THE SAN MANUEL AIRFIELD ダイトア・センソウのサン・マヌエル飛行場
Revisiting A Former WWII Japanese Airfield In Tarlac City
Description:
During WWII, the province of Tarlac became an important Imperial Japanese Army base due to its strategic location, a major transport and logistics hub and the gateway to Clark District. One of the forgotten historical narratives of WWII in Tarlac was the Japanese airfields, where the 4th Air Division, 4th Air Army constructed additional two (2) air strips aside from the American-built Tarlac air strip which was constructed pre-war south of the Provincial Capitol.
Revisit the San Manuel Airfield, the Japanese-built airstrip that became an operational airfield during WWII. With the Sho-Ichi-Go (Victory) Operation, the San Manuel was used in late 1944 by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, by the 4th and 2nd Air Division, both major commands were under the 4th Air Army led by Lieutenant General Kyoji Tominaga.
San Manuel Airfield was a Japanese Army base. With the conduct of air operations of the US Navy’s Fast Carrier Task Force 38, San Manuel Airfield became a target of massive fighter sweeps and bombings by carrier-borne aircraft from USS Hornet, Yorktown, Wasp and Cowpens. Intense air operations against Japanese targets and facilities of the San Manuel were carried out by the fighters, bombers and torpedo-bombers from the carriers of the Task Force 38, which the Japanese fought back with the anti-aircraft gun fires.
Research had been conducted and Maps and photographs were made available in documenting this lost history of a Japanese airfield in Tarlac.
Eighty one years since the last American bomb landed on the Japanese-held San Manuel Airfield, we visited the site of the former airfield, using drone to take aerial videos and photos.
Join us in our Investigating History Series: The Japanese WWII Airfields of Clark Air Center and Tarlac.
© 2026 Rhonie C. Dela Cruz
Bamban WWII Museum/Historical Society
Bamban Center for Pacific War Studies
WWII Remembrance Network – Hell Ships Memorial
PGT – Tarlac Provincial Tourism Office
Bamban Tourism
