What happens
This episode of The Pacific Story, broadcast on May 21, 1944, traces the history of relations between the United States and the Philippines. It opens with the execution of schoolteacher Inventura Belo, who refused to lower the American flag during the Japanese occupation. The narrative then moves back to the turn of the century, describing Filipino guerrilla resistance to American forces, the later policy of amnesty and fair treatment, the growth of education and local self-government, and the Tydings-McDuffie Act setting a path to independence. It concludes with the inauguration of President Manuel Quezon, the Japanese attack, and the wartime fighting on Bataan and Corregidor. Commentary by Colonel Carlos P. Romulo is included.
The Philippines, from the early 1900s through the Japanese invasion of 1941 and 1942, with scenes in Manila, Corregidor, and Bataan, and a wartime broadcast from Hollywood and New York
Characters: Inventura Belo, Manuel Quezon, Carlos P. Romulo, Arthur MacArthur, William Howard Taft, Douglas MacArthur
Listen for: The account of Inventura Belo's death at the flagstaff, and President Quezon's inaugural address
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.