American Fighter and Bomber Pilots at Clark Field, Philippines
date: label: Date made
content: 1941-12
label: Date made
content: 1941
name: label: photographer
content: Mydans, Carl
notes: label: Description
content: When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Carl and Shelley Mydans were already covering the effects of World War II in the Pacific. Early in 1941 they went to Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, and China, and later to Manila, in the Philippines.
label: Description
content: Clark Air Base, a U.S. Air Force base on Luzon Island, was overrun by Japanese forces in early 1942. On the first day of war in the Pacific, the Japanese managed to destroy the American planes on the field. Some pilots escaped to fly again; some fought and died as infantry soldiers on Bataan and Corregidor; and others died in Japanese prison camps. This group portrait of pilots was taken just a day after the Japanese had destroyed their grounded planes. In January 1945, after three months of fierce fighting, American forces reclaimed the air base.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Philippines: Luzon, Clark Air Base
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
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content: Photography
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content: Carl Mydans
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0228.063
label: accession number
content: 2005.0228
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0228.063
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Photograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 28.9 cm x 26.3 cm; 11 3/8 in x 10 3/8 in