Dating back to the Spanish era, Bilibid Prison was actually about to be replaced by a new facility when the Japanese invaded. After briefly being used to intern Japanese and German citizens, the Japanese military has since used the facility to hold American POWs from Bataan as well as civilians overflowing from Santo Tomas.

The residence of the President of the Philippines, this complex in the San Miguel district on the north bank of the Pasig was one of the primary objectives of the American advance on the city.

Long considered to be the finest hotel in the Philippines, the opulent Manila hotel was a prime goal of MacArthur’s return to a Philippines, as he had been forced to abandon his home in its penthouse when the Japanese invaded in 1941.

The University of Santo Tomas had its main campus on the outskirts of the city, a facility that had since 1942 been in use by the Imperial Japanese Army as an internment camp.

The seat of the Commonwealth Government, this reinforced concrete structure will be a fortress in the hands of die-hard Japanese troops.

The former headquarters of the US forces in the Philippines has been repurposed by the Japanese as the keystone of the defense of southern Manila.

The Central Post Office stood at the northern end of the government district in Ermita, a massive concrete structure that the Japanese intended to turn into a fortress.