TREASURE HUNTING IN THE PI

Beach vendors in the Philippines sell fridge magnets, shells, coral necklaces, fake Marlboros and anything they can to tourists. At Subic Bay I was offered American ‘silver’ dollars stamped 1797.  The coins were said to be from a ship wreck hoard recovered off Mindanao the second largest island in the Philippines. Both of us wanted them to be real but knew they were fake. Realising the game was up he dropped his price from 5,000 pesos to 500 pesos (approximately US$9). At the next beach I was pursued by grinning vendors offering more ‘silver’ dollars for 500 pesos.

To see genuine shipwreck treasure I headed over to Vasco’s Hotel & Restaurant off the Argonaut Highway at the working end of Subic Bay. The former U.S. Naval Base, northwest of Manila, was closed in 1991 after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo and the Philippine Government’s decision not to extend the lease. Today it is an industrial and commercial area designated as the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. Vasco’s has its own maritime museum and Australian owner Brian Homan showed me around. Now in his seventies Brian no longer dives but is still passionate about underwater exploration and treasure hunting. Every artifact has a story and with so many on display he switches from tale to tale as they trigger his memory. A history lesson about the Manila galleon trade is mixed up with his life story as a commercial diver, treasure hunter and hotel owner. Brian reminisces about the days he spent in Puerto Galera on Mindoro Island excitedly pointing out that the names mean ‘port of the galleons’ and ‘mine of gold’.

On holiday in 1979 a Mexican traveller in a Manila bar told Brian about a stunning bay called Puerto Galera. Two days later he sailed in on a cattle boat. The cannons overlooking Muelle Pier caught his imagination and he became fascinated with the maritime history of the Philippines.

Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro voted one of the most beautiful bays in the world in 2004 by UNESCO. (Source: Asia Divers)

The marble cross at Muelle commemorates the sinking of the battleship Cannonero Mariveles in a storm on November 18th 1879. The battleship was despatched to protect Puerto Galera from Moro pirates who were raiding the area. A wooden cross in memory of the crew was replaced with marble in 1938.

Brian quit his job, became a professional diver and spent the next 35 years searching the islands for ship wrecks. The Philippines was then firmly under the control of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and he made his first discovery in August 1983 on the same day opposition leader Ninoy Aquino was assassinated on the tarmac at Manila International Airport. Sixty feet below the surface of the Verde Island Passage he found a native sailing ship loaded with Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain and some half buried, coral encrusted, dragon jars. At the time Brian knew next to nothing about the story of the Manila galleons and headed off to the National Museum in Manila to report his find. Their underwater archaeology section were happy to work with him but desperately underfunded. Before Brian could teach them to scuba dive he had to teach them how to swim.

Ming Dynasty porcelain and dragon jars on display in Vasco’s maritime museum.

Because of the scarcity of written records and lack of metal in their construction most pre-colonial wrecks were found by chance by fishermen. Antiques would appear in the showrooms of Manila dealers leaving only a small window of time before the exact location of a wreck was known and plundered by looters. Along the way Brian pioneered the diving industry in Puerto Galera, established the first dive resort on Sabang beach – Capt’n Greggs and was first to explore and document the World War 2 wrecks of Coron Bay.

Two weeks after the US withdrawal from Subic Bay Brian arrived in style at the helm of a replica Spanish galleon built by a European consortium to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America. He docked the galleon at what is now the Subic Bay Yacht Club where it became a tourist attraction.

Wrecks that were previously off limits in the bay could now be explored and Brian was the first person licensed to run a scuba diving business. There is very little coral diving in the area due to volcanic ash fall from Mount Pinatubo but at least 19 known shipwrecks including both American and Japanese WWII vessels, a battle cruiser, cargo ships, a jet fighter, landing craft and patrol boats. The most famous is the armoured cruiser USS New York scuttled in 1941 to prevent Japanese ships from entering the bay.

The replica galleon was made from European pinewood which deteriorated and rotted in the tropical climate. Brian managed to salvage rigging, blocks and tackle and various wooden fittings that he used in the construction of his hotel. In February 2000 Vascos opened in sight of the Subic Bay Yacht Club and Subic Bay International Airport providing the opportunity to display his treasures. Previously the site was a wasteland being an abandoned coaling and re-fueling station of the U.S. Navy.

Vascos bar with ceramics and coral encrusted Japanese rifles on display.

Through story boards and dioramas the museum tells the story of the Spanish ships known as Manila galleons that between 1565 and 1815 made an annual round trip across the Pacific between Manila and Acapulco. During this period the galleons were the sole means of communication and the economic lifeline between Spain and its Philippine colony. Their cargoes of Chinese silk, perfumes, porcelain, cotton fabric and precious stones were transported overland by mule train from Acapulco to Veracruz and then by sea to Seville, Spain. On the return voyage the galleons brought back huge quantities of Mexican silver and communications from Spain. The Spanish in Manila depended on the trade so much that when a ship was lost at sea or captured by English pirates their colony was plunged into economic depression. The importance of the trade however declined in the late 18th century as other powers began to trade directly with China.

In the 250 years history of the Manila – Acapulco galleon trade there were at least 400 recorded voyages, with 59 shipwrecks, 41 of which occurred in Philippine waters. A combination of typhoons, uncharted waters and strong tidal currents made the Cavite – Verde Island Passage – San Bernardino Strait (marked by the dotted line) the most dangerous section. During the Spanish colonial period shipwrecks and their economic impact were regarded as major disasters alongside earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Brian ends his tour in the office where his most valuable finds are locked away. The last thing he shows me is a typed notebook with co-ordinates, manifest details and the names of unrecovered wrecks lying on the seabed close to Vigan on the west coast of Luzon. The notebook was left to him by an old shipmate who studied Medieval Spanish so that he could follow up leads in museums and libraries across the world. Like the old prospector Howard in the movie – ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ Brian becomes animated by the thought of one final treasure hunt. His stories have been polished over many years of telling and he concludes:

“I’ve been doing what I’ve loved since I was a teenager. I am so committed to the sea and diving that I lost two good wives…I’ve slowed down as I don’t want to lose my third wife”.

Approved by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Brian now plants replica cannons, anchors and other parts of Spanish galleons on the seabed as an artificial reef to attract marine life, protect the environment and promote tourism. His treasure charts he declares are freely available to anyone willing to follow in his footsteps.

Muelle Cultural Heritage Park, Puerto Galera.

A quiet corner overlooking the bay.

Vascos, Subic Bay.

Snapshots of a treasure hunter. (Source: Kevin Hamdorf Photography)

AMAZING LUBANG OCCIDENTAL MINDORO, PHILIPPINES

The week before Malaysia’s first Covid lockdown I bought Hiroo Onoda’s: ‘No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War’ from a second-hand bookshop in Penang. Onoda was a Lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army who refused to surrender at the end of World War II hiding out on Lubang Island in the Philippines for 29 years. Tucked inside the flyleaf was a collection of yellowed newspaper cuttings about Onoda from his emergence in 1974 to one dated 2005. Someone intrigued by the story had followed his life closely. His death in 2014 made world headlines and he is still a popular subject for film makers.

Onoda was sent to Lubang in December 1944 to conduct guerrilla warfare after US soldiers landed. His orders stated he was not to surrender under any circumstances or take his own life. In February 1945 Onoda took to the hills with three other soldiers. One surrendered in March 1950, one was shot and killed by a search party in May 1954 and the third was shot and killed by police in October 1972. From then on Onoda was alone until he surrendered on March 9th 1974.

Lubang Island, the Philippines (Source: Daily Mail).

Located 150 kilometres southwest of Manila Lubang is a long narrow island approximately 10 kilometres north to south and 30 kilometres east to west. The northern part is suitable for planting rice and grazing cattle. The southern side, mainly rugged cliffs and small sandy beaches, is home to a few fishermen. Lubang isn’t remote but certainly off the beaten track without even a mention in Lonely Planet. There are no commercial flights and the island is connected to Luzon by fast craft or RORO (roll on roll off) from Nasugbu. Today the population is around 25,000 double the number when Onoda was ordered there in 1944.

Before catching the bus to Nasugbu I visit the Philippine Air Force Aerospace Museum in Pasay. One of their display cabinets is misleadingly titled: ‘Philippine Air Force Task Force ‘Onoda’, The Rescue of Hiroo Onoda’. Along with his helmet and patched green uniform it has cooking utensils, glass bottles and the bolt action Arisaka Type 99 rifle he cleaned daily.

On March 10th 1974 Lt. Hiroo Onoda formally surrendered at the radar base on Lubang. Major General J.L. Rancudo of the Philippine Air Force inspects his sword whilst Akihisa Kashiwai leader of the search party and Onoda salute.

The Lubang Tourism Facebook page turns out to be a clone and there is no reply to my e-mail enquiry about ferry times. With no online booking for hotels the experience reminds me of pre-internet travel.

At Wawa pier I buy a ticket for the following day’s Lubang Express. Foreign visitors stand out here and the port security guard tips off a crew member who arranges a tricycle driver to meet me at Tilik pier. Unlike most Filipinos he doesn’t speak English but automatically drops me off at the Seabourn Beach Resort. Recognising the name Onoda he agrees a pick up at 8am the next day.

A trikeney ? The only place in the Philippines I’ve encountered tricycles disguised as jeepneys.

In town I make the mistake of wandering into the Municipal Building’s tourism office. Ms. Gina Julaton, the senior tourism operations officer, is unimpressed by independent travellers even those who have done their homework. The Onoda trail turns out to be overgrown and too dangerous to trek, Mt. Ambulong can’t be visited without permission from Gozar Air Station (unlikely), the waves are too high to reach the Spanish lighthouse on Cabra Island (unless I hire a private banca for 5,000 pesos) and she won’t direct me to the ruins of Fort Santa Catalina because they haven’t been cleared. I remind her of their ‘Amazing Lubang’ brand and point out that I’ve waited three years to visit. She offers a half day tour of the Onoda Caves led by one of their approved guides. When I reply that I’ve already booked a tricycle she wants to know the name of the driver and warns we might be stopped by the police. I refuse to rat him out and since my presence on the island is now officially known I end up with two expedition guides.

Lubang town on the windswept north shore.

The caves are the centrepiece of the designated Onoda Trail that if permitted would take three days to traverse. The trek to the caves turns out to be a short uphill climb marked by huge marble boulders and slabs. My tourist guide struggles along but is knowledgeable about the forest pointing out century old trees, fruit bearing trees and jackfruit, coconut, guava, banana and pineapple plants. Like many of the islanders he carries a bolo knife in a wooden sheath and claims his was fashioned by Onoda from a bayonet. He acquired it later from one of the Task Force members who ‘rescued’ Onoda. I appear impressed by the story and pose for a picture with his knife inside the main cave. The four caves formed from marble have ancient stalactites standing at the entrances. Inside bats and swallows have made their nests. Onoda described the main cave on what he called Snake Mountain but didn’t use it because of the fear of being discovered.

Caves formed from marble described by locals as black tiger because of their blue and purple stripes when wet.

The thought of jungle conjures up an area overgrown with trees and dense, tangled vegetation that needs a bolo to hack through. More accurately the mountainous area of Lubang is covered in tropical rainforest. Although uncomfortable to live in the rainforest does offers concealment and is not difficult to move around in. Onoda estimated that the Philippine military would have needed two battalions of troops to locate them. His group developed a circuit around the centre of the island staying in one place for only a few days depending on the weather and food supply.

View from highway on the north shore towards the mountains where Onoda hid out.

Onoda’s chapter: ‘Jungle Life’ describes how they survived by living off the land. Bananas boiled in coconut milk were their principal staple and when available smoked beef from cows they butchered. There is no malaria on the island and they maintained good health always boiling stream water before drinking. What the jungle couldn’t provide they ‘requisitioned’ from the islanders including rice, coffee, clothing and in the 1960s a transistor radio. During the dry season they slept in army tents and in the wet season (July to October) built huts confident that the local people and search parties wouldn’t venture into the mountains.

The south of the island is less populated mainly rugged cliffs interspersed with small beaches.

After the caves we visit the Philippine-Japan Friendship Shrine a stone marker overlooking Tilik harbour which may have been the burial site of Private Kozuka killed in 1972. At the end of the tour I’m told that ‘entry’ to each tourist site costs 500 pesos in addition to the guide’s fees. I’m back at the resort for lunch having answered the question of how Onoda could have survived in the jungle for so long.

Understanding Onoda’s motivation is more complex. He ends his story by asking:

‘Why had I fought here for thirty years?  Who had I been fighting for?  What was the cause?’.

Despite surrender leaflets, newspapers left in the jungle and loudspeaker broadcasts from family members Onoda continued to holdout. It was an encounter with a university dropout Norio Suzuki that finally convinced him to surrender but only when formally ordered by his old commanding officer. (Suzuki said he wanted to search for: ‘Lieutenant Onoda, a panda and the Abominable Snowman, in that order’. In 1986 he died in an avalanche searching for the yeti.) Japanese public opinion was divided between those who saw Onoda as a hero and those who regarded him as an embarrassing reminder of the past. Onoda worried he would be labelled as a traitor to the emperor and may have feared retribution from the islanders. The President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos immediately granted him a full pardon for his actions in a televised ceremony.

In the evening I meet the resort’s only other guest Ms. Nori Santos, a retired chemistry teacher from Manila. In 2008 she bought land in the south of the island building the Kaypalad homestay with her former Swiss partner Christian Schmutz. Apart from him there is only one other foreigner living permanently on Lubang. Over the years Ms. Santos has listened to the islander’s tales about Onoda and assisted reporters and film makers. She describes him as a hermit type figure suffering from Stockholm syndrome who probably fraternised with the locals. Our discussion is cut short by a group of locals firing up the dreaded videoke machine which appears to be the only night-time entertainment on the island.

The Kaypalad (blessed in Tagalaog) homestay, barangay Binakas in the south of the island. Not off grid but secluded enough to attract well heeled hippies and wellness freaks. (Source: www.facebook.com/kaypalad.binakas)

LORD HEADFORT

The most useful resource I found before visiting Lubang was http://www.delahyde.com/lubang/ the personal website of David Hyde. Between 2008 and 2014 he made regular trips photographing all aspects of island life. From his site I learnt of another holdout from the modern world with a story as interesting as Onoda’s.

On October 21st 2005 Thomas Geoffrey Charles Michael Taylour, the sixth Marquis of Headfort died aged 73 at Kenlis House on Lubang. His obituary was printed in the Daily Telegraph on 8th December 2005.

Lord Headfort was born in 1932, educated at Stowe and completed his National Service as a Lieutenant in the Life Guards before going up to Christ College Cambridge. He inherited Kells Estate in County Meath, Ireland but travelled the world as a salesman of civil aircraft. Headfort married his first wife in 1958 and had three children before his divorce in 1968.

He had his first brush with the law as a student when he was fined £2 in Acton for driving with his arm around a girl but gained notoriety in 1965 for an alleged attempt to recruit a hotel waiter on the Isles of Scilly to murder Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The man informed the police who escorted Headfort to St. Lawrence’s Hospital at Bodmin. He was released and from his home in Ireland denied the story. Neighbours described how Headfort, wearing a Stetson, had once fired three blanks into the ceiling of a pub during a party. They added that he was known for his high spirits, practical jokes and was regarded as a crack shot.

Headfort suffered from manic depression linked to alcoholism requiring occasional hospitalisation. In 1987 his last speech in the House of Lords was a tribute to the work of Alcoholics Anonymous and he did not drink for the remainder of his life.

In 1972 he married his second wife Virginia Nable, a friend of Imelda Marcos who visited Ireland the following year staying at Kells Estate. Before moving to the Philippines Headfort was for a time an auxiliary Inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Police.

The former Kenlis House residence of the sixth Marquis of Headfort until his death in 2005.

The beach in front of Kenlis House.

While in Lubang he put his Motor Yacht Kenlis II at the disposal of the coast guard and as an honorary officer in the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary assisted many fishing boats in distress. He built his home Kenlis House at Tagbac Cove and also had a 4 hectares farm. Lord and Lady Headfort donated a public library and he was an active philanthropist supporting local schools, fishermen the airport and hospitals. In addition to his local workforce the estate became a refuge for a curious mix of foreigners including an ex-French foreign legionnaire and mercenary, a former NASA engineer and a fugitive financial consultant wanted in UK.

Today Kenlis House with its prime beachfront location remains boarded up and neglected. Climbing over the fence I peered through the windows: books still lay scattered across a coffee table, faded pictures hang on the walls and the rooms are full of typical ornaments picked up in Asia.

Source:  www.delahyde.com

Closure of the Philippines during the global pandemic coincided with renewed interest in Onoda’s story.

In 2021 the movie: ‘Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle’ was released and the following year film maker Werner Herzog published his debut novel: ‘The Twilight World’ a semi-fictionalized account of Onoda on Lubang. Herzog notes at the start:

‘Most details are factually correct; some are not.’

Filipino–Australian Mia Stewart is currently working on her own documentary film: ‘Searching for Onoda’. Ms Stewart’s great-uncle was allegedly killed by Onoda during one of his raids to gather supplies. According to reports up to thirty farmers died from gunshot wounds during the time he was in the jungle. Some believe not all were killed by the soldiers. Rustlers from Luzon may have been responsible knowing the Japanese would be blamed. Ms. Stewart seeks to address this and tell the story from a Filipino perspective.

Apart from being known as the hideout of Japanese World War II stragglers Lubang is off the radar for most tourists. As such it remains an area of pristine jungle, unspoiled beaches and marine protected areas without the problems from overtourism that affect more popular destinations.

Hemingway enjoying his Asian tour.

In November 1940, two months after publication of his Spanish Civil War novel: ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, American author Ernest Hemingway married his third wife war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Paramount Studios paid him $100,000 for the movie rights and announced that film star Gary Cooper would play the leading role.

At the height of his fame Hemingway agreed to accompany his wife on assignment for Colliers Magazine to cover the Sino-Japanese war. Years later in: ‘Travels with Myself and Another’ Gellhorn wrote about: ‘the horror journeys’ of her life including what Hemingway called their honeymoon trip to China in 1941.

According to Peter Moreira’s: ‘Hemingway on the China Front – His World War II Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn’, they went to China:

‘surreptitiously gathering intelligence for the (US) government.’

Hemingway’s  mission was to gather information on relations between Mao Tse-tung’s communists and Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists.

Clipping from Austin American-Statesman January 31st 1941.

On February 1st 1941 the couple set sail from San Francisco to Honolulu aboard the luxury liner SS Matsonia. After Hawaii they took Pan Am’s China Clipper flying boat service to Hong Kong via Guam with a longer stop-over in Manila. Hemingway stayed in Manila again on his return journey but apart from its climate the sweltering capital didn’t make any lasting impression on the famous writer. In Hemingway’s fiction and journalism no reference of any importance is made to the Philippines. By contrast his visit was eagerly reported in the local press.

Postcard of the Matson Lines Luxury Liner Matsonia. 

The China Clipper in Paradise by David Ferris.

Arriving at the Manila Hotel he was mobbed by admiring Filipino journalists and authors from the Philippine Writers League who faithfully transcribed his every utterance.

The Official Gazette, official journal of the Republic of the Philippines, has the following entry in their ‘History from Day to Day’ column, Philippine Magazine 38 (April 1941):

Feb 21 – Ernest Hemingway, celebrated novelist, and wife arrive in Manila by Clipper, in message to Philippine Writers League he states:

‘I think a writer’s gravest problem, always, is to write the truth and still eat regularly’.

Ernest Hemingway was greeted in Manila by F. Mangahas, President of the Philippine Writer’s League and Amando G. Dayrit.  ‘Al’ Valencia in dark glasses. (photo from Philippines Magazine, Volume 1, No.4 1941).

Six feet tall and weighing in at 225 pounds Hemingway towered above the diminutive Filipinos. Throughout his life he enjoyed the finest food and drink and in later years suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure with his weight peaking at 260. In his posthumously published novel about expat life in Paris: ‘A Moveable Feast’ he described hunger as: ‘good discipline’ becoming a metaphor for literary success. Hemingway’s impoverished life as a young man in Paris created a deep desire to experience life and channel this experience as a creative force in his writing.

Philippine journalist and wartime correspondent ‘Al’ Valencia met Hemingway for drinks at the Manila Hotel. When his home in Manila was destroyed during the war he lost everything but saved his autographed copy of ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. (Source: Gina Wileman)

Hemingway signing a book for a young Filipino writer named Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez (From the Facebook page of Nestor’s daughter).

The welcoming committee were struck by Hemingway’s courtesy towards his fellow writers and throughout the author’s stay he was happy to autograph his new book. Even when presented with copies pirated in Shanghai, for which he received no royalty, he just grinned and autographed it.

Hemingway told them:

‘That you should write at all (and so well) in this intense heat makes your achievement truly marvelous. You should do all your important writing before six o’clock in the morning.’

At home in Cuba his schedule was to write every morning as soon as possible after first light when it was still cool and there was no one around to disturb him.

Hemingway’s writing has been mined for quotes on everything from life to love to war and writing. The Manila Hotel still dines out on one of the big man’s less inspired utterances: ‘If the story’s any good, it’s like Manila Hotel.’

The Manila Hotel was opened in 1912 on reclaimed land along the former Malecon a famous seafront beauty spot. In the lobby was the Pan Am office where Clipper passengers made reservations and dropped off luggage. As Manila Bay was considered too rough for flying boat landings the Clipper was moored eight miles south of the city at Cavite Naval Base.

Today the hotel is opposite what remains of the historic walled city of Intramuros founded by the Spanish in 1571. The moats were later filled in by American town planners turning them into sunken gardens and a public golf course.

There are several paragraphs about Hemingway’s last night in Manila in the June 1941 issue of the American Chamber of Commerce Journal. Published under the heading: ‘Just Little Things’, a column of anecdotes and business talk, the article bears no by-line but may have been written by the journal’s editor Walter Robb.

Much of Hemingway’s time was spent with old Basque friends from Pamplona, Havana and New York hanging out at the fourth floor Sky Room of the Manila Jai Alai Building on Taft Avenue. The Basque people originated from the mountainous region of northern Spain, which he famously called:

‘the country that I loved more than any other except my own,’

Spain provided the inspiration and setting for his major works including: The Sun Also Rises (1926), Death in the Afternoon (1932) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). The author was the most prominent foreigner amongst the writers and journalists who sided with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War making it problematic for him to visit after the victory of General Franco’s Nationalists in  1939. Hemingway moved to Cuba the same year living there for 22 years, longer than any place in his life.

‘Three hundred years in a convent and fifty in Hollywood’  – is a shorthand for the Philippines colonial experience;  governed by Spain from 1565 to 1898 and then America from 1898 to 1946.

To the English writer Aldous Huxley writing in the 1930’s the Philippines was unlike any other country in the Orient:

‘It is Spain – diluted, indeed, distorted, and overlaid with Americanism.’

The Jai Alai fronton.

Hemingway was passionate about bullfighting and deep sea fishing, sports that became recurring themes in his fiction. Although his Manila sojourn was too short to enjoy either he was an enthusiastic spectator at the jai alai fronton. Jai alai (Pronounced ‘HY+UH+LY’) involves bouncing a ball called a pelota off a walled in space or fronton using a hand-held wicker basket known as a cesta. The game originated in the Basque region. Dubbed the fastest sport in the world it was also extremely dangerous. Played originally without helmets so the crowd could see the player’s expressions smashed teeth were common and sometimes death.

Before World War 2 the Manila Jai Alai Building was considered the finest art deco building in Asia. After the sport was banned in 1986 because of game fixing and murder it fell into disrepair and was demolished in 2000.

On Hemingway’s final night he had to leave the Manila Hotel at 2am to catch the China Clipper but at midnight was still drinking in the Sky Room. One of the Basques took him back, helped him pack and together they sang folk songs all the way to Cavite. Hemingway just made his flight to Hong Kong.

The walled city of Intramuros, Manila. (Image copyright: Justin James Wright)

Pre-war Intramuros was famous for its places of worship known as the Seven Churches of Intramuros an allusion to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Most were destroyed during the battle for Manila in 1945. One of the most distinctive with its tall bell tower was the San Nicolas Tolentino Church of the Augustinian Recollects. The Augustinian Recollects are a catholic religious order of friars and nuns who came to the Philippines from the Basque region of Spain in 1606. After the war the ruins of San Nicolas remained standing, until it was demolished in 1959.

Hemingway took time to visit these priests who he admired from his time in Spain. He told his interviewer that men:

‘don’t come any better in any package.’

One of the fathers presented him with a suitable gift – a bottle of 80 years old Napoleon brandy.

Ernest Hemingway grew up a Protestant in Oak Park Chicago but converted to Catholicism when he married his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer. He later told Gary Cooper that becoming a Catholic was one of the best things he’d done in his life.

At his funeral in 1961 there was no formal Catholic service. Whether his death was an accident or suicide by shotgun was undecided at the time but had no bearing on the funeral. The fact that Hemingway had been divorced barred him from a Catholic Church funeral.

Hemingway & Gellhorn arrive in Hong Kong, South China Morning Post.

Hemingway was still on good form when he arrived in Hong Kong on February 22nd. Holding court  at the bar of the Hong Kong Hotel he boasted to one reporter about his book sales:

‘Drink up, drink up, I’m in the money,’

Gellhorn, unimpressed and largely ignored went out to do some serious reporting on Hong Kong’s social condition. Eventually tired of her husband’s ‘loafing’ she persuaded him to move to the Repulse Bay Hotel on the south of the island for some rest before their trip to China. She had been eager to visit China since childhood but Hemingway had little interest. He had not he said spent his formative years:

‘stuffing his imagination with Fu Manchu and Somerset Maugham,’

The couple travelled to Chongqing, Chengdu and Shanghai meeting Chiang Kai-shek, his wife Soong Mei-ling and Zhou Enlai but the trip was physically demanding. They endured dangerous flights, travel by mule, bedbugs and Gellhorn suffering from ‘China rot’ that caused the skin between her fingers to ooze puss. Hemingway moaned constantly. In her memoirs, she refers to him as Unwilling Companion, or U.C. for short. He only seemed to come alive when challenged to a drinking competition by a group of Chinese generals.

Gellhorn soon lost all her illusions, disappointed by the lack of vigour with which the war was was being waged against the Japanese and appalled by the squalor, the corruption and the deep social divisions:

‘An overlord class and tens of millions of expendable slaves was how China looked to me,’ 

Hemingway travelled home alone while Gellhorn flew on to Burma, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. He was still in a sour mood when seen off from Hong Kong on May 6th. The Clipper was crowded and he was not looking forward to the flight to Manila, to Guam, to Wake Island, to Midway, to Hawaii.

According to Moreira Hemingway couldn’t stand Manila and spent five nights there drunk and miserable:

‘He described the city as a place where people didn’t ask for someone at a hotel desk; they just asked a houseboy where the room was and barged in. He was getting sick of people talking to him about For Whom the Bell Tolls…and he was tired of answering questions about it.’

To escape ‘the dreariness’ of Manila Hemingway accepted an invitation from local flyer George Rowe to fly to Baguio known as the ‘Summer Capital of the Philippines’ because of its altitude and cool climate.

On May 11th he attended a dinner by the Philippine Writer’s Association. Carlos Baker in his official biography of Hemingway wrote:

‘everyone’s attempt to be gaily informal bored him so much that he got too drunk to care….

In Manila Hemingway made a few more notes and explored some of the Spanish bars of Intramuros. Otherwise his sole gain from the Philippine stopover was a good short summer haircut.’

He became short tempered with journalists when reporters asked him what was happening in China shouting at them that if they wanted to find out they should go for themselves. Hemingway did however pay attention to local news being so moved by a huge fire in Tondo that he donated 500 pesos to a fund for the victims. Tondo remains a notorious slum area still prone to fires today.

Manila’s coat of arms incorporates the waves of Manila Bay surmounted by a sea-lion and a pearl in its shell. The sea-lion represented the islands’ former status as a Spanish colony whilst the upper portion references the city’s nickname – ‘Pearl of the Orient.’ Pre-war Manila was far from dreary it’s culture closer in atmosphere to Havana than to Hong Kong, Shanghai or Singapore. There were no high-rise buildings, it was clean, the water was safe and crime practically non-existent The city’s total population was around six hundred thousand, a tenth of present day Metro Manila.

In a region of colonies the Philippines was unique in having an assurance of independence. The islands had been granted Commonwealth status in 1935 with full independence scheduled in 1946. High society was dominated by old established families but a colonial mentality persisted conjured by the phrase ‘Manila Americans.’ According to a 1939 census, excluding the military, there were only 8,709 Americans resident in the Philippines with 5,149 living in Manila and the neighbouring province.

Florence Horn’s 1941 travelogue – ‘Orphans of the Pacific’  had this to say about the American community:

‘Americans in Manila are like Americans in Mexico City and Americans in Maracaibo and Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro. They build for themselves a barricaded American life wherever they are. They insulate themselves as thoroughly as possible against the life of the country they are in. . . They grouse continually about petty inconveniences, and berate this miserable native bitterly and endlessly … The American women heartily despise the Filipinos.’

Manila with its tropical lifestyle, similarity to Havana and expatriate American community should have been Hemingway’s kind of town. The city was the same, what had changed during his three month’s tour was Hemingway’s mood. He later referred to his Asian journey as: ‘that unshakeable hangover’.

In 2006 Dr. Christopher D. Martin, a psychiatrist, published a study on Hemingway’s mental health history finding significant evidence that he presented symptoms of bipolar disorder, possible borderline and narcissistic personality traits exacerbated by a lifetime of alcoholism along with a genetic predisposition towards mental illness.

When the United States entered World War 2 Hemingway was at home in Cuba. He armed his boat the Pilar with tommy guns and grenades supplied by the Office of Naval Intelligence before setting out on anti-submarine patrols. Thinking that a German submarine would come close to barter or steal fish his crew of Basque jai alai players would lob hand grenades down the conning tower of the submarine and open fire with machine guns. They never encountered any submarines. Gellhorn unimpressed saw it as an excuse to go drinking and fishing with his crew and promptly left to cover the real war in Europe.

In 1945 the couple were divorced Gellhorn famously stating that she didn’t want to become a footnote in someone else’s life.

Hemingway’s 1937 novel: ‘To Have and Have Not’ set in Key West and Cuba was the template for countless books and movies about a tough guy on a boat. In 1952 Warner Bros. released ‘Mara Maru’  starring Errol Flynn and Ruth Roman. Flynn played an ex-PT boat commander running a salvage business in Manila and hunting for sunken treasure.

SOURCES

Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, (1969), Carlos Baker

Travels with Myself and Another. New York: Penguin, (2001), Martha Gellhorn

Orphans of the Pacific, (1941), Florence Horn

Language of the Street and other Essays, (1980), Nick Joaquin

Ernest Hemingway: How Mental Illness Plagued the Writer and His Family, Barbara Maranzani, April 2 2021,  www.biography.com

Hemingway on the China Front – His World War II Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn, (2006), Peter Moreira

Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway’s Secret Adventures, 1935-1961, (2017), Nicholas Reynolds

Ernest Hemingway and my Grandfather: An Enduring Friendship, Gina Wileman, medium.com

‘Just Little Things’, June 1941 issue of the American Chamber of Commerce Journal

The American Minority in the Philippines During the Pre-War Commonwealth Period, Gerald E. Wheeler, Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia

‘Glory Days’ published in the November 2007 issue of Tatler Philippines

‘In love and war: a Hong Kong honeymoon for Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn’, Stuart Heaver, South China Morning Post Magazine, October 12th 2019