Manila Today
Photograph

Manila Today

February 12, 1945
Gelatin silver print
Paper: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Gift of Joanna T. Steichen, ex-collection Edward Steichen
Inscriptions inscribed in crayon on recto TRC: Manila

printed in ink on verso: FILE NUMBER: 48216 RELEASED: FEB. 26, 1945/

MANILA TODAY/
Wracked and gutted by battle and the spiteful demolitions of the Japs,/bonce-proud Manila joins the long list of cities of the dead. The/ stately buildings which formerly housed governmental agencies are/ now largely hollow shells. The marts of trade echo only to the crash/ of falling timbers and sporadic gunfire. But in the midst of death,/ the city feels the stir of life. As General MacArthur on February/ 26, 1945, turned over the reins of civil government to the Philippine/ Commonwealth, the battered capital bound its wounds and looked forward/ to rebirth. This series of photographs was taken by a Navy photographer
on February 12, 1945./
The shambles that was Manila./

[illegible]/
"OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY [illegible]/
The Navy Department has no objection to the use of this photograph [illegible]/
advertisements, provided copy [illegible]/
publication to the [illegible]/
[illegible]/
power to waive the privacy rights of the personnel portrayed./
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