Japanese wartime propaganda

EVERY semester, my students write an essay where they try to figure out what the world was like on the day they were born. They are required to interview their parents, who hardly remember anything, and to dig up the newspaper on the day they were born. It is a revelation for most to go back two decades and realize that much that they read about the past are still current today.

This exercise in the historical method is likewise educational for me because I learn about the world in which my students live and work. As a martial law baby who believed that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos actually came with those gilded Malacañang furniture, I am humbled to know I am considered Jurassic by my students because Ferdinand Marcos -- and to some, even the EDSA People Power uprising in 1986 -- is but faded history, something to study about in school. Reading student papers makes me realize that there is a world outside the late 19th-century Philippines, Jose Rizal, the Philippine Revolution and the Filipino-American War.

To write a different column, I decided to move away from my comfort zone to try and reconstruct life in the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation. To do this, I opened a bound volume of "The Official Journal of the Japanese Military Administration" that I had bought at a used-books store on Manila's Recto Avenue while looking for a fake Ph.D. diploma from a US Ivy League university. Much of what I know about the Japanese period I got from books, from the reminiscences of people who survived those times, and from old Tagalog films where the hero single-handedly killed a whole battalion of Japanese with one gun and without reloading!

This warped memory was displayed during the 1998 Centennial when the government depicted the history of the Philippines from pre-colonial times to the present in almost a hundred floats that paraded before the Quirino Grandstand in Manila's Rizal Park. In the Japanese period float, a Filipino soldier killed all the enemy soldiers, grabbed a Japanese flag from a pole and trampled on it. Then secretary of foreign affairs Domingo Siazon jumped out of his seat and said something to the effect that we do not desecrate the flag of a friendly nation. The thin line between past and present was breached during the parade that I found fun but with some glaring historical flaws.

Japan may be a friendly nation today, but during the war, things were completely different unless, of course, you believe Japanese propaganda. For example, the photo section of "The Official Journal of the Japanese Military Administration" shows smiling Japanese soldiers sitting on the ground surrounded by very clean but surly Filipinos. Two women are strumming "banduria" [local stringed instruments] and the caption reads: "Peace-loving Filipinos driven from their beloved homes because of the war are coming back with absolute confidence in the Japanese soldiers, thankful for the warm protection of the Japanese officers and soldiers, and cheerfully and proudly giving musical entertainment to their friends. Morong, Bataan Province. March 3, 1942."

In another photograph, a Japanese soldier pounds rice with a Filipina in a marketplace. The caption reads: "Japanese soldiers are strong against their enemies, but gentle and kind to peace-loving people. One of the views showing friendly cooperation between Japanese soldiers and natives of the Philippines. Near Morong, Bataan Province. March 3, 1942."

Here was a clear case where the so-called primary source said something different from everything I have learned and heard. Of course, this cannot be taken at face value, but should be read in the context of everything else that has come out since then.

Reading this journal in an attempt to recreate life in those times proved to be hilarious. The very first page reproduced a proclamation dated Jan. 2, 1942 that covered the occupation of Manila. It reads:

"The Japanese Armed Forces wish to share the well-being of the officials and people of the native land. Wait for the arrival of Japanese with confidence and ease.

"1. Regardless of nationality, no one needs to flee.

"2. Offering resistance or committing a hostile act against the Japanese Armed Forces in any manner leads the whole native land to ashes. Therefore, everyone should come under the protection of the Japanese Armed Forces without shedding even one drop of blood and should continue daily business as usual.

"3. Anyone who falls under any of the following will be considered as interfering with the well-being of the native people and therefore shall be subject to death penalty. Refrain from committing any of said crimes. 1. Those who show hostility against the Japanese Armed Forces. 2 Those who jeopardize or break any existing means (sic) in politics, economics, industry, transportation, finance, etc. 3. Those who disturb the minds of the officials and the people. 4. Any action disturbing the economic and financial condition.

"Those who report to the Japanese Forces any flagrant offense or prevent any of said crimes will be rewarded by the Imperial Japanese Forces."

From the above, one can imagine the situation of Manila and the entire country at the beginning of the Japanese Occupation. Reading the above helps us understand why some people refer to the pre-1942 period as "pistaym" (peacetime).

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu