‘Is that so? Well, Filipinos are not thrilled either. Not fun at all to recall the Bataan Death March or the Rape of Manila or the Lipa Massacre, among others.’
CHIYOKO Motomura, an 82-year-old survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, recalled being stabbed in the back by a shard of glass at the time of the explosion. She was only six-years-old at the time and was at her home, located around 4.5 kilometers from the hypocenter… Hisako So, another survivor who was a child at the time of the blast, said: “There are so many things I don’t want to remember. But it couldn’t be helped, since it was a time of war.” [Kyodo News, “Nagasaki marks 76th A-bomb anniversary, urges Japan be nuke-ban proactive,” August 9, 2021]
Is that so? Well, Filipinos are not thrilled either. Not fun at all to recall the Bataan Death March or the Rape of Manila or the Lipa Massacre, among others. But an honest-to-goodness effort had to be made to educate the generations X, Y and Z. In fact, at the recently concluded “WW2 Asian Perspectives: Dialogue and Workshop for Young Asians” convened by Jaypee N. Abella, Doctor of Public Administration Josefina G. Tayag asked: “Did you know that then Fr. Rufino Santos (who would later become the first cardinal of the country) was arrested and tortured by the Japanese, sent to Bilibid because of his anti-Japanese stance? But he did not recant. He was about to be executed the next day but General MacArthur’s forces liberated the Bilibid inmates, with Fr. Rufino Santos among them, and therefore, saved his life.”
A Nagasaki Peace Declaration was also issued on the 76th A-bomb anniversary, and its eighth item reads: “Nagasaki will continue to communicate the truth about what happened 76 years ago, while joining forces with young people of the last generation to directly hear the voices of the hibakusha.”
Is that so? At the aforementioned Dialogue and Workshop for Young Asians, Gil Garcia presented that during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines: “Nippongo became the second medium of instruction. Books and learning materials were censored and contained only pro-Japanese propaganda. The Textbook Examining Committee made sure of that. A Bureau of Oriental Culture was also created.”
For her part, Kareen Moncada brought forth the historic role played by the Filipina warriors (like Kumander Liwayway) and the comfort women (victims of the Nipponese wartime military sexual slavery system). Which leads us to this recent report of intimidation: “Japan suspended a ‘comfort woman’ exhibit after a small explosive device was delivered. Citizen’s Gallery Sakae in Nagoya said that a staff member opened the package about 9:35 a.m. and a firecracker inside exploded…The Nagoya exhibit was expected to continue through Sunday, but the gallery has been the target of protests. Far-right demonstrators used loudspeaker-equipped vans to disrupt the event.”
“Demonstrators two years ago threatened to set the exhibition hall on fire with gasoline, prompting organizers to cancel the exhibit after only three days.”
[https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/07/08/japan-Japanese-gallery-Nagoya-comfort-woman-explosive/3221625759544/]
Still in Nagasaki on the 76th A-bomb anniversary, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said his government remains determined to pass on the memory of the horrors of nuclear weapons in cooperation with atomic bomb survivors.
[https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/08/517cb1e079cd-nagasaki-marks-76th-anniversary-of-us-atomic-bombing.html?phrase=robot&words]
Is that so? How about the horrors of the Manila Massacre? “Manila was not liberated until February 1945 and only after 100,000 Manilan civilians had been killed, alongside around 1,000 guerrillas and 6,500 American troops.” [Joanna Bourke. The Second World War: A People’s History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 80]
“The Japanese soldiers went into frenzy as the Americans came. According to Ms. Bonus, some Japanese soldiers disguised themselves as Filipinos and were seen holding children in the grass. Apparently, the children were used as shields.” [Fernando A. Santiago, Jr., A Preliminary Study of the History of Pandacan, Manila during the Second World War, 1941-1945]
Despite the horrors, there was resistance. “The Huk maintained only a liaison unit in the city. It carried on propaganda and maintained contact with other groups. The underground newspaper Patnubay (Guide) was issued by us…In the latter part of the occupation, Patnubay called for the formation of Hunger Brigades in the city, to carry out raids on bodegas and trucks of the enemy. ‘Get your food back from the enemy!’ read the editorials. ‘Bring knives, scissors, iron bars – break down the enemy bodegas! Hold up the Japanese trucks! Struggle for rice and freedom!’ We wanted Manila to have its counterpart of our Central Luzon Harvest Struggle.” [Luis Taruc. Born Of The People. NY: International Publishers Co., Inc., 1953, pp. 175-176]
Reminds one of Dernier: “Moi je combattrai jusqu’a le dernier que ses bí¢tards sont morts, enchaí®né, ou bien pleur comme un petit bébé” (Me I’ll fight until the last of these bastards are dead, in chains, or else crying like a little baby). [Captain America: The First Avenger]
At the annual memorial ceremony, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged the government to sign and ratify a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons and explore building a nuclear-weapon-free zone in northeast Asia. This was preceded by a similar appeal made by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui. “But Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga again did not touch on the treaty when he addressed the crowd, which included survivors and families of the victims, reflecting the country’s conflicted position.” [Kyodo News, August 9, 2021] The Nipponese tend to delude themselves into believing that they hold the moral ground, as seen in the stories of stragglers waging secret wars in the Philippines:
“Who said we had lost the war? The newspapers proved this was wrong. If we had lost, our countrymen would all be dead; there would be no more Japan, let alone Japanese newspapers. How could we even dream that Japan’s cities had been leveled, that Japan’s ships had nearly all been sunk, or that an exhausted and depleted Japan had indeed surrendered? As to the details of the defeat, such as the invasion of Manchukuo by the Soviet Union or the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the newspapers of 1959 gave not an inkling.” [Hiroo Onoda. No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1974. Translated by Charles S. Terry. Annapolis: Bluejacket Books, 1999]
World War 3 beckons. “States are racing to create more powerful weapons, and broadening the potential scenarios for their use. Warlike rhetoric is turned up to maximum volume while dialogue is on mute.” [U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the memorial ceremony in Nagasaki, August 9, 2021]
