What was the population of Dumaguete at the time and what was the Military significance of Dumaguette Airport. Ie would the Japanese have built it if the US didn't. It seems to me to be in the wrong place.
I don’t know the population then. Even the Yanks didn’t have any great purpose for the airfield. Probably more for VIP use and ‘we also have an airfield’ bragging than anything else.
It seems sad to me that every handful of years, a few politicians and/or wealthy business types who expect a handsome financial gain, send their nations young men and women out to fight another war. People who love their country and volunteer to protect and serve are too often sacrificed for the greed of those few.
Les, I was hoping you might have mentioned the crashed Japanese aircraft supposedly in the ocean just off the eastern end of the runway? Mr. Cata-al was telling me about it. I assume it was from a training accident. Any knowledge of this?
Well, it was a training airfield first and foremost, so no big surprise. Yes there is a wreck but it's not marked and quite deep. I'd have dived on it if it was possible.
@@LesSharp I am curious about the actual depth of the wreck. I went to Silliman Beach a few days ago and actually spoke with some fishermen (in my poor Tagalog) and they claimed the aircraft rests in approximately 20 meters of water. Too good to be true?
He wasn’t attached to the flight school, but the cadets from the school were assigned to the defense of the hills above the city. They made up about half of the Japanese dead in the bloody ‘Battle of the Ridges’. I’m sure Oie probably flew in or out of the airfield during his career however.
Thanks! As a Dumagueteno, I love this, and I am a history major.
Very interesting Les.
What was the population of Dumaguete at the time and what was the Military significance of Dumaguette Airport. Ie would the Japanese have built it if the US didn't. It seems to me to be in the wrong place.
I don’t know the population then. Even the Yanks didn’t have any great purpose for the airfield. Probably more for VIP use and ‘we also have an airfield’ bragging than anything else.
Interestingly, Tanjay had a much bigger population at that time than Dumaguete. Sugar industry...
Awesome history, I like the peninsula runway a lot too
Thanks. It's amazing how much is hidden just around us.
It seems sad to me that every handful of years, a few politicians and/or wealthy business types who expect a handsome financial gain, send their nations young men and women out to fight another war. People who love their country and volunteer to protect and serve are too often sacrificed for the greed of those few.
Les, I was hoping you might have mentioned the crashed Japanese aircraft supposedly in the ocean just off the eastern end of the runway? Mr. Cata-al was telling me about it. I assume it was from a training accident. Any knowledge of this?
Well, it was a training airfield first and foremost, so no big surprise. Yes there is a wreck but it's not marked and quite deep. I'd have dived on it if it was possible.
@@LesSharp I am curious about the actual depth of the wreck. I went to Silliman Beach a few days ago and actually spoke with some fishermen (in my poor Tagalog) and they claimed the aircraft rests in approximately 20 meters of water. Too good to be true?
You should go to universities in Dumaguete and try to apply as a Historian Professor.
No way I could put up with the political pressure to revise history those guys face.
was it used by col. satoshi oie during his stay in dumaguete?
He wasn’t attached to the flight school, but the cadets from the school were assigned to the defense of the hills above the city. They made up about half of the Japanese dead in the bloody ‘Battle of the Ridges’. I’m sure Oie probably flew in or out of the airfield during his career however.
What part of the world are we in ?
Dumaguete is the capital of the province of Negros Oriental, which is in the Visayas region of the Philippines.
@@LesSharp Ah, thank you.