1 See Connaughton, Richard, Pimlott, John and Anderson, Duncan, The battle for Manila (London: Bloomsbury, 1995)Google Scholar.

2 President Harry S. Truman, as cited in Stephen Rosskamm Shalom, The United States and the Philippines: A study of neocolonialism (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1981), p. 51.

3 The cargo of the SS Bering consisted mostly of foodstuff (flour, oats, milk products and cornstarch), paper, textiles, soap and medical and electrical supplies. See ‘Imports trickle in’, American Chamber of Commerce Journal 22, 1 (Dec. 1945): 27. The opening of Manila's port to commercial shipping was not a smooth process. Initially the army controlled 12 of the harbour's 22 berths, which limited the number of civilian ships that could dock. In August 1946 it was reportedly taking from 30 to 40 days for an incoming ship to be unloaded. There was also an initial lack of warehouse facilities and transportation to service the port. See Laurence E. Hartmus, ‘Philippine business’, Wall Street Journal, 27 May 1946, p. 1; ‘Bottleneck at the piers’, Sunday Times Magazine, 25 Aug. 1946, pp. 9–11.

4 A recent addition to this field of inquiry is Dobraszczyk's, Paul Future cities: Architecture and the imagination (London: Reaktion, 2019)Google Scholar.

5 Lico, Gerard, Arkitekturang Filipino: A history of architecture and urbanism in the Philippines (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2008), p. 265Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., p. 436.

7 Ibid., p. 387.

8 The inaugural issue of the Manila Times appeared on 10 Oct. 1898. It contained the first cable in English to be received in the Philippines. See Luis Serrano, History of the Manila Times (Manila: repr. from The Philippine Colophon 4, 1–2 [Mar.–June 1966]), p. 1.

9 Ibid., p. 8. See also Lewis E. Gleeck, Jr, American institutions in the Philippines (1898–1941) (Manila: Historical Conservation Society, 1976), p. 183.

10 See Walter Simmons, ‘Tribune printed as Japs shell Manila plant’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 12 Feb. 1945, p. 5.

11 The first issue of Manila Free Philippines appeared on 9 Feb. 1945. It ceased publication on 3 September 1945, the day after the signing of the Instrument of Surrender by representatives of the Japanese government.

12 The Manila Times Publishing Co. was formed by the owners of the TVT chain of newspapers who decided to resurrect the name Manila Times rather than the title of its English-language daily, The Tribune, which had continued publication during the Japanese Occupation under Japanese management and was thus tainted by this association. See Serrano, History of the Manila Times, p. 14.

13 Boguslav arrived in the Philippines in 1923 as a technical sergeant in the US Army Medical Corps, stationed at Sternberg General Hospital in Manila. He joined the Manila Times in 1925 as a sportswriter and went on to serve in different editorial roles with the paper until 1930. After this he became editor of Manila's Tribune, a position he occupied until 8 Dec. 1941. From 1 Jan. 1942 to 3 Feb. 1945 he was held by the Japanese at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. After his release he worked as the Manila correspondent for the American Broadcasting Co., Chicago Sun and the Christian Science Monitor. See ‘David Boguslav dies; A Tribune correspondent’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 5 Sept. 5, 1962, A6; Serrano, History of the Manila Times, p. 10.

14 Initially Boguslav worked with two associates, D.H. Soriano and E. Aguilar, and an advertising manager, M.M. de Los Reyes.

15 See Sunday Times Magazine, 22 June 1947, n.p.

16 ‘Philippine economy in “Liberation Year”’, Foreign Commerce Weekly 23, 4, 27 Apr. 1946, p. 4.

17 Cipriano S. Gonzales had previously been general manager of Manila Realty Enterprises (formerly Manila Realty Co.). He was treasurer of the Philippine Realtors Association, formed in March 1944. His company had maintained an active business until the outbreak of fighting in Manila and was re-established by Dec. 1945.

18 See advertisements for C.S. Gonzales & Co. within Manila Times, 16 June 1946, p. 3; Sunday Times, 22 Sept. 1946, p. 9; Manila Times, 13 Oct. 1946, p. 9; Manila Times, 31 Dec. 1946, p. 5; Manila Times, 31 Jan. 1947, p. 11.

19 Advertisement for C.S. Gonzales & Co., Manila Times, 31 Jan. 1947, p. 11.

20 These companies included Philippine Construction Co. (Fernandez Building, Escolta), Tri-Star Construction Co. (Pilar Building, Plaza Santa Cruz), Construction Enterprises (Regina Building, Escolta) and Racor Construction Department (Dasmariñas, Binondo).

21 Based in Malacañan Palace, the City Planning Office had been re-formed after the war to advise President Osmeña on land planning and the reconstruction of Manila. Apart from Croft, members of the committee were Gregorio Gutierrez (associate land planner), Antonio Kayanan, Angel Nakpil, Marcial Esguerra and Ginez Rivera, who were supported by US army and navy personnel. See Renato Arevalo, ‘Out of the ruins: Plans for new Manila go back to program begun by late Commonwealth President’, Sunday Times, 10 June 1945, p. 6.

22 Joseph Hearst, ‘Finds war eases job of building a modern Manila’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 28 Aug. 1945, p. 3.

23 Croft advocated for the formation of a citizens group as a means of gaining public support for, and involvement in, the planning process. This group was organised in June 1945 and named the Metropolitan Manila Planning Association. It was headed by Dr Bienvenido Gonzales, former president of the University of the Philippines, and its members included leaders in business, industry and of various social and cultural groups. The association held several meetings and formed subcommittees on different aspects of city planning. By late 1947, however, and according to Croft, it had become ‘more or less inactive’. See Croft, Louis P., ‘Present status of the city planning program’, American Chamber of Commerce Journal 23, 8 (Dec. 1947): 265Google Scholar.

24 This was named the Major Thoroughfares Plan; see ‘Traffic solution’, Sunday Times Magazine, 28 Sept. 1947, p. 3.

25 See ‘Escolta: Still the main artery of commercial Manila’, Sunday Times Magazine, 13 July 1947, pp. 3–7; ‘Manila of tomorrow’, Sunday Times Magazine, 28 Sept. 1947, pp. 4–5. For Croft's own account of postwar planning in Manila, see Croft, ‘Present status of the city planning program’, pp. 264–6, 291–4.

26 Shalom, The United States and the Philippines, pp. 1–32.

27 Ibid., p. xiv. As an example of this definition Shalom describes how the Filipino political and economic elite relied upon the support of the US army in restoring law and order to the Philippines and the army's tacit collaboration in fighting the Hukbalahap of Central Luzon, the main opposition to wealthy landlords and their political allies.

28 Ynchausti y Compañia had been a Philippine industrial powerhouse with major interests in sugar plantations and milling. By the early 1930s it had agencies in IIoilo, Gubat, Sorsogon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, San Francisco and New York. See ‘Ynchausti directory’, Tribune, 23 Sept. 1933, p. 10.

29 de Borja, Marciano R., Basques in the Philippines (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2005), p. 129Google Scholar.

30 Advertisement for Elizalde & Co., Manila Times, 21 Jan. 1946, p. 5.

31 See ‘News and notes’, American Chamber of Commerce Journal 22, 5 (Aug. 1946): 27; Hartmus, ‘Philippine business’, p. 7.

32 See advertisements within Manila Times, 10 Aug. 1946, p. 3; Manila Times, 11 Aug. 1946, p. 3; Manila Times 18 Aug. 1946, p. 3. Other US brands and products imported and promoted in the Philippines by American Factors after the war were Winslow oil conditioners and elements, Seeger refrigerators, Old Sunny Brook whiskey, Lejon vermouth, Wyeth pharmaceuticals and Wyeth's SMA powdered milk.

33 Advertisement for ‘Kimsul’ insulation, Manila Times, 26 May 1946, p. 3.

34 ‘Philippine economy in “Liberation Year”’, p. 6.

35 ‘Filipino ingenuity builds a home’, Sunday Times Magazine, 13 Oct. 1946, p. 11; ‘K-rations boxes make homes for poor folk’, Sunday Times Magazine, 13 Oct. 1946, pp. 12–13.

36 See ‘Prefabricated house’, Sunday Times Magazine, 24 Nov. 1946, pp. 16–19.

37 See, for example, Manila's Tribune: 20 May 1939, p. 2; 11 June 1939, p. 17; 24 June 1939, p. 3.

38 For other advertisements for YCO Paints featuring modernist house design and interiors see Manila Times, 16 Sept. 1946, p. 3; Sunday Times, 18 May 1947, p. 2; Sunday Times Magazine, 3 Aug. 1947, p. 25; Manila Times, 6 Aug. 1947, p. 5.

39 A local competitor to American Factors and ‘Struco’ was the Mortarless Hollow Tile Co. which manufactured a similar concrete block and which also used an illustration of a modernist house design in its publicity. See advertisement for the Mortarless Hollow Tile Co. in Manila Times, 2 Oct. 1947, p. 19.

40 For instance, with its white horizontal bands, the advertised illustration could be considered a vague echo of Richard Neutra's hillside Lovell Health House in Los Angeles, completed in 1929.

41 See Pante, Michael D., ‘Peripheral pockets of paradise: Perceptions of health and geography in early twentieth-century Manila and its environs’, Philippine Studies 59, 2 (2011): 187–212Google Scholar.

42 Ibid., pp. 198–202.

43 See, for instance, an advertisement for Boulevard Heights and Addition Hills published in the Tribune, 27 Jan. 1939, p. 3. This advertisement contained photographic illustrations of newly constructed homes.

44 See advertisements for the Santa Mesa Heights subdivision in Manila Times, 19 Apr. 1947, p. 3, and Manila Times, 27 Apr. 1947, p. 3.

45 Advertisement for the Santa Mesa Heights subdivision, Manila Times, 19 July 1947, p. 3.

46 The architectural reference within this advertisement may also have been tangentially related to the architectural and engineering services that Gregorio Araneta Inc. offered. Working for the company were architects Luis Ma. Araneta and Gabriel P. Formoso and the civil engineer Luis Tagle Revilla. See advertisement for Gregorio Araneta Inc., Manila Times, 6 Jan. 1947, p. 5.

47 John A. Lent, ‘Advertising in the Philippines’, Philippine Studies 17, 1 (1969): 74.

48 Salazar, Emilio F., ‘A good look at the great game: Part I: “The hidden persuaders”—pre-war vintage’, Marketing Horizons 3, 7 (July 1964): 45Google Scholar.

49 ‘Ad bureau celebrates’, Tribune, 10 Mar. 1940, p. 2.

50 ‘Advertising Bureau Inc. celebrates 10th yr’, Tribune, 2 Mar. 1938, p. 6.

51 Lent, ‘Advertising in the Philippines’, p. 74.

52 See Emilio F. Salazar, ‘A good look at the great game: Part II: The advertising industry and its big leap postwar’, Marketing Horizons 3, 8 (Aug. 1964): 32; Lent, ‘Advertising in the Philippines’, p. 77. In 1946 Teodoro visited the United States as a delegate to the Institute of Pacific Relations. Out of this visit he wrote an essay on the main issues that ‘occupy the American mind today’ being ‘politics, strikes, food conservation to help the rest of the starving world, the Russian question, Communism, and the American foreign policy’. This essay was published in two parts in the Philippines Free Press magazine and is the only published text written by Teodoro that was found at the time of writing this article. See Pedro E. Teodoro, ‘What do American's think today?’, Philippines Free Press, 18 May 1946, pp. 4, 17; Pedro E. Teodoro, ‘What do American's think today?’, Philippines Free Press, 25 May 1946, pp. 12–14.

53 PHILPROM's other clients in the late 1940s included Lexal Laboratories, Edward J. Nell Co., Manila Building and Loan Association and William Equipment Co.

54 See Salazar, ‘A good look at the great game: Part II’, p. 33.

55 Ibid., p. 34. Salazar also mentions Jose Meily, Jr, and Antonio R. de Joya as staff within Araneta's advertising department.

56 See Lent, ‘Advertising in the Philippines’, p. 78.

57 See advertisements for ‘Struco’ concrete blocks in Manila Times, 11 May 1947, p. 21, and Manila Times, 8 June 1947, p. 22.

58 Based in Los Angeles, the Martin-Alden Corp. manufactured prefabricated ‘moderate priced’ homes in three different styles for a local market (Monterey, English Cottage and California Ranch). For their Philippine campaign, three versions of a ‘California bungalow’ home design were made available. See advertisement for Martin-Alden homes in Sunday Times Magazine, 21 Sept. 1947, p. 12.

59 Advertisement for the Valdes Reynoso Construction Corp., Sunday Times Magazine, 1 June 1947, p. 2.

60 See, for instance, the opinion of this period in Winfield Scott Smith III, ed., The art of the Philippines 1521–1957 (Manila: Associated Publishers, 1958), p. 55.

61 For an account of the reopening of Manila's commercial radio stations after the war see Chanco, Mario, ‘Commercial broadcasting in Manila’, American Chamber of Commerce Journal 22, 7 (Nov. 1946): 6–7, 20Google Scholar.

62 The international spread of the American ideal of mass homeownership after the Second World War is the subject of Nancy H. Kwak's book, A world of homeowners: American power and the politics of housing aid (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015). This is an important study of an aspect of US Cold War diplomacy and geopolitics which involved American experts travelling to various countries to advise governments on future policies and institutional mechanisms for establishing market-based mass homeownership programmes. Kwak describes how a team of such experts arrived in the Philippines in March 1946 to assess the housing situation and provide advice to the government administration. This advice highlighted two things: housing projects designed for the climatic conditions of the Philippines, and the need for controlled slum clearance and government-subsidised rental accommodation for very low-income families. In terms of what has been revealed in this article, a future study might consider how financial support became more easily available to private middle-class homebuyers after the war as a product of government banking and loan policies influenced not only by the impact of the Philippine Rehabilitation Act, but also the initiatives and interactions Kwak describes.