‘These are historical facts that are hereby recalled on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of World War II, whose essential lesson is the necessity of eradicating Hitlerism in all its forms.’
THE fascist Japanese should have surrendered right after Hirohito used his “Voice of the Crane” to cry uncle, but they refused. It took the Oriental Hitlerites two more weeks before they signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri: “…We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under Japanese control wherever situated…We hereby command the Japanese Imperial Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters at once to liberate all allied prisoners of war and civilian internees now under Japanese control…” [Mamoru Shigmitsu by Command and on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government and Yoshijiro Umezu by Command and on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters]
Had the Japanese militarists continued with their war of aggression, U.S. Army General Curtis LeMay would have unleashed 6,000 four-engine bombers in fire raids to burn Showa Tenno’s entire kingdom to the ground. The British were also gearing up. [Hiroshima 1945—The British Atomic Attack, Mark Felton Productions, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XX9ptCNpik]
Even as Douglas MacArthur (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers), C.W. Nimitz (United States Representative) and the representatives Hsu Yung-Ch’ang (Republic of China), Bruce Fraser (United Kingdom), Kuzma Derevyanko (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), Thomas Blamey (Commonwealth of Australia), L. Moore Cosgrave (Dominion of Canada), Jacques Le Clerc (Provisional Government of the French Republic), C.E.L. Helfrich (Kingdom of the Netherlands), and Leonard M. Isitt (Dominion of New Zealand) accepted the Instrument of Surrender in Tokyo Bay, Filipino guerrillas were still busy defeating the Axis interlopers.
“On 31 August 1945, a Filipino guerrilla patrol led by Lt Macario Albaradillo from the Combat Company of the 14th Infantry then attached to the US 37th Division, penetrated the Japanese lines and succeeded in locating the elements of Yamashita’s headquarters in Mount Napulawan, Ifugao. This paved the way to the Battle of Kiangan led by joint Filipino and American forces under the United States Army Forces in the Philippines–Northern Luzon.” The USAFIP-NL captured Japanese Imperial Army General Tomoyuki Yamashita in Kiangan, Ifugao, on 02 September 1945. The Ilocano freedom-fighters brought the so-called “Tiger of Malaya” to Camp Spencer in Luna, La Union, on the same day. This Japanese loser signed the surrender paper on 03 September 1945 at Camp John Hay. Ranking officers of the US Army (including General Jonathan Wainwright) witnessed the Yamashita Fall. “Surrenders of Japanese forces in other parts of the Philippines took place over the following weeks. Japanese soldiers were interned in prison camps while civilians were gradually repatriated to Japan.” [https://pvao.gov.ph/story-of-battles-pvao/end-of-world-war-ii/]
Sympathy for the devil? Hardly. As expressed by a Filipino detained for collaborationism: “General Yamashita, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief in the Philippines, surrendered with thousands of his men in Baguio in the presence of Lt. Gen. Wainwright. He was immediately confined in New Bilibid in Manila and will be tried as a war criminal. Under him, thousands and thousands of Filipinos, including my own daughter and brother-in-law, were massacred. He should be made to atone for it. He should commit harakiri.” [Diary of Antonio de las Alas, 03 September 1945, Monday]
These are historical facts that are hereby recalled on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of World War II, whose essential lesson is the necessity of eradicating Hitlerism in all its forms.
On another note, the 50th anniversary edition of Renato Constantino’s A Past Revisited was launched once more at Museo El Deposito in San Juan City where the Coordinator of the U.P. Manila Master of Management Program (Prof. Karganilla) informed the audience: (1) the U.P. System syllabus for Kasaysayan-1/Philippine History-1 still lists the Constantino magnum opus as an essential reference, and (2) Renato Constantino is a WW2 hero having operated in the Battle of Bataan and as a guerrilla in Luzon.
From the Renato Redentor Constantino (Managing Director of the Constantino Foundation and grandson of Renato Constantino and Letizia Roxas Constantino) Introduction To The Fiftieth Edition: “As A Past Revisited spelled out in 1975, the aim of Renato and Letizia Constantino was always the integration of ‘seemingly isolated facts and events into a coherent historical process so that a view of the totality of social reality may be achieved’.”
From the Hunters-ROTC Historical Society Statement on 50 years of A Past Revisited: “Ever since the Philippine Revolution started to break apart into factions after the Tejeros Convention, its account by Filipino historians has similarly been affected by partisanship which highlighted the achievements of one faction over another right up to the end of the Phil-American War. Other historians, seeking to avoid being sucked into this divisive historical sectarianism came out with thoroughly bland histories that were neither helpful, insightful or interesting to read. In A Past Revisited, Constantino had constructed a framework on how to look at the historical events in the islands of the Spanish East Indies into a cogent view that ultimately leads to the emergence of a Filipino nation in the late 19th century, the challenges that it has faced since, and how it has adapted as a small nation surrounded by great powers up until it finally won independence.” [Rhett Daza, President, Hunters-ROTC Historical Society]
We hope that the Constantino book and the lessons of WW2 will inform our observance of the 21st National Peace Consciousness Month, which officially kicked off last September 1, 2025. [https://www.facebook.com/peacegovph]
