Description

From December 1941 to May 1942, Japan invaded and conquered the Philippines, before presiding over a brutal three-year-plus occupation of islands. The U.S. commander in the Philippines, the legendary General Douglas MacArthur (1880 – 1964), famously declared “I will return”, when he was forced to leave the country. While the Filipino resistance (Kilusan ng Paglaban sa Pilipinas) would fight a very brave guerilla war against the Japanese regime, they were regrettably not strong enough to liberate their country unassisted.

During the Philippines Campaign (October 1944 – August 1945), MacArthur honored his word, leading a U.S. force that in total would involve over 1.25 million troops. Fighting alongside the Filipino resistance, the Americans methodically deconstructed the Japanese hold over the islands, resulting in many titanic battles and daring acts of heroism. The Philippines was finally liberated on August 15, 1945, when the Japanese surrendered. This set the Philippines on the course to gaining its independence from the United States, which was achieved on July 4, 1946.

The present map showcases all the Philippines and, while undated, was obviously made during the Philippines Campaign. It outlines and labels all the major islands and bodies of water, and marks all cities, rivers and railway lines.

Gracing the upper left corner is a portrait of General MacArthur, while in the upper right corner is a portrait of Sergio Osmeña, Sr. (1878 – 1961), who served as the President of the Philippines from August 1, 1944 to May 28, 1946.

The map bears the imprint: ‘Published by Cut Rate Liquor Store / 36 n. Hotel St. / Honolulu, T.H.’, and was made as a patriotic promotional piece. Notably, Hawai’i played a key role in supporting the Philippines Campaign, and the ongoing struggle would have been of intense public interest in the territory.

Curiously, the inset map of Manila Bay, in the upper right, has that body of water misspelled as ‘Maila Bay’. Clearly, the folks at Cut Rate Liquor were enthusiastic consumers of their own products!

Not surprisingly, the map is extremely rare, as the survival rate of such fragile ephemeral works is very low. The only reference we can trace of the map is for an example from the collection of Mr. Peter Geldart, featured in the special World War II Issue of the The Murillo Bulletin: Journal of PHIMCOS, the Philippine Map Collectors Society.

References: The Murillo Bulletin: Journal of PHIMCOS, the Philippine Map Collectors Society – Special World War II Issue (August 2020), p. 21.