Ibong Adarna sang before the Pearl Harbor bombing

US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in an address to Congress, called "Dec. 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy." On that day, Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, sinking 21 US warships, destroying 188 aircrafts, and putting out of commission 159. Scores of young American servicemen were killed.

The National Geographic Channel brings the story of Pearl Harbor on May 27 at 9 p.m. via a TV special, Pearl Harbor: Legacy of Attack. It tells the story of the young men and women, both Americans and Japanese, who were involved in the attack and how their lives were changed forever.

The attack of Pearl Harbor plunged the Philippines into World War II, experiencing years of sufferings and sacrifices. In 1941, Tagalog movies were booming. Forty five films were produced, including such super productions as Viuda Alegre, Palaris, Babalik Ka Rin and, the most spectacular and publicized of them all, Ibong Adarna.

Topbilled by Mila del Sol and Fred Cortes, Ibong Adarna was shown in October, a few months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was hyped in "vari-color" (actually only the bird was colorized, changing hues as it sang sweetly). Directed by Vicente Salumbides and produced by LVN, with technical supervision of Manuel Conde, Ibong Adarna was based on the Philippine legend about the search for a bird whose singing could cure a dying king. The same bird lulled people to sleep and turned them into stones.

The war years saw the decline of Tagalog movies, which staged a resounding comeback in 1946, when the ruins of bitter and bloody fighting cleared. LVN saved copies of Ibong Adarna, reshown in theaters in the late ’40s and ’50s. In a festival of LVN films held at the CCP in the late ’80s, Ibong Adarna was shown intact.