JAPANESE
OCCUPATION:
I
f we ask random group of Filipinos on who is the cruelest among
the three colonizers of our country, most of them will answer "the
Japanese." We can't blame them because on a normal day during
December 8, 1941, when we were still in the hands of the American colonizers, our country was attacked by the Japanese, just hours
after they bombed the Pearl Harbour, the Americans' naval base in
Hawaii. After the series of attacks, bombings, and the infamous
by Claire Azucena
Bataan Death March, the Japanese has successfully conquered the Philippines, which resulted to MacArthur's "I Shall Return" line as he was
sent to Australia.
Since then, a lot of things have happened in the newly re-colonized country. In an attempt to gain the Filipino's
loyalty, the Japanese had set up a "Philippine Republic" which is known as the puppet government, run by Jose P.
Laurel as its puppet president. This attempt was a “trying hard game” in the minds of the Filipinos, since the torture
towards them has not changed at all. As a result, the guerilla groups in the Philippines' side continued to grow as
they remained on the side of their American friends. Meanwhile, Manuel L. Quezon and his officials went to
Washington to set up the government-in-exile. Sergio Osmeña took the place of Manuel L. Quezon when he died
on August 1944.
T
he Philippines once
had the best economic
superpowers
before the period of war.
But because of the war,
there was a sudden shortage of the basic necessities
in the Philippines, which
was one of the reasons
why the Philippine economy went downhill. What's
worse was the Douglas
MacArthur ordered the
people in the Philippines to
use the Japanese Invasion
Money (JIM) also known as
the
"Mickey
Mouse
Money," the currency that
doesn't cost anything at all
and has no value.
D
uring this period
was a time where
women
were
treated
as
comfort
women. The females
were abducted, turned
into their comfort women,
and do their thing. The
war continued on even
after the end of the first
war. There were still continuous killing of people,
beheading innocent beings and performing different kinds of torture.
Also, it was set that Tagalog was the language
that was used during the
period, and it made the
English language a joke.
D
espite of the horrible treatment the Japanese did to the Filipinos, it didn't stop the latter for living their life.
Not taking into heart the Japanese influences in art, the Filipinos enjoyed the Western and their own local
culture more. Forms of musical art- composing, operas, concerts, etc. flourished during the Japanese occupation.
Having almost the same goal as the Americans (using the country as a foothold to the surrounding countries and
their resources) and the same strategy ("lets be friends, we'll be your Superman" style), the Japanese actually succeeded. As osplayers, they were wearing the heroic costume that is justice and other symbols. Yet what's hiding
inside the costume is the selfish desire to take over the resources of East Asia, the harassment of the people, and
other cruel acts. More than three years later, sparking from MacArthur and Osmeña's respective returns in the
country, the Filipinos started to going back to their own country with the Americans' help. Igniting the fire in Leyte
on the month of October in 1944, the Japanese forces started to weaken. Eventually, on September the next year,
Japan has finally surrendered. The formation of the Third Philippine Republic followed by Manuel Roxas as its First
President.
Through the years that the Philippines have been continuously colonized by different countries, the Filipinos have
remained strong. There might have been political, economic and social problems along the way but with the lessons we have learned from those years, what valued the most is to stand together, stay strong and be wiser.