REMEMBERING THE PHILIPPINES

UNDER AN “ASIAN” EMPIRE:

Wartime and Memory

Group 11
Ang, See, Viquiera, Zamora
TEST OF WILLS
 HONOR OF INDEPENDENCE
- Peace and Order as prerequisite
- Continue giving resources to Philippine Executive Commission
the Japanese
- Superior-inferior relationship
between JMA and Philippine
Executive Commission
- Initiatives by Japanese to
improve relationships between
Japan and Philippines
- Visit of Yorisada, sending 19
Filipinos to study in Japan, and
etc.
 HONOR OF INDEPENDENCE

REASONS: Philippine Executive Commission

1. Show Japan’s benevolence
2. Win loyalty of Filipinos
3. Give Filipinos the
administration
- while having control of
resources and maintaining
presence of Japanese
authority
 CONSTITUTION

- Preparatory Commission for Philippine

Independence (PCPI)
- 20 members chosen
- however Japanese had their own choices
PRESIDENT JOSE P. LAUREL
- Gratitude rally on Rizal’s birthday
- Short constitution
- What Japanese wanted
 CONSTITUTION

3 POINTS:
1. Only fundamental matters pertaining to
the structure and function of state
2. insure maximum flexibility in the exercise
PRESIDENT JOSE P. LAUREL of governmental authority
3. Due consideration shall be given to the
concentration of power in the Executive
for the duration of the war
○ Centralization of power was easier to
control
 DEFIANCE
- Refusal to let Japanese change constitution draft
- Refused to help Japan in the war, even for money
- Would refuse to allow conscription even after declaration of war in 1944
- Avoided anything anti-American in the constitution and smuggled a
copy of the draft to Gen. MacArthur
- Laurel refused to have a Japanese adviser
- Recto’s refusal to let his radio speeches be censored by the Japanese
- Laurel protected officials from Kempeitai
 INDEPENDENT ECONOMY
- Would not need dependence on
Japanese banks
- Was approved by Japanese
- 1 yen = 1 peso
- Lack of time and advent of
combat led to its failure
- Test peso bills were made but
failed to circulate PH MONEY DURING JAPANESE PERIOD
- The JMA took over most
corporations to manage its
products
 Economic Context During the
Occupation
- 5-year plan
- sugar plantations → cotton plantations
- For textile production
- Plantations for ramie, jutes and other
crops to be exported to Japan and
other countries in the “Greater East
Asia Co Prosperity Sphere.”
- Scarcity of Abaca, Tobacco, Sugar, and
Coconut based products and raw
materials by mid-1944.
- Rapid price inflation of agricultural
products
GREATER EAST ASIA CO-PROSPERITY SPHERE
 Economic Collapse During the Occupation
- The new crops had not previously been grown on a large scale in the
Philippines.
- Coercion and threats gave rise to uncooperative Filipinos.
- Failure to produce quality yields in palay plantations
- Food Commandeering
- War-related needs diminished the new regime’s ability to win over a
hostile civilian population and install a legitimate government.
- Destruction of agricultural land and equipment.
 Withdrawal from the Export / Industrial Economy
- Shift from the “formal” to the “informal” sectors of society
- “Buy and Sell”
- Indigenous production using local raw materials
- Nefarious practices (i.e. thievery, banditry, prostitution)
- Fluctuations in population due to increased movement.
 WORSENING CONDITIONS OF JAPAN
- Japanese needed airfields and defensive structures
- Japanese sent Filipino citizens to their construction sites (barely fed and
maltreated)
- Laurel created National Labor Procurement Agency (eventually became
ineffective)
- Women and children were also sent to airfields
- Soldiers were rounding up as schools were also used by them (forcing
teachers to teach elsewhere)
- Demand for oxygen was too much, leaving the Philippine Tuberculosis
Hospital with no supply
 ABUSES OF JAPAN
- Zoning (Zona)
- Innocent people were tortured
- Trains and houses were searched
- Violation of Dignity
- Laurel and Recto complained to the embassy
- San Miguel Beer Brewery held a strike
 RESISTANCE AGAINST THE REGIME
- Occupied Areas vs Autonomous Areas
- Guerilla Organizations (e.g. HUKBALAHAP)
- Humor (Greater East Asia Robbery Sphere)
- Foot-dragging and Sabotage seen as patriotic and moral (e.g. deliberate
delay of cotton production)
 VIEWS ON THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION

HISTORY FROM ABOVE

a “short episode” in
Philippine History that The Japanese occupation
had left no lasting made a significant
impact on the social, contribution to the
political, and economic reinvigorating of
structures of the country,
Philippine nationalism.
since it only lasted a
mere 3 years (from HISTORY FROM BELOW
1942-1945).
TEST OF WILLS
● “During war, diplomacy in an occupied country
would take a back seat, although the Laurel
government tried to push it forward. It had shown
its will and tested it against the will of the
Japanese.”
● Despite their failure to ultimately make big
changes, Laurel and the others did their best to
reduce the strains on the country and soften the
impact.
○ Would continue to be politically active after the war
THE STORIES THEY TELL:
Komiks during the Japanese Occupation
 HOW INTERWOVEN IS
KOMIKS WITH FILIPINO LIFE?
 DYNAMISM OF KOMIKS
● Popular
● Simple form of medium that is
easy to understand
○ Filipinos were all “eyes” and “ears”
○ Emphasis on media
● Strong influence on the lives of
Filipinos
● Entertainment
● Escape for readers about news on
gruesome war
TRIBUNE AS JAPANESE PROPAGANDA

● By the Japanese Propaganda Corps

● Attempted to present an image of normalcy
● Japanese manipulation of the newspaper
● Badly tainted, the Roces family changed it to the Manila
Times
○ weekly-turned-daily newspaper
KOMIKS

1ST THEME
● to promote programs of the Japanese
propaganda corps
● use of komiks to promote Japanese
culture in the hope of eradicating the
Filipinos’ pro-American inclination
 KOMIKS
STRATEGY: integrate Japanese into the everyday life of
Filipinos
RADIO TAISO ● exercises every
JAPANESE HOLIDAYS morning
● to breed a Spartan
NIPPONGO IN SCHOOLS lifestyle
 KOMIKS
STRATEGY: integrate Japanese into the everyday life of
Filipinos ● Watching parades
RADIO TAISO ● Joining crowds to
listen to the speeches
JAPANESE HOLIDAYS delivered by visiting
NIPPONGO IN SCHOOLS dignitaries
● Attracted large crowds
● But mandated
● In the end, hated the
long-drawn speeches
 KOMIKS
STRATEGY: integrate Japanese into the everyday life of
Filipinos
RADIO TAISO
● Language a major
JAPANESE HOLIDAYS concern, could not
understand each other
NIPPONGO IN SCHOOLS ● Instead of the Japanese
learning Filipino
● a boy named Pilipino,
tribune sections,
program segments in
radio
KOMIKS

2ND THEME
● government’s use of komiks to
present the problem of shortage of
supplies and offer potential solutions
● Intentionally amusing
 ● Due to limited supply
KOMIKS ● Priority to Japanese though
● Policy that the economic
hardships from acquiring
resources for the self-sufficiency
RATIONING
of the Japanese must be endured
PRODUCT SUBSTITUTION ● Leftovers given to Filipinos
● To control consumption, goods
SOLUTION-SUBVERSION APPROACH were rationed at fixed prices
● Didn’t depict Japanese’ lion’s
share because of iron-hand grip
of Japanese censors
● Some got published through
solution-subversion
 KOMIKS: shortage of rice

PHILOSOPHER OF THE SIDEWALK

 ● Replace scarce resources and
KOMIKS imported products with locally
made and readily available
products
○ coconut and soya bean milk
RATIONING ○ mangoes instead of canned
peaches and jams
PRODUCT SUBSTITUTION ○ gugo as shampoo
○ Kamote as a substitute for bread
SOLUTION-SUBVERSION APPROACH ○ Bamboo containers over glass
bottles
○ Local raw materials
● Not only PH products but also
other products from other Asian
countries
 KOMIKS: substitution - gugo, ersatz coffee
● Filipinos should consume local
● Criticized vanity and materialism
of Filipinos who would buy
expensive imported products
● Native products worked as
effectively if not better than
imported products
● Filipinos being Asians should buy
and consume Asian products
 KOMIKS ● Conformity with official
propaganda and discreetly
criticizing it at the same
time
RATIONING ● Artists would take a solution
PRODUCT SUBSTITUTION suggested or promoted by
local authorities or by the
SOLUTION-SUBVERSION APPROACH Japanese and at the same
time attack it in a discreet
fashion
● Can be interpreted by
Filipinos in a different way
KOMIKS: solution-subversion approach

VELASQUEZ ON SUBSTITUTION OF PORK/CHICKEN WITH CAT MEAT

TO FILIPINOS: Unacceptable.
Would cast doubt upon what the authorities tried to
promote
 KOMIKS: solution-subversion approach

PHILOSOPHER INSISTING ON COW’S MILK DESPITE

AVAILABILITY OF SUBSTITUTES
● Touch of defiance
● In the face of colonial impositions,
Filipinos have been characteristically
either accommodating on the surface,
but simmering with resistance
underneath
 RECURRING THEMES

NORMALCY ● To show peace and order

● Radio stations were in operation

LAZY FILIPINO

STUPIDITY AND FOOLISHNESS What for?

To satisfy Japanese censors
who monitored the artist’s
activities
 SUCCESS OF KOMIKS
● Combination of words and pictures in a way not possible with
other print media
● Own understanding of message
● Reevaluate at own pace
● Does not dwell on lamentable problems
○ inventive suggestions
○ stimulated readers to act and solve these problems
 THANK YOU
FOR LISTENING!