 The national broadcasting company and its affiliated independent stations present the Pacific story. In the mounting fury of the world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea. The drama of the peoples whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific war. Here is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific story comes to you tonight from Hollywood in New York as another public service with drama of the past and present and commentary by Colonel Carlos P. Ramulo, Secretary of Information and Public Relations in the Philippine War Cabinet, author of the national bestseller Mother America. The Commonwealth of the Philippines. Your name? Bilo. Your entire name? Buena Ventura, J. Bilo. You are the teacher of this schoolhouse? Yes. Hold the American flag down from the flagpole. You may keep your own Philippine flags to flying. A squad of Japanese soldiers stood before the humble Filipino school teacher in front of his schoolhouse. Japan has no quarrel with you. Buena Ventura, Bilo, stood motionless. I will give you two minutes to make up your mind. If you disobey my order, my soldiers will shoot you. The frail little Filipino looked at the Japanese soldiers. Lord M. Every Monday morning Buena Ventura, Bilo, had stood there in front of his school with his pupils and sung the star-spangled banner and the Philippine national anthem as two of his pupils hoisted the American and the Philippine flags. Two minutes? I do not need two minutes. Tell your men to shoot me now. I shall never tear down either of these flags. Buena Ventura, J. Bilo, age 42, father of six children, fell dead at the foot of the flagstaff. In his death is reflected the transition of Filipino-American relations within his lifetime. In the space of his lifetime the attitude of the Filipinos to the Americans changed from bitter armed resistance to loyal cooperation. Today Americans and Filipinos are fighting side by side for the liberation of the Philippines. Today as the war on the Pacific sweeps farther and farther west, the Philippines are at last standing on the threshold of independence. I give the Filipino people by word that the Republic of the Philippines will be established the moment the power of our Japanese enemies is destroyed. This is the pledge of President Roosevelt. In these words are echoed the pledge given in 1900 by President William McKinley. The government which we are establishing is designed not for our satisfaction or for the expression of our theoretical views but for the happiness, peace and prosperity of the people of the Philippines. Let us remember the Philippines are not ours to exploit but to develop, to civilize, to educate, to train in the science of self-government. At the turn of the century the Filipinos had reason to distrust the Americans. What has the white man done for us? They have brought us grief and despair. The Americans came here to help us against the Spaniards and our day themselves are taking over our land. We will fight them! Guerrilla bands organized in the forests and the mountains in towns and hamlets, moved quietly and swiftly and struck the Americans wherever they were. Communications were maintained by the bamboo telegraph, by church bells, by messengers who knew every foot of the land. Ammunition is being brought up here in Karsheep with buffalo dung. A detachment of Americans is moving into your region. The rifles are hidden under these mounds of cocoon grass. The Filipinos trained by night became sharpshooters, kept their bolo's razor sharp. They traveled under cover of darkness, hid in hollow trunks and caves. Carried with them the food they must live on. Who is the leader of the guerrillas in this village? We can't find out, sir. Well, somebody is leading them, and that somebody lives right here in this village. We've tried every way, sir. We can find out nothing. From the villagers, the guerrillas stole away to carry out their missions against the Americans. Guerrillas! When their mission was completed, the guerrillas returned to the village. Those who were wounded nursed themselves and dragged themselves into their houses. Close the door. Yes. Here. Here, let me help you. What is that? Someone is coming. Be quiet. Open up. I'm in there. I'll tell them to go in. Open up. All right, you two. Stand up over there. See? You down there on the floor. Get up on your feet. He is dead. Come on. Get up on your feet. Wait. He is dead. All right. And we'll talk to you. I will never talk. Not only the guerrillas, but the whole Filipino people fought the Americans. Filipino townspeople, countrymen, housewives, vendors, professors, farmers. Even the children threw rocks at the Americans. Then the Filipinos saw a phenomenon. Is it really true? Yes, it is true. The American officers who tortured us with rope cure and the water cure had been punished. You were tortured when they captured you, weren't you? Yes. And the American officer in charge was sent to prison. To prison? Yes. The Americans sent their own officers to prison? Yes, and some others were fined and dismissed from the army. I do not understand. These Americans punished their own for harming us. The Americans wished to be friendly. They wished to show us that they... General Arthur MacArthur, father of Douglas MacArthur, issued an order as first military governor of the Philippines. Any Filipino who turns a rifle over to the American authorities will be given a reward and will not be punished. Thousands of Filipinos took advantage of the amnesty, turned in their guns and took the oath of allegiance to the United States. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. In their treatment by the Americans, the Filipinos for the first time were treated with fairness and courtesy. Gradually, some of their distrust faded. In 1901, even while guerrilla warfare was still formidable, Congress authorized the abolition of the military government and set up a civil government. William Howard Taft became the first civil governor and expressed the new policy. The Philippines for the Filipinos. But the Filipinos had suffered too long under the rule of the white man to have complete faith in this pledge. If the Americans make improvements in the Philippines, they will make them for themselves, not for us. I believe they wish to be friendly. No, they have come here to take advantage of us. They have already shown us their good will. By killing all who resist them? No. If we accept the Americans instead of the Spaniards, it means only a change of masters. I saw something very wonderful. One of the Americans called teachers... One of those 600 school teachers that landed on Manila from that transport? Yes. They did not come here for our warfare? This one did. When he came here to our burial, the children crowded around him and said, Teach us English. Teach us English. Filipino children? Yes. And the teacher, Luther Parker, took one of the children on his knee and the first English words he thought him, Well, I am a Filipino. He taught him nothing about America? No. He taught him to say, I am a Filipino. Yes, I believe the Americans will make it the Philippines for the Filipinos. With the American teachers came doctors and engineers and administrators. Institutions of higher learning were established. The University of the Philippines. Now education was not for the few, but for the many. The Filipinos became eager students. The circulation of books, magazines, newspapers doubled and tripled and increased tenfold. And now the first evidence of democracy came to the Filipinos. We have elected our own town president. I did not think this would ever be. But you and I and the others were chosen for the town council. We have elected our town president. We have done all this ourselves. We have had centuries of oppression. Can we trust the Americans? Do you remember what happened with the American Anthony Suell? The one who came here to cheat us? Yes, he was arrested by Filipino police, tried by the Filipino judge and imprisoned under Filipino guards. Was done under the American flag. But will the Americans let us govern ourselves? If we govern our towns well, the Americans say they will extend our government to the provinces. And if we do that well, someday we ourselves will govern all our islands. We regard ourselves as trustees, acting not for the advantages of the United States, but for the benefit of the people of the Philippines. Every step we take will be taken with a view to ultimate independence. This was the message of Woodrow Wilson when he assumed the presidency in 1913. In it, he expressed the same policy laid down by Taft and McKinley. Three years later, observers in Washington, D.C. saw a significant act. This is a great day for the Philippines. The passing of the drone slower. Yes, it promises the Philippines autonomy. Definitely promises it. Makes provision for Philippine independence. Yes, listen to this. Let's see, where is it? Oh, yes, here. It is, as it has always been, the purpose of the people of the United States to withdraw their sovereignty over the Philippine islands is to recognize their independence as soon as a stable government can be established therein. There you see. Does it take any actual step in that direction? It does. A new Philippine legislature will be organized with the Senate and our House of Representatives. The adventure of training the Filipinos for self-government was on its way. For the first time, the white man in the Far East was methodically preparing an oriental people to govern themselves as a free and independent nation. Looming high in this slow process of democracy was Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña. Behind them were able men, Filipinos who had come up through the ranks of government. In 1934, the Congress of the United States passed the Tidings-McDuffey Act, providing for the complete independence of the Philippines and setting the date for the establishment of the Philippine Republic on July 4th, 1946. And the year and a half later... Yeah, it's a raft of distinguished visitors up there on the stand. Well, the occasion warrants it. Birth of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. I instructed my cameraman to get up there and get some close shots of Manuel Quezon and the rest of them up there. My editor's interested in what these people say, being the inauguration of the first president of the Philippines. Hey, it's the secretary of Ward Dern up there, isn't it? Oh, yes, yes. Oh, look, there's Vice President Garner and Joe Burns, the Speaker of the House. There's the Joe Robinson and General Douglas MacArthur. Well, there's a lot of people gathered here to see this. The police figure there's about a quarter of a million. Is that so? Oh, look at the microphones up there. Oh, the whole thing's being broadcast all over the world. Uh-oh. There's Secretary of Ward Dern up there now. Let's get up close so we can hear him better. Right. The Philippines is a successor to the heretofore existing Philippine government and to all the rights and obligations thereof. After taking the oath of office as the first president of the Philippines, Manuel Quezon declared in his inaugural address close. Under the Commonwealth, our life may not be one of ease and comfort, but rather of hardship and sacrifice. It is essential that this last step be taken with full consciousness of its significance and the great opportunities that it affords to us. In the enormous task of fully preparing ourselves for independence, we shall be beset with serious difficulties, but we will resolutely march forward. Unquote. After the parade, President Quezon was escorted to the historic building, the Malacanyan, here where once ruled the Spanish governor's general and the American governor's general will now live a Filipino president chosen by the Filipinos. As the young nation was coming into its own, it faced its greatest crisis. Japan was on the march. The tension was growing. In 1937, the Japanese struck China at the Marco Polo Bridge. With the passing month, the Philippines grew restive. The next several years were to see world-shaking events. America looked across the Atlantic to the brewing war. And America were at loggerheads. Looks awfully tough to me. Japan will never go to war with the United States. She's bluffing. No, she's not bluffing. The Philippines can never stand up against Japan. If the Japs do move in the Pacific, they'll go around the Philippines and attack Singapore first. Crisall seems to think that we may be in war in the Pacific. That's so? Yeah. Look here. The paper this morning. Where? Right here. You see? Yeah. In this grave national emergency, the stand of the Filipino people is clear and unmistakable. We owe loyalty to America, and we are bound to her by bonds of everlasting gratitude. Should the United States enter the war, the Philippines would follow her and fight by her side, placing at her disposal all our manpower and our material resources. We stand with the United States in life and death. In the next month, the Philippines gravely watched the Japanese-American discussions in Washington. Within a few hours after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines had news to report. We're in the north and at Vegan on the west coast, General. Yes. In our likelihood, it will try to establish abbots at the party and Vegan for bombing operations against our strategic points. Here is another dispatch. The enemy has landed at Lingoyen south of Vegan. Our situation is grave. We have 19,000 United States Army troops and 12,000 Philippine scouts and 100,000 Philippine soldiers in the Philippine Army. We are outnumbered by the shock troops of the enemy. A new landing of the enemy has been made at Legaspi, General. Only the southern tip of Luzon, eh? Yes, sir. Their strategy is now becoming clear. The Japanese are developing a pincer operation from the north and the south. And we are between them. The Philippines have withdrawn to the Penitrall over 10. Here they are making a determined stand. While the island of Corregidor was under bombardment, deep in one of its air raid shelters, a dramatic scene was being enacted. This is a lot different from that first inauguration when Manuel L. Quezon was sworn in for the first time as President of the Philippines. There were a quarter of a million people there then. Bands playing, people cheering, distinguished visitors on the stand. I'm writing this in an air raid shelter in Corregidor. President Quezon has just taken his oath for a second term. With us here are General Douglas MacArthur, US High Commissioner Francis B. Sayer, and a group of Army officers and nurses representing both the United States and the Philippines. All during the simple ceremony, we could hear the crash of shells and bombs above and the crack of our ACAC guns. We can hear them now as I write this. I remember six years ago after the President Quezon took the oath he said, we shall be beset with serious difficulties, but we shall march resolutely ahead. Today, while bombs and shells are falling on his land and his people, he is of the same opinion. After his oath a few minutes ago, President Quezon said, no matter what sufferings and sacrifices this war imposes upon us, we stand by America with undaunted spirit. I humbly invoke the help of Almighty God that I may have the wisdom and the fortitude to carry out this solemn obligation. The American and the Filipino forces fought it out on Batan and of Corregidor. The Japanese came on and on, were thrown back again and again at last Batan fell. Corregidor fell a month later. 3,000 Americans and 21,000 Filipinos died on Batan. From the first day of the invasion, the Japanese directed their propaganda to win the Filipinos to their side. This war is being waged by Japan to free the Oriental peoples from the Anglo-American domination. Your salvation lies in forgetting the Occidental culture. The Filipinos listened silently and held their own counsel. We Filipinos are my lays and we are proud of our race. We have preserved what is best in Oriental habits and customs. But we are determined to preserve our Christian faith and our Occidental culture. We are the link between the peoples of Asia and the peoples of the Occident. Today the Filipinos stand on the threshold of the independence they have sought and striven for down through the years. Today the headquarters of the government of the Philippines is established in Washington, D.C. And in a broadcast from there to his people in bondage in the Philippines, President Kizan has said, We are one of the United Nations. And whether the war is over before or after July 4, 1946, the date fixed for the establishment of the Philippine Republic, we shall have our own representation in the peace conference. Our independence is already a reality. With the help of the United States, we shall rebuild our ravaged land and make of it a prosperous member of the family of free nations. In the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the United States has shown the way in relations between the western peoples and the peoples of the Pacific and Asia. And now to tell you the significance behind this achievement, the national broadcasting company presents Colonel Carlos P. Ramulo, Secretary of Information and Public Relations in the Philippine War Cabinet and author of the National Best Seller, I Saw the Fall of the Philippines. The next voice you will hear will be that of Colonel Ramulo. We take you now to New York. Let those who scoff at idealism as the basis of the relationship between nations listen to the story of America in the Philippines and see if they can continue in their mistaken belief that the legitimate aspirations of subject peoples can be dismissed as mere emotional fresh theology or that to hold it up as the pattern for the world to follow is to escape into a new dream world of the future. The common attack of those who refuse to be enlightened by the example of Filipino-American relationship is to say that the approach is one-sided and that there is a strong tendency to skip the dull facts and draw an exciting blueprint of a utopia. Too much idealism, they say, and they decry what they believe is indifference to reality. There is always an attempt to belittle the advocacy of freedom and liberalism by resort to the use of such statements as, quote, the idea of political independence has such brilliance that all other problems grow pale in its presence, unquote, and that to dwell on it is to live in a rarefied moral atmosphere. The time has come when the legitimate aspirations of subject peoples must be met squarely without innuendos and indirection. It is not one-sided to predicate beliefs on fundamental principles. We are engaged in a global war and we are sacrificing the lives of the flower of our youth because we believe in freedom. Freedom is indivisible. Let's say we are fighting for freedom, we mean freedom for all. This is basic and paramount for all peoples of all races. While conditions may vary in different countries, the one invariable is that freedom must not only be the ultimate goal for every nation, but that every step taken in the relationship between the governor and the governed must lead to its achievement. The time is passed for the belief that the desire of nations to be free is mere emotional physiology. The desire for freedom may be basically emotional, but let us not ignore the fact that it is also grounded on sound economics. Let me say now that political freedom alone does not and cannot guarantee economic security and well-being for any nation or people. The road to economic security and well-being is a long and arduous one for every nation under the sun. No nation or people can set out on that road without political freedom. For without political freedom, a people cannot attempt to build an economy most advantageous to itself, but must ever be subservient to the economic welfare of the sovereign nation. To draw the attention of the world today to America's record in the Philippines is to give to the world of the future not a dream, but the example of an accomplished fact and to mankind a blueprint not of a utopia, but of a masterpiece in human relationship which is essentially human. Its life motif is unquestionably idealistic, but it successes due to America's realistic approach to the Philippine problem. America went to the Philippines, compelled by the exigencies of the Spanish-American War. It was an entirely new venture for her. As a novice in colonization, she could have followed a pattern that was current at the time in the Far East, but American idealism won and she decided to blaze a new trail by following a policy of her own which was the Philippines for the Filipinos. For a white sovereign nation in the Far East to epitomize its policy in such words was the height of what was then as needed as an impractical idealism. But the American people who have an inherent contempt for imperialism were unwavering in their determination to carry it out and in pursuing it unswervingly they won the friendship, gratitude and loyalty of the Filipino people. America at the turn of the century found herself in the Philippines at the crossroads of idealism and exploitation. She chose to respect the dignity of the human soul and in showing that respect she selected the realistic approach. For in the foxholes of Batam, the Filipinos showed the dividends earned by American idealism. What greater victory? What greater profit can a nation covet than America's preeminent place in the grateful heart of 17 million Filipinos? The roots of unsatisfactory conditions in colonial areas lie not so much in the unsatisfied yearning for self-determination of subject people as in their conviction that the fulfillment of promises of freedom made to them is dependent more on the economic interests of the sovereign nation than on their own welfare. America conscious of this because she herself had had to overthrow a foreign yoke to be able to assert her genius as a nation, recognize freedom as an essential to Filipino progress and therefore not only promise freedom but afford that the Filipinos all the instruments necessary for the attainment of their national goals. Real freedom never can be a gift but is the result of an organic growth. America did not have freedom to the Filipino people on a silver platter but America helped the Filipinos to grow to deserve freedom. Independence is never given, it is earned. If the world can only catch the spirit behind America's work in the Philippines and realize that freedom is not an abstract doctrine but a concrete objective, so concrete and so definite that all freedom-loving nations today have thrown all the resources in manpower and material to defeat its enemies. We would be laying the foundations of permanent peace. America has shown the way. Thank you Colonel Carlos P. Romulo. You have been listening to the Pacific story presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross currents of the life in the Pacific basin. For a reprint of this Pacific story send 10 cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press Berkeley, California. The Pacific story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. Your narrator, Gaine Whitman. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.