‘The triumphant campaign of the Filipino guerrillas to rid their homeland of ‘emperor-system fascism’… is real people power.’
AS 21st-century Terrans monitor the Bishop of Rome’s respiratory crisis caused by polymicrobial infection (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-02/pope-condition-remains-complex-but-he-is-in-good-spirits.html), the townsfolk and local government of Rizal province’s second-most-prosperous constituent unit celebrated the Platinum Anniversary of its liberation from the fascist Japanese Occupation.
As a new bat coronavirus in China raises global concern (https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00144-8), we congratulate Mayor Allan De Leon, Vice Mayor JV Cabitac as well as Councilors Joan Calderon, Tobit Cruz, and Ninay Mercado (among others) plus actress-comedienne Cai Cortez (who is running for councilor) for organizing the Liberation of Taytay commemoration last 22 February 2025.
Even as Canada reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N5 avian influenza on a non-commercial backyard layer poultry farm in Newfoundland and Labrador (https://www.cp24.com/news/canada/2025/02/18/outbreak-of-h5n5-bird-flu-on-backyard-farm-in-newfoundland-and-labrador/), we note Taytay Municipal Resolution No. 19, series of 1945, which narrated: “The 1st Cavalry Division USA liberated Taytay from the beastly unchristian Japanese forces on February 23, 1945, rescuing the local inhabitants from an imminent massacre of the whole town.”
These “beastly unchristian Japanese forces” were loyal subjects of Showa Tenno (aka Emperor Hirohito). Partnering with Hitler’s National Socialists, the Nipponese militarists triggered a second intra-imperialist war against the liberal-capitalist empires of Western Europe and North America. From Manchuria, Ethiopia, and Spain, the Axis bloc of fascist aggressors expanded their criminal war to the rest of the Earth.
We thank the townsfolk and local government of Taytay for inviting us to their Hamaka 2025 Festival (https://www.facebook.com/MayorAllanDeLeon/videos/80th-liberation-day-of-taytay-feb-22-2025-veterans-park-taytay-rizal/947677784118928/), taking this opportunity to share with Taytayenos the historical fact that Hirohito’s reactionary chauvinist regime included Kita Ikki (the so-called Father of Japanese Fascism) whose “Outline Plan for the Revolution of Japan” emphasized principles of nationalistic socialism. [https://retrospectjournal.com/2019/11/17/total-military-politics-the-rise-of-japanese-fascism/]
We thank Dr. Marilyn Y. Esguerra (Trustee, Board of Trustees of the Veterans of World War II) for paving the way to our inclusion in the Hamaka 2025 Festival, thus, giving us the chance to convey the historical fact that Hirohito’s imperial absolutism (tennōsei zattaishugi) was matched by the “grassroots imperialism” which had surged among the Japanese people. [Yoshimi Yoshiaki, “Grassroots Fascism: The War Experience of the Japanese People,” translated and introduced by Ethan Mark, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 13, Issue 35, Number 1]
We thank Homer Esguerra for sharing details about the liberation of his hometown, that Taytay was liberated in the afternoon of 22 February 1945 by combined forces of the Hunters-ROTC and the Marking’s Guerrillas, among others.
We were privileged to suggest to Mayor Allan De Leon, Vice Mayor JV Cabitac as well as Councilors Joan Calderon, Tobit Cruz, and Ninay Mercado that they can revise an existing ordinance marking 23 February 1945 as Liberation Day into Victory Day and crafting a new ordinance designating 22 February 1945 as the Liberation Day.
As Europeans ponder the latest political reality of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany emerging as the strongest party across the country’s formerly communist east (https://apnews.com/article/german-elections-2025-results-afd-merz-20b81137f6e9087d631a59fe13cc8d0a), the Americans hosted a program for the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Manila last 22 February 2025 at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Taguig City.
As Alternative for Germany (a far-right political party under surveillance by intelligence services for suspected extremism) made huge gains in the recent German general election (https://www.dw.com/en/german-election-results-and-voter-demographics-explained-in-charts/a-71724186), we congratulate the Los Baños Tourism Office, Los Baños Councilor Ms. Mec Bautista Dizon and Los Baños Mayor Anthony Flores Genuino as well as UPLB Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs Roberto P. Cereno, MM, and UPLB Chancellor Jose V. Camacho, Jr. for organizing the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Los Baños Internment Camp last 23 February 2025 at the Charles Fuller Baker Memorial Hall, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna.
As Japanese destroyers JS Hamagiri and JS Ariake docked at Manila’s South Harbor recently (https://malaya.com.ph/news/national-news/japanese-warships-on-port-visit/), we salute retired Lt. Gen. Jaime De Los Santos (President, Board of Trustees of the Veterans of World War II) and PVB Chairman Roberto F. De Ocampo, among others, for gracing the Platinum Anniversary of the Los Baños Raid.
A rescued civilian internee testified to the efficacy of the Filipino guerrillas+US Army 11th Airborne 1945 Los Banos Raid: “The ground forces burst into the camp. They’d been ordered not to take prisoners. The American soldiers took quick aim at the guard tower while the guerrillas charged with machetes at the near-naked sentries. Several (Japanese) guards ran toward the storage unit where their rifles were secured, fumbled with the lock, and were hacked to death trying to access their weapons.” [Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi. This is really war: the incredible true story of a Navy nurse POW in the occupied Philippines. Chicago: Chicago Review Press Incorporated, 2019]
The triumphant campaign of the Filipino guerrillas to rid their homeland of “emperor-system fascism” (tennōsei fashizumu) is real people power.
