Japanese in the Philippine
struggle for independence

SOME people ask how I sustain this column despite being in Japan for six months. It is flattering that some readers think I carry around all my material, weightlessly, in my head. Actually, I sent 25 kilograms of books over by courier and still found my luggage 50 kilograms overweight when I left Manila last April. Fortunately, they did not weigh my carry-on luggage, containing notes I wouldn't risk checking in, this must have been another 20 kilograms. One way to travel light would be to rely entirely on the 55-volume compilation of documents known as "Blair and Robertson," all compact in a two CD-Rom set minted by the Bank of the Philippine Islands. I brought this but haven't even opened it because I have found much column material in the library of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University.

Last week on the invitation of Professor Takefumi Terada of Sophia University I consulted the Mauro Garcia Collection in the Sophia University Library. Garcia was the leading Filipino bibliographer of his time and his collection is another pilgrimage site for Filipino researchers in Japan. While the collection boasts of rare books I focused on the numerous scrapbooks he compiled on various historical topics.

One of the slim folders that caught my interest was, "Japanese who aided the Filipinos in their struggles for independence." Since Japanese are always "kontrabida" (villains) in our World War II movies this was quite new to me. The typescript had no author, date, or sources of information. These yellowing pieces of bond paper are stamped lightly on the back with "Ministry of Foreign Affairs" so I dated it to the Ferdinand Marcos years when the Department of Foreign Affairs briefly became a "Ministry." Government paper marked "For Official Use Only" is not seen today, just like government vehicles that were once prominently painted with the same warning. The current joke is that some government vehicles today should be marked "For Official Use ALSO."

There are 14 names on the list, alphabetically arranged, starting with Dionisio Fernandez (no Japanese name recorded) a Christian Japanese resident of Manila who participated in the Tondo conspiracy of 1587-88. He was executed together with Magat Salamat (son of Lakandula), and Agustin de Legaspi (nephew of Lakandula and son-in-law of a Bornean sultan). Fernandez was described as the "first Japanese to sacrifice his life for the cause of Filipino freedom." Really?

Japanese invasion of the Philippines is often seen in the context of World War II but it goes all the way back to the late 16th century. For example, in 1595, Benavides, the archbishop of Manila, reported that some "disgruntled Tagalogs" had written the Taiko Hideyoshi to come to the Philippines and drive off their white oppressors. Many of us cannot imagine a time when Filipinos looked to Japan for liberation from the Spaniards. Hideyoshi might have considered the idea but then he was too busy waging war in Korea to take on the Spanish Philippines.

It is not well known that Andres Bonifacio had a secret meeting with the Japanese consul in Manila and some visiting Japanese naval officers in May 1896 and sought Japanese support for the Philippine revolution.

The man who arranged the meeting and acted as interpreter was a certain Jose Moritaro Tagawa, a resident of Bocaue town, north of Manila, married to a Filipina, who was introduced to the Supremo by Pio Valenzuela. The names that caught my interest were veterans of the Sino-Japanese War who fought on our side during the Filipino-American War. Their names would have been lost to history if not for this typescript in the Garcia collection.

These men are: Lieutenant Sintetu Nishiuchi, Lieutenant Asahiro Inatomi, Lieutenant Keizo Miyai, Lieutenant Kesakichi Mizumati, Sergeant Major Saburo Nakamori and Sergeant Shinobu Masuda. Of course more research must be undertaken not only to trace these men but also to find out their motivation. Did they relate with our struggle for independence or were they mercenaries -- guns for hire?

Whatever their reasons some were highly regarded, like Captain Chizuno Iwamoto, who served as flag officer of Emilio Aguinaldo during the Filipino-American War. These men arrived in Manila toward the end of June 1899 and were met by a Japanese businessman based in Manila named M. Tagawa who arranged their passage by sailboat across Manila Bay to Orani town in Bataan province, west of Manila, and from there by land to the headquarters of Emilio Aguinaldo in the province of Tarlac, north of Manila. They were led by a certain Captain Tei Hara on whom we have some biographical information.

Born in 1864 in Ina, Nagano he studied in the Imperial Military Academy and eventually rose to the rank of captain of the Imperial Bodyguard Division. Captain Hara fought under General Tomas Mascardo in the provinces of Zambales and Bataan and was even cited for gallantry in action. He returned to Japan and fought in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He died in 1933. What makes Hara stand out is that his deathbed request was for his sister or her heir to watch and wait for the independence of the Philippines. As soon as the Philippines was independent this news should be reported to him at his grave.

History reveals that Japan was not just the monster of World War II but in some ways part of our yet unwritten history.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu