Podcasts about Filipino

Last time we spoke about the allied invasion of Balikpapan. In June 1945, the war in the Pacific escalated as American forces, spearheaded by Generals Eichelberger and Krueger, fiercely battled the entrenched Japanese on Luzon. Despite harsh conditions and fierce resistance, the Americans made crucial advances, capturing key positions that rekindled hope for the Filipino people. Concurrently, preparations for the invasion of Balikpapan intensified. The Australian 7th Division assembled for a July 1 amphibious assault against a heavily fortified Japanese defense, known for its formidable coast artillery and entrenched positions. The Australians faced fierce opposition upon landing; however, skilled maneuvering and robust artillery support allowed them to swiftly gain a foothold. As the Australians secured their beachhead, they marked the beginning of a challenging campaign against determined Japanese forces in Balikpapan, setting the stage for further confrontations in the Pacific theater.  This episode is Victory at Bougainville  Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  We last left off on Bougainville, by mid-April, Brigadier Heathcote Hammer's 15th Brigade had commenced its crucial task of relieving Brigadier Field's weary and battered 7th Brigade. This transition came at a pivotal moment when Brigadier Stevenson's 11th Brigade successfully secured the Soraken Peninsula, a strategic point on Bougainville's southern coast, while also continuing their efforts to contain enemy forces along the notorious Numa Numa Trail, a crucial supply route for Japanese troops. Supported by reinforcements in artillery and air power, Generals Savige and Bridgeford were optimistic about continuing their limited offensive toward the south. Their immediate objective was to capture the line of the Hongorai River, considered a significant tactical advantage, followed by the Hari River, which would serve as the 15th Brigade's main aim. On the opposing side, General Kanda had learned a harsh lesson about the ineffectiveness of banzai charges during the fierce fighting at the Battle of Slater's Knoll. This costly experience prompted him to alter his strategy significantly. He decided to pull his remaining troops back to a defensive perimeter focused around Buin, which is located in the southern region of Bougainville. Here, he reinforced his defenses with garrison troops from Kieta, situated on the eastern side of Bougainville, the Shortlands Islands to the northwest, and the Fauros Islands to the northeast. However, with this concentration of forces not expected to be operational until July, the troops stationed in the forward areas were tasked with executing a critical delaying action in the meantime, buying precious time for reinforcements to arrive. Meanwhile, on April 17, the Australian 24th Battalion began its advance along the Buin Road, a vital route for both supply and troop movement. Two companies made their way toward Dawe's Creek, while another company launched an assault against the enemy strongholds at Kindara. Remarkably, they broke through enemy lines the following day, pushing further to Sindou Creek and Umam Creek. Here, they faced multiple sharp counterattacks over the next week, demonstrating the fierce resistance from Japanese forces determined to hold their ground. As patrols moved deeper into the thick jungle on either side of the Buin Road, the struggle became increasingly intense. Each advance was hard-fought, marked by skirmishes that tested the resolve and endurance of the Australian soldiers. Finally, on April 26, the advance resumed in earnest, making rapid gains toward the Hongorai River. The combination of heavy air support and relentless artillery bombardment had effectively dispelled any opposition along the route, allowing the Australians to push forward with renewed vigor. By May 4, as the 24th Battalion finally approached the banks of the Hongorai River, they encountered significant resistance. However, on the 4th Lieutenant Lawn's platoon was advancing with two tanks and a bulldozer when the crew of the leading tank came to a log across the road and saw movement in the bush. A burst of machine-gun fire from the tank cut the leaves away and revealed the barrel of a field gun. The first round fired from the tank's 2-pounder disabled the enemy gun and the enemy seemed to flee. Farther ahead, however, a mine exploded at the rear of the second tank. It was discovered that it had been exploded with a wire by a Japanese concealed in the bush. Henceforward mines and concealed guns were encountered more and more frequently. They were detected chiefly by the practised eyes of the engineer teams of Major Needham's 15th Field Company who became increasingly skilful. Mechanical detectors were defeated by several sorts of mine employed wooden boxes filled with T.N.T., for example; but their presence was betrayed by protruding fuses, wires, disturbed earth, and confirmed by prodding with a bayonet. As the 24th Battalion neared the Hongorai it became evident that the Japanese intended to make the Australians pay a price for each advance, and that they were willing to trade a field gun for a tank at every opportunity. On the 4th and many later occasions leading tanks were fired on at a range of a few yards by guns cleverly concealed beside the track, but in positions from which the Japanese could not hope to extricate them. In other respects also the Japanese tactics were improving and their striking power was strengthened. Each forward Australian battalion was now under frequent artillery fire, evidently directed by Japanese observers who remained close to the Australian advance, and it was this which was now causing most of the casualties. The shells usually burst in the trees and their fragments were scattered over a wide area with lethal effects. To counter the tanks the Japanese were now establishing their positions not astride the track but about 100 yards from it in places where the tanks could not reach them until a side track had been made. The Hongorai River, a critical geographical landmark, ran through Bougainville's lush terrain, acting as both a natural barrier and tactical objective. In late April, the 9th Battalion had continued to push forward across the Huio River, a vital waterway that intersected with Japanese defenses. They faced some enemy resistance but managed to clear the Horinu-Rumiki Trail by the end of the month. This narrow, winding path had strategic importance, connecting various units and enabling supplies to move closer to the frontline. On May 3, the 9th Battalion was finally relieved by the 57th/60th Battalion, which, due to its relative inexperience, found progress challenging along the Commando Road a route named after the elite Australian commandos who often operated in this area. Their inexperience in facing seasoned Japanese troops led to slower advances in the crucial days that followed. Meanwhile, the 2/8th Commando Squadron had been conducting deep reconnaissance patrols towards the Hari River and along the Tiger Road, determined to discover the extent of Japanese defenses south of the Hongorai. The Tiger Road, notorious for its rugged conditions, was pivotal for troop movements in the region. On May 5, the 24th Battalion, now bolstered by a newly assigned tank squadron, resumed its advance with renewed determination. However, they were once again halted by fierce defenders who launched a strong yet costly counterattack the following morning. This desperate but valiant effort by the Japanese troops resulted in significant casualties and demonstrated their resolve to maintain control of the Hongorai line. Subsequently, the Japanese forces ultimately abandoned their positions along the Hongorai during the night. Finally, on May 7, the Australians reached the Hongorai River, marking a significant milestone in their campaign. At that moment, the 57th/60th Battalion was securing a crucial crossing over the Hongorai on the Commando Road, enabling further advances into enemy territory. With the next objective focused on the line stretching from the Hari River to Monoitu and Kapana, Brigadier Hammer's battalions shifted their tactics for the second and third weeks of May. They undertook deep patrols into Japanese-occupied territory, gathering vital intelligence while also seeking to harass the enemy and disrupt their operations. Additionally, the commandos maintained their patrols along the challenging Tiger Road and established a new patrol base further north at Monorei. This base would serve as a critical outpost for monitoring enemy movements and launching further operations. Meanwhile, the 58th/59th Battalion explored the rugged areas south of the Buin Road, successfully clearing the Aitara Mission. This mission played a crucial role in their broader strategies, as it prepared them to execute a wide flanking maneuver aimed at cutting the road east of the Hongorai, further encircling Japanese forces. To support the advancing Australian forces, New Zealand aircraft launched significant attacks on Japanese concentrations positioned along the Buin and Commando Roads. On May 17, the 57th/60th Battalion crossed the upper reaches of the Hongorai River, advancing across a wide front along the Commando Road to draw the enemy's attention to that area. On the eve of this move Hammer issued an order of the day in a characteristic style. He spoke of his "undying admiration" for and "extreme confidence" in his men and told them that the next few weeks might see the major defeat of the Japanese in south Bougainville. "Go to battle as you have done in the last month and no enemy can withstand you." In the subsequent days, they successfully secured territory up to the Torobiru River, creating pressure on the Japanese lines and disrupting their defensive operations. On May 20, following a powerful air and artillery bombardment, the 24th Battalion finally launched its long-anticipated assault across the Hongorai River. This marked a turning point as they occupied the strategically significant Egan's Ridge by May 22. Egan's Ridge offered an elevated position that overlooked the surrounding terrain, making it crucial for controlling movement in the vicinity. Meanwhile, the 58th/59th Battalion executed a stealthy wide flanking maneuver towards Mayberry's Crossing, positioning themselves strategically to disrupt Japanese supply lines and communication. On May 21, the Australians moved out once more to cut the Buin Road at Runai, an essential route that facilitated movement and supplies for the Japanese forces. In the following days, the remaining sections of this critical road were secured as the Japanese forces west of the Hari River were forced to retreat, effectively diminishing their operational capabilities in the region. As these operations unfolded, the 2/8th Commando Squadron established a new base on Morokaimoro, positioning themselves for further reconnaissance and engagements. They began patrolling towards Taitai and the Mivo River, both vital points of interest as the Australians sought to gather intelligence on enemy movements. In the meantime, the 57th/60th Battalion pressed on to capture the Oso Junction by May 27. However, they encountered harassment from night raiding parties and artillery fire, which highlighted the persistent threat of Japanese resistance in this area. On 2nd June the main advance was resumed, the 58th/59th moving forward without opposition through positions which had been "completely devastated by air, artillery and mortars". "Not one enemy was found alive or dead," wrote the battalion diarist, "although a strong smell of death pervaded the whole area." A prisoner taken later in the day said that the air strike had completely demoralised the defenders, and when they heard the tanks approaching they had fled. On the left the 57th/60th reached the Sunin River against slight opposition. On the 3rd and 4th the 58th/59th continued the advance, moving slowly because of the need to disarm an unprecedentedly large number of mines and booby-traps-more than 100 in three days-until they reached the Peperu River. Patrols moving stealthily forward to the Hari and across it found evidence of much confusion, many positions dug but unoccupied, and small groups of Japanese at large. It was decided to attack frontally towards the Hari next day. At the same time, the 57th/60th Battalion also reached the Sunin River, facing only slight opposition during their advance. On June 6, the 58th/59th Battalion launched an attack towards the Hari River, but despite their efforts, they only managed to gain about 500 yards against strong defensive positions held by the Japanese. The next three days proved challenging as the 58th/59th Battalion, supported by tanks, found their progress impeded by swampy terrain, a road littered with hidden mines, and intermittent shellfire threatening their advance. The combined obstacles of the natural environment and determined enemy resistance severely limited their ability to make significant gains. In light of the pressing circumstances, Brigadier Hammer made a pivotal decision to send the 58th/59th Battalion on a shallow outflanking march to the north. Their mission was clear: cut the Buin Road several miles east of the Hari River. At the same time, the 57th/60th Battalion was tasked with thrusting wide to the south, maneuvering around the Ogorata River to intercept the same road near Rusei. After four days of concentrated air and artillery bombardment designed to weaken enemy defenses, the 58th/59th Battalion commenced its operation on June 12. They sent two companies forward to secure a position along the road, located 2,000 yards east of the Hari. This forward position was critical for their strategy to disrupt Japanese supply lines. Two days later, on June 14, these forces continued their advance eastward toward the Ogorata River, while the remainder of the battalion engaged the enemy at the Hari ford, a crucial crossing point. Despite the fierce opposition, the ford was finally secured on June 15, following another extensive bombardment that significantly diminished the Japanese presence along the road west of the Ogorata. This success was instrumental in facilitating further operations in the area.  Concurrently, the 57th/60th Battalion had embarked on their mission on June 11, making slow but steady progress through the challenging, trackless bush. They ultimately found a path leading from Kingori to Rusei, where they began encountering Japanese resistance. Pushing through treacherous swampy terrain and dense bamboo thickets, the Australians reached the Buin Road at Rusei by June 15, successfully coordinating with patrols from the 58th/59th Battalion the following day. In addition to securing Rusei, a robust patrol from the 57th/60th Battalion set out along the northern flank to establish a patrol base north of Musaraka. This base detected a significant enemy presence behind them, leading to a critical reassessment of their positions. Consequently, in late June, the 24th Battalion was dispatched to take over the Taitai-Kingori-Katsuwa area, reinforcing the Australian foothold and securing vital routes in the region. Meanwhile, back to the south, the 57th/60th Battalion began to push eastward toward the Mobiai River on June 16. However, their advance quickly met strong opposition just 400 yards into enemy territory. Faced with determined resistance, the battalion executed a wide outflanking maneuver, a tactical shift that successfully forced the Japanese forces to withdraw by June 19, allowing the Australians to continue their advance. In the following days, the 57th/60th Battalion pressed steadily forward, ultimately encountering increased opposition near the Mobiai River on June 24. A heavy bombardment was launched in an attempt to dislodge the entrenched Japanese forces, but it proved ineffective. However, the next day, the Japanese troops had mysteriously withdrawn, allowing the Australians to secure a vital crossing over the river. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the 58th/59th Battalion moved in to occupy the newly attained Mobiai positions. Meanwhile, the 57th/60th and 24th Battalions advanced farther north, preparing for an outflanking maneuver aimed at Shishigatero, a critical tactical point lying to the northeast. In anticipation of an Australian offensive, General Kanda dispatched the 23rd Regiment to establish a defensive base near the Mivo ford. This strategic relocation was part of his preparations for the final defenses behind the Mivo River, as Japanese troops sought to hold their ground against the advancing Australians. By June 28, the 57th/60th and 24th Battalions reached their designated assembly areas, where they successfully repelled several Japanese counterattacks. The next morning, they began their advance southeast, shrouded in the loud thunder of artillery barrages that paved the way for their push. They reached the Buin Road at the confluence of the Ivana, Koopani, and Mivo Rivers, making significant headway. At the same time, the 58th/59th Battalion aimed to open the road for the 24th Battalion, positioned about 1,000 yards away. However, they encountered sharp resistance from Japanese forces defending their positions fiercely. Following this notable success, as Hammer's units faced and repelled various Japanese counterattacks at their new positions, General Bridgeford directed Brigadier Noel Simpson's 29th Brigade to the frontline to relieve the beleaguered 15th Brigade. Each incoming battalion was met with sharp clashes as they moved up, as Japanese forces sought to maintain their hold on strategic territory. Finally, on July 10, Hammer's units were relieved, a long-awaited reprieve after weeks of grueling combat. Despite the shift in command, Simpson's battalions began sending patrols forward in preparation for a crossing of the Mivo River. Unfortunately, due to the heavy resistance encountered and the onset of relentless rains that would continue throughout the month, this final offensive was never carried out. Instead, the troops were limited to vigorous patrolling activities during July and August, maintaining a presence but unable to launch significant offensives in the harsh conditions. Many of these patrols encountered fierce opposition, signaling that the enemy intended to mount a determined defense along the Mivo line. These patrols regularly captured crucial documents from Japanese soldiers ambushed along the tracks leading to their forward positions, allowing Australian forces to construct a clearer picture of the enemy's intentions and deployments. Among these daring reconnaissance missions was one conducted by a patrol from the 42nd Battalion, led by Lieutenant Oldfield. Tasked with scouting a potential crossing at the Mivo, Oldfield and four other soldiers discovered the river was in flood. Undeterred, they stripped off their gear, swam across the turbulent waters, and advanced 500 yards beyond the riverbank, without any weapons. The weight of the Australian artillery and mortar bombardments altered the enemy's tactics. Rather than holding fixed positions, the Japanese began to dig in less and instead employed a strategy of hit-and-run raids and ambushes executed by small groups of three to ten men. Before July 10 arrived, the relentless rain compelled a second postponement of the advance; the new date for the operation was set for July 24. However, the downpour continued to intensify. By July 10, even the patrols could not cross the flooded Mivo. "Torrential rain flooded the divisional area, reducing the Buin Road to a treacherous sea of mud and creating a series of islands between the various rivers." On July 17, conditions worsened further, with a dramatic eight inches of rain falling in just 36 hours. The new challenge was no longer about advancing troops but ensuring that the men were fed where they remained. Virtually all the bridges along the lines of communication were washed away, and all the rivers were flooded; the Mivo was now surging at a speed of twelve miles an hour. As a result, the forward units could only be supplied via air transport. It would take weeks to repair the damaged roads and bridges, leading to D-day being postponed until late August. As the southern operations unfolded, General Savige made a strategic decision to bring Brigadier Arnold Potts' 23rd Brigade from Munda and its surrounding islands to Torokina. Upon arrival, Savige immediately tasked the 27th Battalion with taking over the central sector beyond Pearl Ridge. The Australians quickly began bombing and launching attacks in the Berry's Hill-Hunt's Hill area, ultimately securing this crucial location on May 16. Following the seizure of Berry's Hill, the 27th Battalion conducted patrols toward key positions at Sisivie, Tokua, Base Point 3, and Wearne's Hill throughout late May. On June 3, they initiated an attack towards Tiernan's Spur, making significant progress before being relieved by the 7th Battalion. The 7th Battalion, upon taking over, adopted an aggressive posture, and on June 11, they attacked Tiernan's Spur, successfully securing the feature this time. Soon after, a combination of reconnaissance and air bombardment set the stage for an assault on Wearne's Hill on June 16. However, they encountered strong opposition and were unable to seize its crest until June 20. In parallel operations, a company captured Sisivie without encountering resistance on June 12. Another company was dispatched to establish a forward base in the Wakunai Valley, successfully creating observation posts that overlooked Inus Point and the large Numa Numa Plantation by June 21. After conducting extensive bombardments against remaining Japanese positions, the Australians finally secured the remainder of Wearne's Hill on June 24. Starting June 26, the 7th Battalion began probing towards Centre Hill, which they ultimately found abandoned on July 6. Meanwhile, on July 3, Tokua was occupied as a base for future operations probing north toward Ibu and Buritsiotorara. Artillery and aircraft continued to harass North Hill, which was finally captured on July 13. Just five days later, Cameron's Hill was also successfully attacked and secured. The 7th Battalion then pressed forward along the main track towards Charlie Creek and McInnes Hill, achieving their objectives by August 8 as the remaining Japanese forces were forced to retire to Numa Numa. Looking north, the 55th/53rd Battalion took over from the exhausted 26th Battalion in early April, following the fall of the Soraken Peninsula. Upon assuming command, Lieutenant Colonel Stevenson immediately directed the 55th/53rd to cross the Nagam River and launch an attack towards Pora Pora, a key strategic location in the region. The battalion pressed on along the main coastal track, but on April 13, they faced an unsuccessful assault against the enemy positioned at McKinnon's Ridge. Meanwhile, a company from the battalion moved through an inland route, encountering no resistance as they advanced to a position just two miles from Pora Pora. Recognizing the resolute enemy defenses along the main track, the Australians initiated a program of heavy artillery bombardment, complemented by flanking maneuvers designed to outmaneuver the entrenched defenders. This relentless strategy began to pay off, eventually forcing the Japanese to retreat on April 21. During this critical period, the unopposed company on the inland track continued to push forward until it was only one mile from Pora Pora. In the following four days, the 55th/53rd Battalion fought its way into the Pora Pora bottleneck, engaging in fierce combat that successfully expelled the Japanese forces by April 30. With this victory, the Australians were able to continue their advance northward, making rapid gains against a retreating enemy. On May 4, they captured the Ratsua jetty, a vital logistics point that facilitated further operations. Two columns of the 55th/53rd commenced a swift march towards Ruri Bay, while a company from the 26th Battalion successfully seized Torokori Island on May 6. Three days later, as they finally approached Ruri Bay, the Australians successfully repelled an enemy ambush. However, Brigadier Stevenson's orders were now to halt their advance at the Ratsua-Ruri Bay line and focus on active patrolling extending northward to Tarbut and Tarlena. Despite this directive, the situation became increasingly precarious. The Japanese, bolstered by four small provisional battalions of naval troops under Captain Kato Ekichi, grew aggressive beyond the established line. Daily patrol clashes erupted, with Australian positions and supply lines subjected to constant ambushes. Recognizing the need for reinforcements, the weary 55th/53rd Battalion was relieved by the 26th Battalion on May 21. In response, the 26th immediately dispatched two companies to thrust forward in the area south and east of Buoi Plantation. However, these units quickly encountered strong counterattacks, while patrols faced heavy resistance around Siara and Chindawon. As Stevenson's forces found themselves facing a fortified opponent stronger than anticipated, permission was granted to send two companies from the 31st/51st Battalion to take over the western sector on June 3. Despite this reinforcements, the Australians continued to struggle to make meaningful progress northward. After the 26th Battalion had been in the line for three hard weeks its diarist wrote that the campaign had become one of "holding a superior number of enemy by the aggressive action of a tired depleted battalion-companies were no more than half strength and had been in forward areas continuously for four months". The battalion's fighting strength on 3rd June was only 23 officers and 353 other ranks. The constant patrolling, the artillery fire and the raids on jeep trains on tracks well to the rear were wearing down the men's spirits. In response to the persistent challenges, a strategic decision was made to outmaneuver the Japanese by landing a reinforced company of the 31st/51st Battalion at Porton Plantation, aiming to approach the enemy from the western flank. During the early hours of June 8, the assault force successfully landed unopposed and swiftly established a perimetric defense reaching 150 yards inland. However, the surprised defenders quickly regrouped, unleashing a barrage of machine-gun fire that effectively thwarted the unloading of heavy weapons, reserve ammunition, and essential supplies. Although supporting artillery fire was effectively directed at the Japanese positions, the Australians soon found themselves pinned down as Captain Kato reinforced the defenses surrounding their perimeter. To complicate matters further, a convoy of Australian supplies and reinforcements attempting to reach the newly established perimeter was successfully repelled by the tenacious defenders during the night. The next morning, it was decided to withdraw the force late that evening. However, as the Australians prepared for their retreat, the Japanese launched a strong counterattack from three sides. The enemy attacked in relentless waves, and although they were met with devastating Australian fire, the pressure forced the company to pull back towards the beach. In the morning they launched what was evidently intended as a final blow, thrusting from three sides. Now estimated at over 400 they attacked in waves and were mowed down by the Australian fire. To confuse their enemy they shouted English phrases such as "Watch the right flank", "Throw it in the middle", "It's only me, Jack", and so on. The Australians pulled back towards the beach and at 1 p.m.  During the afternoon, three landing craft moved towards the beach under heavy enemy fire in an effort to embark the soldiers. Unfortunately, two of the crafts were overloaded and became stranded. One eventually drifted off with the tide during the evening; however, the other remained besieged by heavy fire throughout the night. On June 10, Australian forces continued their attempts to rescue the stranded men, launching efforts under the cover of a strong air attack. At dawn on June 10, there were 38 living men on board the besieged landing craft, commanded by Corporal Hall. Their meager arsenal included two Bren guns, five Owen submachine guns, and nine rifles. The remaining rations consisted of eight tins of fruit or vegetables, three or four tins of meat, and three tins of condensed milk. Corporal Hall devised a defensive plan to maximize their chances of survival. He removed the wooden shelves under the overlapping sides of the ALCA to create protective cover under the flaps for all the troops. The dismantled wireless set was discarded overboard to free up additional space. To assist with breathing during rising tides, each man was issued six-inch lengths of copper piping. A continuous watch was kept from the coxswain's enclosure to monitor Japanese movements and report any developments. The soldiers cleaned and oiled their weapons using lubricant sourced from the engines, ensuring that they were well-maintained and ready for use. A medical kit was placed in the capable hands of a member of the 19th Australian Field Ambulance, who diligently distributed morphine and dressings as needed. At 15:30 on June 10, a concerted effort to rescue the stranded survivors commenced. An intense and precise air attack targeted the enemy positions, but unfortunately, it failed to hit the pillbox from which most of the fire directed at the barge was originating. Bombers dropped inflated rubber rafts near the landing craft in an attempt to assist, but Japanese gunfire prevented any men from reaching these lifelines. Under the cover of an artillery smoke screen, a landing craft attempted to reach the shore. However, enemy fire wounded several crew members, including the coxswain, damaging the steering gear and causing the craft to circle out of control. Amidst this chaos, Corporal Hall attempted to silence the pillbox with a Bren gun, but his efforts were in vain. In a desperate bid to assist the aircraft in locating the target, he splashed bullets towards the pillbox, yet the attempt proved futile as the damaged landing craft was forced to withdraw. They successfully repelled several Japanese parties attempting to swim out to the immobilized craft during the night. Finally, in the early hours of June 11, the besieged Australians were rescued by three assault boats, managing to pull them from the critical situation. In this endeavor, the Australian forces suffered significant losses, with 23 men reported killed or missing and 106 wounded. Among these casualties, five killed and seven wounded belonged to the 42nd Landing Craft Company. Estimates suggest that the Japanese forces faced losses of approximately 147 confirmed dead, with an additional 50 likely killed. The infantry units suffered specifically dire consequences, with two officers killed and three wounded, these included both company commanders, leaving only Lieutenants Patterson and Reiter, two young veterans from the 6th Division, as the sole surviving leaders from six platoon commanders. Additionally, 14 other ranks were reported killed or missing, while 57 were wounded. Of those wounded, five were sent to the field ambulance suffering from exposure, and nine sustained cuts and bruises. The repulse of the Australian attempt to land near Porton on June 8, 9, and 10 significantly boosted Japanese morale. Observers reported that the landing occurred on a rough strip of beach, making it difficult for the enemy to negotiate the surrounding reefs. The high ground in the vicinity provided an excellent vantage point for the Japanese, allowing for optimal placement of automatic weapons. In response to the Australian advance, Captain Kato swiftly dispatched 150 troops from Chabai to reinforce the approximately 100 men already engaged in combat. These reinforcements succeeded in thwarting any further enemy landings, ultimately pushing the Australians back to the beach, from where their remaining forces were evacuated in haste. Kato estimated that around 250 Australians had landed, resulting in the loss of 60 killed and 100 wounded, alongside 26 Japanese fatalities. If the Japanese report regarding their own losses is accurate, it suggests that both sides engaged in this grim action sustained approximately equal losses. Moreover, during this battle, the reinforced 26th Battalion failed to exploit this diversionary attack, missing the opportunity to push against the stubborn resistance of Captain Kato's isolated posts. On June 20, Brigadier Potts' 23rd Brigade began taking over the northern sector, with orders to contain the Japanese forces in the Bonis Peninsula and patrol towards Buka Passage. This relief operation was completed by the end of the month. However, the 8th and 27th Battalions continued to face harassment from Kato's deep patrols throughout July. Ultimately, the overextended 27th Battalion on the right flank was withdrawn on July 22 to allow the 8th Battalion to successfully attack and capture Commo Ridge the following day. On July 24, the 8th Battalion launched an unsuccessful attack on Part Ridge. However, this heavy assault shook the defenders, paving the way for the Australians to capture the ridge against light opposition on August 5. This marked the last major action of the Bougainville Campaign. In total, Savige's 2nd Corps endured losses of 516 Australians killed and 1,572 wounded. It is estimated that approximately 8,500 Japanese soldiers were killed by Australian forces and their native allies, while an additional 9,800 succumbed to illness during the Australian period on Bougainville. By the end of the campaign, only 23,571 men remained out of about 65,000 who had been on the island when the Americans launched their attack in November 1943. Now, attention turned westward to Balikpapan, where General Milford's 7th Australian Division successfully landed on July 1. They secured an important perimeter extending through Santosa Hill, Parramatta, Mount Malang, and Stalkudo. The battle resumed the following day, with the 2/14th Battalion advancing along the Vasey Highway to seize the Sepinggang airstrip unopposed. Meanwhile, the 2/3rd Commando Squadron took over the area northeast of Stalkudo, though they made little progress toward the Lady Schofield feature due to heavy enemy fire. The 2/27th Battalion strengthened and extended its hold on the high ground northwest of Stalkudo. The 2/16th Battalion pressed northward, successfully capturing Resort, Owen, and Oxley without sustaining any losses. The 2/12th Battalion took Potts and consolidated its position on Portee. The 2/10th Battalion conducted mopping-up operations in the secured areas, patrolling vigorously forward, and also seized Mount Sepuluh. Lastly, the 2/9th Battalion, supported by a troop of tanks, cleared Kandasan town along the coast as far as Signal Hill. By the end of the day, Brigadier Eather's 25th Brigade had landed to take over the central portions of the front, tasked with pushing inland astride the Milford Highway. On July 3, one company of the 2/10th Battalion advanced through the port, while another cleared the Tank Plateau, and a third focused on the lower ground between the plateau and Parramatta. Concurrently, the 2/9th Battalion, supported by its troop of tanks, successfully took the Santosa barracks, which they had bypassed the previous day. The division now held a bridgehead approximately five miles wide and one mile deep, successfully securing one of the two airstrips. On July 3, light aircraft began operating from this newly established base. However, unloading heavy equipment and stores proved to be a challenging task, causing considerable anxiety among the troops. A swell made it difficult to transfer loads to Landing Craft Tank (LCTs) and small craft, while it was impossible to run the Landing Ship Tank (LSTs) directly onto the beach. By 06:00 on July 3, progress was evident, with 985 vehicles and 1,932 tons of various equipment and stores successfully landed, alongside 16,950 men ashore. Later that morning, an LST began unloading at a pontoon jetty constructed on Green Beach by an American naval construction battalion. The captured port was a scene of devastation, characterized by wrecked workshops and warehouses, leaving little more than twisted, rusty steel and piles of rubble where houses once stood. The seven wharves designed for ocean-going vessels had all been burned, rendering them unusable. Among the debris, one dump of scrap iron collected by the Japanese from the ruins measured 520 yards long, with another scrap pile opposite it stretching about 150 yards. As unloading operations continued on the main beaches, the 2/14th Battalion began moving towards the Manggar airstrip but found themselves halted at Batakan Kechil. The 2/27th Battalion took over the defense of the Sepinggang strip, and the 2/3rd Commando Squadron discovered the Lady Schofield feature abandoned, allowing their patrols to press on more than a mile across the high ground overlooking the Sepinggang River. Meanwhile, the 2/33rd Battalion encountered heavy opposition in the hills above Chilton Road but managed to capture Opus, Operator, and Oxygen, as well as a height to the northeast named Orange. The 2/31st Battalion advanced along Milford Highway, facing increasing opposition, but they rapidly secured the junction with Chilton Road. However, they were unable to capture the strong enemy defenses at Nobody and Nurse. The 2/12th Battalion began a march towards Pandansari but had to assault Nail to eliminate the threat of enemy harassing fire. The following day, while the 2/33rd Battalion occupied Letter and Lewis, the 2/31st found Nobody and Nurse abandoned, allowing them to easily secure these features. One company also took control of Nail and began probing towards Lodge. At the same time, the 2/14th Battalion resumed its advance towards Manggar. They successfully crossed the river and pushed 1,300 yards across the airstrip without facing any opposition. However, after midday, heavy Japanese fire unexpectedly swept across the airfield, resulting in the deaths of several officers at the control tower. Despite this setback, and aided by the fire from destroyer Eaton, the Australians pressed on and ultimately secured Manggar and its airfield. By the end of the day, General Milford had successfully pushed the enemy out of Balikpapan and further secured the Sepinggang and Manggar strips. However, it became clear that Admiral Kamada was attempting to withdraw the remnants of his force to the Batuchampar area, aiming to delay any advance along the Milford Highway for as long as possible. The 454th Independent Battalion continued to hold the commanding terrain north of Manggar, and on July 5, its defenses came under intense naval, air, and artillery bombardment, which initially failed to silence the Japanese guns. Meanwhile, Brigadier Eather pressed his advance north in the center. The 2/25th Battalion took control of the positions at Nurse and Nail, while the 2/33rd pressed on against dwindling opposition to capture Mackay, Marshall, Mutual, and Margin. The 2/31st Battalion moved forward to seize Letter and Lewis, followed by the capture of Laverton and Liverpool. Recognizing the necessity of securing the western side of Balikpapan Bay to facilitate port operations, Milford ordered Brigadier Chilton's 18th Brigade to land the reinforced 2/9th Battalion at Penadjam. Following a naval and artillery bombardment, the landing was executed unopposed during the afternoon of July 5, with patrols of the 2/9th immediately probing north and south to secure the perimeter. The following day, a patrol moved south toward Nanang village and onward to the Sesumpu River, while other units explored the area towards the Riko River and Separi. On July 6, the 2/33rd Battalion successfully attacked and captured Metal and Muffle, but they were ultimately repelled from Judge. Meanwhile, the 2/25th pressed onward, taking control of Liverpool and occupying Huon. Looking southeast, the 2/14th Battalion began to probe enemy positions on this day. A strong patrol successfully captured Waites' Knoll but had to repel a series of strong counterattacks during the night, while another patrol was forced back along Vasey Highway. Over the next few days, the Australians continued to engage, probing and bombarding the commanding enemy positions. Ultimately, the 2/14th launched an attack and captured the Frost and Brown features on July 9, effectively eliminating the enemy threat in that area. Meanwhile, the 2/16th Battalion and the 2/5th Commando Squadron attacked an enemy concentration at Gate on July 6 and secured the position two days later, further solidifying their hold on Grand by July 9. To the northwest, on July 7, the 2/25th Battalion moved to Cult and then attempted an assault on Jam but was repelled by fierce defenders. The following day, while Jam underwent probing and bombardment, the 2/33rd Battalion discovered Justice abandoned after heavy shelling and pressed on toward Joint and Judge. Concurrently, Brigadier Eather had dispatched the 2/6th Commando Squadron into the hills overlooking the Sumber River. They successfully occupied Job on July 8 and seized Freight the following day. By July 9, after a concentrated artillery barrage, Jam, Joint, and Judge finally fell as the 25th Brigade secured the first stretch of the Milford Highway to Batuchampar. The 2/31st Battalion then advanced to a road bend due north of Junior, where they encountered an ambush by Japanese raiders. Meanwhile, a company of the 2/9th Battalion landed unopposed at Djinabora on the afternoon of July 8, and on the following day, a patrol base was established at Teloktebang. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. General Hammer launched a fierce campaign across Bougainville, battling entrenched Japanese troops, they secured the strategic Soraken Peninsula and advanced toward the vital Hongorai River. By July, they had reached the Hari River, significantly weakening Japanese defenses. However, relentless rain hindered further operations.

What if the very thing that made you feel like an outsider was the seed for a global movement?This week, Dr. Neeta Bhushan sits down with powerhouse community builder and founder of Filipino on the Rise, Krystl Fabella. From growing up disconnected from her cultural roots to becoming the voice and face behind one of the most powerful diasporic movements of our time, Krystl shares the raw, real journey of navigating belonging, loneliness, burnout, and leadership as a woman of color and digital entrepreneur.In this deeply moving conversation, they unpack the real costs of being a founder, the unspoken loneliness of community leaders, and the revolutionary power of storytelling, visibility, and choosing to show up imperfectly. Whether you're a creative, community builder, or woman navigating identity, this episode will leave you inspired to build from your pain and root into purpose.What you'll get out of this episode… What it actually takes to build community (hint: it's not just throwing events)The unexpected dark side of being a founder and community leaderHow loneliness hides behind success—and what to do about itThe exact three tenets that create thriving, long-lasting communitiesWhy your story—and your voice—matter more than you thinkHow to transform your pain of invisibility into a movement of belongingThis Episode is Powered by Health NagMeet your new daily glow-up: Health Nag's Bioactive Collagen Jelly—the world's first collagen with Types I, II, III & IV for full-body support (skin, gut, joints & more).Tastes amazing. Absorbs fast. One spoon a day = science-backed resilience from the inside out.

Episode 72 Honoring Culture in Care: Filipino Values in Healthcare (Part 2) On this episode they explore the complexities of trust, cultural values, and intergenerational dynamics within the Filipino community, especially in accessing mental health and healthcare services. They discuss how deep-rooted traditions like family obligation, community support, and the stigma surrounding mental health influence care-seeking behaviors across generations. Through community-driven initiatives like Little Manila Rising, they highlight how culturally rooted, trauma-informed approaches—such as engaging churches, honoring ancestral spaces, and providing culturally competent care—foster healing, advocacy, and stronger relationships between healthcare providers and the community. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

A culinary road trip across America reveals the heart and soul behind three of this season's Great American Recipe contestants on PBS, each bringing their unique cultural heritage and personal journeys to the kitchen.(00:35) From the warm hospitality of Durham, North Carolina, Fran Wescott welcomes us into her Southern kitchen where traditional local ingredients meet global influences. "I am, at heart, a Southern cook, but I've got all these layers on top," she explains, describing how travel and cultural exploration have transformed her approach to cooking. Fran's Summer Vegetable Orzo with White Pesto perfectly demonstrates her layered culinary philosophy while highlighting her belief that meals are as much about gathering around the table as they are about the food itself.(13:01) The journey continues to Columbus, Ohio, where Filipino-American Rex Alba balances the rich, flavorful traditions of his homeland with his passion for fitness as a former American Ninja Warrior contestant. Rex's Bistek Tagalog recipe offers a window into authentic Filipino cuisine with its tangy soy-calamansi marinade and red onion rings, while his story reveals the personal motivation behind his health journey. (23:41) Our final destination takes us to Spokane, Washington, where Suwanee Lennon's extraordinary story unfolds. From growing up in a Thai leprosy village to coming to America alone at age 13, Suwanee's resilience shines through in her innovative cooking. Her Thai Basil Pesto brilliantly fuses Eastern and Western culinary traditions, complete with her expert tip to use the often-discarded basil flowers for maximum flavor. These three home cooks represent the mosaic of American cuisine – where traditional recipes evolve through migration, adaptation, and personal experience. Be sure to follow their culinary journeys and discover more recipes that tell America's diverse food story. Season 4 of The Great American Recipe premiers July 11th, 2025 on local PBS stations and streaming on the PBS app. Support the showLiked the episode? We'd love a coffee!

Long before the Philippines was known by its modern name, it was home to a powerful and wealthy civilization—the Lequios. Described by Portuguese explorers like Antonio Galvão and marked on 16th-century maps like the Dourado Map, the Lequios were skilled shipbuilders, traders in gold, and a dominant presence in Southeast Asia.So why were they erased from mainstream history?In this video, we dive into forgotten archives and ancient maps to explore how the Lequios were not Japanese as some believe—but pre-colonial Filipinos. Evidence places them in Luzon, trading up and down the coasts, with links to major volcanic events like the eruption of Mount Pinatubo.From the capital of a majestic city to gold-rich trade routes in Pangasinan and La Union—this is a legacy worth reclaiming.✨ Discover the truth that colonial propaganda tried to erase.

This episode Don tries to translate Usher's "Yeah" to Tagalog, Garcia shows us more Filipino household items, Raf has a list of celebrities he thought were Filipino and Natz Introduces the crew to a Filipino inspired pokemon!--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Found in virtually every Filipino bathroom from the humblest provincial home to the most luxurious Manila condo, the tabo—that simple plastic water dipper—carries far more cultural weight than its unassuming appearance suggests. In this episode, we trace the tabo's fascinating journey from coconut shell origins in pre-colonial times to its status as a powerful marker of Filipino identity worldwide. Why do overseas Filipinos pack tabos in their luggage? How did this humble dipper spark "hygiene wars" on social media? And what did early Spanish missionaries really think about Filipino bathing habits? From ancient hospitality rituals to modern environmental concerns, we explore how a simple household object became both a symbol of cultural resilience and a source of unexpected controversy. Whether you're a lifelong tabo user or someone who's always wondered about that mysterious plastic cup in Filipino bathrooms, this episode dips into the surprising depth behind one of the Philippines' most ubiquitous yet overlooked cultural artifacts.

COME SEE MOTZIE AT TORONTO MARKETS THIS WEEKEND (and July 19!) More info below:

In this conversation, Erin Entrada Kelly discusses her debut nonfiction book that explores the life of Joey, a Filipino woman who became a spy during World War II. Kelly emphasizes the importance of presenting history in an engaging way for young readers, while also addressing the complexities of war, identity, and the gray areas in history. She shares her process of honoring Joey's story and the challenges of presenting conflicting information. The discussion highlights the need for young readers to understand the multifaceted nature of history and patriotism. Chapters 00:00 Unveiling Joey's Story 06:23 The Complexity of History and Personal Narratives 12:46 Understanding Gray Areas in History Learn more https://www.harpercollins.com/products/at-last-she-stood-erin-entrada-kelly?variant=43050194993186

discover effective strategies and tips for learning Filipino

Jimmy went down to Charlotte, NC for Heroes Con. One of the best comic conventions around! A great weekend of friends, interviews, auctions, food, drinks and fun. He got 11 interviews total! In this episode, you'll hear his talk with new artist Elliana Esquivel. A fellow Filipino, they talked about how The Philippines influenced her, the significance of water in her work, views on AI, why lumpia is so good and more! Come back later this week and the next few weeks to hear all of the Heroes Con interviews.  Also, get a hold of us! Thanks for listening!

In this episode of Mission Matters, Adam Torres interviews Jannelle So-Perkins, CEO & Executive Producer at Jannelle So Productions, Inc., about her mission to spotlight immigrant stories and create meaningful representation in media. From launching the longest-running Filipino talk show outside the Philippines to producing hundreds of interviews, Jannelle shares her passion for uplifting voices often left behind by mainstream outlets. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome! Tonight, I'll be sharing a special bedtime story from the Philippines called “The Story of Benito.”  I first shared this gentle fairytale on the podcast in May of 2023, and I thought it would be lovely to bring it back for anyone who may have missed it—or simply wants to enjoy it again as they drift off to sleep.The Story of Benito is a touching tale about a kind-hearted boy whose greatest wish is to help his parents, who are very poor. Along his journey, Benito encounters many adventures—each one bringing him closer to making his dream come true.  A quiet, magical story full of warmth and hope—perfect for bedtime. I hope you enjoy it!Sweetest dreams,Joanne Become a Drift Off Premium member today and receive: intro free listening to all episodes NO ADS or sponsorship announcements access 3 - 4 monthly bonus episodes Enjoy early access to my one early-release episode each month exclusive access to full length audiobooks for your enjoyment and relaxation *You can subscribe via Apple Podcasts OR using the link driftoff.supercast.comFeel free to drop by on the podcast website to learn more about it!https://www.driftoffpodcast.com Did you know you can also listen to my regular and premium bedtime stories on Insight Timer? It's a peaceful space for rest and relaxation. Also, for just $9.99/month, you'll get access to my premium stories plus meditations, music, and live sessions from other amazing teachers. https://insighttimer.com/relaxforawhile

Last time we spoke about liberation of Luzon.. American forces, led by General Eichelberger and supported by General Krueger's armies, relentlessly advanced against the entrenched Japanese defenders of General Yamashita's 14th Area Army. Amid thick jungle and treacherous terrain, battles raged through the northern mountain ranges, as American troops aimed to restore the Filipino government. Facing overwhelming odds, the Japanese forces displayed extraordinary resilience, temporarily halting American progress. Remarkable efforts from General Swift's 1st Corps across Routes 9 and 11 led to significant breakthroughs as American forces captured critical positions, including Sablan and Baguio. However, the Japanese command, complacent and misjudging the American strategy, fell into disarray. As the tide turned with relentless American assaults, key Japanese positions were systematically dismantled. By late April, most of Luzon was liberated, restoring hope and autonomy to the Filipino people.  This episode is Invasion of Balikpapan Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  The battles for Okinawa and Luzon just closed up, and today we are going to be venturing back to the Dutch East Indies. As we left off in mid-May, the tides of war were shifting dramatically on the island of Luzon, with General Krueger's 6th Army celebrating significant victories across the region. In the north, General Swift's 1st Corps had successfully secured the scenic Baguio area, known for its lush mountains and cool climate, a stark contrast to the tropical heat that engulfed much of the Philippines. Yet, the fighting was far from over, as fierce battles continued on three major fronts. Colonel Volckmann's guerrilla 121st Regiment was making strides, snagging much of the strategically vital Bessang Pass, a crucial artery connecting northern Luzon to the central regions. However, their success came at a cost, leaving them overextended amidst fierce Japanese resistance. Meanwhile, General Gill's weary 32nd Division managed to claim dominance over the rugged terrain of Salacsac Pass along the historic Villa Verde Trail, known for its breathtaking views and treacherous paths that had challenged both soldiers and their supply lines. General Mullins' 25th Division achieved a remarkable breakthrough by capturing the key Balete Pass, opening the way for further advances. Not stopping there, the 25th Division pressed onward, quickly redirecting their focus northward towards the town of Santa Fe. By May 24, the 27th Regiment had cleared the Sawmill River valley, an area teeming with dense foliage and rugged hills, a significant accomplishment that paved the way for the next objectives. From there, the 1st Battalion expertly maneuvered eastward against the imposing Kanami Ridge. On May 22, the 161st Regiment dealt a heavy blow to Japanese positions in a stronghold on Mount Haruna, a location known for its steep, challenging slopes. Following this triumph, they began their descent down the northern slopes of Haruna Ridge, gearing up for a critical junction with the Villa Verde Trail by May 27. Meanwhile, the 35th Regiment launched a vigorous assault from Balete Pass, systematically clearing out the remaining Japanese caves and fortifications by May 26, culminating in the capture of Santa Fe the very next day. At Salacsac, the Japanese forces, led by General Iwanaka, initiated a limited counteroffensive, presumably to buy time for a strategic evacuation of their increasingly tenuous positions. If delay was indeed Iwanaka's intention, he executed it well; it wasn't until May 19 that the American supply line was finally deemed secure again. The 2nd Battalion of the 128th Regiment resumed its push east from Hill 525, but the progress was slow. By May 22, the 1st Battalion had only managed to advance a mere 500 yards east from Hill 508, while the 3rd Battalion commenced a southward and southeastward advance from Hill 516 on May 16. It was not until May 24 that the relentless fighting in the region bore fruit, leading to the eventual clearing of the area, and Salacsac Pass was officially declared secured. On that pivotal day, General Iwanaka began the difficult task of withdrawing the remnants of his battered forces northward, retreating up the winding valley of the Imugan River. This river, which flows through a lush, verdant landscape, would serve as a vital sanctuary, albeit one fraught with danger for the disheartened Japanese troops. Meanwhile, the American forces were gaining ground. The 2nd Battalion aggressively seized control of Hill 527, a position that provided a commanding view of the surrounding area, crucial for planning further advances. The 126th Regiment took decisive action, utilizing trucks to transport troops swiftly along Route 5 to Balete Pass before launching an assault toward Imugan from the east and southeast. Concurrently, the guerrilla 1st Battalion of the Buena Vista Regiment embarked on a northward push from Valdez, culminating in the hard-fought capture of Hill 528 on May 28. This hill, commanding and steep, presented a formidable challenge but also promised a vantage point critical for any further operations in the region. The very next day, Imugan finally succumbed to the relentless pressure of the advancing American forces, marking a significant milestone as the Villa Verde Trail came firmly under American control. This development effectively concluded the arduous operations of the 32nd Division. It was a costly campaign for General Gill; the division suffered approximately 825 men killed, 2,160 wounded, with an alarming 6,000 classified as non-battle casualties. In stark contrast, the Japanese defense was decimated, with at least 5,750 of the 8,750 troops they had deployed to defend the trail lying dead. As we gaze northward, we find Colonel Volckmann's guerrillas, who had extended themselves too thinly across Bessang Pass and into the challenging terrain of Yubo Ridge. The aftermath of their overreach saw them facing fierce Japanese counterattacks that swiftly pushed them back across Lamagan Ridge in the latter part of May. However, a small contingent managed to hold tenaciously onto the eastern slopes of Langiatan Hill, a strategic position that allowed them to maintain some level of influence in the region. Additionally, a robust force from the Japanese 76th Regiment assembled south of Butac, planning an offensive northward. However, this advance was met with fierce resistance from the guerrilla 15th Regiment, who successfully repelled the attack. Seizing the momentum, Volckmann directed the 15th Regiment into a new offensive eastward, and by the end of May, they had successfully re-secured their foothold up to Lamagan Ridge. Meanwhile, elements of the 121st Regiment executed a remarkable retaking of both Langiatan Hill and Yubo Ridge, gradually restoring control over this strategically vital area. Looking south, we find General Hall's 11th Corps vigorously engaged in two crucial offensives aimed at capturing Ipo Dam and Wawa Dam, both essential water reservoirs located east of Manila. The strategic importance of these dams cannot be overstated; they were vital not only for securing fresh water but also for controlling the flow of operations in the region. However, the relentless heavy downpours that characterized the season rendered air support missions impractical, exacerbating an already challenging supply situation for the advancing troops. As a result, General Wing's 43rd Division was forced to pause its offensive late on May 14 to reassess and devise new attack plans.  As of late May 14, the 43rd Division found itself in a precarious situation, necessitating a halt to operations to devise new attack plans. To this point, the division had made limited progress toward securing Route 52, a crucial supply line vital for their mission to capture Ipo Dam. Recognizing the urgency, General Wing decided it was essential to commit the 169th Regiment to a targeted attack to clear this road, as it would serve as a critical route for both supply and evacuation in the coming days. The adverse weather conditions had created a significant operational hindrance. For nearly the entire duration of their offensive, intermittent rains had severely disrupted ground and aerial supply chains, as well as evacuation and the crucial air support operations necessary for a successful advance. Ground conditions had become challenging, and division engineers struggled to construct and maintain supply roads at a pace even close to that of the infantry's advances. Consequently, supply drops and hand-carried provisions were just sufficient to keep combat units barely above the minimum required levels, but the evacuation of sick and wounded soldiers remained a pressing issue that plagued the division. By May 14, the situation worsened significantly. For the first time since May 6, the 5th Air Force was completely grounded, unable to conduct any air support or supply missions due to the worsening weather conditions. This represented a troubling turning point for the 43rd Division. Moreover, intelligence reports indicated that sizable groups from the Japanese Tomono and Hanabusa Detachments had shifted their focus away from their defenses along Route 52, moving instead to confront the 103rd and 172nd Regiments attacking from the south. General Wing recognized that this presented a timely opportunity for the 169th Regiment. Striking directly along Route 52 would likely be far easier and less costly than it would have been just a week prior. Furthermore, a successful offensive by the 169th could not only expedite the capture of Ipo Dam but also prevent further eastward redeployments of Japanese forces. This would be a vital maneuver, potentially relieving pressure from Fork Ridge, where the left flank of the 172nd Regiment was currently bogged down in fierce fighting. Time was of the essence, and decisive action was required to turn the tide in favor of the 43rd Division. The situation was critical; delay would allow Japanese forces to fortify their defenses further. In response, Wing mapped out a robust plan: he directed the 103rd Regiment to capture the Route 52 terminus at Ipo Dam itself, which was crucial for any further advances. Their orders included not only taking control of the dam but also clearing the high ground north of the road and west of the dam to ensure a secure position against any possible counterattacks. Additionally, he tasked the 172nd Regiment with seizing Hill 804, a vantage point that could provide vital intelligence and support to the offensive, while the 169th Regiment was directed to eliminate the last Japanese defenders in the Bigti area before advancing eastward along Route 52 to connect with the 172nd. A break in the weather finally came on May 17, allowing the 43rd Division to launch their offensive with much-needed air support. Aircraft successfully dropped napalm and strafed Japanese defensive positions, a strategy that proved devastatingly effective. General Kawashima, facing mounting losses, ultimately ordered the remnants of his command to withdraw to an assembly point on the western slopes of Mount Maranat, a retreat that revealed their deteriorating ability to hold the line. With the air support providing a critical advantage, the 103rd Regiment advanced boldly and swiftly cleared the last Japanese holdouts from Hill 860, securing an essential position. However, it was the guerrilla forces, under the command of Colonel Augustin, from the Marking Regiment who achieved a historic victory by capturing Ipo Dam shortly after noon. His patrols descended the slopes of Hill 803, crossed the Angat River at the dam, and triumphantly raised the American flag over the powerhouse on the south bank, a potent symbol of liberation and resistance. Simultaneously, the 172nd Regiment seized control of Fork Ridge, further tightening the noose around Japanese forces, while the 169th Regiment secured strategic ground from Hill 535 to Osboy Ridge, pushing forward with relentless determination. In the following four days, the 43rd Division, supported by the fearless Marking guerrillas, meticulously mopped up the area west of Ipo Dam. Their efforts culminated in the successful opening of Route 52 from Bigti to Ipo on May 19, a critical milestone that allowed for the unhindered movement of troops and supplies. By May 21, they completed the operation by clearing out the last pockets of organized resistance in the region west of the dam and south of the Angat River, a crucial waterway that would play a significant role in sustaining American operations. With the capture of Ipo Dam intact, General Wing achieved his primary objective, making a significant contribution to addressing Manila's pressing water supply problems. This success would have lasting implications for the civilians and military alike, as the dam was key to ensuring a reliable water supply in the region. The 43rd Division maintained its momentum, continuing mopping-up operations through May 31. They patrolled eastward across the Ipo River, pressed northeast up the Angat from the dam, and scoured the areas that had witnessed some of the most intense fighting during the campaign. The cost of these operations was notable; Wing's forces suffered losses of 120 killed and 515 wounded, while the Kawashima Force endured devastating casualties, with over 2,700 men killed and approximately 115 captured during the grueling battle. Meanwhile, General Chase's 38th Division pressed forward with its offensive against Wawa Dam, following the failure of General Yokoyama's most recent counteroffensive. The 145th Regiment found itself holding a precariously exposed salient at Mount Binicayan, which severely hampered their ability to launch an effective attack toward Wawa Dam. Japanese positions on the high ground to the north of the dam dominated the narrow, winding road with artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire, making any advance perilous. In response to this daunting challenge, General Chase decided to launch an offensive with the 151st Regiment in the area north of the Marikina River, targeting the formidable Mounts Pamitinan and Hapanong-Banoy. This bold maneuver was contingent upon the 152nd Regiment gaining momentum in its attack to clear Woodpecker Ridge. As such, on May 19 and 20, the 152nd Regiment executed enveloping maneuvers centered on Woodpecker Ridge, ultimately breaking through enemy lines on May 21. The breakthrough was dramatically supported by the introduction of medium tanks and flamethrower tanks, powerful assets that helped turn the tide of battle. The following day, what began as a breakthrough rapidly escalated into a rout of Japanese defenders. By May 25, the 152nd Regiment had established control over the strategic junction of the Marikina and Bosoboso Rivers, a key position that not only bolstered their operational capabilities but also positioned them for further advances in the ongoing campaign. As Japanese resistance began to dissipate under the relentless pressure from the advancing American forces, the 149th Regiment, which had successfully relieved the 145th at Mount Binicayan, launched a bold strike toward Wawa Dam on May 27. Encountering little to no opposition, they secured the dam intact the following morning, marking a significant victory. It was on May 27 that General Yokoyama ordered a general retreat, recognizing the untenable position of his forces. Acting on these instructions, General Kobayashi's remaining troops fell back, pursued by vigilant patrols from the 38th Division. With Wawa Dam secured, General Chase shifted his strategy; rather than launching direct assaults against organized Japanese lines, he opted to focus on mopping up operations and pursuing the retreating enemy. The human cost of the campaign was significant. Chase's forces sustained losses of 160 killed and 590 wounded, while the Kobayashi Force suffered catastrophic losses, with over 10,000 men killed since the onset of the offensive.  Shifting focus southeast, the 7th Cavalry and Lieutenant Colonel Bernard Anderson's guerrillas converged on the coastal town of Infanta in late May. Faced with overwhelming pressure, the Japanese naval garrison retreated westward into the Sierra Madre mountains, a rugged and dense area that posed challenges for both sides. Infanta ultimately fell on May 25, and by the evening of the following day, the reinforced 7th Cavalry had successfully cleared the entire flat, rice-rich region surrounding the town, encountering only scattered and ineffective resistance. In a strategic move bolstered by overwater supply movements, the 7th Cavalry implemented an aggressive patrolling program to the southwest, seeking out any remaining enemy forces. Meanwhile, the 8th Cavalry focused its efforts on clearing the northern section of Santa Maria Valley, advancing northward into the Sierra Madre. By the end of May, the Shimbu Group, once a significant Japanese fighting force, was rendered ineffective. Its main units began to disband, breaking into small groups in a desperate bid to forage for food or to navigate their way to safety in northern Luzon. At the end of May, the Shimbu Group still boasted a strength of nearly 26,000 men, over half of its total personnel as of February 20. However, the remaining survivors were not the elite forces they once were. The relentless campaigns by the 11th and 14th Corps had decimated the best-trained and most well-equipped units, leaving behind a shell of what had once been a formidable fighting force. Of the approximately 13,000 survivors still organized into units, their combat effectiveness had deteriorated so significantly that it's worthy of mention only in passing. Meanwhile, about 13,000 others were struggling to survive without proper organization; roughly 5,000 of these were receiving whatever limited medical treatment the Shimbu Group could provide. The remaining 8,000 men had essentially lost all structure, scattering into small groups to forage for food or attempting to make their way north to Luzon, where they hoped to find safety and sustenance. The supply situation faced by the Shimbu Group at the end of May was even more dire than its personnel situation. They had been unable to transport significant portions of their vast stockpiles of supplies into the Sierra Madre mountains, a shortfall that would prove catastrophic for their survival. The only supplies they still possessed in any quantity were ammunition for small arms and machine guns, alongside medical materials for treating combat wounds. The most pressing issue, however, was a critical lack of food. The early loss of several key agricultural regions, including the Bosoboso Valley, the shores of Laguna de Bay, the Santa Maria Valley, and the fertile Infanta region, had deprived the Shimbu Group of expected food stocks. Most of the supplies brought out of Manila had already been consumed. For instance, the organized remnant of the Noguchi Force could currently allocate a meager two ounces of rice per day for each man—a portion that would undoubtedly vanish by mid-June. The Kobayashi Force fared little better, while the Kawashima Force managed to issue slightly more, around six to eight ounces of rice daily. The troops were gradually reduced to scavenging for survival, resorting to eating roots, bark, grass, and whatever food they could find in long-abandoned Filipino gardens. It's worth noting that after just a few days in June, there wasn't a single pig, carabao, or dog left alive within sight of the remnants of the Shimbu Group. Recognizing that mere existence was the overarching challenge, General Yokoyama hoped to regroup his organized units and move them into areas where they might have some chance to cultivate food, scattering them through the challenging terrain of the Sierra Madre. This desperate strategy highlighted the dire straits faced by the Shimbu Group as their chances for survival dwindled. Meanwhile, the Noguchi Force received orders to transfer its main strength to the mountainous region along the eastern shore of Laguna de Bay, where some of its elements were already positioned. This shift aimed to gather their forces in a more favorable terrain, potentially allowing for better access to resources. The Kobayashi Force was tasked with establishing a defensive sector in the area north of Mount Purro and east of Wawa. In a coordinated effort, the 31st Infantry, minus its 3rd Battalion, along with various miscellaneous troops from the 8th Division, were ordered to occupy positions north of the Lenatin River, enhancing their defensive capabilities in a strategic location. The remnants of the Kawashima Force, already in the process of withdrawing from the Ipo Dam area, were instructed to relocate to the mountains east of San Miguel, approximately 22 miles northwest of Ipo. This area was believed to have more abundant food supplies, crucial for the survival of their forces. However, as circumstances unfolded, this transfer later proved impossible. Unable to move effectively, the bulk of the Kawashima Force remained entrenched in the area surrounding Mount Inuman, where they faced mounting challenges in sustaining their troops. In the following month, General Hall directed the 38th Division and Major Edwin Ramsey's 2nd Provisional Regiment to pursue the remnants of Yokoyama's forces as they moved eastward toward Santa Iñez. Meanwhile, the 112th Cavalry employed various mountain and river valley trails to mount a converging attack from the south. They encountered light opposition and successfully captured the town on June 9, further consolidating their gains in the region. At the same time, patrols from the 43rd Division reported no signs of organized resistance north and east of Ipo Dam. The 2nd Cavalry Brigade, alongside Anderson's guerrillas, effectively dispersed the last organized remnants of the Kogure Detachment and the remaining Japanese naval units at Lamon Bay. By the end of June, the only indication of organized Japanese resistance in an area extending five miles north and ten miles east of Wawa Dam was found in the Lenatin River valley, approximately three miles north of Santa Iñez. This development forced the remnants of Yokoyama's forces into trackless and only partially explored wilderness, significantly complicating their ability to regroup or launch further operations. The operations throughout June were costly for Hall, resulting in approximately 110 men killed and 370 wounded. In contrast, Japanese losses during the month were staggering, amounting to 7,540 killed or found dead, alongside 1,105 captured.  Looking back north, General Yamashita aimed to avoid a similar fate for his northern forces. Ever since the fall of Baguio, he had been meticulously planning for the ultimate withdrawal of the Shobu Group deep into the Cordillera Central.  On May 5, less than two weeks following the fall of Baguio, General Yamashita disseminated an outline plan for future operations to the major components of the Shobu Group throughout northern Luzon. His strategy was built on three fundamental premises: Estimation of Enemy Actions: Yamashita assessed that the 6th Army would concentrate its main effort on a northward drive along Route 5, anticipating that General Krueger would only launch secondary attacks toward Bontoc via Routes 4 and 11. This understanding allowed him to anticipate the flow of enemy movements and allocate his resources more effectively. Timing for Resource Stripping: He calculated that the Shobu Group would have approximately three months during which it could strip the Cagayan and Magat Valleys of the essential food and military supplies needed for a protracted stand in the mountains. During this period, the group aimed to transport this matériel into the Cordillera Central through the junction of Routes 4 and 5, located near Bagabag, 25 miles north on Route 5 from Bambang. Control of Key Routes: Yamashita recognized that the success of his planned withdrawal and future delaying actions hinged on maintaining control over the Routes 4-5 junction for as long as possible. He estimated that his defenses south of Santa Fe would be robust enough to hold until mid-June. Additionally, he planned to construct new defensive positions across Route 5 between Santa Fe and Bambang, enabling him to contain the 1st Corps south of Bambang until the end of June. Most crucially, he believed that he would be able to retain control of the Junction of Routes 4 and 5 until the end of July, which was essential for his operational strategy. His initial perimeter encompassed the vital Route 11 terminus of the Baguio-Aritao supply road, as well as key locations such as Bessang Pass, Bontoc, Banaue, Oriung Pass, and Santa Fe In his May 5 plan, Yamashita outlined the necessity of holding the Salacsac Pass-Balete Pass line until mid-June while constructing additional defenses between Santa Fe and Bambang. After mid-June, the Japanese forces were to withdraw to a second perimeter, extending through Ambuclao, Mankayan, Sabangan, Bontoc, Oriung Pass, and Bambang, strategically positioning themselves for potential future engagements. Yamashita understood that these defenses would need to hold until July, when the defenders would be expected to retreat to his last-stand positions centered around Bokod, Mankayan, Polis Pass, the Rayambugan Farm School, and Bambang. He anticipated that the Shobu Group would be compelled to hold their ground until annihilation at these key locations. On April 27, the 103rd Division received orders from the Area Army to transfer its main strength to the Cauayan-Cabagan area, leaving behind only the Yuguchi Detachment 80th Brigade Headquarters in Aparri, which comprised a meager two battalions of nuclear infantry. Yamashita's plans called for virtually abandoning the Cagayan Valley, temporarily retaining only the 103rd Division, which was significantly outnumbered and equated to less than two American Regimental Combat Teams (RCTs), particularly since the Araki Force was stationed in the Cervantes area. The primary duty of the 103rd Division would be to gather all available resources in the valley, including rice and livestock such as carabaos, and dispatch these supplies into the Cordillera Central through Bagabag. Once this crucial task was completed, the division would also withdraw into the mountains, aligning with Yamashita's broader strategic objectives. Yamashita's decision to abandon the Cagayan Valley made logical sense. He realized that the forces he had remaining could not hold the valley for much longer. Additionally, there seemed little necessity to maintain a strong presence there any further. Initially, he had kept units in the valley to harvest and gather food, deny the Allied Air Forces of the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) the use of airfields for strikes against Formosa and Okinawa, and hold onto Aparri in the hope that supplies and reinforcements might still reach Luzon. However, by early May, Yamashita concluded that the situation at Okinawa was largely resolved, negating any strategic purpose behind holding the valley airfields. The hope for reinforcements had long since faded, and crucially, his troops had already gathered the early rice harvest from the valley. With no new crop expected to come in until late September, Yamashita recognized that he would not be able to harvest this future crop, further solidifying his decision to withdraw. Yamashita also ordered the 79th Brigade to take over the defense of Banaue, while directing the 105th Division to defend both the Magat Valley and the Bato Bridge area against potential airborne attacks. However, by the end of May, the situation deteriorated significantly: Santa Fe had fallen, and the retreat of the 10th Division had devolved into a chaotic rout. This development put the defenders at risk of allowing the enemy to reach Bambang before they could establish any strong delaying positions south of the town. In response, Yamashita ordered the 10th Division and the 2nd Tank Division to assemble for a defensive stand across Route 5 at Bato Bridge. He also repositioned the 105th Division to the Rayambugan Farm School and directed the 103rd Division to occupy the vacated defenses at Oriung Pass. Despite these strategic maneuvers, time was not on their side. General Krueger wasted no time launching an aggressive pursuit northward, immediately sending the relatively fresh 37th Division to drive straight up Route 5 from Santa Fe to Bagabag. This force was then to swing east through Oriung Pass into the Cagayan Valley, continuing its advance north along Route 5 toward Aparri. To prepare for a larger offensive, Krueger also intended to use the 25th and 33rd Divisions in the initial assault against the Japanese home islands. To this end, he directed the 32nd Division to take over operations in the Baguio area, while the 6th Division was tasked with relieving the 25th at Santa Fe before striking northwest up Route 4 into the deep Cordillera Central, pursuing the Japanese forces further into the mountainous terrain. Finally, Swift was ordered to execute limited attacks up Route 11 from Baguio, maintain the guerrilla offensive against Cervantes, and deploy the Connolly Task Force to follow Route 3 around the northwest tip of Luzon to secure the Aparri region. Leading the charge, the 129th Regiment of the 37th Division advanced north from Santa Fe on May 31, quickly encountering a reinforced provisional anti-tank unit just south of Aritao. This unit managed to delay the town's capture until June 5. However, the following day, Bambang fell without resistance, and the 129th faced only token opposition at Bato Bridge before ultimately reaching Bayombong on June 7. On June 8, the 145th Regiment took over the lead, and by nightfall, they had seized the crucial junction of Routes 4 and 5 near Bagabag without a fight. Advancing further, the 145th crossed the Magat River on June 9 and pressed toward Oriung Pass, where they rapidly engaged the reinforced 179th Independent Battalion. Although the outgunned and outnumbered defenders valiantly delayed the advance, the 145th pushed through the pass along Route 5 and secured it late on June 12. This breakthrough prompted the bulk of the 103rd Division to decide on a strategic retreat toward the Bontoc-Natonin area, while the remnants of the 4th Air Division abandoned Echague to join this withdrawal. By the evening of June 13, the 145th finally halted its advance at Santiago, while the 148th Regiment worked to neutralize the remaining Japanese positions at Oriung Pass. With these positions secured, the offensive resumed, resulting in the fall of the Echague airbase on June 14, followed by the occupation of Cauayan two days later. As we can see, neither the 10th Division nor the 2nd Tank Division managed to reach Bagabag in time to impede the American advance; the latter was assembling along the Bambang-Pingkian road. On June 12, the 20th Regiment initiated a southwest drive along this road from Bambang. Two days later, elements of the 126th Regiment began pushing west toward Pingkian from Aritao, thereby applying significant pressure on Iwanaka's beleaguered troops. Meanwhile, the 10th Division had become hopelessly cut off east of Route 5 and had retreated to the Old Spanish Trail south of Aritao. On June 11, the 25th Division launched a two-pronged attack against this isolated group, forcing General Okamoto's remnants to retreat eastward deep into the Sierra Madre. In the meantime, General Clarkson dispatched the 130th Regiment up Route 11, where they encountered the 58th Independent Mixed Brigade, which was only capable of weak resistance. Poor weather conditions hindered the 33rd Division's operations in the following days, but by June 15, elements of the 130th Regiment had swung east along the Baguio-Aritao supply road and reached Ambuclao on the Agno River. To the north, Volckmann continued his offensive throughout June, deploying the 121st Regiment to clear Route 4 and secure the northern half of Lamagan Ridge. The 15th Regiment was tasked with advancing to seize Upper Cadsu Ridge and then moving generally northeast along the south side of Route 4. Additionally, the still-arriving 66th Regiment aimed to secure the area south of Butac and swing to the east on the 15th's right flank. As a result, both Lamagan Ridge and Lower Cadsu Ridge were cleared by June 5, with the 15th Regiment then turning its focus toward Upper Cadsu while the 121st Regiment advanced directly toward Bessang Pass. Volckmann's Provisional Battalion launched an attack on Magun Hill and, after a series of minor setbacks, succeeded in clearing much of the area by June 10. On that day, the 121st Regiment initiated a final assault toward Bessang Pass, advancing from the west and southwest. The following day, the Provisional Battalion began pressing in from the north and northeast. Meanwhile, the 15th Regiment overran the last organized resistance on Upper Cadsu on June 12, just as the 66th Regiment was reaching the southwestern corner of the ridge. Supported by artillery, the 121st finally overcame the last organized defenses at Bessang Pass on June 14, establishing contact with the Provisional Battalion east of the pass. On the same day, the final pockets of opposition crumbled before the 15th and 66th Regiments south of the pass. Consequently, the remnants of Japanese forces fled east along Route 4 toward Cervantes, pursued by elements of the 15th and 121st Regiments, which successfully secured the town before dark on June 15. During this final offensive, the guerrillas suffered losses of 119 men killed and 120 wounded, while exaggerated estimates placed Japanese losses at around 2,600 killed. At the same time, by mid-June, the guerrilla 11th and 14th Regiments had cleared almost all the valley west of the Cagayan River, stretching from Cauayan north to Aparri. They also gained complete control over Route 11 from Bontoc to the valley, effectively preventing the 103rd Division from joining Yamashita's last-stand positions. Meanwhile, the Connolly Task Force, after a largely uneventful march, approached Aparri and began an attack on June 11 to clear the last Japanese forces from the area. The last event forcing Yamashita to alter his plans came on 13 June, when the 6th Division's 63d Infantry began probing northwest up Route 4 from Bagabag. The reconnaissance foreshadowed a push that Yamashita especially feared, since Route 4 provided direct access to the deep Cordillera Central. The 105th Division, with defenses across Route 4 at the Rayambugan Farm School, did not have sufficient strength to hold the highway, Yamashita knew. Recognizing that he could not hope to maintain control along any of the three perimeters he had established in May, Yamashita issued new orders for a strategic withdrawal to a last-stand area. This new perimeter would be set up along the inhospitable valley of the Asin River, positioned between Routes 4 and 11. Accordingly, the orders were as follows: The 105th Division was to retreat from Route 4 to the Pacdan-Antipolo line. The 2nd Tank Division was to move north and hold the line from Tubliao to Antipolo. The 23rd Division was tasked with defending along the Adaoay-Bokod line. The 58th Independent Mixed Brigade was to hold the Agno Valley from Buguias south to Adaoay. The 19th Division was to consolidate the bulk of its forces into the Agno Valley, defending the river line from the Loo Valley south to Buguias. The 79th Brigade was assigned to defend Route 390 at Hapao. Once this last-stand perimeter collapsed, Yamashita planned for all remaining forces to retreat into the barren Asin Valley between Toccucan and Kiangkiang, prepared to fight to the death. The area behind this new last-stand perimeter boasted excellent defensive terrain, and Yamashita estimated that most of his units had sufficient ammunition for machine guns, mortars, and small arms to hold their positions for an extended period. However, the Shobu Group faced dire challenges: they were virtually out of medical supplies, had no clothing stocks, and their food reserves would be completely exhausted by mid-September. If they were not annihilated by the advancing Filipino-American forces, the Shobu Group could only anticipate a slow death by starvation and disease. Now, it's time to shift focus from the Philippines and head to Borneo to cover the preparations for the invasion of Balikpapan, codenamed Operation Oboe II. As the 9th Australian Division completed its tasks in North Borneo, General Milford's 7th Australian Division was assembling at Morotai for the upcoming invasion scheduled for July 1. Milford's plan entailed an amphibious assault on a two-brigade front between the Klandasan Besar River and Klandasan town, where the Japanese had established their strongest defenses.  In June, it was estimated that approximately 3,900 troops were stationed around Balikpapan, composed of: 1,500 in mobile units. 2,400 in anti-aircraft, air force, and base units. Additionally, there were 1,100 Japanese workers, 2,400 Indonesians, and 1,000 Formosans present. Near Samarinda, it was believed there were about 1,500 troops, plus possibly a battalion that had recently arrived from Tarakan. Experience had demonstrated that when estimating the strength of the enemy's resistance, every Japanese and Formosan, whether part of a fighting unit, base unit, or civilian labor group, had to be regarded as a combatant. Key defensive features included: At least 18 coast-defense guns, primarily located on ridges overlooking the sea. 26 heavy dual-purpose guns and 78 medium and light anti-aircraft guns. Offshore, between Klandasan and Manggar, rows of stout poles were driven into the seabed, horizontally braced with timber, and protected with barbed wire. An almost continuous anti-tank ditch, from 12 to 14 feet wide, extended above the beach from Stalkudo to Sepinggang. Extensive trench systems, with many tunnel openings, were detected on the ridges overlooking Klandasan. Numerous concrete strongpoints and a continuous line of bunkers lined the beach's fringe. This area was among the most strongly fortified that the Australians had encountered during the war. Indeed, Air Vice-Marshal Bostock, responsible for air support of the landing, cautioned the Prime Minister in a letter that these meticulously prepared defenses might result in Australian casualties comparable to those experienced during the landing at Gallipoli. It appeared that the Japanese had established their main defenses on the slopes overlooking the beaches from Klandasan to Stalkudo. The Australian staff believed the Japanese would attempt to contain the invaders within their beachhead area for as long as possible, before withdrawing inland, either south to Bandjermasin or overland to Bintulu in Sarawak. Additionally, it was anticipated that the enemy would direct burning oil onto the beach unless the oil tanks were destroyed during the preliminary bombardment. Brigadier Ivan Dougherty's 21st Brigade was to land with one battalion on Green Beach, while Brigadier Frederick Chilton's 18th Brigade would go ashore with two battalions on the Yellow and Red Beaches. Once a beachhead was secured, the 18th Brigade would seize the high ground dominating the town and clear the harbor for use, while the 21st Brigade would advance along the coast to capture the airstrips. Additionally, Brigadier Kenneth Eather's 25th Brigade, held in reserve, was set to land on July 2 with the likely objective of thrusting inland along the Milford Highway. Although Admiral Barbey favored a landing site farther east, possibly at Sepinggang, where their ships could be positioned more safely and further from Japanese coastal defense guns, Milford countered with sound reasoning: “Why land up the coast and have to fight miles through jungle, which suits the enemy, when you can go straight in under heavy supporting fire, which the enemy can't withstand, in comparatively open and favorable country?” Supported by General Morshead, this plan received approval, and by June 16, the 7th Division was successfully assembled at Morotai. Admiral Noble's Task Force 78 would once again transport the Australian troops to the landing area, supported by Rear-Admiral Ralph Riggs' cruiser group and Rear-Admiral William Sample's escort carriers. Against the Japanese defenses, Admiral Kamada's 22nd Special Base Force consisted of approximately 3,900 troops, with 1,500 in mobile units and 2,400 in anti-aircraft, air force, and base units, in addition to an estimated 4,500 laborers. In preparation for the invasion, aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force and the 5th and 13th Air Forces began bombarding enemy defenses and storage tanks on June 4. These attacks intensified a week later as they specifically targeted Japanese gun positions. On June 15, Noble's minesweepers arrived to clear the sea around Balikpapan of magnetic mines, but faced losses, with three ships sunk and three damaged during the operation. Ten days later, American underwater demolition teams began working to locate and breach the underwater obstacles, often under heavy gunfire. To further confuse the enemy, efforts were made to create the impression that the landing would occur at Manggar. This included spreading rumors, landing a reconnaissance party in that area, and demolishing underwater obstacles at both Manggar and Sepinggang. Finally, on June 26, Noble's convoy set sail from Morotai. After an uneventful voyage, they reached Balikpapan unmolested just before dawn on July 1. During the morning, Riggs' cruisers and Noble's destroyers shelled the landing beaches and the defenses behind them, continuing the bombardment until the first waves of landing craft were within 1,300 yards of the shore, at which point the fire shifted to the flanks and rear of the enemy positions. About an hour before the landing, a combined rocket barrage and low-level airstrike were executed, followed by a second rocket barrage just ten minutes before the troops hit the beaches. In total, during the 20 days leading up to the assault, the Balikpapan-Manggar area received 3,000 tons of bombs, 7,361 rockets, 38,052 shells, and 114,000 rounds from automatic weapons, all aimed at crippling the formidable Japanese defenses. Covered by a successful bombardment, the assault waves finally hit the beaches just before 09:00. However, due to navigation errors, the troops were put ashore at the wrong locations. The 2/27th Battalion landed on Yellow Beach instead of Green Beach and quickly captured the Ration, Romilly, Rottnest, and Charlie's Spur positions. The 2/12th Battalion landed on Red Beach instead of Yellow, necessitating a northeast swing to take over Ration and reduce the remaining Japanese defenses in the area. A platoon was also detached to push inland along Vasey Road to seize Portee, while other elements secured Parkes, Plug, and Blyth's Junction. The 2/10th Battalion, correctly landing on Red Beach, rapidly seized the high ground in front of them. Patrols found Prudent and Petersham Junction to be unoccupied. The 2/10th then assembled at Petersham Junction and captured the lower slopes of Hill 87, successfully taking the hill under assault by noon. Meanwhile, Dougherty landed his reserve units, which also came ashore further west than expected on Yellow Beach. The 2/16th Battalion quickly assembled at Ravenshoe and captured Record, Pigeon, and Mount Malang. By 11 a.m. the battalion was on Ravenshoe, whence Malang and Pigeon were visible. Advancing under sharp fire Captain Madigan's company on the left took Record about 4 p.m., killing 46 Japanese. At 4.5 Captain R. H. Christian's company launched a concerted attack on Malang, sup-ported by the fire of artillery, mortars and machine-guns, and using a flame-thrower. The hill was taken and 40 Japanese were killed. The Australians lost four killed, including the leading platoon commander, Lieutenant Armstrong, and 14 wounded. By nightfall the 2/16th held a line through Malang, Pigeon and Record. It had lost 6 killed or died of wounds in the day and 24 wounded; 86 Japanese dead had been counted.  The 2/14th Battalion advanced swiftly to secure a bridgehead over the Klandasan Besar and seized the Stalkudo ridge. The 2/5th Commando Squadron passed through this bridgehead and attacked northeast but encountered heavy opposition. Returning to Hill 87, the 2/10th Battalion assaulted and captured Parramatta in the afternoon, aided by artillery and tanks, while patrols further secured Newcastle and the Cracking Plant by dusk. A patrol led by Sergeant A. A. Evans was sent out from Davey's platoon towards Newcastle. They silenced a bunker with a flame-thrower, and came to a house from which Japanese were firing. They overcame this position with grenades and small arms fire and then moved on to New-castle. As Evans reached Newcastle he saw the surviving Japanese making off towards Portee. Davey's platoon now occupied Newcastle and the other platoon took up positions on Parramatta. The seizure of Parramatta gave the 2/10th observation over the low ground to the north and the northern end of the town, and tied the battalion in with the 2/12th on Portee; the Japanese were now in a very poor position to counter-attack from the western end of the beach-head. Lieutenant Russack of Sanderson's company led a patrol to the Cracking Plant where it silenced a Japanese pill-box. This patrol was strafed by American aircraft, but worse was to follow. At 4.55 American carrier-borne aircraft made a run over Parramatta from the west and dropped bombs and fired rockets across Hill 87, which had then been in the hands of the 2/10th for four hours and a half. Much of this fire landed in the area into which Captain Brocksopp's" company ("D") had moved and where Daly's command post was established. Three were killed, including Lance-Sergeant Hackett, a veteran of several cam-paigns, and 14 wounded, including Major G. R. Miethke and two other officers. Air panels were displayed in all platoon areas after this. Daly decided to hold that night as far forward as Newcastle, on which he placed two platoons plus a platoon of the 2/1st Machine Gun Bat-talion, all under Captain Bowie. In the day the battalion had lost 13 killed and 30 wounded, but 216 Japanese dead were counted. That night 24 more Japanese were killed while trying to penetrate the Australians' positions and no Australian was hit. All night there were fires round about where houses were burning, and the blazing oil tanks on the Tank Plateau 600 yards to the west of the Parramatta ridge lit up the landscape. Finally, Brigadier Chilton also landed the reserve 2/9th Battalion on Red Beach and sent it west in the afternoon to occupy Klandasan town, leading to the capture of Santosa Hill by nightfall. Thus, the Australians successfully landed at Balikpapan and secured a sizable beachhead, marking the beginning of what would become a fierce and challenging battle. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In June 1945, American forces, led by Generals Eichelberger and Krueger, fought fiercely against Japanese troops in Luzon, achieving significant victories despite heavy resistance. The tide turned as they captured key positions, restoring hope to Filipinos. Meanwhile, preparations for the Balikpapan invasion intensified. The 7th Australian Division readied for an amphibious assault on July 1 against well-fortified Japanese defenses. Despite facing strong opposition, the Australians successfully landed at various beaches, seizing vital ground.

“Bayan o sarili?” Join your favourite TransAtlantic podcasting duo – Ian & Liam – as we ride into revolution and betrayal in our 285th episode, tackling the powerful, patriotic, and provocative Heneral Luna (2015). We're later joined by BFF of the BFE Juleen, as we trade chequered flags for sabres and cigar smoke while we discuss: Ian shares a personal story about how his perspective on film shifted dramatically this week—and why Heneral Luna hit harder than expected. We talk about rediscovering old hobbies and how sometimes history—and a great movie—can reignite forgotten passions. We've got some big BFE cast news to share—don't worry, no one got court-martialed. Was Antonio Luna an epic figure… but a deeply unlikeable man? We break down the myth and the man. At what point do patriotism and ego diverge—especially in military leadership? And how much of Luna's downfall was self-inflicted? Why is this vital and volatile chapter of Filipino history completely absent from most American history books? Juleen joins us with powerful insights from her time living in Southern California and how Heneral Luna resonates against today's shifting political tides. Our Rodecaster decides to go full rebellion, jumping ship mid-episode—more than once. What's with all the Jesus imagery? From framing to posture to betrayal, Luna doesn't hold back. One scene left Ian absolutely gobsmacked—he didn't see it coming, and we're still picking our jaws off the floor. Why did troop movements in this film feel like Season 8 of Game of Thrones? Can we get a map? Are Americans great marksmen… or hilariously awful? And what made standing up in battle a form of actual camouflage? Whether Heneral Luna is the Best Film Ever—or just the best film you've never heard of. Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at https://www.patreon.com/BFE. We are extremely thankful to our following Patrons for their most generous support: Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM Hermes Auslander James DeGuzman Synthia Shai Bergerfroind Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most Andy Dickson Chris Pedersen Duane Smith (Duane Smith!) Randal Silva Nate The Great Rev Bruce Cheezy (with a fish on a bike) Richard Ryan Kuketz Dirk Diggler Stew from the Stew World Order podcast NorfolkDomus John Humphrey's Right Foot Timmy Tim Tim Aashrey Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/. Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor. Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/.

Want to Practice Speaking Tagalog?⁠⁠ Hire a Tagalog Conversation Tutor here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://LearnTagalogFilipino.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or Support me on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Https://patreon.com/learntagalogfilipino⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And get access to all the lessons plus regular free online Google meet conversational Tagalog lessons #learntagalog #tagaloglessons #learntagalogfilipino #filipino #tagalog #learnfilipino #learnfilipinowords #tagalogwords #filipinowords#tagaloglanguage #filipinolanguage#filipino #tagalog#tagalogvocabulary #flipinovocabularyIf You Want to Practice Speaking Tagalog?⁠⁠ Hire a Tagalog Conversation Tutor here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/posts/120741420

In 1538, Gerardus Mercator published a world map that preserved one of the last cartographic witnesses to an ancient truth—labeling the Lequii Populi at 10°N, right in the Philippines, not Japan or Ryukyu. This episode of The Smoking Quill exposes how Jesuit and colonial manipulation led to centuries of geographic confusion, wrongly relocating the Lequios and Zipangu to Japan. But Mercator's early maps, along with Ptolemy's Barusse and Basacata Isles, all point to the Philippines as the ancient Isles of Gold, Aurea Chersonesus.From Barbosa's 1516 identification of the Lequios in Luzon, to Mercator's correction of Ptolemaic errors in 1569, we trace a clear cartographic trail to Luzon, Mindanao, and Palawan as the real ancient lands of gold—Chryse, Barusse, and Basacata.

Here are today's top stories on SBS Filipino. - Alamin ang pinakamainit na balita ngayong Sabado sa SBS Filipino.

Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 21 Andy's spirits are lifted by an old friend. Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Chapter 36 Half an hour later, his phone rang and Andy glanced down to see it was Phil calling, a picture of him with the words "Phil The Elder" superimposed over part of it. The poker group actually had two Phils in it,  Phil Marcos and Phil Pak. The two men were dramatically different from one another, but also remarkably similar in others. They shared the same first name, so the group had given them nicknames when they were talking about them if it could've been either of them. Phil Marcos a.k.a. Phil The Elder a.k.a. Greater Phil was 34, Filipino and worked for Boeing with the Air Force at a base in the East Bay, and was certainly the closer friend to Andy. They'd met at a local comic book store just after Andy had moved out to the West Coast, and had hit it off immediately. When Andy had started his poker group up a few years later, Phil was one of the first people Andy had called. Phil Pak, a.k.a. Phil The Younger a.k.a. Lesser Phil was 32, Korean and worked for the NSA out of San Francisco, and not someone they'd seen as often as they liked. For the last couple of years, Lesser Phil had been trying to convince Andy to come work as a data analyst for the NSA in terms of interpretation and extrapolation. Lesser Phil had been a college friend of Eric's, and had been introduced to Andy only a few months after he'd met Greater Phil. While Andy still typically thought of them as Greater and Lesser Phil, he tried not to call them that out loud, and had them as Phil The Elder and Phil The Younger in his phone. Andy asked if it was a common name, and Eric remarked that he knew at least a couple more Phils but none he knew that well. Andy told him he'd had a similar problem with Jennys in high school. "Talk to me, Phil," Andy said to his friend. "You heard the recording. Should I be worried?" "Concerned, yes. Worried, no," Phil sighed. He sounded exhausted on the other end of the line, but as of late, Phil had always sounded exhausted. Whatever he was doing over at the base, it was certainly taking a toll on his friend. "So the good news is that in the long run, it shouldn't make too much of a difference. But that reaction means that Lexi had been infected with the Orange Variant of the DuoHalo virus before we introduced the serum to her body." "The 'Orange Variant?'" "We started naming them after colors, working our way through the spectrum. The Red Variant was first but it died off very quickly, so this is the second one," he grumbled. "But she isn't our first exposure to it, so we know how the serum's going to generally react to it, and what it's going to do to her. There are only two real major differences you're going to need to worry about." "Is she going to be okay?" "I told you, in the long run, it shouldn't make too much of a difference. The two differences you need to pay attention to are this,  first, her margin of error for recursion is far less forgiving. That means don't ever make her go more than a week without getting some Rook juice, if you know what I mean, otherwise she see temporary cognitive decline set in pretty fast, and she'll be ripping your clothes off no matter where you are, so keep that in mind." "Every seven days minimum," Andy repeated, writing it down on a notepad in his writing office. "What's the other major difference I need to worry about?" "It shouldn't even be a concern, but you should still know about it. You know how other men's semen will typically make an imprinted woman ill?" "Sure?" "Those who've been exposed to the Orange Variant, if they come in contact with the semen of a man other than those they're imprinted with, they go into a violent fit of rage, attacking anyone other than their imprinted man on sight. Those rage fits tend to be relatively short lived,  only a hour at most,  but they're still incredibly dangerous and not the kind of thing you want sprung on you as a surprise." "And this is my bodyguard who has this," Andy sighed. "Oh it's fine," Phil chuckled. "She won't harm you, and you know how to protect your family better than anyone. I think anyone who tried to use it as a weakness against Lexi would probably not live to regret it. She'll also be imprinting for longer than normal, so if she's sleeping for like a day and a half, don't worry about it. That's to be expected." "You doing okay, Phil?" Andy asked. "You look like shit, and I'm more worried about you now than I am Lexi." Phil sighed then laughed a little bit. "You know me. I'll sleep when I'm dead. Lots of long days in the office turning into long nights, and on top of that, Audrey and Linda are making sure that I have several partners as well, so that my immunity to DuoHalo continues to be strong. We're not entirely sure of the science of it yet, but it looks like the more people inside a particular polypod, the stronger the internal herd immunity the male at the center get is. Once we knew that for certain, my two queens made sure I had a good litter of partners in our household. So I'm up to eleven myself now." "I still can't believe I'm a level five and you're not, Phil," Andy said, deliberately testing a theory by trying to bait it out of his friend. "Okay, Andy, you got me," Phil said with amusement. "I'm also a level five. I was lying to you earlier, for security reasons. In fact, I think technically I was one of the first level fives. I've also technically had DuoHalo, but I can't really get into the details of that all that much. Let's just say that when we're finally through this whole pandemic, I'm going to have a bunch of stories to tell you that will blow your mind. I probably have to get clearance for you so that I can tell you some of them, but it'll be worth it." "I've always known you were up to something over there, Phil," Andy laughed. "I just couldn't figure out what it was." "Greater Phil, International Man of Mystery. It's got a nice ring to it." "Speaking of Mystery. Poker, this week. Let's do it." "Yeah, sure," Phil said. "I could use a break, so you call everyone else, and I'll make a point of coming over with as much of the family as I can convince to come out, although it has that weird side effect of making every poker night feel like a giant party where we're all hiding from our wives. Maybe we should see if there's enough interest to set up a second table and we can mix and match, so you can spend a bit more time meeting my partners and vice versa." "Well, you see Niko all the time, what with her being at your work, so you probably know her about as well as I do." "That girl's got secrets upon secrets, Andy." That caught him a little off guard. He wasn't bothered by it, but he was amused at the idea of her trying to hide something from him. "Niko? My Niko? I can't see it. She's open and transparent about everything with me." "Sure, okay. Didn't you feel that way about Erin?" "That was different?" "Was it though?" Phil said in a tone that immediately conjured the Smug Thor meme to his mind. "I mean, sure, Niko's secrets are probably being kept from you for the right reasons, as opposed to Erin's, but secrets are secrets." "The last thing I need is you making me more paranoid, Phil." "Forget I said anything. Oh, one last bit of news for you. Maya won't be there until tomorrow midday. Turns out she's also got the Orange Variant, so we're making sure the serum is getting a good foothold before we send her over to you. It's all just safety precautions, but it'll be over soon enough." "Great. We can do poker night on the 20th, so we can all watch the President's speech and the 60 Minutes story together." "Sounds like fun," Phil agreed. "Hopefully Katie Couric's team caught my good side. See you on Friday." As Andy hung up the phone, he noticed that Whitney was lingering in the doorway. She was dressed impeccably in a white button up shirt and a black pencil skirt with black pantyhose on beneath, and the shirt was just barely thin enough that he could see hints of her red bra on underneath. "Have you got a moment, sir?" "Sure thing, Whitney, what's up?" "Just wanted to go over the set up work I've done for the house so you know what's going on, and to ask you a few questions so I can start the process of replacing your laptop for you," she said, her hands folded together in front of her, her eyes mostly lowered. "Sounds great, but Whitney, you don't have to look down all the time. I know you're more used to a stern hand than I am, and I'll do my best to be what you like when we're intimate, but when you're acting in your duties as the house IT manager, you need to relax a little more and try to fit in." Whitney smirked a little bit, those dark red lips perked up as she lifted her head, nodding at him with a little smile. "Oh, I know, sir. I think I mostly just wanted to see if you would notice. Shall we?" For the next half an hour, Whitney explained to him in good detail all the changes she'd gone about to the house in the last day, getting all the rooms configured to work within the house's larger intranet. As it turned out, there were multiple LAN ports in the walls of every room in the house, it seemed like, and once again, Andy found himself wondering who this house had been built for originally. In addition to making sure all the ports were working, Whitney had also set up wireless hubs and repeaters all throughout the house, enough so that no matter where a person was in the house, they should always have a good signal to the internet. The house's security systems ran on an entirely separate network, one with minimal external connectivity, and Whitney said that she would work with Lexi to make sure the system was up to whatever standards his new head of security had in mind. They walked while they talked, and outside in the back, Andy could see Katie astride her riding lawn mower, zipping in lines across the monstrous amount of green grass in his back yard, making sure to get all of it cut even and levelly. He could also see Tala hauling things into the back house with the help of Nicolette, who had ditched the maid outfit for the time being for a more practical set of blue jeans and a baggy t shirt covered in paint splotches. All of the changes, Whitney assured him, had been done with minimal disruption to anyone's work in the house, and she'd been trying to get as much of it today, as it was a Sunday. The last thing they talked about was his replacement laptop, something that Andy was remarkably picky about. Oh, he didn't care about the things most people cared about,  when it came to processors and memory, Andy insisted none of that mattered to him,  but the thing he was adamant about was that the keyboard feel as close to the one on the laptop he was currently using, an eight year old IBM ThinkPad. Too many keyboards were difficult to use for long periods at a time, and considering how many words Andy found himself putting into his laptop on a daily basis, if the keyboard was unwieldy, the laptop might as well be non existent. Whitney made a special note that "keyboard feel" was of the utmost import, and she insisted to him, she would do her best to get him a good replacement within a week or so. She had already begun backing up all the files from his existing laptop to the house's master network, as well as to a backup kept in a fire safe, so that even if disaster struck, he would still have his work in a safe location. Andy did tell her that she didn't have to work full time on the weekends, and that she should make a point of getting settled into her own room, and spending some time catching up with her friend Nicolette who had brought her here. Whitney had smiled at that, and agreed to go get changed so she could help Tala move in, and then they could all help Whitney get moved in afterwards. He was starting to walk back towards his office when he ran into Lauren, clearly just back from a jog around the neighborhood, sweaty and out of breath, a big smile on her face. "Hey there, fella, just the bloke I was lookin' to have a moment with. Got a snip?" He grinned, leaning against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sure, what's up?" "I've been thinking, and I think maybe we should let Taylor off the hook now," she said, looking down at her feet for a second. "I know, I know, I was the one who set the whole month punishment in place but, strewth, seeing her walking around naked all the time is starting to make me feel bad. I'm thinking she's learned her lesson, and she knows she's got lots of trust to earn back from me, so I'm only keeping her from getting to spend time learning more about all the other amazing sheilas you have in this house, and that's not fair of me." "I agree," Andy chuckled, "but I didn't want to be the one to tell you, seeing how fire and brimstone you were about the whole thing when you set the rules in place." "Strewth," she muttered. "Was it really that much a dunnybrook?" "I was a little worried the heavens were going to part and you were going to call down lightning bolts from the skies," he said, the smile wide on his face. "Real wrath of god type shit." "Bugger. Anyway, you should tell'er that you've talked me down, and that you laid down the law, and you decided, and eventually I relented, that she is done with that punishment and should just join the family like all the other birds. Make it clear you decided, not me, so I still get to keep a bit of that big scary reputation." Andy rolled his eyes but nodded. "Sure sure, you'll look mean. You'll look really scary. Anyway, I'll go find her and tell her while you're hopping into the shower." "Stink that bad, do I?" "Your sweatstains have got sweatstains, Lauren," he said with a laugh as he was backing away from her, while she mimed punching motions in his direction. He wasn't certain where he'd find Taylor in the house, so he decided just to go wandering the halls and see where he stumbled into her. He found her in Hannah's room, where she, Asha and Hannah were sitting on the bed, gossiping. Asha and Hannah hadn't bothered to change out of their pajamas, enjoying a lazy Sunday, while Taylor sat nude with her back against the wall. One of his two cats, Muninn, the Russian blue, was sitting on the bed near Asha, who was petting him idly. All three girls tensed a little bit when he entered the room,  Taylor wasn't supposed to be sitting up on furniture unless Lauren or himself had told her to do so, but Andy hadn't really followed the rules at all, and had made it clear multiple times that Taylor's 'punishment,' such as it was, was mostly for Lauren's mollification, and that if Taylor slipped on the rules from time to time while she wasn't around, he didn't particularly care. "No no, don't get up, Taylor, it's fine," he said, coming into the room. "In fact, it's what I came to talk to you about." "You need to get Nicolette to turn up the house furnace, babe," Asha said to him. "If I'd ta walk around all day in me skivvies, I know I'd be freezin'." "Totally, Daddy," Hannah said. He'd repeatedly told her that she didn't have to call him that (in fact, going so far as to hint that it made him a little uncomfortable when she did) but she had repeatedly answered that she liked calling him that, so she wasn't going to stop any time soon. At least she knew enough not to do it when other people were around the house. "We're just talkin' anyway, so I told her to hop up here, so if you gotta punish someone, it should be me." "You look far too eager when you suggest that, Hannah," he told the Asian teenager. "Anyway, I had a talk with Lauren just a little bit ago. I told her this is my house, and I'm in charge, and that I've decided you've served this part of your punishment long enough. You're free to get dressed, wear clothes around the house, sleep wherever you want, sit wherever you want. You can get your phone back, and you can start working with Lauren at the 49ers camp whenever you feel like you're ready. You're a full member of the household now, and there's no reason for this silly punishment to go on any further. And you can certainly take off that ridiculous dog collar." Taylor's bright blue eyes had been focused on him the entire time he'd been talking, and she slipped off the bed quickly to throw her arms around him, pressing those impressive tits of hers against his chest as she hugged him very tightly, clinging to him, even as he could hear her sniffling back some tears. "Thank you, Andy," she said quietly. "I know Lauren's still mad at me, but this has been really hard, being made to feel like less than a person." He wrapped his arms around her, patting her bare back. "I know, and I get that, but you also have to realize that cheating on her hurt her in a way she'd never been hurt before, and that won't go away fully for a long long time. Just because you're done with all of this doesn't mean you're done with all of that. I know you know that, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded that you're going to be repairing that damage between you two for years to come. You screwed up, but there's a way back from that, as long as you're willing to put in the work and learn from your mistakes." Taylor pulled back, looking at him as something just dawned on her. "So, wait, all the rules have been lifted? Like all all of them?" He tilted his head a little. "Yyyyes? Why, is there one in particular you're asking about?" "So, like, next time, y'know, when me and you, then we can,” He bit back a smile and nodded. "Yes, yes we can. And if you want to masturbate again, you're welcome to start doing that too." She shook her head over dramatically once then leaned in to kiss him. "After we've had our first time together, our first real time together, then I will, but I want the first thing inside of my cunt after all this time to be your cock. If that's okay," she said, biting her lip nervously. "Of course it's okay. I think your next day in the rotation was going to be the 20th, but if you want, we can try and find some time before then instead. It can even be just the two of us, without Lauren around, if that's what you want." She pouted again for a moment. "Anything I want?" "Well, within my usual limits, but sure." She slipped her arms away from him, and turned back to look at Asha and Hannah, extending a hand to each of them. "I want the four of us together, for my first time normally with you, Andy," she said, as Asha took one hand and Hannah took the other. "Oh rrrrreally?" Asha said, dragging the sound out, her London accent dripping through the word. "All four of us together? Sounds like a spot of fun. I'm game if you are, Whiskers," she said, looking over at Hannah with a smile. "Anything you can throw at me, I can totally handle, Goldfish," Hannah shot back at her friend. Clearly the girls had developed nicknames for each other when he wasn't around. "I was supposed to have tomorrow night, Daddy, so instead of it just being me, it'll be all three of us, if that's totally cool and shit." "Yeah, that's, ahem, totally cool. And shit." He leaned in to give Taylor a quick kiss, but she kissed him back harder than expected, and it lasted longer than he'd planned, not that he minded. "And you, young lady, should get some clothes on, and maybe unpack your stuff, whether that's in your own room or in Lauren's room, that's up to you." "Oh it totally all goes in with Lauren," Taylor said. "I don't even want my own room. Either I'm in her bed or yours. You want to come help me move in, girls?" "You couldn't stop us, love," Asha said. "Last one there has a smelly cunt!" Hannah said as she bolted towards the door, Asha and Taylor just a step or two behind her. "Y'know," Andy said to himself and the cat, "I feel like I should've yelled that there's no running in the house after them, but I just know it wouldn't have done any good." "Meow," Muninn said to him in response. "Oh hush," Andy said. "What the hell do you know?" "Meow," Muninn agreed. "Damn straight." After leaving Hannah's room, he was halfway down the hall when he ran into Sarah, who was wearing one of his t shirts, one for a band called Stereophonics, and sweatpants beneath it, her hair done up in the least stylish ponytail he'd ever seen from her, as if she'd just put her red mane up to get it out of the way for a while. "Hey you," she said, her pearly white smile beaming at him. "Maya should be here any minute, and I know you're just gonna love her." "I actually spoke to Phil a little bit ago, and she's not going to be here until tomorrow, but she's still coming, don't you worry." He explained the Orange Variant to her, and while she was a little disappointed that her friend's arrival would be delayed, she understood that Maya's health was the most important thing, and the base didn't want to let her out of their sight until she was ready. "What've you been up to today?" She rolled her oceanic blue eyes at him with a big harumph. "Reading screenplays that my agent sent over, trying to pick my next project. It's looking like everyone's going to want to do serialized television right now, because they can get more content out of smaller budgets, but so many of these stories are just so boring," she groaned. "It's like my agent's only sending me the same stuff." "Well," he said, taking her hand in his as they walked down the hallway, "tell your agent what you want then, whether that's more drama, more action, more comedy, more whatever it is you want more of. They only know what you want when you tell them. I had to learn the same lesson with my literary agent early on." She squeezed his hand thankfully. "My agent really should know better, but you're right. I can get her on the hunt for the kinds of things I want to be doing. You know there aren't really any good spy stories on television right now? I should see if she can get me something like that. I'll give her a call tomorrow, see if maybe she can reach out to the production companies, see who's already got projects winding up I can try and piggyback onto." They walked past the door of Emily and Sarah's workspace, and Andy noticed it was closed. He pointed with his other hand at the closed door as they kept on walking. "Em in some kind of meeting?" Sarah nodded. "London based production company wanted to reach out to her, so she's taking the call today, but she should be out in an hour or so." The doorbell rang, and Sarah arched an eyebrow in surprise. "I thought you said Maya wouldn't be here until tomorrow." "That's what Phil told me," he said, as the two of them started to head downstairs, although Andy could hear someone answering the door, followed by a loud squeal of recognition. When they came down the stairs, Andy could see it was Piper who'd answered the door, and she had her arms wrapped around a short blonde girl, hugging her tightly. "Andy! Sarah! Brooke's here!" Piper said to them, swinging the shorter girl around a bit. "That's great, but I thought she was  " "Surprise, man!" Xander said as he stepped in through the doorway. Andy let go of Sarah's hand and rushed down the rest of the stairs, suddenly stopping about six feet away from the door. "Are you...?" "Paired with three people this morning, so I'm 100% safe as houses," his tattooed friend said. Once he'd gotten the word 'paired' out, Andy had continued rushing his best friend, wrapping his arms around the burly guy, giving him a hell of a hug. "Oh Jesus, it's good to know you're safe, man," Andy sighed. "And it's so fucking good to see you. I know we hung out last December, but fuck, these eleven months have felt like five fucking years,” "Glad to see my mouth's rubbing off on you," Sarah laughed, closing the distance to meet them. "Xander, these are my partners Piper Brown and Sarah Washington, both of whom you've talked to a bit through FaceTime. Piper, Sarah, this is my best and oldest friend, Xander Baker, whom I've known since we were both, like, what, 6?" Xander laughed, nodding. "6, 7, something like that. However old we were in kindergarten." "Not very," Andy said. "Not enough!" Xander replied. "Anyway, Andy, Sarah, this is my soon to be partner Brooke Maloney, whom I have your partner Piper to thank for." "Well," Piper laughed, "I'd originally pitched her to come here and be Andy's partner, but he realized she'd be a much better fit for you, considering how much you both love classic cars, although really, I think it was just so he didn't have to hear her singing Vince Gill songs around the house all the time, 'cause she does that a lot, and I hope they warned you about that, Xander." "She can be singing Vince Gill while I'm singing Wu Tang Clan, and somewhere in the middle, over the engine of a Dodge Charger, I think we can make it work," Xander said. "Honestly, Pipes," Brooke said to her, "the only reason he said soon to be is because I wanted to come over and say thank you to y'all, and let Xander have a bit of time with his friend before we got to bumpin' uglies. But all the other gals in his house have just been so sweet, y'all, I can't wait for you to meet'em." "Why don't Piper and I give you a tour of the place, Brooke," Sarah said, "and the boys can do a little bit of catching up. You want me to have Jenny bring drinks to you out on the patio, hun?" "Yeah," Andy said, "I'll take a pina colada. Xander?" "Just a Corona." Sarah nodded. "Drinks coming up! This way ladies!" she said, marching them down towards the kitchen first. "Jesus Andy," Xander said quietly. "You really bagged Sarah Washington. I mean, I know I've talked to her vidchat, but seeing her in person like this,” "Seriously, I don't deserve this much luck," Andy said with a chuckle as he started to lead his best friend towards the back patio. "Oh fuck you," Xander teased. "You deserve exactly this much luck. Our entire lives, I've been watching you do good things for people left and right and never asking for so much as a thank you in return, and this is what karma has brought you, dude, so live a little. Enjoy it." As they moved out onto the patio, Xander shook his head. "I will say, however, that my house isn't quite as big as yours is. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fucking palace compared to that one bedroom shithole I lived in back in Ohio, but I'm just saying,” Andy rolled his eyes with a smirk. "You know I didn't pick the places myself, right jackass?" "I guess so," Xander said, as the two men moved to sit down on deck chairs near the pool. It was cool for November but not so cold that either man felt like they needed to add layers, both having grown up in the Midwest, where California winters would be considered nice spring days. "God, I'm really here. It's wild, man." "It's great having you out here, Xander. Jesus, the stories I have to tell you. You're here early, though. I didn't expect you out here for at least a few more days." "Turns out these DuoHalo Variants are pretty intense," Xander sighed, "and since they were pairing me up with someone in the military, they wanted to make sure I got hooked into the system as quickly as they could, so everything got very rush rush rush. When you told me to be ready to go at a moment's notice, you weren't kidding. As soon as we finished up that conversation, I started packing, and just barely got done before they showed up to cart me away. They're even taking care of selling my house for me, although I suspect it's just going to become government housing or something." "Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me," Andy agreed. "God, it's good to have you here, man." "Well if it isn't my favorite hoodrat," Fiona said, carrying out a tray with three drinks on it, setting it down on a table as Xander immediately got up and hugged him hard. "How you been, lunkhead?" "Better now that I know you made it here okay, muckraker," he teased back. "How the hell you been Fi?" "Better now that I know you ditched that crazy ex of yours," she laughed. "Can I say it?" "Oh I think you've earned it." "I told you that girl was no good." "You did indeed tell me that," Xander agreed, taking his bottle of Corona from the drinks tray, as Andy grabbed his pina colada and Fi grabbed a tall glass of wine. "Hey hey hey, the gang's all back," Fi said with a smile. "To old friends and new flames." "To life, liberty and us getting through this fucking plague together," Xander toasted. "To family," Andy corrected. "To family!" they all toasted together, clinking glasses. Piper has a confession to make.. Chapter 37 The conversation had gone far into the evening, with members of the household coming in and out several times, joining for a while before leaving the trio to their own devices once more, mostly anyway, a couple of Andy's partners choosing to remain longer. Sarah and Aisling in particular were intent on getting as many stories about Andy's youth as they could, and he felt a little like they hoped either Xander or Fiona would tell them embarrassing tales from their college years. While Fi had been mostly coy about the years they'd spent at university, Xander, by contrast, had been eager to tell at least a handful of hilarious and ridiculous stories about the troubles they'd found themselves in during their misspent youth. Despite how flustered he got a couple of times, it was a wonderful night of reminiscing, and a chance for the girls to see Andy in a different light. A piece of advice Andy had never let go of was that as you got older, it was almost important to keep people around you who knew you when you were young and fearless. At least a few times, he'd managed to deflect the conversation off himself and onto other people, a detour letting both Sarah and Emily talk about their experiences making movies, and Xander talking about the process of being relocated from Ohio out to California. Xander's trip had been surprisingly surreal, and he told the group about it in explicit detail. He'd been loaded into an isolation chamber on a cargo plane along with twenty other men, each in their own little plastic bubble tent, although each of the tent also had curtains that could be dropped for privacy. Xander told them he'd found that odd but understood why eventually. The plane had been mostly full of men when it picked Xander up in Ohio. The little isolation chamber was like a emergency field hospital's clean room, with a mattress on the floor as well as a few days of rations, both food and water, and a little sealable chemical toilet. Nearly everything was ziptied to weights to keep it steady. There was also a little headset that connected to a series of voice chat channels all the men could use to talk to one another. The main channel had been too hectic for Xander to stay in for more than a handful of minutes, but he'd eventually peeled off a couple of the men in the plane into a separate channel, and was able to both give them some information and get some on his own. All of the men on the plane had been gathered from cities in the central and eastern United States, and were being ferried out to partners, generally military but some in other branches of the government, and they weren't being let out of their isolation chambers until they'd been paired up with at least one woman, thus, the beds and the privacy curtains. At least a couple of the pods had not only men in them, but also a woman in the middle of the imprinting process . The government didn't want to risk the life of any man, so this was an emergency plan decided to keep as many people as they could safe. The two men Xander spent the afternoon talking with were Klaus, a 26 year old Master Sergeant from Georgia that Xander felt like was probably in special ops of some kind, and Bill, a 34 year old schoolteacher from Tennessee who was being paired up with a prominent Silicon Valley businesswoman he'd dated back in high school. Klaus clearly knew far more than he wanted to share with Xander and Bill, but he'd done his best to give the two men some information to make their journey a little less panic stricken. There were two women in the isolation chamber with Klaus, a twenty year old blonde named Olivia and a twenty two year old Korean American named Naya, or so Klaus told them, as both women were still in the middle of the imprinting process. The man was part of the security forces for the flying hospital that was transporting men and women around the country. He knew what he could and couldn't tell Xander and Bill, and just having a conversation with Klaus had made Xander feel more safe in their travels. He had a calm and casual demeanor to him while discussing how everything had been carefully planned, even if it all felt pretty slapdash. He couldn't answer all of their questions, for security reasons, but he told the two men that the airplane had basically been in motion nonstop for the last three weeks, doing its best to ferry people around the nation. Xander had asked him if it was truly necessary, only to be told how high the casualty rate was for men around the nation. Klaus had seen the stacks of bodies, and the man sounded rattled when he described the hundreds of empty apartments he'd seen in his native Queens, as the corpses had filled up dump trucks, and they'd had to conceal the bodies as they were taking them out in the dead of night. Klaus told them he'd been in a biohazard suit for most of the last week, but now that he had two partners, he would be able to go out and provide an escort for everyone going to and from the plane, although he planned to return to his isolation room with his two partners in between each stop they made. From Ohio they flew down to Nebraska, stopping at Offut Air Force Base, where they picked up a handful of soldiers and dropped off a handful of women. Bill had asked Klaus how long they'd been running these routes. Klaus said they'd been running for a few weeks now, and they were only one of five planes that were crisscrossing the nation. Olivia and Naya had both been brought into the inoculation center in Denver earlier and then swapped planes to meet up with him in New York, where they'd met up after he'd returned bringing in another stable of surviving men. All privacy had basically gone out the window. Klaus told him that most of the men had the option to wait until they were in a house or an apartment or something, but Klaus had been told by his commanding officer that they couldn't spare him that much time, so he needed to just get on with his business on the plane so he could get back to work as soon as he was done. By the time they'd touched down at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, Bill had been just about ready to break out into full fledged panic, between the constant shift in air pressure, the take offs and landings done without proper seatbelts and his inability to go anywhere that wasn't his little sealed off compartment, but a quick talking to from Xander had gotten the man to cool down at least a little bit. They were barely on the ground in Nevada an hour, taking people off and bringing new people on, as well as refueling the plan, before taking off again, landing at Oakland airport a few hours later under the cover of night. Their cellphones had been taken from them when they'd arrived at the plane, so Xander had been forced to guess at the time, but he would've placed their arrival in Oakland at something around 2 a.m. or so, although the lock in had made it impossible to use traffic as a gauge. In Oakland, everyone had been taken from their individual compartments and loaded onto a large troop transport truck, with no caution given to cross contamination or infection, as they were all told they would be getting paired up within a few hours, so even if they caught DuoHalo now, it wouldn't matter. Xander had been concerned by that but he had decided to go along with it, because Klaus seemed to consider the whole thing fine, and he was the one loading people onto the trucks. The trucks had ferried them from Oakland up to a staging area next to the lab near Mount Diablo, just adjacent to New Eden, and once there, they'd been introduced to their new partners and from there, sorted into where they were going to go. The building they were using as a staging area felt like a converted aircraft hangar, with a high curved metal ceiling and big fluorescent lights hanging high above them. Although there were some tented parts of the space, similar to what had been inside the cargo hold of the airplane that had brought him here, most of the space was open, with long painted striped lines on the ground, leading people through the processing. Men weren't being given any injections, something Xander had thought was odd, until all the men were given a five minute lecture on "Your New Reality," something that the men were told to take deadly seriously. The lecture included basic things like how they would be receiving their vaccinations (sexually transmitted from their new partners), how their partners would need sexual satisfaction about once a week or so, how their semen would be toxic to any woman they weren't paired with, and how if they ever felt like they were coming down with the symptoms of DuoHalo they should have sex with one of their partners immediately, which would resolve them. At the point when the men had been told that their semen would be toxic to any woman they weren't paired with, a handful of the men had quietly jeered and rolled their eyes, but the next slide in the presentation showed a wound on a woman's arm that had silenced all that nonsense quickly. The end of the lecture included a video message from President Pelosi, urging the men to consider fatherhood like a new version of the World War 2 draft,  every man needed to do his service to help save the country. Extensive tax breaks and financial aid would be provided to families with multiple children, it was stressed. The country needed to be rebuilt. As soon as the lecture was done, they'd been marched single file to a series of processing windows, over a dozen clerks taking people's names and social security numbers before assigning them a holding area to head over to, where they would meet their partners. A sticker was placed on their chest before they were sent on their way. It had all felt very assembly line, as if there wasn't time for kindness or courtesies, and people were simply being pushed through the grinder as quickly as possible. Klaus had joked around with them on the ride over that while it might seem rough, it was being done for optimal performance in getting people in and through the system and into their new lives, wherever they may be. Xander had heard several different locations mentioned,  the San Jose highrises, the Stanford campus, the Berkeley campus, the SF towers, the Altamont sprawl, the Tracy ghosttown,  but when it came time for him to be told where to go, he was told he wouldn't need to go far, as he was being assigned to Dos Eden, the first expansion zone to New Eden. He'd been given four partners on site, with one more to be waiting for him at the location. They'd been waiting for him in the holding area assigned to him, each having arrived sometime over the previous day, so they'd all had a chance to get to know one another. Letting the women have some time to bond in advance of the man's arrival seemed smart to Xander, as they could size each other up without having to worry about keeping their new mate's attention. The women had also been given their injections in the holding area, and so Xander assumed the spaces had also doubled as observation areas, making sure none of the women had suffered any adverse reactions to their injections the day before. Captain Betsy Ross had turned out to be a complete knockout, a blonde pint size pocket rocket dynamo who was training men nearly twice her size in hand to hand close quarters combat, and they had clicked immediately, almost as if they were custom made for each other. She'd kissed him hard enough to nearly knock him off his feet before he'd even been able to say hello. The second woman had been Serena Ortiz, a Latina woman in her late twenties who was a U.S. Marshall, and had built a career out of tracking down fugitives. Tall and statuesque, she had a certain grace to how she'd moved, he'd noticed immediately. She'd spent the past few hours talking with Betsy before Xander's arrival, and the two already had a friendly relationship, having bonded over the fact that they could both kick Xander's ass if needed. The third was a slender blonde woman in her late 30s who had looked hauntingly familiar before her introduction, but Xander had struggled to place her, even after she identified herself as Alicia Geller. When she'd told Xander that he would likely know the role she'd played in her youth, Rascal Rachel, that had made it all come together immediately. Alicia was a child actress who had been the star of a popular kids show until she'd grown out of it and the show had been canceled. Instead of continuing acting, she had retired from show business and gone into education, teaching history to high school students. She seemed a little shy, but had assured him that once they'd had time to get to know one another, she would come out of her shell. The final one on site had been Brooke, and she'd detailed the story to him how her friend Piper was paired up with Andy, and that they had recommended Brooke pair up with Xander, so she had. She'd been wearing a Shelby GT Cobra necklace when they met, and Xander had known it was going to work out just fine. A second sticker was placed on his chest and the girls were told to stay with him, as everyone was sorted into lines and sent towards trucks. Most of the trucks were large troop transports, but Xander had been surprised to see that the vehicle he and his partners were set to was much smaller, and they were the only group loaded up onto it. He'd felt a little bad, since really they could've just been loaded up into an Escalade, him, his four new partners and the MP driving them over to their new home. On the way over, the MP delivered the final set of instructions to Xander, as to why his fifth partner hadn't been waiting for him at the base and was, instead, at the new home. Her name was KC Kadrey, and she was a 20 year old Vietnamese American student over at Stanford, studying mechanical engineering. She'd needed to get her injections a couple of days prior, and there had been some concerns that she might simply just grab the first man she saw and go after him, so she'd been taken to their new home and allowed to settle in. But, the MP warned him, it meant that she might be a bit intense when they arrived. She'd also brought her golden retriever with her, and keeping the large dog at the staging area had seemed problematic. Xander, like all the men who'd been on the airplane, had been forced to travel light, a single wheelie suitcase all he'd been allowed to bring with him. All of his things that had been picked up in Ohio would show up at some point within the next few weeks as the truck conveying them drove cross country, but until they, he would have to make due with the things he had. Xander had been forced to argue with the people picking him up that the one car he'd been restoring, a black 1970 Barracuda, would be part of the things taken to his new home, and while the discussion had gotten a little heated, eventually the people picking him up had relented and loaded it into the truck with the rest of his stuff. Each of the women had a similar amount of things with them, and when they arrived at their new home, they all felt woefully unprepared. Dos Eden was technically part of New Eden, but it was an expansion to the original enclave, and the dwellings there were much more of nice houses than they were the sorts of mansions and manors that made up New Eden itself. The MP driving them over had said she lived in Dos Eden, and she was incredibly thankful, as it meant having a family was a distinct possibility, while the people in many of the other locations were going to be doing lots of relocating and readjusting over the next few years. Those in the tower condo buildings were generally being given an entire floor to themselves, and as needed walls would be knocked down and units combined as families expanded. The views were nice, the MP told them, but it just didn't feel like a home. When they pulled up to the house just around dawn, Xander was a little surprised by it. They had told him not to expect a grandiose mansion, but the home was far nicer than any place he'd ever lived in before, a two story building with five bedrooms and four bathrooms, so not enough that each person had their own bedroom, but they would make it work, all of them agreed. It was mostly glass walls, and Xander found himself thankful for the ring of trees, and the high fences, that would provide him with at least a little privacy from his neighbors, who were only a short walk away on either side. It had a three car garage, and Xander was told there were new Teslas charging inside for them. (Xander immediately planned to turn one of the three garage spaces into his own little workshop where he'd continue restoring the Barracuda.) The driveway was long enough that they would be able to comfortably fit at least four more cars out front if needed. The place had its own pool with hot tub, however, something Xander was astonished to find. He'd never lived in a place with a pool before, and now his home had one. They'd barely gotten in the door before KC had rushed Xander, practically mauling him with love in the entry way to the home. She'd been coherent enough to talk with him, the two of them moving into the master bedroom before he'd had sex with her and she'd fallen into her imprinting process. The other girls had moved into the bedroom somewhere in the middle of their tryst and Betsy had immediately insisted on going second, having stripped down while watching Xander and KC. Alicia had gone third, leaving him with only Serena and Brooke conscious. The three of them had taken a shower together, and somewhere in the middle of the shower, Serena had decided she couldn't wait any further, and had gone through part of the process in the shower and the rest bent over the bathroom countertop. As much as he wanted to, he told Brooke that he was going to need a while before he could imprint her, his entire body more than a little exhausted, as the chemicals from the four women had been flowing through his bloodstream, giving him immunity from DuoHalo and doing some rather significant changes to his body. Brooke had laughed and just suggested they go over to visit Andy and Piper, which brought them up to now. "Fuckin' hell," Andy laughed. "No fucking wonder you look exhausted, Xan. How much have you slept in the last two days?" "Oh, we took a nap after we settled into the house, and I slept a bit on the plane while it was hauling our asses through the skies," his best friend said with a chuckle. "So yeah not as much as I should but more than I do some days. Was your experience similar, Fi?" Fiona's journey had been very similar, with her and Moira catching an earlier flight out of Washington a few days ago, although their plane had made only one additional stop before landing in Oakland, their plane having gone straight from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, where many of the men in the chambers had been unloaded and several women had been loaded on board. Because Fi and Moira had been traveling together, they'd had each other to talk with and neither had felt especially lonely during the voyage. Fi even admitted they had spent much of the time talking about Andy, speculating how much he might or might not have changed over the years. As the hour grew late, Brooke returned to the main room with Piper, suggesting she and Xander head home, reminding the two old friends that they now lived less than fifteen minutes apart, and could see each other as often as they wanted to, but Andy and Xander still hugged for a long minute, thankful to have reconnected on the other side of the disaster, before they walked the two to the door and sent them home. Several of the girls had peeled off and gone to bed over the course of the evening, and at the end of the night, the only people still awake were Andy, Piper and Sarah. Aisling had been the very last to go to bed before reminding Sarah not to stay up too late, otherwise she would be too tired to talk to Maya when she arrived tomorrow, but Sarah had laughed it off and dismissed it. After closing the door behind Xander, he walked back down stairs, intending to clean up the remaining empty beer bottles and glasses left behind in the living room, only to find that Nicolette had beaten him to it, having cleaned it all up and then disappearing into her room for the night, so he couldn't even say thank you to her. "I swear, we've got a ninja for a French maid around this house," he muttered to himself with amusement. Huginn, his black cat, stood up from his perch on the back of one of the couches, stretched by arching his back, then moved to sit back down exactly where he was. "I feel ya, bud," he agreed with the cat. "We should probably see about getting to bed, don't you think, ladies?" Piper shook her head, pushing Andy back to sit down on the couch. "Not for a bit. You can sleep when you're dead," she said with a grin. "Don't you agree, Sarah?" "Oh totally," the tall redhead said, moving to slide in to one side of Andy on the couch. "You lose one third of your life sleeping, well, I mean I guess you don't really lose it since you have to sleep otherwise you'll go insane, but it's, like, a lot a lot of time to be spending doing just one thing." "Besides, I have to say thank you for making sure you brought my best friend to be nearby so I didn't feel so lonely all the time," Piper said, peeling her shirt up and over her head, tossing it aside, leaving her in a sports bra and tight fitted blue jeans, her toned stomach bared to the cool night air. "We've been kinda dancing around each other for the last few weeks, Andy, and I don't want you to think I'm not grateful, because I'm very thankful for all the things you've done for me since we've met." "Piper, you don't have  " he started before she lifted her hand up to cover his mouth, "Andy, enough," she giggled. "You can just say 'you're welcome' when you're being thanked for something, you know. You don't have to try and play down the work that went into it." He smirked a little bit, as she pulled her hand back. "I just don't want you to feel like you owe me anything." "Oh, but Andy, I do owe you," she said, bending down to press a kiss to his lips, just a soft and quick one. "You got me away from that asshole Covington. When I couldn't think straight, you did everything you could to bring me back to being me again, and that's not something anyone would do." She inhaled the scent of him, and he could swear he saw her pupils dilate a little in response. "You remember how I told you I could smell you from far away? I still can, but the raw musk of you is even more intense up close, and I fucking love how you smell, you sexy bastard. It makes me feel warm and safe and gooey and sticky and protected all at once. And I know that at least some of that is just the chemicals flowing through my brain bonding me to you, but you know what?" She leaned in and nibbled on his earlobe a little bit. "I've decided that I don't fucking care why I feel how I feel. I feel how I feel and that's all that fucking matters. You've kept me safe. You've given me space when I wanted it, and been happy to talk with me when I needed that. You helped me get my friend here and kept her safe, and as soon as you thought it was time, you pushed my ass to get back to work and reminded me not to give up on my dreams. So don't you dare fucking tell me I don't have to repay you, because even if you don't think that I do, I do, and I want to." "You're the only one of the girls who says she can smell me anywhere in the house, Piper," he told her. "I hope that's not a sign that anything's wrong because Covington held off so long on letting you get imprinted after the injections." "Oh, there's nothing wrong with me, Andy," she purred, unbuttoning her jeans before pushing them down to her ankles, not having bothered to put shoes on earlier, stepping out of them and her panties, leaving her in just the sports bra. She had such an athletic body that it had a tendency to make Andy feel a little ashamed of how out of shape he was. "I'm just different, that's all. Being able to smell you when you're in the house? I consider that a benefit, not a side effect. I get a little anxious when you leave and I can't smell you, not so much that it bothers me, but just enough that I notice the feeling of longing I have that you aren't on hand. And I've reread that letter you left me over a dozen times, because each time, I think I fall for you a little more." She grinned, grabbing her sports bra, pulling it up over her head, tossing it aside. "So yeah, I was scared of saying that, but I'm definitely falling for you, Andrew Rook. Falling in love with you. That's why I was so deep in thought the other morning. You didn't do anything to make me upset or angry. I just was worried about how to tell you." "Piper, Why would you be worried?" Andy said with a kind smile. "You've got so many beautiful women here, Andy," she said, gesturing back to the house. "I mean, shit, you've got Sarah Fucking Washington with her arm around you right now! I know I'm fit, but I'm not beautiful like she and Em are." At that, he raised a single finger, pointing at her. "How dare you," he said, his tone evening a little bit. "You are fucking stunning, I mean beautiful like you cannot even imagine and I do not want to hear you saying you're not beautiful ever again, okay? Because whatever dumb ass boyfriend or athlete you met who said you weren't pretty was the biggest fucking moron you ever met, and you shouldn't give whatever that prick said another thought ever again. Tell her I'm right, Sarah," he said with a soft laugh, shaking his head. "Yep yep yep," Sarah said with a giggle. "Stop being fucking stupid because you're not just pretty, you're fucking hot, and every girl in this house who likes girls thinks so. Shit, I heard Katie telling Jenny that if she wanted to give her a hall pass for her birthday, she'd want to use it on you over all the other girls in the house." Piper giggled, shaking her head, her dark hair covering her eyes for a minute. "You're fucking lying, Sarah." "Cross my fucking heart, swear to fucking God, may she strike me the fuck down if I'm lying. Katie thinks you're the hottest bitch in the house, so you need to shut the fuck up about saying you aren't fucking pretty because that's the stupidest fucking thing anyone's said today, and people talk, like, the worst amount of shit in this house when they think people aren't listening," Sarah said, rolling her eyes, as if she found the whole thing hilariously sad. "Well, that's something I wouldn't have believed if you hadn't told me," Piper replied with a smile. "And I was talking about us dancing around each other, Andy, and I want to apologize for that. I know we've had a handful of encounters, but I've been, guarded, and I'm sorry for how guarded I've been emotionally. I think maybe I was a little hurt that you didn't want to bring Brooke into this house, even though I know you said you thought she'd be a better match with Xander. I thought maybe that was a polite way of you trying to duck out of meeting her,” She looked down at her feet. "I feel a bit guilty about that right now, having spent a bunch of the evening talking with her. I have known that girl almost half a de

  In this episode the crew has a conversation with author and filmmaker, Jill Damatac, who shares her journey from the Philippines to the States to the UK all through the lens of an undocumented immigrant. Instead of a traditional cookbook, which predominantly focuses on recipes and then sprinkles in family stories, Jill does the...

SUS! PEN! DED! SUS! PEN! DED! Panahon na naman ng tag-ulan. Sa Livin' The Filipino Life episode na 'to, tamang reminisce lang sina Ali at Vic sa childhood memories hatid ng ulan, at kung ano rin ang ibig-sabihin nito ngayong all-out adulting na sila. May konting patak ng kaseryosohan, pero buhos ang kulit-- ihanda na ang mainit-init na kape, o goto habang nakikinig ng nostalgic episode na 'to!Listen up, yo!If you're interested in collaborating with our podcast through brand partnerships, advertisements or other collabs, please send an email to our management: info@thepodnetwork.com

This episode the guys talk about the next black panther, Raf shows off his new tattoo and they talk about the return of Pacqiuao fight parties. Garcia tries to wrap his mind around Labubu dolls, Don talks about Bini's new song and Raf feels noone really knows karaoke classics without the lyrics on the screen.

BigTentUSA hosted a conversation with Attorney General William Tong (D-CT) and Attorney General Rob Bonta (D-CA), moderated by Michael Waldman, president and CEO, The Brennan Center for Justice. In the face of escalating federal overreach—from mass deportations targeting immigrant communities to the deployment of federal troops in Los Angeles without state consent—the role of state Attorneys General has never been more critical. As the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on blue states, AGs are serving as a vital line of defense, challenging unconstitutional actions in the courts, protecting civil rights, and standing up for the rule of law. This conversation spotlights the strategic work of state AGs as they fight back against authoritarian tactics and safeguard the rights and freedoms of their constituents.About The SpeakersAttorney General William Tong (D-CT) is the 25th Attorney General to serve Connecticut since the office was established by the state constitution in 1897. He first took office in 2019 and is currently serving his second term.Attorney General Tong currently serves as Eastern Region Chair and Finance Chair of the National Association of Attorneys General. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Democratic Attorneys General Association. Attorney General Tong previously practiced for 18 years as a litigator in both state and federal courts, first at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York City and then at Finn Dixon & Herling LLP in Stamford. He served for 12 years as a State Representative in the Connecticut General Assembly, where he served as House Chairman of the Judiciary Committee as well as the Banking Committee. In 2006, he became the first Asian American elected to any state office in Connecticut history.Attorney General Rob Bonta (D-CA) was sworn in as the 34th Attorney General of the State of California in 2021, the first person of Filipino descent and the second Asian-American to occupy the position. Prior to serving in the Assembly, Attorney General Bonta worked as a Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco, where he represented the City and County and its employees, and fought to protect Californians from exploitation and racial profiling.Born in Quezon City, Philippines, Attorney General Bonta immigrated to California with his family as an infant. He is the son of a proud native Filipino mother and a father who taught him the value of public service to his community.Michael Waldman is president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. A nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to improve systems of democracy and justice so they work for all, the Brennan Center is a leading national voice on voting rights, money in politics, criminal justice reform, and constitutional law. Waldman is a constitutional lawyer and writer who is an expert on the presidency and American democracy. He has led the Center since 2005. He was a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States in 2021. His book, The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America, was published in 2023.Watch YouTube Recording Learn More: BigTentUSA This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigtentnews.substack.com

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Here are today's top stories on SBS Filipino. - Alamin ang pinakamainit na balita ngayong Biyernes sa SBS Filipino.

Lazy, back problems, or just a Fonzie-esque casual attitude? Whatever the reason, the Cook Island pine (Araucaria columnaris) leans mysteriously toward the equator. Let's discuss the possibilities! Then, we play a game about Filipino pines and oaks—The Filipineoak Affair.Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex CrowsonSupport the pod and become a Treemium MemberFollow along on InstagramFind Arbortrary merch on our storeFind additional reading on our websiteCover art by Jillian BartholdMusic by Aves and The Mini-VandalsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Overview: We explore the complexities of trust, cultural values, and intergenerational dynamics within the Filipino community, especially in accessing mental health and healthcare services. We discuss how deep-rooted traditions like family obligation, community support, and the stigma surrounding mental health influence care-seeking behaviors across generations. Through community-driven initiatives like Little Manila Rising, we highlight how culturally rooted, trauma-informed approaches—such as engaging churches, honoring ancestral spaces, and providing culturally competent care—foster healing, advocacy, and stronger relationships between healthcare providers and the community. Three Takeaways: Leveraging Churches and Food as Cultural ConnectorsBoth Hannah and Raj highlight practical strategies for bridging generational divides: churches are vital hubs for reaching elders (who may trust faith leaders more than therapists), while food acts as a unifier across age groups, providing a non-threatening entry point for community dialogue and engagement. Healing Hinges on Intergenerational Dialogue and Community-Led SpacesSpaces intentionally created for both young and old to share—such as wellness panels and focus groups—are potent for mutual understanding. There's a recurring theme that healing happens when the community is not just “served” but is leading and hosting the work, drawing on ancestral memory and lived experience Culturally Responsive Healthcare Goes Beyond ‘Cultural Competency'Tessa and Hannah stress that healthcare providers must go beyond textbook cultural competency. This includes offering trauma-informed care, involving families in treatment, actively engaging with community organizations (like Little Manila Rising), and educating themselves rather than outsourcing the labor of education to the community. Providers who do this, even if not sharing ethnic identity with patients, can vastly improve trust and outcomes. Resources: ⁠Little Manila Rising⁠ Next Step: Visit our website, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Healthcare for Humans⁠⁠⁠⁠, and join our community to enjoy exclusive benefits at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.healthcareforhumans.org/support/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support Our Mission: Non-clinicians, explore exclusive content and contribute to our collective journey. Be an Active Participant: Go beyond listening. Shape our narrative by co-creating episodes with us. Be part of our community by visiting⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.healthcareforhumans.org/support/⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow us on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠@healthcareforhumanspodcast⁠⁠

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight Producer Swati Rayasam showcases a community panel of how discriminatory exclusion policies during times of heightened fears of national security and safety have threatened our communities in the past, and how the activities of the current administration threaten our core constitutional rights, raising the specter of politicization and polarization of citizenship, immigration visas, naturalization rights, and the right to free speech.   Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison – “Wong Kim Ark is for All of Us” SHOW TRANSCRIPT Swati Rayasam: You are tuned in to APEX Express on KPFA. My name is Swati Rayasam and I'm back as your special producer for this episode. Tonight we have an incredible community panel titled Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison. This panel explores the history of how discriminatory exclusion policies during times of heightened fears of national security and [00:01:00] safety have threatened our communities in the past, and how the activities of the current administration threaten our core constitutional rights, raising the specter of politicization and polarization of citizenship, immigration visas, naturalization rights, and the right to free speech. I'll pass it on to UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Professor Mike Chang to kick us off. Mike and Harvey: We're starting on Berkeley time, right on time at three 10, and I want to introduce Harvey Dong. Harvey Dong: Okay. The sponsors for today's event include, AADS- Asian American and Diaspora studies program, uc, Berkeley, Asian American Research Center, the Center for Race and Gender Department of Ethnic Studies- all part of uc, Berkeley. Off campus, we have the following community groups. Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Law Caucus, [00:02:00] Asian Prisoners Support Committee, and East Wind Books. Okay, so that's, quite a few in terms of coalition people coming together. My name is Harvey Dong and I'm also a lecturer in the AADS program and part of the ethnic studies department. I can say that I exist here as the result of birthright citizenship won by Ancestor Wong Kim Ark in 1898. Otherwise, I would not be here. We want to welcome everyone here today, for this important panel discussion titled: Deport, Exclude, Revoke, Imprison – Immigration and citizenship rights during crisis. Yes, we are in a deep crisis today. The Chinese characters for crisis is way G in Mandarin or way gay in [00:03:00] Cantonese, which means danger and opportunity. We are in a moment of danger and at the same time in a moment of opportunity. Our communities are under attack from undocumented, documented, and those with citizenship. We see urgency in coming together. In 1898, the US Supreme Court case, US versus Wong Kim Ark held that under the 14th Amendment birthright, citizenship applies to all people born in the United States. Regardless of their race or their parents' national origin or immigration status. On May 15th this year, the Supreme Court will hear a President Donald Trump's request to implement an executive order that will end birthright citizenship already before May 15th, [00:04:00] deportations of US citizen children are taking place. Recently, three US citizen children, one 2-year-old with cancer have been deported with their undocumented parents. The numbers of US citizen children are much higher being deported because it's less covered in the press. Unconstitutional. Yes, definitely. And it's taking place now. Also today, more than 2.7 million southeast Asian Americans live in the US but at least 16,000 community members have received final orders of deportation, placing their lives and families in limbo. This presents a mental health challenge and extreme economic hardship for individuals and families who do not know whether their next day in the US will be their last. Wong Kim Ark's [00:05:00] struggle and the lessons of Wong Kim Ark, continue today. His resistance provides us with a grounding for our resistance. So they say deport, exclude, revoke, imprison. We say cease and desist. You can say that every day it just seems like the system's gone amuk. There's constant attacks on people of color, on immigrants and so forth. And our only solution, or the most important solution is to resist, legally resist, but also to protest, to demand cease and desist. Today brings together campus and community people. We want you all to be informed because if you're uninformed , you can't do anything. Okay? You have to know where things are at. It's nothing new. What they're trying to do, in 1882, [00:06:00] during times of economic crisis, they scapegoated Asian Americans. Today there's economic, political crisis. And the scapegoating continues. They're not doing anything new. You know, it's old stuff, but we have to realize that, and we have to look at the past in terms of what was done to fight it and also build new solidarities today. Wong Kim Ark did not take his situation sitting down. He went through, lots of obstacles. He spent three months in Angel Island he was arrested after he won his case because he was constantly being harassed wherever he went. His kids when they came over were also, spotted as being Wong Kim Ark's, children, and they too had to spend months at Angel Island. So Wong Kim Ark did not take his situation sitting down. We need to learn from him today. Our [00:07:00] next, special guest is Mr. Norman Wong, a good friend of mine. He was active here in the third world Liberation Front strike that led to ethnic studies. He did a lots of work for the development of Asian American studies and we've been out in touch for about, what, 40 years? So I'm really happy that he's able to come back to Berkeley and to talk about yourself, if you wish, maybe during the Q and a, but to talk about , the significance of your great-grandfather's case. Okay, so Norman Wong, let's give him a hand. Norman Wong: Hello, my name's Norman Wong. I'm the great grandson, Wong Kim Ark. Wong Kim Ark was [00:08:00] born in the USA, like my great-grandfather. I, too was born American in the same city, San Francisco, more than 75 years after him. We are both Americans, but unlike him, my citizenship has never been challenged. His willingness to stand up and fight made the difference for his struggles, my humble thanks. Wong Kim Ark however, was challenged more than once. In late 1889 as an American, he traveled to China in July, 1890. He returned to his birth city. He had his papers and had no problems with reentry. In 1895, after a similar trip, he was stopped from disembarking and was placed into custody for five months aboard ship in port. [00:09:00] Citizenship denied, the reason the Chinese exclusion Act 1882. He had to win this case in district court, provide $250 bail and then win again in the United States Supreme Court, March 28th, 1898. Only from these efforts, he was able to claim his citizenship granted by birthright from the 14th Amendment and gain his freedom. That would not be the last challenge to his being American. My mother suffered similar treatment. She like my great-grandfather, was born in America. In 1942, she was forced with her family and thousands of other Japanese Americans to relocation camps an experience unspoken by her family. [00:10:00] I first learned about Japanese American internment from history books. Executive order 9066 was the command. No due process, citizenship's rights stripped. She was not American enough. Now we have executive order 14160. It is an attack on birthright citizenship. We cannot let this happen. We must stand together. We are a nation of immigrants. What kind of nation are we to be with stateless children? Born to no country. To this, I say no. We as Americans need to embrace each other and [00:11:00] cherish each new life. Born in the USA. Thank you. Harvey Dong: Thank you, Norman. And Annie Lee, will moderate, the following panel, involving campus and community representatives who will be sharing their knowledge and experience. Annie Lee, Esquire is an attorney. She's also the, managing director of policy for Chinese Affirmative Action, and she's also, heavily involved in the birthright citizenship issue. Annie Lee: Thank you so much Harvey for that very warm welcome and thank you again to Norman for your remarks. I think it's incredible that you're speaking up at this moment, to preserve your ancestors' legacy because it impacts not just you and him, but all of us [00:12:00] here. So thank you. As Harvey said, my name is Annie Lee and I have this honor of working with this amazing panel of esteemed guest we have today. So I will ask each of them to introduce themselves. And I will start, because I would love to hear your name, pronouns. Title and organization as well as your personal or professional relationship with the US Immigration System. So my name's Annie. I use she her pronouns. I'm the managing Director of policy at Chinese for Affirmative Action, which is a non-profit based in San Francisco Chinatown. We provide direct services to the monolingual working class Chinese community, and also advocate for policies to benefit all Asian Americans. My relationship with the immigration system is I am the child of two Chinese immigrants who did not speak English. And so I just remember lots of time spent on the phone when I was a kid with INS, and then it became U-S-C-I-S just trying to ask them what happened to [00:13:00] a family member's application for naturalization, for visas so I was the interpreter for them growing up and even today. I will pass it to Letty. Leti Volpp: Hi everybody. Thank you so much, Annie. Thank you Harvey. Thank you, Norman. That was profoundly moving to hear your remarks and I love the way that you framed our conversation, Harvey. I'm Leti Volpp. I am the Robert d and Leslie k Raven, professor of Law and Access to Justice at the Berkeley Law, school. I'm also the director of the campus wide , center for Race and Gender, which is a legacy of the Third World Liberation Front, and the 1999, student movement, that led to the creation of the center. I work on immigration law and citizenship theory, and I am the daughter, second of four, children of my mother who was an immigrant from China, and my father who was an immigrant [00:14:00] from Germany. So I'll pass it. Thank you. Ke Lam: Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Thank you, Norman. So my name's Key. I go by he, him pronouns or Nghiep “Ke” Lam, is my full name. I work for an organization called Asian Prison Support Committee. It's been around for like over two decades now, and it started behind three guys advocating for ethics study, Asian and Pacific Islander history. And then it was starting in San Quent State Prison. All three of them pushed for ethics study, hard and the result is they all was put into solitary confinement. And many years later, after all three got out, was Eddie Zang, Mike Romero and Mike no. And when they got out, Eddie came back and we pushed for ethics study again, and we actually got it started in 2013. And it's been going on to today. Then the programs is called Roots, restoring our Original True Self. So reconnecting with who we are. And one of Eddie's main, mottos that really stuck with me. He said, we need to all connect to our chi, right? And I'm like, okay, I understand what chi is, and he said no. He [00:15:00] said, you need to connect to your culture, your history, which result to equal your identity, who you are as a person. So, the more we study about our history and our culture, like, birthright citizen, it empower us to know, who we are today. Right? And also part of that is to how do we take down the veil of shame in our community, the veil of trauma that's impacting our community as well. We don't talk about issue that impact us like immigration. So I'm a 1.5 generation. So I was born in Vietnam from Chinese family that migrant from China to Vietnam started business after the fall of Vietnam War. We all got kicked out but more than that, I am directly impacted because I am a stranded deportee, somebody that got their, legal status taken away because of criminal conviction. And as of any moment now, I could actually be taken away. So I live in that, right at that threshold of like uncertainty right now. And the people I work with, which are hundreds of people, are fixing that same uncertainty.[00:16:00] Annie Lee: Thank you, Ke. I'm gonna pass it to our panelists who are joining us virtually, including Bun. Can you start and then we'll pass it to Chris after. Bun: Hey everybody, thank you for having me. My name is Bun. I'm the co-director of Asian Prison Support Committee. I'm also, 1.5 generation former incarcerated and under, direct impact of immigration. Christopher Lapinig: Hi everyone. My name is Christopher Lapinig, my pronouns are he, him and Sha. I am a senior staff attorney on the Democracy and National Initiatives Team at Asian Law Caucus, which you may know is the country's first and oldest legal aid in civil rights organization, dedicated to serving, low income immigrant and underserved AAPI communities. In terms of my connection to the immigration system, I am, I also am a beneficiary of a birthright citizenship, and my parents are both immigrants from the Philippines. I was born in New York City. My [00:17:00] extended family spans both in the US and the Philippines. After graduating law school and clerking, my fellowship project was focused on providing litigation and immigration services to, survivors of labor trafficking in the Filipino community. While working at Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles, I also was engaged in, class action litigation, challenging the first Trump administration's practices, detaining immigrants in the Vietnamese and Cambodian communities. Annie Lee: Thank you, Chris. Thank you Bun. Let's start off by talking about birthright citizenship since it's a big topic these days. On the very, very first day of Trump's administration, he issued a flurry of executive orders, including one that would alter birthright citizenship. But I wanna take us back to the beginning because why do we have this right? It is a very broad right? If you were born in the United States, you are an American citizen. Where does that come from? So I wanna pose the first question to Letty to talk about the [00:18:00] origins of birthright citizenship., Leti Volpp: Very happy to. So what's being fought about is a particular clause in the Constitution and the 14th Amendment, which says, all persons born are naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Okay, so that's the text. There's been a very long understanding of what this text means, which says that regardless of the immigration status of one's parents, all children born here are entitled to birthright citizenship with three narrow exceptions, which I will explain. So the Trump administration executive order, wants to exclude from birthright citizenship, the children of undocumented immigrants, and the children of people who are here on lawful temporary visas. So for example, somebody here on an [00:19:00] F1 student visa, somebody on a H one B worker visa, somebody here is a tourist, right? And basically they're saying we've been getting this clause wrong for over a hundred years. And I will explain to you why I think they're making this very dubious argument. Essentially when you think about where the 14th amendment came from, in the United States, in the Antebellum era, about 20% of people were enslaved and there were lots of debates about citizenship. Who should be a citizen? Who could be a citizen? And in 1857, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a case called Dread Scott, where they said that no person who was black, whether free or enslaved, could ever be a citizen. The Civil War gets fought, they end slavery. And then the question arose, well, what does this mean for citizenship? Who's a citizen of the United States? And in 1866, Congress [00:20:00] enacts a law called the Civil Rights Act, which basically gave rights to people that were previously denied and said that everybody born in the United States is a birthright citizen. This gets repeated in the 14th Amendment with the very important interpretation of this clause in Norman's great-grandfather's case, the case of Wong Kim Ark. So this came before the Supreme Court in 1898. If you think about the timing of this, the federal government had basically abandoned the reconstruction project, which was the project of trying to newly enfranchised, African Americans in the United States. The Supreme Court had just issued the decision, Plessy versus Ferguson, which basically legitimated the idea that, we can have separate, but equal, as a doctrine of rights. So it was a nation that was newly hostile to the goals of the Reconstruction Congress, and so they had this case come before them, whereas we heard [00:21:00] from Norman, we have his great-grandfather born in San Francisco, Chinatown, traveling back and forth to China. His parents having actually left the United States. And this was basically presented as a test case to the Supreme Court. Where the government tried to argue, similar to what the Trump administration is arguing today, that birthright citizenship, that clause does not guarantee universal birthright citizenship saying that children of immigrants are not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States because their parents are also not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. The Supreme Court took over a year to decide the case. They knew that it would be controversial, and the majority of the court said, this provision is clear. It uses universal language. It's intended to apply to children of all immigrants. One of the things that's interesting about [00:22:00] what the, well I'll let Chris actually talk about what the Trump administration, is trying to do, but let me just say that in the Wong Kim Ark decision, the Supreme Court makes very clear there only three narrow exceptions to who is covered by the 14th Amendment. They're children of diplomats. So for example, if the Ambassador of Germany is in the United States, and, she has a daughter, like her daughter should not become a birthright citizen, right? This is why there's diplomatic immunity. Why, for example, in New York City, there are millions of dollars apparently owed to the city, in parking tickets by ambassadors who don't bother to pay them because they're not actually subject to the jurisdiction in the United States. Okay? Second category, children of Native Americans who are seen as having a sovereign relationship of their own, where it's like a nation within a nation, kind of dynamic, a country within a country. And there were detailed conversations in the congressional debate about the [00:23:00] 14th Amendment, about both of these categories of people. The third category, were children born to a hostile invading army. Okay? So one argument you may have heard people talk about is oh, I think of undocumented immigrants as an invading army. Okay? If you look at the Wong Kim Ark decision, it is very clear that what was intended, by this category of people were a context where the hostile invading army is actually in control of that jurisdiction, right? So that the United States government is not actually governing that space so that the people living in it don't have to be obedient, to the United States. They're obedient to this foreign power. Okay? So the thread between all three of these exceptions is about are you having to be obedient to the laws of the United States? So for example, if you're an undocumented immigrant, you are subject to being criminally prosecuted if you commit a crime, right? Or [00:24:00] you are potentially subjected to deportation, right? You have to obey the law of the United States, right? You are still subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Okay? But the Trump administration, as we're about to hear, is making different arguments. Annie Lee: Thank you so much, Leti for that historical context, which I think is so important because, so many different communities of color have contributed to the rights that we have today. And so what Leti is saying here is that birthright citizenship is a direct result of black liberation and fighting for freedom in the Civil War and making sure that they were then recognized as full citizens. And then reinforced, expanded, by Wong Kim Ark. And now we are all beneficiaries and the vast majority of Americans get our citizenship through birth. Okay? That is true for white people, black people. If you're born here, you get your ci. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to go to court. You don't have to say anything. You are a US citizen. And now as Leti referenced, there's this fringe legal theory that, thankfully we've got lawyers like [00:25:00] Chris who are fighting this. So Chris, you're on the ALC team, one of many lawsuits against the Trump administration regarding this unlawful executive order. Can you tell us a little bit about the litigation and the arguments, but I actually really want you to focus on what are the harms of this executive order? Sometimes I think particularly if you are a citizen, and I am one, sometimes we take what we have for granted and you don't even realize what citizenship means or confers. So Chris, can you talk about the harms if this executive order were to go through? Christopher Lapinig: Yeah. As Professor Volpp sort of explained this executive order really is an assault on a fundamental constitutional right that has existed for more than a hundred years at this point, or, well, about 125 years. And if it is allowed to be implemented, the harms would really be devastating and far reach. So first, you know, children born in the us, the [00:26:00] parents without permanent status, as permissible said, would be rendered effectively stateless, in many cases. And these are of course, children, babies who have never known any other home, yet they would be denied the basic rights of citizen. And so the order targets a vast range of families, and not just undocument immigrants, but also those with work visas, student visas, humanitarian productions like TPS, asylum seekers, fleeing persecution, DACA recipients as well. And a lot of these communities have deep ties to Asian American community. To our history, and of course are, essential part, of our social fabric. In practical terms, children born without birthright citizenship would be denied access to healthcare through Medicaid, through denied access to snap nutritional assistance, even basic IDs like social security numbers, passports. And then as they grow older, they'd be barred from voting, serving on juries and even [00:27:00] working. And then later on in life, they might be, if they, are convicted of a crime and make them deportable, they could face deportation to countries that they never stepped, foot off basically. And so this basically is this executive order threatened at risk, creating exactly what the drafters of the 14th Amendment wanted to prevent the creation of a permanent underclass of people in the United States. It'll just get amplified over time. If you can imagine if there's one generation of people born without citizenship, there will be a second generation born and a third and fourth, and it'll just get amplified over time. And so it truly is just, hard to get your mind around exactly what the impact of this EO would be. Annie Lee: Thanks, Chris. And where are we in the litigation right now? Harvey referenced, a hearing at the Supreme Court on May 15th, but, tell us a little bit about the injunction and the arguments on the merits and when that can, when we can expect [00:28:00] that. Christopher Lapinig: Yeah, so there were a number of lawsuits filed immediately after, the administration issued its exec order on January 20th. Asian Law Caucus we filed with the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project. Literally we were the first lawsuit, literally hours after the executive order was issued. By early February, federal judges across the country had issued nationwide preliminary injunctions blocking implementation of the order. Our case is actually not a nationwide injunction. And so there're basically, I believe three cases that are going up to the Supreme Court. And, the Trump administration appealed to various circuit courts to try to undo these injunctions. But all circuit courts upheld the injunctive relief and and so now the Supreme Court is going to be hearing arguments on May 15th. And so it has not actually ruled on whether or not the executive order is constitutional, but it's going to. I mean, it remains to be seen exactly what they're going to decide but may [00:29:00] 15th is the next date is the big date on our calendar. Annie Lee: Yeah. So the Trump administration is arguing that these judges in a particular district, it's not fair if they get to say that the entire country, is barred from receiving this executive order. Is that procedurally correct. Judges, in order to consider whether to grants an injunction, they have a whole battery of factors that they look at, including one, which is like likelihood of winning on the merits. Because if something is unconstitutional, it's not really great to say, yeah, you can let this executive order go through. And then like later when the court cases finally worked their way, like a year later, pull back from that. And so that's, it's very frustrating to see this argument. And it's also unfair and would be very messy if the states that had republican Attorneys General who did not litigate, why would you allow the executive order to go forward in those red states and not in these blue state? It really, I would say federalism run terribly amuck. Swati Rayasam: [00:30:00] You are tuned in to APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley,. 88.1. KFCF in Fresno and online@kpfa.org. Annie Lee: But anyway, let's see back off from the actual case because I think what we're really talking about and what Chris has alluded to is, these cases about birthright citizenship, all the immigration policy is essentially determining who belongs here. Who belongs here. That's what immigration policy is at its heart. And we see that the right wing is weaponizing that question, who belongs here? And they are going after very vulnerable populations, undocumented people, people who are formerly incarcerated. So Bun if you can talk about how, is the formerly incarcerated community, like targeted immigrants, targeted for deportation? What is going on with this community that I feel like most people might not know about? Thank [00:31:00] you. Bun: Yes. For our folks that are incarcerated and former incarcerated, we are the easiest target for deportation because we are in custody and in California, CDCR colludes with ICE and on the day that we are to be paroled they're at the door, cuffing us up and taking us to detention. I'm glad to hear Harvey say, this is a time of fear for us and also opportunity. Right now, our whole community, the Southeast Asian community, mainly are very effective with immigration. In the past 25 years, mostly it was the Cambodian community that was being targeted and deported. At this moment, they are targeting, all of the Southeast Asian community, which historically was never deported because of the politics and agreements, of the Vietnamese community. And now the Laos community thats more concerning, that are being targeted for deportation. Trump have opened a new opportunity for us as a community to join [00:32:00] together and understand each other's story, and understand each other's fear. Understand where we're going about immigration. From birthright to crimmagration. A lot of times folks that are under crimmigration are often not spoken about because of our cultural shame, within our own family and also some of our community member felt safe because the political agreements. Now that everybody's in danger, we could stand together and understand each other's issue and support each other because now we could see that history has repeated itself. Again, we are the scapegoat. We are here together fighting the same issue in different circumstances, but the same issue. Annie Lee: But let me follow up. What are these, historical agreements that you're talking about that used to feel like used to at least shield the community that now aren't in place anymore? Bun: Yeah. After the Clinton administration, uh, passed the IRA [immigration reform act] a lot of Southeast Asian nations were asked to [00:33:00] take their nationals back. Even though we as 1.5 generation, which are the one that's mostly impacted by this, had never even stepped into the country. Most of us were born in a refugee camp or we're too young to even remember where they came from. Countries like Cambodian folded right away because they needed the financial aid and whatever, was offering them and immediately a three with a MOU that they will take their citizens since the early two thousands. Vietnam had a stronger agreement, which, they would agree to only take folks that immigrated here after 1995 and anybody before 1995, they would not take, and Laos have just said no until just a few months ago. Laos has said no from when the, uh, the act was passed in 1995, the IRRIRA. Mm-hmm. So the big change we have now is Vietnam had signed a new MOU saying that they will take folks after 1995 [00:34:00] in the first administration and more recently, something that we never thought, happened so fast, was Laos agreeing to take their citizen back. And then the bigger issue about our Laos community is, it's not just Laos folks. It's the Hmong folks, the Myan folks, folks, folks that are still in danger of being returned back 'cause in the Vietnam War, they colluded and supported the Americans in the Vietnam War and were exiled out and kicked out, and were hunted down because of that. So, at this moment, our folks are very in fear, especially our loud folks, not knowing what's gonna happen to 'em. Ke Lam: So for folks that don't know what IRR means it means, illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. It actually happened after the Oklahoma bombing, which was caused by a US citizen, a white US citizen. Yeah. But immigration law came out of it. That's what's crazy about it. Annie Lee: Can you tell us, how is APSC advocating to protect the community right now because you [00:35:00] are vulnerable? Ke Lam: So we had to censor a lot of our strategies. At first we used to use social media as a platform to show our work and then to support our community. But the government use that as a target to capture our people. So we stopped using social media. So we've been doing a lot of on the ground movement, such as trying to get local officials to do resolutions to push Governor Newsom to party more of our community members. The other thing is we hold pardon workshops, so try and get folks to get, either get a pardon or vacate their sentence. So commute their sentence to where it become misdemeanor is not deportable anymore. Support letters for our folks writing support letters to send to the governor and also to city official, to say, Hey, please help pardon our community. I think the other thing we are actually doing is solidarity work with other organizations, African American community as well as Latin communities because we've been siloed for so long and we've been banned against each other, where people kept saying like, they've taken all our job when I grew up. That's what they told us, right? [00:36:00] But we, reality that's not even true. It was just a wedge against our community. And then so it became the good versus bad narrative. So our advocacy is trying to change it it's called re-storying you know, so retelling our story from people that are impacted, not from people, not from the one percenters in our own community. Let's say like we're all good, do you, are there's parts of our community that like that's the bad people, right? But in reality, it affects us all. And so advocacy work is a lot of different, it comes in a lot of different shapes and forms, but definitely it comes from the community. Annie Lee: Thanks, Ke. You teed me up perfectly because there is such a good versus bad immigrant narrative that takes root and is really hard to fight against. And that's why this administration is targeting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks and another group that, are being targeted as people who are accused of crimes, including Venezuelan immigrants who are allegedly part of a gang. So, Leti how is the government deporting [00:37:00] people by simply accusing them of being a part of a gang? Like how is that even possible? Leti Volpp: Yeah, so one thing to think about is there is this thing called due process, right? It's guaranteed under the constitution to all persons. It's not just guaranteed to citizens. What does it mean? Procedural due process means there should be notice, there should be a hearing, there should be an impartial judge. You should have the opportunity to present evidence. You should have the opportunity to cross examinee. You should have the opportunity to provide witnesses. Right? And basically Trump and his advisors are in real time actively trying to completely eviscerate due process for everybody, right? So Trump recently said, I'm doing what I was elected to do, remove criminals from our country. But the courts don't seem to want me to do that. We cannot give everyone a trial because to do so would take without exaggeration, 200 years. And then Stephen Miller said the judicial process is for Americans. [00:38:00] Immediate deportation is for illegal aliens. Okay. Quote unquote. Right. So I think one thing to notice is, as we're hearing from all of our speakers are like the boxes, the categories into which people are put. And what's really disturbing is to witness how once somebody's put in the box of being quote unquote criminal gang banger terrorists, like the American public seems to be like, oh, okay you can do what you want to this person. There's a whole history of due process, which exists in the laws which was created. And all of these early cases actually involved Asian immigrants, right? And so first they were saying there's no due process. And then in a case called Yata versus Fisher, they said actually there is due process in deportation cases, there's regular immigration court proceedings, which accord with all of these measures of due process. There's also a procedure called expedited removal, [00:39:00] which Congress invented in the nineties where they wanted to come up with some kind of very quick way to summarily exclude people. It was motivated by a 60 Minutes episode where they showed people coming to Kennedy Airport, who didn't have any ID or visa or they had what seemed to be fake visas and they were let into the United States. And then they disappeared, right? According to the 60 Minutes episode. So basically Congress invented this procedure of, if you appear in the United States and you have no documents, or you have what an immigration inspector thinks are false documents, they can basically tell you, you can leave without this court hearing. And the only fail safe is what's called a credible fear screening. Where if you say, I want asylum, I fear persecution, I'm worried I might be tortured, then they're supposed to have the screening. And if you pass that screening, you get put in regular removal [00:40:00] proceedings. So before the Trump administration took office, these expedited removal proceedings were happening within a hundred miles of the border against people who could not show that they had been in the United States for more than two weeks. In one of his first executive orders. Trump extended this anywhere in the United States against people who cannot show they've been in the United States for more than two years. So people are recommending that people who potentially are in this situation to carry documentation, showing they've been physically in the United States for over two years. Trump is also using this Alien Enemies Act, which was basically a law Congress passed in 1798. It's only been used three times in US history it's a wartime law, right? So it was used in 1812, World War I, and World War II, and there's supposed to be a declared war between the United States and a foreign nation or government, or [00:41:00] there's an incursion threatened by a foreign nation or government, and the president makes public proclamation that all natives of this hostile nation, 14 and up shall be liable to be restrained and removed as alien enemies. Okay? So we're obviously not at war with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, right? They have not engaged in some kind of invasion or predatory incursion into the United States, but the Trump administration is claiming that they have and saying things like, oh, they're secretly a paramilitary wing of the Venezuelan government, even as the Venezuelan government is like cracking down on them. It's not a quasi sovereign, entity. There's no diplomatic relationships between Tren de Aragua and any other government. So these are legally and factually baseless arguments. Nonetheless, the administration has been basically taking people from Venezuela on the basis of tattoos. A tattoo of a crown of a [00:42:00] rose, right? Even when experts have said there's no relationship between what Tren de Aragua does and tattoos, right? And basically just kidnapping people and shipping them to the torture prison in El Salvador. As I'm sure you know of the case of Kimber Abrego Garcia, I'm sure we'll hear more about this from Christopher. There's a very small fraction of the persons that have been sent to this prison in El Salvador who actually have any criminal history. And I will say, even if they had a criminal history, nobody should be treated in this manner and sent to this prison, right? I mean, it's unbelievable that they've been sent to this prison allegedly indefinitely. They're paying $6 million a year to hold people there. And then the United States government is saying, oh, we don't have any power to facilitate or effectuate their return. And I think there's a struggle as to what to call this. It's not just deportation. This is like kidnapping. It's rendition. And there are people, there's like a particular person like who's completely [00:43:00] disappeared. Nobody knows if they're alive or dead. There are many people in that prison. People don't know if they're alive or dead. And I'm sure you've heard the stories of people who are gay asylum seekers, right? Who are now in this situation. There are also people that have been sent to Guantanamo, people were sent to Panama, right? And so I think there questions for us to think about like, what is this administration doing? How are they trying to do this in a spectacular fashion to instill fear? As we know as well, Trump had said oh, like I think it would be great when he met with Bukele if you build four more or five more facilities. I wanna house homegrown people in El Salvador, right? So this is all the more importance that we stick together, fight together, don't, as key was saying, don't let ourselves be split apart. Like we need a big mass coalition right? Of people working together on this. Annie Lee: So thank you leti and I think you're absolutely right. These Venezuelans were kidnapped [00:44:00] in the middle of the night. I mean, 2:00 AM 3:00 AM pulled out of bed, forced to sign documents they did not understand because these documents were only available in English and they speak Spanish, put on planes sent to El Salvador, a country they've never been to. The government didn't even have to prove anything. They did not have to prove anything, and they just snatch these people and now they're disappeared. We do have, for now the rule of law. And so Chris, there are judges saying that, Kimber Abrego Garcia has to be returned. And despite these court orders, the administration is not complying. So where does that leave us, Chris, in terms of rule of law and law in general? Christopher Lapinig: Yeah. So, I'm gonna make a little personal. So I graduated from Yale Law School in 2013, and you might know some of my classmates. One of my classmates is actually now the Vice President of the United States. Oh man. [00:45:00] Bless you. As well as the second lady, Usha Vance. And a classmate of mine, a good friend Sophia Nelson, who's a trans and queer, was recently on, I believe CNN answering a question about, I believe JD Vice President Vance, was asked about the administration's sort of refusal to comply with usual orders. Yeah. As we're talking about here and JD had said something like, well, courts, judges can't tell the president what he can't do, and sophia, to their credit, said, you know, I took constitutional law with JD, and, we definitely read Marbury Versus Madison together, and that is the semial sort of Supreme Court case that established that the US Supreme Court is the ultimate decider, arbiter, interpreter, of the US Constitution. And so is basically saying, I know JD knows better. He's lying essentially, in all of his [00:46:00] communications about, judicial orders and whether or not a presidential administration has to comply , with these orders. So, to get to your question though, it is of course unprecedented. Really. It is essentially, you know, it's not, if we not already reached. The point of a constitutional crisis. It is a constitutional crisis. I think it's become clear to many of us that, democracy in the US has operated in large part, and has relied on, on, on the good faith in norms, that people are operating good faith and that presidents will comply when, a federal judge issues an injunction or a decision. It kind of leaves us in an interesting, unprecedented situation. And it means that, lawyers, we will continue to litigate and, go to court, but we can't, lawyers will not save the country or, immigrants or communities. We need to think extensively and creatively. [00:47:00] About how to ensure, that the rule of law is preserved because, this administration is not, abiding by the longstanding norms of compliance and so we have to think about, protests, advocacy, legislatively. I don't have the answers necessarily, but we can't rely on the courts to fix these problems really. Annie Lee: Oof. That was very real, Chris. Thank you. But I will say that when there is resistance, and we've seen it from students who are speaking up and advocating for what they believe is right and just including Palestinian Liberation, that there is swift retaliation. And I think that's partly because they are scared of student speech and movement and organizing. But this is a question to all of you. So if not the courts and if the administration is being incredibly retaliatory, and discriminatory in terms of viewpoint discrimination, in people and what people are saying and they're scouring our social [00:48:00] media like, Ke warns, like what can everyday people do to fight back? That's for all of you. So I don't know who, which of you wants to take it first? Ke Lam: Oh man. I say look at history, right? Even while this new president, I wanna say like, this dude is a convicted felon, right? Don't be surprised at why we country is in the way it is, because this dude's a convicted felon, a bad business person, right? And only care about the billionaires, you know? So I'm not surprised how this country's ending up the way it is 'cause it is all about money. One way that we can stand up is definitely band together, marched on the streets. It's been effective. You look at the civil right movement, that's the greatest example. Now you don't have to look too far. We can actually, when we come together, they can't fight us all. Right? It is, and this, it's like you look at even nature in the cell. When things band together, the predators cannot attack everyone. Right? They probably could hit a few of us, but in the [00:49:00] long run, we could change the law. I think another thing is we, we, as the people can march to the courts and push the courts to do the job right, despite what's going on., We had judges that been arrested for doing the right thing, right? And so, no matter what, we have to stand strong just despite the pressure and just push back. Annie Lee: Thanks, Ke. Chris? Christopher Lapinig: What this administration is doing is you know, straight out of the fascist playbook. They're working to, as we all know, shock and awe everyone, and make Americans feel powerless. Make them feel like they have no control, make them feel overwhelmed. And so I think first and foremost, take care of yourself , in terms of your health, in terms of your physical health, your mental health. Do what you can to keep yourself safe and healthy and happy. And do the same for your community, for your loved ones, your friends and family. And then once you've done that do what you can in terms of your time, treasure, [00:50:00] talent to, to fight back. Everyone has different talents, different levels of time that they can afford. But recognize that this is a marathon and not necessarily a sprint because we need everyone, in this resistance that we can get. Annie Lee: Thank you, Chris. Leti Volpp: There was a New Yorker article called, I think it was How to Be a Dissident which said, before recently many Americans, when you ask them about dissidents, they would think of far off countries. But they interviewed a lot of people who'd been dissidents in authoritarian regimes. And there were two, two things in that article that I'm taking with me among others. One of them said that in surveying like how authoritarian regimes are broken apart, like only 3.5% of the population has to oppose what's going on. The other thing was that you should find yourself a political home where you can return to frequently. It's almost like a religious or [00:51:00] spiritual practice where you go and you get refreshed and you're with like-minded people. And so I see this event, for example as doing that, and that we all need to find and nurture and foster spaces like this. Thank you. Annie Lee: Bun, do you have any parting words? Bun: Yeah. Like Ke said, to fight back, getting together, understanding issues and really uplifting, supporting, urging our own communities, to speak Up. You know, there's folks that can't speak out right now because of fear and danger, but there are folks here that can speak out and coming here learning all our situation really give the knowledge and the power to speak out for folks that can't speak down [unclear] right now. So I appreciate y'all Annie Lee: love that bun. I was gonna say the same thing. I feel like there is a special obligation for those of us who are citizens, citizens cannot be deported. Okay? Citizens have special rights based [00:52:00] on that status. And so there's a special responsibility on those of us who can speak, and not be afraid of retaliation from this government. I would also urge you all even though it's bleak at the federal level, we have state governments, we have local governments. You have a university here who is very powerful. And you have seen, we've seen that the uni that the administration backs down, sometimes when Harvard hit back, they back down and that means that there is a way to push the administration, but it does require you all putting pressure on your schools, on your local leaders, on your state leaders to fight back. My boss actually, Vin taught me this. You know, you think that politicians, lead, politicians do not lead politicians follow. Politicians follow and you all lead when you go out further, you give them cover to do the right thing. And so the farther you push and the more you speak out against this administration, the more you give them courage to do the right thing. And so you absolutely have to do that. A pardon [00:53:00] is critical. It is critical for people who are formerly incarcerated to avoid the immigration system and deportation. And so do that. Talk to your family, talk to your friends. My parents, despite being immigrants, they're kinda old school. Okay guys, they're like, you know, birthright citizenship does seem kind of like a loophole. Why should people like get like citizenship? I'm like, mom, we, I am a birthright citizen. Like, um, And I think for Asian Americans in particular, there is such a rich history of Asian American civil rights activism that we don't talk about enough, and maybe you do at Berkeley with ethnic studies and professors like Mike Chang. But, this is totally an interracial solidarity movement. We helped bring about Wong Kim Ark and there are beneficiaries of every shade of person. There's Yik wo, and I think about this all the time, which is another part of the 14th Amendment equal protection. Which black Americans fought for that in San Francisco. [00:54:00] Chinatown made real what? What does equal protection of the laws even mean? And that case was Seminole. You've got Lao versus Nichols. Another case coming out of San Francisco. Chinatown about English learner rights, the greatest beneficiary of Lao v Nichols, our Spanish speakers, they're Spanish speaking children in schools who get access to their education regardless of the language they speak. And so there are so many moments in Asian American history that we should be talking about, that we should educate our parents and our families about, because this is our moment. Now, this is another one of those times I wanna pass it to Mike and Harvey for questions, and I'm so excited to hear about them. Mike and Harvey: Wow, thank you so much. That's a amazing, panel and thank you for facilitating annie's wanna give it of a great value in terms of that spiritual home aspect. Norm how does your great grandfather's , experience in resistance, provide help for us [00:55:00] today? Norman Wong: Well, I think he was willing to do it. It only took one, if no one did it, this, we wouldn't be having the discussion because most of us would've never been here. And we need to come together on our common interests and put aside our differences because we all have differences. And if we tried, to have it our way for everything, we'll have it no way for us. We really need to, to bond and bind together and become strong as a people. And I don't mean as a racial or a national group. Mm-hmm. I mean, we're Americans now. We're Americans here think of us as joining with all Americans to make this country the way it's supposed to be. The way [00:56:00] we grew up, the one that we remember, this is not the America I grew up believing in. I'm glad he stood up. I'm proud that he did that. He did that. Him doing that gave me something that I've never had before. A validation of my own life. And so yes, I'm proud of him. Wong Kim Ark is for all of us. It's not for me to own. Yeah. Wow. Really not. Thank you so much. Wong Kim Ark is for all of us. And, and , talking about the good , that we have here and, the optimism that Harvey spoke about, the opportunity, even in a moment of substantial danger. Thank you so much everybody. Mike and Harvey: This was amazing and really appreciate sharing this space with you and, building community and solidarity. Ke Lam: But is there any, can I leave with a chant before we close off? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. So this is a chant that we use on the ground all the time. You guys probably heard it. When I said when we fight, you guys said we [00:57:00] win when we fight. We win when we fight, we win. When we fight, we win up. Swati Rayasam: Thanks so much for tuning into APEX Express. Please check out our website at kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about the show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. APEX Express is produced by Miko Lee, along with Jalena Keene-Lee, Ayame Keene-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaida, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Ravi Grover, and me Swati Rayasam. Thank you so much to the team at KPFA for their support, and have a good [00:58:00] night.   The post APEX Express – 6.26.25-Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison – Wong Kim Ark is for All of Us appeared first on KPFA.

Here are today's top stories on SBS Filipino. - Alamin ang pinakamainit na balita ngayong Huwebes sa SBS Filipino.

Stay informed, stay connected — SBS Filipino shares the news and stories that matter to Filipinos in Australia. - Hatid ng SBS Filipino ang mga balita, impormasyon at kwento ng mga Pinoy sa Australia.

E459 Corinna Kazdin is a Filipino native who chose to leave the Philippines and come to the United States as a result of a childhood and young adult life full of trauma and abuse. She recounts her story in the book, “You Can't Tell Anyone.”  Now, she is the director of advancement at ObriaLA, a […]

What's it really like to live without electricity? Daniel Ramsey (Founder & CEO of MyOutDesk) and Josh Harmatz share how immersing themselves in rural Filipino communities brought deep perspective—and unexpected joy from people with so little.

Here are today's top stories on SBS Filipino. - Alamin ang pinakamainit na balita ngayong Miyerkules sa SBS Filipino.

Ed Center and I begin this podcast with a toast. I'm proud to call Ed my friend. I met him a couple years at The Social Study, where we recorded this episode and where my wife, Erin Lim, bartends. From the first time I spoke with Ed, I knew I liked him. His energy and humor and intellect and heart are all boundless. I'm hella drawn to people like Ed. His story begins in Cebu in the Philippines, with his maternal grandmother. Her family was poor and her parents died in the Spanish Flu of the 1910s. That loss plunged the surviving family members into what Ed describes as destitute poverty. Following that tragedy, her older brother signed up to work for the Dole company in Hawaii. Ed's grandmother was 13 at this time, but still, it was decided that she would accompany her brother to the islands to help care for him while he worked the pineapple fields and earned a wage. Ed points out that the Dole Food Company (as it was known at the time) intended these migrant workers to honor their contracts and then go back to their home countries. To that end, the company only hired young men. But Ed's family paid a stranger on their boat $20 to marry his grandmother so that she could join her brother in Hawaii. Ed goes on a sidebar here about the tendency in his family to exaggerate their own history. “Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story,” or so the family saying goes. He returns to the story of his maternal grandmother to share the tale of her younger sister being so distraught about the departure, she hugged her so hard that her flip-flop broke. It was her only pair of shoes. In the Filipino community on Oahu at the time, there was an outsize number of men in relation to women. When Ed's grandfather first set eyes on his grandma, he began to court her. A year later, they asked her older brother if they could get married, and he said no, that she was too young (14 at the time). But they got married anyway, with the understanding that they would wait two more years to live together. They moved in and Ed's grandmother had a new baby, including his mom, every other year for the next 20 years. Like her brother, his grandmother's new husband worked in the pineapple fields for Dole, doing incredibly hard labor. His grandma washed clothes for bachelor workers. The two saved their money and bought plantation property from Dole. The property was affordable enough that they were able to build multiple shacks for the kids to eventually live in. At this point, Ed launches into what he calls “the shadow story” of his family. He learned that shadow story when he was a kid and his mom and aunties were cooking in the kitchen. He'd sit just outside the room pretending to read a book, eavesdropping. There, he learned things like which family members were smoking pot or getting into trouble. But there are more serious elements, which prompts Ed to issue a trigger warning to readers and listeners. His grandmother didn't quite agree to go to Hawaii. When she told her brother no to the idea, he beat her. He did this repeatedly until she acquiesced. But it was in one of these violent melees that his grandmother's flip-flop broke. All this to say that Ed's grandmother didn't have much agency in her life decisions. The last two of her 10 children almost killed her. After number 10, the doctor gave Ed's grandfather an involuntary vasectomy. Ed shares the story of how, on plantation payday, the women and children would hide in the fields with the men guarding them. It was a way to try to protect them from workers in the next village getting drunk and coming in to cause trouble. He summarizes the family history to this point by pointing out the incredible amount of resilience his ancestors carried. Also strength and love. But also, violence. All of those qualities manifested in their and their children's parenting practices. Ed's mom raised her kids in this way. The severity of the abuse waned over generations, but it was there nonetheless. Ed says he was ultimately responsible for his mother's emotions. For many of these reasons, in his adult life, Ed founded The Village Well Parenting. We'll get more into that in Part 2. We back up for Ed to tell the story of how his mom and dad met each other. His dad was in the Army during the war in Vietnam. On a voyage to Asia, his boat took a detour and ended up in Hawaii, where he remained for the next five years. His parents got together and had Ed and his younger brother. They grew up among a much larger Filipino extended family, but Ed didn't really know his dad's Caucasian family, who lived on the East Coast. He's gotten to know them more in his adult life. Ed grew up on Oahu in the Seventies and Eighties. His family was between working class and middle class, and there was always stress about money. But in hindsight, they lived well. We share versions of a similar story—that of parents telling kids that Christmas would be lean, that they didn't have a lot of money (probably true), but that never ended up actually being the case. Both of our recollections was mountains of gifts on December 25. Growing up, Ed was always feminine. He was also athletic. It was a time before Ellen, before Will and Grace, when “athletic” also meant “not gay.” Ed says he wanted to be “not gay,” but he couldn't help who he was. That led to his getting bullied. Moving to the mainland for college meant escape—from his own torment and from that of his peers back on the island. Ed went to UC Davis. He had played competitive soccer in middle school and high school, and because his teams were good, they came to the mainland a couple times. But Davis was a whole other world by the time he arrived to go to college. It was the early Nineties. He took what we call a gap year before coming to California. For him, that meant working. In one of his jobs, he served tables at CPK in Hawaii, where Carol Burnett was one of his regulars. We end Part 1 with Ed's story of his time at UC Davis and not yet accepting his queerness. This Thursday on the podcast, I talk with Megan Rohrer about their new book on the Transgender District in San Francisco. And check back next week for Part 2 with Ed Center. We recorded this podcast at The Social Study in June 2025. Photography by Jeff Hunt

Last time we spoke about the victory at Okinawa.. As American forces led by General Buckner advanced, they captured strategic key points, driving the Japanese into a desperate retreat. Despite overwhelming odds, the remaining Japanese defenders, embodying the samurai spirit, fought to the bitter end, hoping to gain time for their homeland's defenses. On June 21, faced with inevitable defeat, Generals Ushijima and Cho chose to commit seppuku in honor of their duty. Their tragic decision underscored the deep commitment to their cause, an adherence to the warrior code. By this point, countless Japanese soldiers surrendered, acknowledging the futility of their fight. As the month drew to a close, the Americans secured Okinawa, a hard-won victory shadowed by staggering casualties, more than 107,000 Japanese lives lost and significant American losses. This battle not only symbolized the relentless spirit of those who fought but also the tragic costs of war, forever etched in history as a vivid reminder of sacrifice and the haunting price of conflict. This episode is Liberation of Luzon Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  For most, the battle of Okinawa basically ends the Pacific War, but the truth is the war was raging all over the place. The second most noticeable place would be Luzon, where the remnants of General Yamashit'as 14th Area Army were still resisting in the northern and eastern mountain ranges. Yet here too, the curtains were beginning to fall. As we last left off, it was mid-April 1945, and the fierce struggle for the liberation of Luzon was reaching a critical phase. General Eichelberger's 8th Army was actively engaged in offensives across the Visayas and Mindanao, while General Krueger's 6th Army focused its might on two primary sectors in Luzon. The stakes were high, the liberation of Luzon was crucial for securing Manila and restoring the Filipino government that had been disrupted by the war. In the northern sector, General Swift's 1st Corps was grappling with General Yamashita's formidable Shobu Group, who were entrenched in this mountainous terrain, making the fighting particularly arduous. Meanwhile, General Hall's 11th Corps was applying relentless pressure on the opposing Shimbu Group, led by General Yokoyama, in the vital areas east of Manila. Starting in the northern reaches of Luzon, we find General Clarkson's 33rd Division making tangible advances, having secured Route 11 up to Camp 3, as well as segments of the Galiano Road and the Tuba Trail. This area, known for its treacherous paths and thick jungle, posed significant challenges, but the troops pressed on. Northward, General Beightler's 37th Division was also on the move, with its 129th Regiment overcoming all enemy resistance along Route 9, reaching the critical town of Sablan by April 14. Not to be overlooked, Colonel Volckmann's guerrilla 121st Regiment had carved a path up Route 4 to the strategically important Bessang Pass, known for its rugged terrain that offers a natural defense. General Mullins' 25th Division was making notable progress towards Balete Pass, gaining crucial footholds on Crump Hill and Myoko Ridge. These positions were essential as they provided elevated vantage points over the surrounding valleys. On the western front, General Gill's 32nd Division had successfully secured the western Salacsac Pass but still faced stiff enemy positions in the eastern pass, where Japanese forces were well-prepared to defend. With the arrival of the bulk of the 37th Division in early April, Swift was poised to launch a dynamic two-division drive towards Baguio, a city nestled in the mountains that had become a strategic goal due to its position and resources. While Clarkson's units continued to engage in patrol actions in the Arboredo, Agno, and Ambayabang River valleys, there was limited progress in these areas. However, the 129th Regiment initiated a decisive attack on Sablan on April 11, successfully breaching Japanese defenses there by April 14. On that pivotal day, the 148th Regiment took charge of securing Route 9 through Calot, a vital corridor for advancing troops. Meanwhile, the 130th Regiment encountered fierce resistance as it pushed west of Asin along the Galiano Road, exemplifying the tenacity of Japanese forces determined to hold their ground. As the battle raged, General Yamashita was already strategizing to evacuate Baguio. By April 19, he made the decision to relocate to the Bambang front, leaving Major-General Utsunomiya Naokata, one of his trusted chiefs of staff, in command of the remaining forces.  Despite the growing pressure on Route 9, the Japanese command seemed out of touch by the second week of April 1945. They inaccurately assessed that the primary thrust of General Swift's 1st Corps would come along Route 11, allowing them to become complacent. This misplaced confidence led to a failure to redeploy troops to counter the increasing threat on their right flank. Instead of fortifying their defenses, they appeared to adopt an inexplicable, almost defeatist attitude, unusual for a military as disciplined as the Imperial Japanese Army. Compounding this lack of urgency was the intense effort from the 14th Area Army headquarters to evacuate civilians and supplies from Baguio, a city perched high in the Cordillera Central mountain range. This evacuation served as a clear signal that the situation was deteriorating, yet the Japanese command remained strangely passive. Yamashita's mindset regarding the unfolding crisis was evident when he made personal preparations to depart for the Bambang front on April 19. In a move echoing his earlier strategy for the Bambang area, he established an independent command for the Baguio front before his departure. Utsunomiya's responsibilities also included nominal command over the 19th Division, stationed north of Baguio, but his control was hampered by significant communication difficulties that plagued the Japanese forces. The first notable action Utsunomiya took was to relieve the 58th Independent Mixed Brigade from the 23rd Division's control, seeking to streamline command. Under Yamashita's directive to hold Baguio for as long as possible before retreating to a new defensive line, Utsunomiya issued an order for all troops along the existing Main Line of Resistance  "hold out to the last man." His tone betrayed the grim reality, coming across as almost ironic given the mounting pressures they faced. Meanwhile, General Sato's 58th Independent Mixed Brigade was frantically working to fortify defenses along Route 9, southeast of Calot. However, their efforts came too late to prevent the 148th Regiment from swiftly capturing Yagyagan on April 15, gaining a crucial foothold in the area. In response to this setback, Sato began sending reinforcements to the Irisan Gorge starting April 16, apparently under Utsunomiya's orders. This narrow, treacherous gorge, surrounded by steep cliffs, was seen as a pivotal point for a last-ditch defense. The Japanese troops managed to repel the initial assaults from the 148th Regiment on April 17, but as night fell, the Americans executed a series of enveloping maneuvers, ultimately securing Ridge A. The following morning, the 148th seized Ridge C; however, their frontal assaults against Ridge B were met with fierce resistance and ended in failure. On April 19, the tide began to turn. After a devastating air strike and concentrated artillery fire that neutralized most of the Japanese positions on Ridge F, the Americans finally captured Ridge B. Concurrently, other American units seized Hills D and E, effectively cutting off the Japanese retreat route. The relentless pressure continued, and the next day, Ridges F and G were subjected to intense attacks, which ultimately resulted in their capture. This relentless campaign forced the Japanese to withdraw to Ridge H, where they continued to regroup. After heavy bombardment, the Irisan Gorge was finally cleared on April 21, sending the surviving defenders scrambling in retreat. As these operations unfolded, the 130th Regiment was busy repositioning two battalions from the Galiano Road to the junction of the Yagyagan Trail along Route 9, poised to mount a coordinated attack on Asin from both the east and west. On April 22, they launched their offensive, catching the Japanese defenders by surprise and effectively dismantling their defenses. By the afternoon of April 23, the Galiano Road was opened for American forces, marking a significant advancement in their campaign. Concurrently, the 129th Regiment had taken over operations from the 148th Regiment and advanced against only scattered resistance, making significant progress as far southeast as the junction of the highway and the Galiano Road. However, their advance was ultimately halted due to concerns about a potential threat from the north. Seizing on this hesitation, General Utsunomiya decided to leave small delaying forces at Trinidad and Baguio, while initiating a general withdrawal to the north and northeast. With Utsunomiya's defensive lines weakened, American patrols were able to enter Baguio on April 24, met with surprisingly little resistance. By April 26, the 129th had effectively secured most of the city, facing only negligible opposition. Simultaneously, elements from the 123rd and 130th Regiments worked diligently to eliminate the remaining Japanese defenses on nearby Mount Calugong, along the Tuba Trail, and on Mount Mirador, ensuring the area was cleared for further American operations. Despite these American successes, Utsunomiya managed to escape with approximately 10,000 troops to the Baguio-Aritao supply road, a crucial evacuation route for Japanese forces. As the end of April approached and into the first days of May, the 37th Division continued to mop up the surrounding areas, further securing Trinidad. Meanwhile, the 33rd Division also pressed forward, capturing the Balinguay-Itogon-Pitican sector, enhancing their control over the region. Looking eastward, General Gill's demoralized 32nd Division was still engaged in fierce fighting through the Salacsac Pass, hampered in their advance along the Villa Verde Trail.  During the second week of April 1945, observers from the 6th Army headquarters reported alarming morale issues within the 32nd Division, echoing concerns that General Krueger had personally noted during previous visits to the front lines. The soldiers of the 126th and 128th Regiments were on the brink of complete mental and physical exhaustion. Front-line troops, many of whom had spent significant time overseas, were becoming overly cautious, possibly from the toll of constant combat. Conversations among the men frequently centered around one urgent topic: their rotation back to the United States. The once aggressive spirit characteristic of these combat troops was waning rapidly. With dwindling numbers and pervasive personnel issues, it was clear that the division would struggle to mount any spectacular gains in the coming days. If they couldn't quicken their pace along the critical Villa Verde Trail, reaching their objective, Santa Fe, by the targeted date of June 1 appeared increasingly unlikely. Delays would be catastrophic; they risked being trapped on the trail by the heavy rains of the impending wet season, which typically began in late May. Such circumstances would severely hinder their ability to withdraw and salvage their equipment from the treacherous mountainous terrain. Meanwhile, the Japanese forces retained key terrain advantages, allowing them to economically utilize their troops and reinforce their front lines almost at will. In stark contrast, the rugged landscape severely restricted the 32nd Division's maneuverability, forcing them to repeatedly launch costly frontal assaults with their diminishing strength. While terrain and weather conditions presented significant challenges, the growing personnel crisis loomed as a critical factor likely to further limit the division's progress in the days ahead. Compounding their challenges, General Iwanaka's reconstituted 2nd Tank Division had suffered heavy casualties, leaving General Konuma unable to provide further reinforcements. On April 17, the rested 127th Regiment finally began its move to relieve the beleaguered 128th Regiment at the western pass, launching operations to clear the last remnants of Japanese forces from the Hill 506-507 area. Although Hill 506B fell rapidly on April 19, and Hill 507C was captured three days later, American forces struggled to completely clear Hill 507D until May 2, underscoring the tenacity of the Japanese defenders. Despite the challenges, enough ground had been cleared by April 26 for the 2nd Battalion to initiate a drive east along and south of the Villa Verde Trail, aiming for the strategically important Hill 508. The Japanese forces, sensing this new threat, responded with fierce counterattacks from both the east and north, managing to delay the American capture of Hill 508 until April 29. The intense fighting illustrated the importance of this elevation, which offered vital visibility over the surrounding landscapes. In the days that followed, the 2nd Battalion expanded its control over Hill 508, establishing a defensive block on the Villa Verde Trail to the north while successfully repelling a series of heavy Japanese counterattacks. Meanwhile, the 3rd Battalion made significant strides by attacking and capturing Hill 509, further consolidating American positions in the area. Simultaneously, the 2nd Battalion of the 126th Regiment launched an offensive south from Hill 511, seizing Hill 515 on April 24. They advanced into the area north of Hill 508 while the 1st Battalion navigated through the rugged terrain of Hills 513 and 514, pressing southward to Hill 516. Their advance culminated in the capture of the crest of Hill 525, where they established a critical block on the Villa Verde Trail. However, the cost of these advances was significant. Due to the heavy losses incurred during these operations, the barely rested 128th Regiment began the process of relieving the exhausted 126th on May 3. Shortly after, the 128th's 2nd Battalion launched an assault southeast, successfully capturing Hill 526 on May 7, while some elements initiated a drive towards Hill 527. To the further east, General Mullins' 25th Division was persistently pushing its Santa Fe offensive against stubborn Japanese resistance. In a stroke of fortune, a successful aerial reconnaissance mission revealed that ground located just 1,000 yards west of their position might offer a more favorable route of advance to Balete Ridge, providing a welcome alternative to the challenging Myoko mass itself. On April 22, a reconnaissance force from the 27th Regiment successfully moved undetected to the southern slope of Balete Ridge, positioning themselves for a critical advance. The following day, the rest of the 2nd Battalion began to push toward Lone Tree Hill, while other units continued to exert pressure on the entrenched Japanese defenses at Myoko. Moving forward with enthusiasm and encountering negligible resistance, the Americans reached Lone Tree Hill on April 25, effectively bypassing the main concentrations of enemy forces. By April 27, the 2nd Battalion had advanced an impressive half mile beyond Lone Tree Hill, with its forward elements only three-quarters of a mile from Balete Pass. However, they were compelled to halt their advance due to the potential threat of an enemy counterattack looming on the horizon. Meanwhile, on April 23, the 35th Regiment began its ascent up Kapintalan Ridge, steadily making progress despite the challenging terrain. By April 27, their leading troops had reached a prominent knob located midway between Route 5 and Lone Tree Hill. The 161st Regiment was also making strides, continuing its attack northward towards Kembu Ridge, where they successfully secured Hill 4625 and the entirety of Highley Ridge by April 28. On that same day, the 27th Regiment began reinforcing their positions on Lone Tree Hill, while elements of the 2nd Battalion initiated a southwest push along Kapintalan Ridge to support the 35th Regiment advancing up Route 5. However, they encountered a formidable strongpoint and were only able to gain 350 yards of new ground northeast from the knob. Simultaneously, elements of the 27th Regiment advanced a modest 500 yards southwest by May 4, indicating the ongoing struggle. That morning, the 1st Battalion of the 161st Regiment seized the southeastern nose of Kembu Ridge, securing a valuable tactical position. At the same time, the 2nd Battalion pushed troops onto the ridge, extending their reach half a mile to the northwest, further consolidating American control in the area. As a breakthrough appeared imminent, General Krueger began dispatching Beightler's 37th Division to the Bambang front on May 2, with all elements of the division departing the Baguio area just three days later. With these reinforcements securing his rear and taking control of the Myoko massif, General Mullins ordered the 27th and 161st Regiments to concentrate their forces for a coordinated attack aimed at enveloping Balete Pass from both the east and west. On May 5, the 161st swiftly broke through Kembu Ridge and advanced to Haruna Ridge, while the 27th Regiment pushed west-northwest along Wolfhound Ridge. However, they faced fierce resistance, gaining only 350 yards against tenacious Japanese defenders. On May 8, Company I successfully launched a southwest offensive from their stronghold along a bare-crested ridge, while Company A deployed on Kenbu Ridge and began ascending the final sections of the Digdig River gorge. The following day, these two companies finally made contact with each other and linked up with the 161st on Haruna Ridge. By May 10, Wolfhound Ridge was secured, coinciding with elements of the 35th Regiment completing the clearance of Route 5 from Kapintalan to the pass. In the meantime, the 35th Regiment, along with units from the 27th, continued their assault on Kapintalan Ridge, which was ultimately secured by May 13. Meanwhile, the 148th Regiment renewed its attacks on Myoko Ridge, where Japanese resistance began to collapse by May 11. With these gains, Balete Pass was now secure. The Americans had incurred 565 men killed and 1,745 wounded during the drive, while General Okamoto's 10th Division experienced catastrophic losses, with nearly 7,000 men killed and a complete breakdown of their control and communications. Reflecting on the situation in Salacsac, by May 8, the Japanese position was deteriorating rapidly. In response, General Iwanaka made the critical decision to dispatch troops aimed at cutting the supply line to the 2nd Battalion of the 128th Regiment, with the intention of safeguarding his main stronghold at Mount Imugan. On that day, the 1st Battalion of the 128th Regiment began to push eastward, facing strong resistance, while elements of the 2nd Battalion moved west from Hill 526, struggling to make any significant progress. By May 10, Japanese forces successfully severed the track between Hills 525 and 516, forcing much of the 128th and one battalion of the 127th Regiment to allocate considerable resources to eliminate the Japanese pocket that had formed in that area. Meanwhile, the 33rd Division was left disheartened as it found itself assigned a holding mission to secure the Baguio-Bauang-San Fernando area. Their operations were limited to minor local gains and long-range reconnaissance, which did little to impact the overall situation.  During May 1945, the only significant action undertaken by the 33rd Division took place along a trail connecting Santa Rosa in the Ambayabang Valley to Tebbo, located on the Agno River five miles south of Pitican. The division focused its efforts on clearing Japanese forces from the high ground situated between the main trail and the upper reaches of the Ambayabang Valley. On May 9, a battalion of the 130th Regiment advanced south from Baguio via Pitican and reached Tebbo, only to find the barrio abandoned. Meanwhile, on May 5, the 136th Regiment began its advance up the Ambayabang Valley. Approximately three miles south of Tebbo, they became embroiled in a ten-day battle, resulting in the deaths of a few hundred Japanese troops. However, these enemy forces posed little threat to the 33rd Division, their primary mission being to block American attacks toward the Baguio-Aritao supply road from the south. As the rainy season approached, 1st Corps and the 33rd Division had long since abandoned plans to use the valley as a route of advance against the Japanese supply lines. Consequently, the 136th Regiment relinquished the terrain it had gained along the valley and the trail to Tebbo almost immediately after capturing it. By May 15, all troops of the 33rd Division began their withdrawal, a challenging task compounded by heavy rains that had transformed the Pitican-Tebbo trail and the trails in the Ambayabang Valley into quagmires. The final destruction of the Japanese blocking force in the valley had little impact on the strategic plans or dispositions of 1st Corps or the Shobu Group, as the Japanese quickly replenished their outposts. By the end of May, the 33rd Division was left executing reconnaissance missions without significant enemy contact or major advances. The division remained in a state of restless anticipation, awaiting developments on the Bontoc and Bambang fronts before the 6th Army would authorize a new drive deeper into the rugged mountains of northern Luzon. Turning to the north, the guerrilla 121st Regiment achieved a significant victory on April 21 by overrunning the last Japanese positions on Lamagan Ridge. About a week later, they completed their occupation of Lower Cadsu. However, during the first part of May, the 121st Regiment faced formidable challenges as they advanced over steep terrain against increasingly fortified Japanese defenses, bolstered by reinforcements from General Ozaki's 19th Division. In the south, Hall's 11th Corps made good progress throughout mid-April, successfully pushing General Yokoyama's 41st Army, previously known as the Shimbu Group, further east from Manila. Concurrently, General Hurdis' 6th Division continued its offensive against the Kobayashi Detachment at Wawa Dam, achieving a notable success by securing the crest of Mount Mataba on April 17, marking a significant tactical gain in the ongoing battle. Despite General Hurdis' hopes to swiftly advance against Mount Pacawagan and Wawa Dam, persistent personnel issues forced him to halt any offensive actions until the 145th Regiment could relieve the 20th Regiment in the Montalban area. The 145th eventually began its assault on Pacawagan on April 21. However, even with effective supporting fire that destroyed much of the enemy's defenses, American forces struggled to secure a foothold on the mountain until the end of the month. Meanwhile, the 1st and 63rd Regiments continued to hold their occupied ground until they were relieved late in April by the 151st and 152nd Regiments of General Chase's 38th Division, which then officially assumed control of the offensive operations. In the southern part of Manila, significant water supply problems prompted General Hall to redeploy General Wing's 43rd Division northward in preparation for an offensive against Ipo Dam.  By mid-April 1945, an acute water shortage had developed within the city of Manila. General MacArthur informed General Krueger about the dire situation, noting that south of the Pasig River, Manila had access to no water sources except for that supplied by Army tank trucks and shallow, often contaminated wells. This shortage significantly hampered sewage disposal throughout the city, as water pressure from the overtaxed Novaliches Reservoir, the only reliable source was insufficient to carry off waste. As a result, flush toilets were frequently clogged, forcing many citizens to resort to using gutters and esteros for defecation. Restaurants and nightclubs, which were heavily frequented by off-duty American troops, struggled to maintain even minimum sanitary standards. The situation was exacerbated by a steady influx of military units and civilians into the metropolitan area, raising concerns about the imminent threat of severe epidemics breaking out in the city. On April 19, MacArthur suggested to Krueger that the 6th Army could resolve Manila's water supply crisis by seizing "the reservoir in the Montalban area." He inquired how soon the installation could be captured. This query puzzled Krueger, who was aware that the only true reservoirs linked to the Manila water system were located west of the Marikina River and had been under American control since February. Furthermore, Krueger understood that Wawa Dam, the nearest water supply installation to Montalban, was no longer connected to the metropolitan system. He subsequently asked MacArthur if by "reservoir in the Montalban area," he meant Ipo Dam, the only major water installation still in Japanese hands. Krueger's question seemingly led to further examination of Manila's water system at General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area (GHQ SWPA). On April 22, MacArthur radioed back to Krueger, confirming that Ipo Dam was indeed the preferred objective. He emphasized that capturing the Ipo installation would effectively solve Manila's water supply problems. Upon receiving this directive, Krueger ordered the 11th Corps to launch a drive on Ipo Dam as soon as possible. This shift in forces meant the 112th Cavalry Regiment had to move south to take over the vacated positions. General Wing conducted a reconnaissance-in-force that revealed the Kawashima Force's defenses south of Route 52 were considerably weaker than those around the main highway. In light of this intelligence, the plan for assault was set into motion. On the night of May 6, the 103rd Regiment was ordered to advance towards Mount Katitinga and prepare to attack the dam. Supporting this effort, the 172nd Regiment would strike across a two-mile-wide front to the left of the 103rd towards the dam, while the 169th Regiment was tasked with demonstrating along Route 52 to pin down Japanese forces in the Bigti region. Additionally, Marking's Fil-American Yay Regiment at Norzagaray was to make a feint drive eastward north of the Angat River, targeting Mount Kabuyao. During the first three days of May, General Chase conducted probing attacks in preparation for a concerted offensive aimed at Wawa Dam, which was set to begin on May 4. Simultaneously, General Yokoyama observed what he believed to be a slowdown in enemy progress, leading him to conclude that American forces must be redeploying northward or evacuating from Luzon entirely. This prompted him to prepare a limited counteroffensive, consisting of a series of harassing and delaying actions designed to pin down enemy forces on this front. Consequently, Yokoyama was not anticipating a major offensive on May 4. However, on that day, the 145th Regiment managed to gain up to 1,000 yards along the northern and northeastern slopes of Pacawagan, while the 152nd Regiment advanced approximately 500 yards northward along Woodpecker Ridge. Although these territorial gains were not monumental, Yokoyama became increasingly concerned about the strength of the American attacks and made the urgent decision to launch his counteroffensive. As Japanese forces hurried to reposition for their counterattacks, the 145th Regiment struck eastward, successfully seizing the rocky summit of Mount Binicayan. Meanwhile, the 152nd continued its efforts along Woodpecker Ridge. This coordinated assault completely surprised General Kobayashi's troops, rendering their planned counterattack impossible as they were forced to shift their focus to defending their critical positions. In the southern sector, General Kawashima dispatched one battalion toward Montalban; however, the heavy air assaults that preceded Wing's offensive made it impossible for the Japanese unit to organize effectively for their attack. Adding to the Japanese troubles, the remnants of the Noguchi Force were unable to provide any significant reinforcements. Despite the surprise and disarray among the Japanese defenders, they could not prevent the 145th from capturing the crest of Binicayan on May 9. The troops stationed on Woodpecker Ridge experienced some success by halting the advance of the 152nd and initiated a week of increasingly aggressive dawn and dusk raids starting on May 14. Recognizing the futility of the ongoing conflict, which had resulted in over 1,300 Japanese casualties, General Yokoyama ordered an immediate withdrawal of all units involved on May 15. However, these orders would not reach the front lines until a week later. In the meantime, capitalizing on the element of surprise achieved during the night attack on May 6, General Wing launched an offensive that made excellent progress. The 103rd Regiment rapidly gained control of the western slopes of Katitinga and advanced swiftly along the ridgeline toward Hill 1000. Meanwhile, the 172nd Regiment reached the foot of a rocky ridge two miles southeast of Bigti, and the Marking Regiment encountered no resistance as it marched over seven miles eastward, ultimately halting just a mile and a half northwest of Kabuyao. The only significant resistance encountered occurred at Hill 535, where elements of a guerrilla unit were repelled by Japanese defenders. The unexpectedly weak Japanese opposition prompted the 43rd Division to sustain its offensive momentum without pause. By May 11, the 103rd had secured Hills 805 and 810, while the 172nd was probing Japanese defenses on Fork Ridge and advancing to the southwestern slopes of rocky Hill 815. The Marking Regiment had successfully overrun Kabuyao, though they were unable to capture Four-Corner Hill. At this point, Japanese resistance began to stiffen as American forces clashed with General Kawashima's main defenses. In response, Wing ordered the 169th Regiment to mount a limited attack on Osboy Ridge and directed the Marking guerrillas to launch a strong assault toward Ipo. Supported by artillery, Colonel Marcus Augustin succeeded in breaking through Four-Corner Hill on May 12, marking a critical turning point in the offensive. Unaware of Kawashima's precarious situation, Yokoyama directed the Kawashima Force to initiate a new counterattack against the left and left rear of the 38th Division, deeming the situation for the Kobayashi Force to be more critical. As a result, Kawashima was compelled to divert one battalion for this unnecessary assault, which weakened the Japanese defenses. This strategic miscalculation enabled General Wing to make significant gains on May 13, with the 103rd Regiment capturing Hill 860, the 172nd clearing much of Hill 815, and the Marking guerrillas seizing the summit of Hill 803. The extent of these advances prompted Kawashima to ultimately disregard Yokoyama's orders and recall his assault battalion. This battalion promptly mounted a counterattack against the Americans in a futile attempt to regain lost ground, managing only to restrict the 103rd and 172nd Regiments to minor gains on May 14. Simultaneously, Colonel Augustin's patrols crossed the Angat River unopposed, discovering that the dam remained intact and the powerhouse on the south bank was largely undamaged. However, the patrol force, too weak to hold these installations, retreated before dawn to the crest of Hill 803, where the remainder of the regiment was occupied with mopping up remaining resistance. Looking further south, General Griswold's 14th Corps had already secured most of southern Luzon and had successfully landed General MacNider's 158th Regiment in the Bicol Peninsula. In response, the remnants of the Fuji Force and the depleted Kogure Detachment decided to evacuate the open Santa Maria Valley, opting to retreat to more defensible positions at the Kapatalin Sawmill. This allowed Griswold to move the 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments into the valley, with the former beginning a drive along Route 455 on May 6. Following a heavy air and artillery bombardment, the cavalrymen launched their assault on the sawmill on May 9 and swiftly overran the enemy defenses by mid-afternoon. After a brief pause to reorganize, the 7th Cavalry advanced up Route 455, leaving their vehicles behind, and reached Lamon Bay by May 13. Meanwhile, on the Bicol Peninsula, progress had been agonizingly slow throughout late April. It wasn't until April 28 that the Cituinan Hills were fully secured, leading to the collapse of organized Japanese resistance in the region. Following this, the 158th Regiment began moving northwestward toward Iriga and San Agustin, rapidly overrunning the remaining weak enemy positions along Route 1. Progress continued to be painfully slow, and it was not until 28 April that organized Japanese resistance finally collapsed. The task of clearing the Cituinan Hills cost the 158th Infantry approximately 40 men killed and 235 wounded; the Japanese lost almost 700 men killed in the region. Although the 158th RCT did not know it, the reduction of the Cituinan Hills marked the end of large-scale organized resistance on the Bicol Peninsula, where no more than 1,400 Japanese remained alive as of the end of April. Simultaneously, the 5th Cavalry Regiment captured Calauag on April 14 and began a two-pronged advance toward San Agustin by the end of the month. On May 2, San Agustin was finally taken as elements of both regiments converged there. Guerrillas had informed XIV Corps, which acquired control of the 158th RCT on 22 April, that a Japanese force of some 2,500 men was dug in along the slopes of Mt. Isarog, an extinct volcano centering eight miles northeast of San Agustin. This report the 5th Cavalry and 158th Infantry proved false in a series of patrol actions between 2 and 15 May. The next day, the 16th, General MacNider radioed to General Griswold that the Bicol Peninsula was secure and that no signs of organized Japanese resistance remained. The two regiments continued patrolling for some weeks until, on 6 June, the 5th Cavalry returned to southern Luzon. The 158th RCT busied itself with the problem of reorganizing and equipping guerrilla forces and in mid-June turned over responsibility for further mopping up to the Filipinos. To that time the operations to clear the Bicol Peninsula had cost the USArmy units involved approximately 95 men killed and 475 wounded. The Japanese had lost over 2,800 killed and 565 captured, including 350 Formosan labor troops whom the Japanese Army had left to fend for themselves. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In June 1945, amidst the Pacific War, American forces sought to liberate Luzon from General Yamashita's entrenched troops. Under Generals Eichelberger and Krueger, the 8th Army faced fierce resistance in the mountains and vital routes. As Japanese defenders struggled, the Americans advanced strategically, leading to fierce battles across treacherous terrain.  The turning point came with the seizure of Baguio, crucial for the campaign.

discover effective strategies and tips for learning Filipino

Here are today's top stories on SBS Filipino. - Alamin ang pinakamainit na balita ngayong Martes sa SBS Filipino.

Stay informed, stay connected — SBS Filipino shares the news and stories that matter to Filipinos in Australia. - Hatid ng SBS Filipino ang mga balita, impormasyon at kwento ng mga Pinoy sa Australia.

Sam Stewart of Flagman returns to discuss Filipino Ray, an acrobatic bass jaunt that comprises the penultimate track of Of Whales and Woe. The bass lines go hard, but there is a lot of open space as well, which can be tricky for many musicians. Sam helps us with those intricacies, and regales with his own tales of whales and woe around procuting and hearing this record for the first time. We also share what we know about Ray Wing, the lyrical subject of the song, who Les played with in the Tommy Crank Band in the 1980s. Plus, can we borrow your old iPod cable? Thanks. Find Sam @salmonsamstew and @flagmanband on Insagram.Get involvedInstagramFacebookEmailBurn your money 

Episode 71 When Communities Lead: Little Manila Rising's Blueprint for Health and Healing On this episode they explore the powerful story of Little Manila Rising, an organization founded to preserve the Filipino American legacy in Stockton, California, and uplift the South Stockton community. Hear how founders rallied local residents to prevent the destruction of historic neighborhoods and created a movement rooted in ancestral legacy, heart-centered activism, and holistic care. Learn about programs tackling health inequities, environmental justice, mental health, and youth development, all shaped by listening to community needs. Through initiatives like the Healing PUSO project and ECHO, we witness how blending Western and traditional Filipino healing practices, offering free clinics, and providing culturally responsive mental health support have made a tangible impact. Centering community voices and advocating for policy change, Little Manila Rising exemplifies the importance of accessible, culturally anchored healthcare that truly cares for the whole person. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

Alamin ang pinakamainit na balita ngayong Lunes sa SBS Filipino. - Alamin ang pinakamainit na balita ngayong Lunes sa SBS Filipino.

Hatid ng SBS Filipino ang mga balita, impormasyon at kwento ng mga Pinoy sa Australia.

Join us as we peel back the layers on a beloved Filipino condiment staple: banana ketchup. We trace the surprising history of this sweet and tangy red condiment, from its ingenious creation by food scientist and war hero María Orosa during a time of scarcity to its status as a global symbol of Filipino resourcefulness and cultural identity. Discover how a wartime substitute for tomato ketchup became a fixture in Filipino households and a nostalgic taste of home for the diaspora. We also interrogate into the condiment's cultural significance, its role in iconic dishes like Filipino spaghetti, and the contemporary debates surrounding its authenticity and global expansion. This episode explores how an everyday object can tell a profound story of innovation, resilience, and the complex flavors of Filipino history.

What We Cover in This Episode: Things are feeling heavy especially as a woman of color navigating work, family and everything else, so how do you even work right now in this chaos without betraying yourself? How do you make sure you honor yourself?How do you advocate and educate WITHOUT the burnout? Or how do you not feel guilty if you don't have it in you? How can you be transparent with colleagues with how you're feeling, while setting boundaries?In this episode, I'm sharing what I'm doing to personally navigate this season, especially as a proud daughter of a Filipino immigrant farmer and Angeleno.Whether you're in a 9–5, building your own business, or somewhere in between, this episode will help you reflect on:What it means to work with integrityBuild buffer space into your lifeand protect your peace in the chaos.Where We Can Connect:Schedule a Business & Career Review call with me to see if it's a good fit to work together: elainelou.com/callCheck out our 320+ client reviewsFollow the Podcast on AppleFollow the Podcast on SpotifyFollow Elaine on Instagram: @elainelou_Connect with Elaine on LinkedIn: Elaine Lou CartasCheck out our other podcasts for Women of Color

What does it really look like to prioritize your health as a full-time nurse, first-time mom, and wife — while battling postpartum fatigue and cultural food guilt? In this episode of The Breakthrough Series, Dustin sits down with Sharlene, a nurse of nearly 10 years, who reclaimed her energy, dropped 10+ pounds in 12 weeks, and reignited her confidence by committing to the Metabolic Burn System. Despite sleepless nights, judgmental aunties, and mom guilt, she found her strength, inspired her husband, and set a healthier foundation for her son's future. This isn't a story about perfection. It's about grace, grit, and growth. If you're feeling stuck, thinking it's too late, or that you have no time — Sharlene's story is the reminder that your comeback can start today. ⏱ TIMESTAMPS: 00:01 – Intro: From exhaustion to empowerment 01:30 – The chaos of being a first-time mom & full-time nurse 03:50 – What postpartum survival mode looked like (snacking, no structure, low energy) 06:15 – Daily reality: skipping breakfast, sugar crashes, and eating whatever's available 08:20 – Failed fixes: caffeine pills, intermittent fasting, and yo-yo cycles 10:30 – The guilt of doing something for herself 11:24 – Fears before joining: time, commitment, and sustainability 13:00 – What made her finally say YES to coaching 14:30 – How she found VPFIT through relatable reels & Costco hauls 17:00 – What stood out about the Metabolic Burn System: Tracking, structure, gamification 20:45 – When she first noticed real changes (shoutout to the judgmental Filipino aunties) 23:10 – Handling family parties, cultural food pressure & building boundaries 26:45 – Real talk: balancing workouts, prep, mom life & imperfection 30:00 – The hack: 10-15 minutes of presence and grace 31:30 – How her husband is inspired and following her lead 33:30 – Breaking generational cycles: her son's health starts with her 34:40 – Her biggest wins and how she found stability amidst chaos 39:20 – “You can do hard things” – the mindset that changed everything 44:21 – What's next: falling in love with real food and learning to cook 47:50 – Final thoughts: This journey is now her identity, not just a phase 50:12 – Dustin's closing reflection: This isn't about perfection — it's about who you're becoming If Sharlene's story hit home and you're tired of spinning your wheels trying to do this alone… It's time to stop guessing and start growing.

Amidst the chaos, we still have hope. A couple of weeks ago, Ryan and Joe had a conversation about being relatively new dads. With Father’s Day approaching, the two TFAL dads discuss their experiences navigating fatherhood and all that it entails. Listen as they talk about how their identities changed as new responsibilities came, how...

Tony Ramirez dusts off the barbecue for summer grilling and adds Filipino flair to live fire. TikTok darling Claire Dinhut has a thing for condiments and finds creative ways to use them. Casey Elsass helps you decide what to bring to the party based on what type of guest you are. Memo Torres discovers a pozole palace in the San Fernando Valley. Charlotte Biltekoff explores the public's mistrust of processed foods and the food industry's misunderstanding of these concerns.

When the going gets tough, the tough go for pozole. Tony Ramirez dusts off the barbecue for summer grilling and adds Filipino flair to live fire TikTok darling Claire Dinhut has a thing for condiments and finds creative ways to use them Casey Elsass helps you decide what to bring to the party based on what type of guest you are Memo Torres discovers a pozole palace in the San Fernando Valley Charlotte Biltekoff explores how the public's mistrust of processed foods and the food industry's misunderstanding of these concerns Sign up for our weekly Good Food newsletter!