‘… the Commonwealth of the Philippines was also a sort of sacrificial lamb given the amount of disillusionment, apathy and blissful ignorance among the populace.’
OF course, this is about Pearl Harbor. And beyond. And before. From the “Strange Mission of the USS Lanikai” to the Japanese sinking of the gunboat USS Panay during Tokyo’s 1937 assault on Nanjing: “Suddenly, Japanese planes appeared overhead. Despite the American flag draped on top of the afterdeck and the ship’s obvious markings, three waves of Japanese planes bombed and strafed the ship. The three oil tankers were also destroyed.
Two American sailors and an American captain of one the oil tankers were killed. The Japanese government apologized, called the incident a case of mistaken identity and made reparations of over $2,000,000. The apology did not alleviate the suspicion that the act was deliberate and the incident added to the souring relationship between the two countries.” [http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/nankinga.html]
As far as Filipinos have been concerned, it was Day 1 of the crusade versus Hirohito’s so-called sacred war: “President Manuel L. Quezon was in Baguio, recovering from an illness, when Executive Secretary Jorge Vargas informed him – at three in the morning of December 8, 1941, Philippine time – of the Imperial Japanese Forces’ attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. A reporter, Yay Panlilio, had gone up to Baguio to get a statement from President Quezon. Just after the dawn, President Quezon sat down to write, ‘The zero hour has arrived. I expect every Filipino – man and woman – to do his duty. We have pledged our honor to stand to the last by the United States and we shall not fail her, happen what may.’ At 6:20 a.m., Japanese aircraft attacked Davao. At 8:30 a.m., Baguio and Tuguegarao and Tarlac were simultaneously attacked by the Japanese. By the close of December 8, the Japanese army had bombed airfields in Zambales, Clark Field Pampanga, and Fort McKinley on the outskirts of Manila.” [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/araw-ng-kagitingan-2013/world-war-ii-in-the-philippines/]
If Pearl Harbor became a bait too big for the Nipponese fascists to digest, then the Commonwealth of the Philippines was also a sort of sacrificial lamb given the amount of disillusionment, apathy and blissful ignorance among the populace: “Could the Philippine Islands have been successfully defended against the Japanese? The military experts say no; President Roosevelt in his radio speech of Feb. 23 said no. All that could be expected, according to them, was a delaying action. This is not true. Nothing else could have happened as long as the masses of the Philippine people were not rallied to the fight. But if the masses had been rallied, the picture in the Philippines, would be entirely different today from what it is.” [C. Charles, “Why Philippine Masses Have Not Been Rallied to Support of War,” The Militant, Vol. VI, No. 11, 14 March 1942, p. 5]
There would have been a greater and earlier and wider resistance to the Axis of Evil had the leaders of the Western Alliance expended serious energy into inculcating the principles of the Atlantic Charter among the Filipinos and the rest of the colonies: “Tories envisaged a perpetuation of imperialism and a continuation of their domination of colonial peoples after they had got rid of their German imperialist rival. Thus the hopes of the colonial peoples were quickly dashed, and their resentment and sense of political frustration rose once more to the fore, now in proportion to the hopes which had been so falsely raised in them.” [George Padmore, “Atlantic Charter Not Intended for Colonies: Colonial People Are Told to Have No Illusions,” The Militant, Vol. VI, No. 11, 14 March 1942, p. 3]
Be that as it may, the Battling Bastards of Bataan and the Hunters-ROTC Guerrillas as well as Renato Constantino and Tomas Confesor, among others, vigorously combated the belligerent Japanese occupation of the Philippines. We salute them all: “So today let us remember all those who paid the steep price of our freedom and those who survived the horrors of war. We must learn from the lessons of the past so that wars of today can finally end tomorrow.” [Bataan Legacy Historical Society] “May it be a comfort to the Pearl Harbor community and families who lost a loved one that the luster of the extraordinary heroism and valor of that dark day will never fade. Let us continue our work to honor their service — and that of every generation of men and women in uniform — by building a future worthy of their sacrifice.” [Pelosi Statement on 80 Years Since Attack on Pearl Harbor; https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/12721-1]
The relevance today – Hunters-ROTC Historical Society Statement On The 80th Anniversary Of Pearl Harbor: “After WWII, since the Truman Doctrine of containment outlined Japan and the Philippines as the twin pillars of its defensive perimeter in 1950, the Philippines has been part of that strategic equation. In 1951, US elevated its former enemy, Japan, and signed a mutual defense pact with the Philippines to bolster this strategy.
Although not specifically mentioned, Formosa, now Taiwan, together with Japan and the Philippines defined the western border of America’s new post-WWII Pacific empire. For 70 years hence, it has been a relatively peaceful arrangement despite the deep-seated tensions between China, North Korea and the USSR vis-a-vis the United States.
“This situation changed radically with the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption in 1992, which forced the Americans out of its Clark and Subic bases in the Philippines, leaving only bases in Japan and Guam. The military vacuum was not lost to China. By the time of the succeeding Ramos Administration, Chinese incursions had become a regular feature of maritime security in the Philippines. Three presidents (Estrada, Macapagal-Arroyo, Duterte) have sought appeasement as its basic strategy in dealing with the Chinese. But how can there be appeasement when China insists on its illegal nine-dash-line claim. Appeasement can only mean surrender of territory. And China has done this with its Central Asian neighbors, Kazakstan, Tajikistan, Krygzstan. After annexing Tibet, China has also fought a war with India where India lost vast amounts of territory. India has since built up its armed force and has drawn a line in Ladakh despite Chinese pressure.
“It is time for countries around China to realize China’s brand of nationalism under Xi jinping is a hegemonistic jingoist 19th century brand of nationalism wrapped in communist phraseology. The recent encounters in Ayungin shoal between China and the Philippines presages things to come. The US had to warn China that further encounters can trigger the 1951 Mutual Defense Pact. But this is only a temporary relief. The recent Pentagon assessment is that by 2027 the PLA would be an “intelligentized” armed force. It would mean that all branches of the Chinese armed force can be commanded and directed as a unified combined arms through cybernetic integration. This means it would have attained peer status with the US Armed Forces further raising the threat of war.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines, still fighting the anti-insurgency campaigns of the 1950s, needs to wake up from its comfort zone and stop dealing with barangay law and order problems. It needs to step up and build its capabilities to deal with a greater than peer threat posed by China. Otherwise, it would make the Philippines a non-credible ally for the US, its weakness always an open invitation for confrontations at sea which can escalate to war, and where it faces the same prospect as the Commonwealth Army who had to fight WWII on the Philippine mainland inflicting destruction all over the country.”
