‘These recent developments and the Filipino participation in the Second World War can be seen as fulfillment of Jose Rizal’s view that a dictatorship ‘is possible for any length of time only when there are men who will accept tyranny’…’
BUT not like this: “Washington, Aug. 12 — Unconfirmed secret reports that Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo had been shot and slightly wounded on June 17 (1942) were made public today by Kilsoo Haan, head of the Sino-Korean People’s League. He said the attempted assassin, Park Soowon, a Korean, had been killed by the police.” [https://www.nytimes.com/1942/08/13/archives/tojo-reported-shot-by-korean-in-tokyo.html]
A far cry from Operation Anthropoid in Europe, the Korean attempt failed: “Papers throughout the US featured his (Kilsoo K. Haan, US representative of both the admittedly revolutionary Korean National Front Federation and the Sino-Korean Peoples’ League) ‘secret report’ that a young Korean patriot had shot and slightly wounded Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo on June 17. The would-be assassin’s second shot went wild, but seriously wounded onetime Premier Koki Hirota. As Tojo was carried to the hospital with a wound ‘under the left armpit,’ the patriot, whose name was Park Soowon, was shot full of holes by Japanese police, who in the process brought down the Japanese ace, Major Yuzo Fujita, and two Japanese photographers.” [KOREA: Straight to the Armpit, Monday, Aug. 24, 1942; https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,849918,00.html]
It was a fiasco for both sides, the imperialist Japanese who had annexed Korea in 1910 as well as the Korean patriots who tried to assassinate the head of the militarist regime in Tokyo. Park was no sharpshooter and the Nipponese cops were of Keystone-caliber apparently.
No doubt that Park’s gunning for Tojo was part of the Anti-Fascist War, which is a patriotic and internationalist duty: “Above all else it is vital that those who have fought the battle of right be secured against invasion, and the wrongdoers (including those who either for ulterior motives or simply because of weakness permitted themselves to become tools of the Axis) be impressed that predatory policies do not pay. The preservation of freedom is not the obligation of any single people in any one part of the world; it is an obligation of all peace loving peoples throughout the world.” [Address delivered by King George II of the Hellenes before the Congress of the United States in Washington, June 15, 1942]
For those who imagine that shooting down a fascist chief is harsh, consider this: “Authoritative reports are reaching this Government of the use by Japanese armed forces in various localities of China of poisonous or noxious gases. I desire to make it unmistakably clear that, if Japan persists in this inhuman form of warfare against China or against any other of the United Nations, such action will be regarded by this Government as though taken against the United States, and retaliation in kind and in full measure will be meted out. We shall be prepared to enforce complete retribution. Upon Japan will rest the responsibility.” [President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Statement on the Use of Poison Gas, White House news release, June 5, 1942]
To dispose of dictators, the United Nations must complete its original mission: “the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.” [A Joint Declaration by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, China, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia, 01 January 1942] The Philippines joined this “common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world” on June 10, 1942 due to “The desire to associate ourselves with those nations which are fighting for the preservation of life and liberty against the forces of barbarism.” [Statement of Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippine Commonwealth, Times, June 15, 1942, p. 4]
This anti-fascist coalition resonates 80 years later as US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman conveyed gratitude for Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin’s commitment and contributions to the alliance and the rules-based international order and as Secretary Locsin reiterated the Philippines’ invitation for the US to support the three-year UN Joint Program on Human Rights (2021-2024). [Statement from U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price; https://dfa.gov.ph/dfa-news/dfa-releasesupdate/30638-deputy-secretary-of-state-wendy-sherman-calls-on-secretary-locsin-president-elect-marcos-to-reaffirm-commitment-to-philippine-u-s-alliance-and-a-peaceful-and-prosperous-indo-pacific]
Moreover, the Philippines co-chaired with the Republic of Korea and the United States the Asean Regional Forum Tabletop Exercise on Response Capabilities to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Incidents, 13-15 June 2022.
These recent developments and the Filipino participation in the Second World War can be seen as fulfillment of Jose Rizal’s view that a dictatorship “is possible for any length of time only when there are men who will accept tyranny” — a view reiterated by President Manuel Roxas on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Dr. Jose Rizal: “As long as we love freedom, we shall honor Rizal. When this nation turns its back upon liberty, and chooses the degrading road of dictatorship, we shall have to exalt another hero, certainly not Rizal, the Apostle of liberty’s sacred creed.”
Sic Semper Tyrannis
