Pinoy-Hapon United Foundation (PHUF), a non-profit organization, Honorary Chairman Takeshi Asanuma
In the 1930s, under American rule, “Manila” was called the “Pearl of the Orient,” the most beautiful capital in Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, “Makati” was at the time still a rural backwater far from the center of Manila.
The land in this area was owned by the “Ayala family,” a great business dynasty that had continued for more than 200 years since the Spanish colonial era. In the 1930s, “Laurie Reuben Nielson,” a British businessman born in New Zealand, saw the future of “civil aviation,” then developing around the world. He leased about 42 hectares of land from “Ayala y Compañía” and in 1937 opened the Philippines’ first full-scale “commercial airport.”
The “runway” was about 870 meters long, and for its time the airport was well equipped, with facilities fully adequate for practical use. “Nielson Field,” which opened on July 17, 1937 (Showa 12), was regarded as a modern commercial and international airport with some of the best facilities in Asia.
In 1941, “Philippine Air Lines, Inc. (today’s PAL, one of the oldest airlines in Asia)” was founded and launched its “civil aviation business” using “Nielson Field.” On March 15 of that year, its first commercial flight, a Beechcraft Model 18, departed Nielson Field for Baguio.
Even before PAL was founded, however, private airlines such as “Philippine Aerial Taxi Company” and “Iloilo-Negros Air Express (INAEC)” were already using Nielson Field.
The “airport,” built close to the city center, was welcomed by its users for its convenience, and it seems to have been much prized by Americans from the ruling country and by wealthy locals.
In those days of American rule, the U.S. military built several airfields around what is now the “Clark Freeport Zone (airfield),” creating an “air base” said to be among the largest in the Orient. “Nielson Field,” for its part, became the headquarters of the U.S. Far East Air Force (FEAF) as war approached, an important aviation hub with hangars, maintenance facilities, and aviation supply depots.
”Nielson Field” temporarily suspended its operations as a civilian airport because of the war, but it was repaired after the war ended and resumed domestic and international civilian flights in 1946. From its opening in 1937 to its closure in 1948, with an interruption for the war, it was, as we might say today, a “chic” urban airport.
In 1948, after the war, “Nielson Field” was closed as “civilian aircraft” grew larger. Its role as a civilian airport moved to land next to “Nichols Field,” which had existed as a U.S. military airfield since before the war, and developed into what later became “Manila International Airport,” today’s “Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).”
Most of the airfield’s facilities, such as the hangars, were dismantled and removed, but the building that had served as both control tower and passenger waiting room was returned to the landowner, “Ayala y Compañía,” and came to be called the “Nielson Tower.”
It was later used as a police facility, offices, and a members-only club, and from 1996 it housed the “Filipinas Heritage Library.” Today its exterior still keeps its original appearance, and with its interior renovated, it operates as an upscale restaurant called “Blackbird.”
This historic “Makati” building still stands proudly facing the main avenue, welcoming guests to the restaurant.
The main avenues that stretch broadly through the heart of “Makati City,” “Ayala Avenue” and “Paseo de Roxas,” are in fact the remains of the two runways of “Nielson Field.”
By May 1942, the “Japanese military” had completed its occupation of “Luzon and the surrounding islands.” The “Army Air Department,” which had its eye on “Makati Airport,” ordered the national-policy company “Dai Nippon Airways (unrelated to today’s JAL)” to operate “Makati Airfield.” The company brought in several employees and a “civilian flying boat,” and, also using small PAL aircraft it had captured (rokaku: seized), sought to launch scheduled flights to Japanese-occupied territories in the south and to the home islands (Miyazaki and Kagoshima).
After the training of local employees who had worked for “PAL” was completed, service began, but around the end of 1943, as “air superiority” slipped away, civilian flights became dangerous, and operations at “Makati Airport” were halted. (To be continued in the next issue)
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