Japanese Time
The Second Philippine Republic
First published on September 4, 2008
On November 1943, a strong typhoon hit the Philippines which caused massive flooding in the streets. They rushed my mother to the hospital on a kariton. I was born at the Sacred Heart Hospital at Calle Looban, Paco during the Second Philippine Republic. The Japanese-sponsored Republic was inaugurated three weeks earlier. Jose P. Laurel was sworn in as president on October 14, 1943. By December, the Bureau of Communications would issue a set of semi-postal stamps to raise funds for the typhoon victims. The stamps featured a moro vinta, a nipa hut, Mt. Mayon and Mt. Fuji.
While the United States and the Quezon government in-exile ignored it, the Second Philippine Republic was immediately recognized by Japan, and in the succeeding days by Germany, Thailand, Manchukuo, Burma, Croatia and Italy while neutral Spain sent its "greetings." Laurel and many others would later be accused of collaborating with the Japanese in spite of the fact that President Quezon left orders to some officials to stay behind and take care of things while he joins MacArthur to move the seat of government to the island of Corregidor.
Executive Secretary Jorge Vargas was given the responsibility of administering the "open city" upon the arrival of occupational Japanese imperial forces as Mayor of Greater Manila. To Laurel who expressed his desire to go with the president, Quezon said "You and the members of the cabinet should stay behind. You must remain at your posts to carry on the work and to protect the people. But do not take the oath of allegiance. You may cooperate, short of taking the oath of allegiance to Japan."Those instructions must have been easier said than done.
Running a government with a foreign power breathing behind your shoulder is not a simple job. The motivation of those who served as officials of the Second Republic may have been love of country. Perhaps some of them did so for their self preservation. The rash conditions affecting the population under the Japanese may have been somehow alleviated by these personalities. On the other extreme, there may have been those who took advantage of the situation just to satisfy their selfish interests.
Japanese Pork Barrel
First Published on August 18, 2007
My father continued the operation of the barber shop during the occupation. Many of the Japanese soldiers became his customers. MacArthur’s “I Shall Return” propaganda must have been so effective that the barbers make fun of saying should there be “any Japanese on the chair when the Americans come, rather than a clean shave, he will get a razor on his throat.”
There was a Japanese soldier who went to the shop, gave us mongo beans and was amused of the baby that was me. There was also a sergeant who sold my father the heads of butchered hogs. The Japanese troops did not eat the head part and the sergeant would fill up a barrel of pork heads and bring it to the shop. My parents sold the pork and made a pretty profit during those hard times.
Like all business opportunities, they come and go. Perhaps the sergeant found someone else who paid a better price for the hog heads as he stopped coming to the shop. One day, my father asked a Japanese Lieutenant whom he was giving a haircut why the sergeant no longer delivers the pork heads.
It turns out that the sergeant was ordered to dispose the heads by throwing them at the river and so, he was reprimanded when the officer learned of his enterprise. The sergeant came fuming mad the next day. My mother was really scared when he pulled out his saber but father kept his cool. Perhaps the sergeant got back to his senses as he returned the saber to its sheath and left.
The Resistance
First published on August 25, 2007
The great majority of Filipinos mounted a remarkably effective resistance to the Japanese occupation. More than 260,000 Filipinos had been actively engaged in guerrilla organizations and an even larger number operated covertly in the anti-Japanese underground so much so that the Japanese had effective control in only twelve of the country's forty-eight provinces.
I recently found family documents, which my mother has a propensity for keeping that my father served as a sergeant in the resistance during the occupation. The papers state that his involvement was in intelligence and reconnaissance activities of the Fil-American Irregular Troops (FAIT) under the command of Col. Hugh Straughn.
Col. Straughn was a retired Spanish-American War veteran authorized by MacArthur to organize the Fil-American Irregular Troops in the southern mountains near Antipolo, Rizal. As MacArthur left the Philippines and Bataan fell, Straughn extended his command to cover all of the area south and east of Manila but was captured in August 1943.
Portions of FAIT remained in tact under General Vincente Lim until he was likewise captured. Straughn and Lim were both executed by the Japanese and consequently, the guerilla organizations within the FAIT became independent under their respective leaders.
My father never discussed his involvement in the resistance. Mother tells me that he was injured by a shrapnel during the American bombing of Manila. He was missing for days and nowhere to be found until someone adviced my mother to look for him among the injured. She located him at the San Lazaro Hospital suffering from gangrene, a complication due to an infected shrapnel wound that has not been treated properly. Because of the lack of supplies, my mother had to provide the sulfanilamide.
He had a brother who was a captain in the Philippine Army and enjoyed benefits as a veteran but my father never filed for any benefits nor for recognition as a guerilla. Perhaps he considered whatever participation to the resistance as superficial. I know that my father had a radio at the back of the shop during the Japanese occupation from where he was able to get news and other particulars from the United States Office of War Information thru the Voice of America.
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
First published on September 4, 2007
My family had to evacuate from Manila at one point in time or another. I don’t know if this was during the start of the war, during the evacuation or when the Americans came. My father had friends who lived in the nearby provinces, like Laguna and Cavite and we had to camp there for a while. Perhaps it was because life in Manila was difficult while in the province, farm products were aplenty. When I received the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, both my godfathers were farmers, the same people who kept us during those uncertain times.
While most Filipinos were supportive of the resistance, not all were in favor of the Americans. Some were even advocates of Japanese intervention such as the Makapili (Malayang Katipunan ng mga Pilipino), a pro-japanese group organized by the Japanese to assist in anti-guerilla operations. The paramilitary Bisig-Bakal ng Tagala numbered some 500 and said to have closely cooperated with the Japanese in defending Manila. There were many others, collaborators who were accused of giving aid to the invaders. The loyalty of these pro-Japanese units were not very reliable and some may actually engaged in counter espionage and giving aid to the guerillas.
Among these, the ones who were very loyal to the Japanese were the much-hated Makapili, graphically represented as having a "bayong" over their heads to avoid being identified. When the japanese round up the townspeople to arrest guerillas they usually bring one or two makapilis along to identify those involved in the resistance.
Japan sought to end Western dominance of Asia and build a self-sufficient economy by integrating these lands into its own bloc, isolating the United States and Great Britain from their primary sources of these products. The Americans reacted "It is to the interest of the United States to check a Japanese advance into southeastern Asia."
Because the colonies in South East Asia were "prime sources of raw materials very important to the United States in peace and war," a major council study of American Far Eastern Policy in January 1941 declared "control of these lands by a potentially hostile power would greatly limit our freedom of action."
In fact, it is ironic for a country that has succeeded in its own anti-colonial revolution against Britain interfered with the first successful liberation of an Asian country from a European colonizer.
But on January 4, 1899 President William Mckinley announced the “Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation” keeping the Philippines as an American colonial possession, thus betraying the lofty goals of the Spanish–American War.
On the other hand, the Japanese envisioned an autarkic bloc of Asian nations led by the them and free of Western powers in what was later called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
Japanese Prime Minister Matsuoka Yôsuke announced the idea of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in August 1940. However, the roots of the Co-Prosperity Sphere go back many years prior to its formal announcement. The Japanese envisioned the Co-Prosperity Sphere to be an autarkic bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers.
I Shall Return
First published on September 9, 2007
“I shall return”…is a legendary line attributed to General Douglas MacArthur. It was used as a war propaganda slogan, the ultimate manifestation of which is the photos taken at Red Beach in Leyte with MacArthur’s entourage emerging from the sea. A musical score similar to James Sanderson’s “Hail to the Chief” should have accompanied the top brass seemingly pressing enemy bunkers ahead. Only Marlboro Country has so far surpassed the brilliance of this PR campaign. Larry Rhine, then Chief of the Philippine Division, Office of War Information who helped set up MacArthur's famous "I Shall Return" speech, must have been instrumental in the conceptualization of this promotion.
MacArthur’a propensity for grandstanding has been used by rivals to malign his reputation. The numerous takes of his "I shall return" speech until he got it just right for the cameras and accusations that the photo ops of the landing in Leyte were mostly -enactments, are among the favorite tirades against MacArthur.
“Why walk through the sea when a boat could deliver you safe and sound onto the beach or a pontoon?” is another attack on him. Apologists for MacArthur say that the general’s landing craft hit a sand bar so the top brass decided to muddle through.
Even then, detractors say that MacArthur liked the photo opportunity at Red Beach so much he brought his entourage to the White Beach the next day for the whole press corps to take photos. What's more. there are claims that reenactments of the same shoot taken at Lingayen have been passed off as the original Leyte Landing.
Not even the use of the singular pronoun "I" instead of "We" has been spared to accuse him of being an self-centered. The Office of War Information wanted him to say “We shall return” but MacArthur stood firm. It was General Carlos P. Romulo who defended the phrase saying “America has let us down and won't be trusted, but the people still have trust in MacArthur. If he says he is coming back, he will be believed.”
First published on September 4, 2008
On November 1943, a strong typhoon hit the Philippines which caused massive flooding in the streets. They rushed my mother to the hospital on a kariton. I was born at the Sacred Heart Hospital at Calle Looban, Paco during the Second Philippine Republic. The Japanese-sponsored Republic was inaugurated three weeks earlier. Jose P. Laurel was sworn in as president on October 14, 1943. By December, the Bureau of Communications would issue a set of semi-postal stamps to raise funds for the typhoon victims. The stamps featured a moro vinta, a nipa hut, Mt. Mayon and Mt. Fuji.
While the United States and the Quezon government in-exile ignored it, the Second Philippine Republic was immediately recognized by Japan, and in the succeeding days by Germany, Thailand, Manchukuo, Burma, Croatia and Italy while neutral Spain sent its "greetings." Laurel and many others would later be accused of collaborating with the Japanese in spite of the fact that President Quezon left orders to some officials to stay behind and take care of things while he joins MacArthur to move the seat of government to the island of Corregidor.
Executive Secretary Jorge Vargas was given the responsibility of administering the "open city" upon the arrival of occupational Japanese imperial forces as Mayor of Greater Manila. To Laurel who expressed his desire to go with the president, Quezon said "You and the members of the cabinet should stay behind. You must remain at your posts to carry on the work and to protect the people. But do not take the oath of allegiance. You may cooperate, short of taking the oath of allegiance to Japan."Those instructions must have been easier said than done.
Running a government with a foreign power breathing behind your shoulder is not a simple job. The motivation of those who served as officials of the Second Republic may have been love of country. Perhaps some of them did so for their self preservation. The rash conditions affecting the population under the Japanese may have been somehow alleviated by these personalities. On the other extreme, there may have been those who took advantage of the situation just to satisfy their selfish interests.
Japanese Pork Barrel
First Published on August 18, 2007
My father continued the operation of the barber shop during the occupation. Many of the Japanese soldiers became his customers. MacArthur’s “I Shall Return” propaganda must have been so effective that the barbers make fun of saying should there be “any Japanese on the chair when the Americans come, rather than a clean shave, he will get a razor on his throat.”
There was a Japanese soldier who went to the shop, gave us mongo beans and was amused of the baby that was me. There was also a sergeant who sold my father the heads of butchered hogs. The Japanese troops did not eat the head part and the sergeant would fill up a barrel of pork heads and bring it to the shop. My parents sold the pork and made a pretty profit during those hard times.
Like all business opportunities, they come and go. Perhaps the sergeant found someone else who paid a better price for the hog heads as he stopped coming to the shop. One day, my father asked a Japanese Lieutenant whom he was giving a haircut why the sergeant no longer delivers the pork heads.
It turns out that the sergeant was ordered to dispose the heads by throwing them at the river and so, he was reprimanded when the officer learned of his enterprise. The sergeant came fuming mad the next day. My mother was really scared when he pulled out his saber but father kept his cool. Perhaps the sergeant got back to his senses as he returned the saber to its sheath and left.
The Resistance
First published on August 25, 2007
The great majority of Filipinos mounted a remarkably effective resistance to the Japanese occupation. More than 260,000 Filipinos had been actively engaged in guerrilla organizations and an even larger number operated covertly in the anti-Japanese underground so much so that the Japanese had effective control in only twelve of the country's forty-eight provinces.
I recently found family documents, which my mother has a propensity for keeping that my father served as a sergeant in the resistance during the occupation. The papers state that his involvement was in intelligence and reconnaissance activities of the Fil-American Irregular Troops (FAIT) under the command of Col. Hugh Straughn.
Col. Straughn was a retired Spanish-American War veteran authorized by MacArthur to organize the Fil-American Irregular Troops in the southern mountains near Antipolo, Rizal. As MacArthur left the Philippines and Bataan fell, Straughn extended his command to cover all of the area south and east of Manila but was captured in August 1943.
Portions of FAIT remained in tact under General Vincente Lim until he was likewise captured. Straughn and Lim were both executed by the Japanese and consequently, the guerilla organizations within the FAIT became independent under their respective leaders.
My father never discussed his involvement in the resistance. Mother tells me that he was injured by a shrapnel during the American bombing of Manila. He was missing for days and nowhere to be found until someone adviced my mother to look for him among the injured. She located him at the San Lazaro Hospital suffering from gangrene, a complication due to an infected shrapnel wound that has not been treated properly. Because of the lack of supplies, my mother had to provide the sulfanilamide.
He had a brother who was a captain in the Philippine Army and enjoyed benefits as a veteran but my father never filed for any benefits nor for recognition as a guerilla. Perhaps he considered whatever participation to the resistance as superficial. I know that my father had a radio at the back of the shop during the Japanese occupation from where he was able to get news and other particulars from the United States Office of War Information thru the Voice of America.
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
First published on September 4, 2007
My family had to evacuate from Manila at one point in time or another. I don’t know if this was during the start of the war, during the evacuation or when the Americans came. My father had friends who lived in the nearby provinces, like Laguna and Cavite and we had to camp there for a while. Perhaps it was because life in Manila was difficult while in the province, farm products were aplenty. When I received the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, both my godfathers were farmers, the same people who kept us during those uncertain times.
While most Filipinos were supportive of the resistance, not all were in favor of the Americans. Some were even advocates of Japanese intervention such as the Makapili (Malayang Katipunan ng mga Pilipino), a pro-japanese group organized by the Japanese to assist in anti-guerilla operations. The paramilitary Bisig-Bakal ng Tagala numbered some 500 and said to have closely cooperated with the Japanese in defending Manila. There were many others, collaborators who were accused of giving aid to the invaders. The loyalty of these pro-Japanese units were not very reliable and some may actually engaged in counter espionage and giving aid to the guerillas.
Among these, the ones who were very loyal to the Japanese were the much-hated Makapili, graphically represented as having a "bayong" over their heads to avoid being identified. When the japanese round up the townspeople to arrest guerillas they usually bring one or two makapilis along to identify those involved in the resistance.
Japan sought to end Western dominance of Asia and build a self-sufficient economy by integrating these lands into its own bloc, isolating the United States and Great Britain from their primary sources of these products. The Americans reacted "It is to the interest of the United States to check a Japanese advance into southeastern Asia."
Because the colonies in South East Asia were "prime sources of raw materials very important to the United States in peace and war," a major council study of American Far Eastern Policy in January 1941 declared "control of these lands by a potentially hostile power would greatly limit our freedom of action."
In fact, it is ironic for a country that has succeeded in its own anti-colonial revolution against Britain interfered with the first successful liberation of an Asian country from a European colonizer.
But on January 4, 1899 President William Mckinley announced the “Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation” keeping the Philippines as an American colonial possession, thus betraying the lofty goals of the Spanish–American War.
On the other hand, the Japanese envisioned an autarkic bloc of Asian nations led by the them and free of Western powers in what was later called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
Japanese Prime Minister Matsuoka Yôsuke announced the idea of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in August 1940. However, the roots of the Co-Prosperity Sphere go back many years prior to its formal announcement. The Japanese envisioned the Co-Prosperity Sphere to be an autarkic bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers.
I Shall Return
First published on September 9, 2007
“I shall return”…is a legendary line attributed to General Douglas MacArthur. It was used as a war propaganda slogan, the ultimate manifestation of which is the photos taken at Red Beach in Leyte with MacArthur’s entourage emerging from the sea. A musical score similar to James Sanderson’s “Hail to the Chief” should have accompanied the top brass seemingly pressing enemy bunkers ahead. Only Marlboro Country has so far surpassed the brilliance of this PR campaign. Larry Rhine, then Chief of the Philippine Division, Office of War Information who helped set up MacArthur's famous "I Shall Return" speech, must have been instrumental in the conceptualization of this promotion.
MacArthur’a propensity for grandstanding has been used by rivals to malign his reputation. The numerous takes of his "I shall return" speech until he got it just right for the cameras and accusations that the photo ops of the landing in Leyte were mostly -enactments, are among the favorite tirades against MacArthur.
“Why walk through the sea when a boat could deliver you safe and sound onto the beach or a pontoon?” is another attack on him. Apologists for MacArthur say that the general’s landing craft hit a sand bar so the top brass decided to muddle through.
Even then, detractors say that MacArthur liked the photo opportunity at Red Beach so much he brought his entourage to the White Beach the next day for the whole press corps to take photos. What's more. there are claims that reenactments of the same shoot taken at Lingayen have been passed off as the original Leyte Landing.
Not even the use of the singular pronoun "I" instead of "We" has been spared to accuse him of being an self-centered. The Office of War Information wanted him to say “We shall return” but MacArthur stood firm. It was General Carlos P. Romulo who defended the phrase saying “America has let us down and won't be trusted, but the people still have trust in MacArthur. If he says he is coming back, he will be believed.”
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