In the early years of the internet, pre-Facebook, text-based bulletin boards, "forums" were widely popular. Through the years a great many of them sunk without trace. Sometimes, they contained a body of significant knowledge and wisdom.  Anticipating my own board's untimate irrelevance, I have extracted a thread which I believe contained  the single most controversial issue which we discussed.

       Shortly after the commencement of America's War in the Pacific, the S.S. Corregidor, an inter-island Philippine steamer running the route between Manila and Cebu, hit a live mine and sunk in the mouth of Manila Bay, just off Corregidor. It had been carrying the doyen of Cebu and Mindanao,  and military equipment intended to bolster the defense of the central and southern Philippines.  Best estimates (now) are that the loss of life exceeded a thousand souls. In those days, America did not count the deaths of its allied civilians. It happened, though, that one of those casualties was an American citizen, which meant that American Law would have been justified to examine the issue of this death.  But it didn't happen. The Officer responsible for the operation of the minefield on that night died in Japanese captivity. 

        There was a war on, and the "fog of war" was taken advantage of. A rudimentary inquiry was commissioned and all blame was directed at the ship's master.  Though it was known behind closed doors that the proximate cause of the explosion was the explosion of a mine in a U.S. minefield,  a misinformation was spread that there had been a Japanese submarine in the vicinity. There were social and political issues between America and the Philippine Commonwealth, but these were swept under history's carpet in the cause of "National Interests."

        Our Corregidor Historic Society Forum dealt with the issue for more than a decade.

        Lest the research - and speculation - of that collegiate knowledge be lost,  this book reflects the issue.

         I've set the PREVIEW to show the book in its entirety, so you don't have to buy it.

        But you should, because this publication will take you closer to the truth than the National Interests ever did.

        There's an awful lot of false history undone in this book.