IT was still Annus Horribilis (Tottori earthquake killed many Zainichi Korean workers in Japan’s Aragane Copper Mines, Second Schweinfurt Raid a.k.a. US 8th Air Force Mission 115 was a Black Thursday of 60 warplanes and 600 airmen lost over enemy territory), yet the Mikado’s man in Manila could afford to gush: “In all dignity and out of the fullness of our hearts we could do no less than acknowledge before the world our debt of honor to the August Virtue of His Majesty, the Emperor of Nippon, for ordaining the holy war and hastening the day of our national deliverance.” [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1943/10/14/inaugural-address-of-president-laurel-october-14-1943/]
The Gestapo arrested 107 Jews in Gilleleje, Denmark (most of them refugees in a church, awaiting transport to Sweden), while the first German time bomb caused 70 casualties in Naples’ main post office, but a small minority in Manila pinned their fates on Tojo’s year-old promise of Philippine independence. [https://www.sarahsundin.com/category/today-wwii-history/ and https://philippinediaryproject.com/1943/10/07/october-7-1943/]
In the Pacific, Japanese garrison commander Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara beheaded a prisoner-of-war and ordered the murder of 98 other American civilians on Wake Island on 07 October 1943. [https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japanese-execute-nearly-100-american-prisoners-on-wake-island] In Southeast Asia, even as elitist Filipino collaborationists toasted the status of a puppet regime a-borning within Dai TÅa KyÅeiken, the Kinabalu guerrillas (led by Albert Kwok and a Lieutenant Colonel Suarez) spearheaded a multi-ethnic uprising of Sabahans against the Japanese occupation of British North Borneo. Bajau and Suluk people, Indians and Sikhs who had previously served as police officers under the British administration, Dusun and Murut people as well as ethnic Chinese (who had been badly treated by Tokyo’s troops) liberated Jesselton, Tuaran and Kota Belud on 09 October 1943. [http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/J/e/Jesselton.htm; https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2021/01/21/the-jesselton-revolt-when-sabah-ran-red-with-blood/]
‘… that belief was demonstrated by the Hunters-ROTC and all the anti-fascist guerrillas across Rizal’s Archipelago, not by Hirohito’s marionettes.’
In Southern Europe on October 13, 1943, Italy switched sides: “Italians! There will not be peace in Italy as long as a single German remains upon our soil. Shoulder to shoulder we must march forward with our friends of the United States, of Great Britain, of Russia, and of all the other United Nations. Wherever Italian troops may be, in the Balkans, Yugoslavia, Albania, and in Greece, they have witnessed similar acts of aggression and cruelty and they must fight against the Germans to the last man. The Government headed by me will shortly be completed. In order that it may constitute a true expression of democratic government in Italy, the representatives of every political party will be asked to participate. The present arrangement will in no way impair the untrammeled right of the people of Italy to choose their own form of democratic government when peace is restored. Italians! I inform you that His Majesty the King has given me the task of announcing today, the thirteenth day of October, the Declaration of War against Germany.” [Proclamation By Marshal Badoglio To The Italian People, October 13, 1943]
This was lost on the Axis war criminals and their collaborators on Luzon who were celebrating a concoction: “From now on, the Philippines is free, sovereign and independent. Japan so proclaimed, and President Laurel so announced. The inauguration was a family affair. Only the Japanese representatives were invited: aside from Mr. Murata who up to now is chief adviser of the military administration and henceforth to be the ambassador plenipotentiary; the Vice President of the House of Peers, a bearded short man who looked like Bernard Shaw; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives who just flew from Tokyo…Even the most optimistic does not have to wait long to realize that this form of independence is nothing more than another form of dependence. Neither the army nor the navy have shown any indication of returning the buildings they occupied, nor had the number of Japanese military forces invading our streets and plazas diminished, nor were we aware of any government or private enterprises confiscated during the war which were returned to their owners. A very significant coincidence: yesterday, hardly had the birth of the Independence been proclaimed when a number of house owners in Ermita received orders from the Imperial Army to vacate their properties within 48 hours.” [Diary of Juan Labrador, O.P., 14-15 October 1943]
In response, the representative of the Philippines in the Pacific Council and the United Nations and the legitimate President of the Philippines Manuel Quezon broadcasted to his countrymen: “We are informed that the so-called Philippine Republic sponsored by Japan was inaugurated on October 14, and on the same day a Tokyo broadcast says: ‘The Tokyo Board of Information announced Thursday the signing of a pact of alliance between Japan and the Republic of the Philippines.’ The terms of the alliance as announced by Tokyo clearly show the real purpose behind the granting by Japan of a so-called Philippine independence, namely, to use the Philippines ‘politically, economically and militarily for the successful prosecution of the war of Greater East Asia.’ I want to remind my people who for so many years have honored me with their trust and confidence, of the following important facts…very significant victories have been achieved by General MacArthur in the Southwest Pacific, where he has decisively defeated the Japanese and driven them out of Gona, Buna, Munda, Lae, Salamaua, Finschafen, in New Guinea, and Kolombangara in the central Solomons, and only three days ago his air force scored a decisive victory in Rabaul where 177 Japanese, planes were destroyed and 119 Japanese ships sunk… I will return with General MacArthur. And I hope and expect that the Filipino people, when that day comes, will fight on the side of the liberating forces and not allow themselves to be used by Japan who is responsible for the thousands of lives lost, the hardships and sufferings of our people and the devastation of our country.” [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1943/10/15/the-presidents-day-october-15-1943/]
In Eastern Europe on October 14, 1943, inmates in the Sobibor concentration camp killed 11 Nazi SS staffers (including the deputy commandant Johann Niemann), enabling 300 fellow detainees to break through the barbed wire and escape. [https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/sobibor-uprising] But in the Pearl of the Orient, a politician publicly thanked Hitler’s cohorts: “As a consequence of the Greater East Asia War, the great Nipponese Empire, true to its altruistic mission in waging that war, has enabled the Filipino people to realize at last their dream of freedom by allowing them to form a Preparatory Commission for Philippine Independence, to adopt a Constitution for an independent Philippines, and to take all other requisite steps for the establishment of the Republic of the Philippines.” [Jose P. Laurel, Proclamation No. 2695]
Yes, “believe that the Philippines belong to the Filipinos, who must have the right to rule themselves, and Bessarabia belongs to the Bessarabians.” [Max Shachtman, “Notes on Russia in the War,” The New International, Vol. IX, No. 9, October 1943, pp. 267—273] And that belief was demonstrated by the Hunters-ROTC and all the anti-fascist guerrillas across Rizal’s Archipelago, not by Hirohito’s marionettes.
