
If you look at Ayala Ave. – Makati Ave. and Buendia Ave. these three roads form a triangle similar to an airfield. It was the old Nielsen Field. (See Photo)
The road going up and down is Ayala Ave. and the one going left to right is Makati Avenue.
It was Joseph McMicking’s idea to develop Makati as the new financial center of the Philippines. Yet not a tiny street, park or even a building was named after Joseph McMicking and Roy Hall.
Neither was there anything named after Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
The Old Nielsen Field. It was Joseph McMicking’s idea to relocate Manila’s financial district to Makati in the old Nielsen Field. What I read was:
“Just before noon on Jan. 20, 1945 Japanese soldiers came to there house. SOMEBODY MAY HAVE REPORTED THEM OR IT MAY SIMPLY HAVE BEEN A RANDOM SWEEP. (Seriously? Ayala-Zobel’s cousin Manuel A. Roxas was working with the Japanese Occupation Army at that time!)
Lt. Col. Joseph R. McMicking’s brother Alfred McMicking sisters Consuelo M. Hall, Helen McMicking, Helen’s fiance Carlos Perez-Rubio, Consuelo Hall’s children Rod and Ian & Marita Lopez Mena a family friend then staying with the McMicking-Hall families were taken to the Masonic Temple at Taft Ave. then the Headquarters of the dreaded Kempeitai. Later the children and the servants were released.
For ten days the Hall kids and servants brought pots of hot food to the prisoners. Then on or about 30 Jan. 1945, the guards told Rod & Ian Hall to stop coming – the food was no longer needed.”
Below is a better map of Nielsen Air Field and Nichols Air Field during the Battle For Manila. 1945. Changing names and use of land won’t change the past. Why are there so many streets and avenues named “Ayala” & “Roxas” but Lt. Col. Joseph McMicking and the Hall family were practically left out?
Below Nielson Field (now Ayala Triangle) under construction Sept. 27, 1937 US Army Air Forces, US National Archives Photo
Above: J.R. McMicking is mentioned as the “guiding light in the development of Makati as the new center of Manila“, yet no street or park in Makati was even named after Col. Joseph Ralph McMicking who came up with the idea of developing Makati and Ayala Triangle. Pages also from “Battle For Manila” (1997) by John Pimlott ISBN: 0891415785
“Just before noon on Jan. 20, 1945, the family was sitting on the porch when soldiers with fixed bayonets approached from both sides. Somebody may have reported them (McMiking & Hall families) or it may simply have been a random sweep.” By Jan. 30, 1945, Rod Hall who was 12 yrs. old at that time, learned from the Japanese guards at the Masonic Center that his mother, aunt, uncle and grandmother including his aunt fiance and one family friend were dead. Manuel Roxas with Benigno Aquino and J.P. Laurel left Manila for Baguio under General Yamashita’s care on Dec. 26, 1944. Communication between Yamashita and Japanese forces in Manila was still open until Feb. 5, 1945 when the bloody Battle for Manila started.
Manuel A. Roxas (photo below with Japanese officer Col. Jimbo) had ten (10) days to intervene on behalf of the Hall-McMicking Families held by the Japanese Marines at the Kempeitai HQ. He never lifted a finger to save them. Then after the war, his cousin Jaime Zobel de Ayala took over the plans, brainchild of Lt. Col. Joseph McMicking. As if to cover-up the crime, no street or park was named after any of the McMickings and Halls family.
Manuel A. Roxas was elected Commonwealth president in an election held on April 23, 1946. During the negotiations for U.S. military bases, Roxas balked at the idea of U.S. jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel and civilian employees off or on duty, off or on base. (See page 331 Karnow’s “In Our Image”). Remember Manuel A. Roxas was a U.S. Army Brig. General when he collaborated with the Japanese. He should stand in front a court martial under the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice)!
Later on July 22, 1946 U.S. Interior Secretary Harold Ickes would publish an Op-Ed ( Man-To-Man:Roxas Is Asked To Explain Stand, By Harold L. Ickes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Monday, July 22, 1946 Page 18) accusing Manuel A. Roxas of collaborating with the Japanese while wearing a U.S. Army Brig. General’s uniform. And as president of the new republic ordered Lorenzo Tañada to prepare a list of suspected collaborators to be pardoned.
To my knowledge, between April 23, 1946 when the election for Commonwealth president was held as approved in Dec. 1945 by House Insular Affairs Committee of the United States Congress and July 4, 1946, when the Treaty of Manila was signed, THERE WAS NO REFERENDUM asking our parents and grandparents if they wanted to give up their American Nationality; secede from the USA and be independent. Therefore the GRANTING INDEPENDENCE without the consent of the Filipino people IS ILLEGAL, NULL AND VOID.
The Treaty of Manila should be set aside retroactively. In fact even the so-called Commonwealth of the Philippines should also be retroactively set aside.
Below left: Page 326: Manuel A. Roxas, Ayala, Zobel, Soriano, Araneta & Elizalde are related. “Roxas traced his forebear to the 18th Century Spanish merchant who sired the Ayala, Zobel and Soriano clans.”
Above right page 345 of Stanley Karnow’s book: “In Our Image”, The Bell fact-finding commission determined that $2 billion in war reparations given to the Roxas & Quirino administrations disappeared. “The profits of businessmen and the incomes of large landowners have risen considerably but the standard of living of most people is lower than before the war.”
Alistair Hall and his children after the “liberation” of Manila. Rod Hall would later write that after his mother Consuelo, grandmother, uncle Alfred Lt. Col. Joseph R. McMicking’s brother, aunt Helen McMicking, Helen’s fiance Carlos Perez-Rubio & Marita Lopez Mena a family friend were taken to the Masonic Temple at Taft Ave., a group of bandits entered and took over the house, searching for valuables.
“A Spanish friend of my mother’s, married to a German, complained to Japanese Army headquarters, and so we found ourselves for some days having two Japanese army sentries patrolling our home each evening, while the Japanese marines were holding our family!” – Rod Hall, then 9 yrs.
So the Ayalas, Zobels & Sorianos who were Spaniards and all related to Manuel A. Roxas, had some clout since Spain was friendly to Germany, Japan & Italy, the Axis Powers.
Nielsen Air Field / Manila International Airport Tower, 1940.
Built by the Americans before the war, the Nielsen airfield had two intersecting runways, the main runway NW/SE and a smaller runway running NE to SW, with taxiways that connected both, plus dispersal areas in the surrounding area. Prewar, used by American Far Eastern Aviation and Philippine Air Lines (PAL).
When the threat of war loomed, Nielson was taken over by the FEAF (Far East Air Force) and enlarged with hangers, workshops and facilities. FEAF’s Manila Air Depot is where new aircrafts were assembled and equipment stored.
American Consolidated B-24 “Liberator” bombing Nielsen Field 1945.
Nielsen airfield had two intersecting runways, the main runway NW/SE and a smaller runway running NE to SW, with taxiways that connected both, plus dispersal areas in the surrounding area. Nielsen Airdrome in 1945 back under U.S. control. Had the Philippines remained a U.S. Territory, Nielsen Field and Nichols Field would have been American Battlefield Monuments like the rest of the entire Philippines.
Nichols Airdrome & Nielsen Airdrome
Ayala Triangle was in fact the old Nielsen Field (Ayala-Puyat-Makati Triangle). Nichols Field was renamed Villamor Air Field. See map below.
Nichols Field later renamed Villamor Air base then became the NAIA Terminal 4
Below: Map of Manila, Manila Bay with the old Nielson Field (center right) and Nichols Field (center bottom) with the end of the arrow-head shape runaway pointed towards Manila Bay Credit: USAAFDate: 1945
B&W
© PacificWrecks – Map of Nielson Field in Manila
Source: https://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfields/philippines/nichols/maps/map-manila-nichols-neilson.html
“All that glitters is NOT gold.” – William Shakespeare – The Merchant of Venice, Act II – Scene VII
Related: Proverbs 13:7-8
7 One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. 8 A person’s riches may ransom their life, but the poor cannot respond to threatening rebukes.
This should be part of the American Battle Monument since modern Makati was built on the old Nielson Field. The street on the left is Ayala Ave. and on the right is Makati Ave. forming the “V” shape of the triangle with Paseo de Roxas on top.
AuthoradminPosted on December 11, 2015Categories Economics & FinanceEdit”Nielsen Field Manila, Philippines: The Forgotten Airfield of WWII”