Japanese Occupation of the Philippines

Japans Objectives
Since 1930s, the markets of capitalists countries had become congested. The crisis characterized by huge volume of finished products that remained unsold, had grown more frequent and serious.

 In countries that were major headquarters of advanced capitalists such as Italy, Germany, Japan, and US, many proposals to resolve the crisis were made. In Japan, Italy and Germany, the systematic use of violence or fascism reared its ugly head.

 These countries launched wars to re-divide the world among them. Imperial Japan attempted to wrest from the US, England, France and Holland its colonies in Asia. The attack and invasion of the Philippines was part of Japans plan.

 The Second World War was the result of the advanced capitalists countries drive to modify their territorial division of the world.

Axis Powers
Composed of:

Germany

Japan

Italy

Allied Powers
Composed of:

United States

England

 Pope Pius XII said, World War II was a war of the giants The Filipinos were dragged into this war and many lives were lost mainly because the Philippines was a US colony.

Philippines during the World War II

December 8, 1941 - a few hours after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the US Naval Base in Hawaii, the killer Japanese squadron headed to the Philippines. Various parts of the Philippines were bombed Davao, Tuguegarao, Baguio, Zambales and Tarlac.

 The Japanese squadron targeted the US military bases and installations such as those in Tarlac, Clark Field and Nichols Field. Few US fighter planes in the Philippines were destroyed on the very first day of the Japanese attack in December 9, 1941. As such after only two days of sustained air strikes, the Japanese troops successfully invaded various parts of the Philippines.

 The Commonwealth Government and the US forces were caught unprepared in the attack of the Japanese imperialist. Japanese forces already surrounded the Philippines when Quezon and Mac Arthur formed the United States Armed Forces in the Far East or USAFFE.

Manuel L. Quezon

Douglas Mac Arthur

 More than 100,000 Filipino fighters trained by Mac Arthur in Modern warfare were drafted to the USAFFE. When the Japanese invaders landed in various parts of the country, the countrys Armed Forces headquarters were swarmed with Filipinos who wanted to take up arms.

 But Mac Arthur was not able to stop the invading Japanese because his Air Force had been crushed on the very first day of attack, and there was no naval support to turn to as Admiral Thomas Hart had been sent to the south.

 Amidst the continued bombing, the landing of the new troops and invasion from north and south, Mac Arthur admitted that there was no sense defending Manila. He ordered the move of important USAFFE supplies to Bataan and Corregidor, and to destroy whatever they could not carry with them.

 Before Christmas of 1941, President Quezon, his family and War Cabinet moved to Corregidor. They left Manila to the care of Secretary Jorge B. Vargas who was appointed by Quezon as Mania Mayor, to Justice Jose P. Laurel and other Chief Officers of the Commonwealth.

 After abandoning Manila on December 26, 1941, Mac Arthur declared Manila an open city General Mac Arthur Assembled all USAFFE forces in Bataan and Corregidor to make their last stand and to safely spirit out of the country the Commonwealth leadership and him.

 The Japanese forces indiscriminately bombed and invaded Manila despite it having been declared an open city. By January 1942, General Homma of the Japanese forces set his sight on the USAFFE in Bataan. Day in and out, fighting went on and Bataan was drenched in blood.

 USAFFE soldiers could not expect support from the US because the latter had prioritized the defense of Europe. The fighting in Bataan had nowhere to go but to its fall. On February 1942, upon the invitation of President Roosevelt, Pres. Quezon escaped to the US together with his family and War Cabinet.

 On March 1942, Mac Arthur, his family and staff escaped from Corregidor to Australia. President Roosevelt tasked him to lead their forces in the South-West Pacific in Australia. It was here that Mac Arthur uttered his famous line, I shall return.

 Meanwhile, the Japanese forces led by Gen. Homma unleashed the full strength of the Japanese offensive in Bataan. Thousands upon thousands of Japanese soldiers, supported by tanks and artillery, fighter planes and naval gunship, proceeded to pound and crush Bataan and Corregidor.

General Masaharu Homma

 The Filipino and American troops, despite being weakened by hunger, illness and fatigue, continued to fight courageously. But in the face of burgeoning force of the attackers, they were unable to stop the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942 and of Corregidor on May 7, 1942. The Japanese captured about 36,000 American and Filipino soldiers.

 Their personal belongings were taken away and they were forced to march from Mariveles, Bataan to San Fernando, Pampanga. This was called the Death March which shocked the civilized world.

 Marching prisoners were denied water and food. Those who can no longer walk were bayoneted or beaten to death. From San Fernando, the remaining prisoners were loaded onto trains and bought to Capas, Tarlac. Many suffocated in the train and died even before reaching Capas.

 Gen. Edward King, the American Commander of the forces in Bataan, surrendered in April 9, 1942. On May 7, 1942, Gen. Jonathan Mac Arthur, also called for surrender. Since then, the American Commanders of USAFFE ordered a lie-low policy for its forces while awaiting Mac Arthurs return.

General Edward King

Government and Order under the Japanese

The Philippines was Japans colony from 1942 to 1945. Like the US colonialists whom they had temporarily replaced, Japan sought to develop and use the Philippines as their new market, as a haven for their surplus capital, source of raw materials and labor, and a staging ground for control in the Asia-Pacific.

 But while still at war, the Japanese thoroughly squeezed the country and its people to serve their war needs. Under the so-called new order in Asia, Japan pillaged the natural and industrial wealth of the country, repressed all democratic institutions and actions transformed its education and culture and committed innumerable atrocities to its citizens.

 Japan ordered the planting of cotton in vast Philippine farmlands because the Japanese troops were in need of these. It also controlled all mines and factories. The Filipinos needs for rice and other crops were neglected. For the entire duration of Japanese control, their armed troops lived off the sweat and labor of Filipinos. The Filipino people became even more famished because the Japanese troops would confiscate food found in their homes.

Japanese Martial Law in the Philippines

Japan implemented Martial Law for the duration of its control in the Philippines. The Japanese High Command established the Military Administration in the Philippines to manage the political, economic and cultural affairs of the country. A Director-General headed the Military not everyone obeyed. Some joined the guerrilla movement instead.

 Following directives from Tokyo, the Japanese Military Administration imposed many restrictions on the Filipino people. Curfew was imposed. Manila was always in darkness due to frequent blackouts. They controlled the printing press, banks, schools and churches. They also issued a proclamation stating that for every Japanese killed, ten Filipino lives will be taken in return.

 The Japanese invaders also brought with them a plan to establish a puppet government headed by Filipinos, which would actually serve as agencies implementing Japanese policies. Then Manila Mayor Jorge Vargas was tasked to organize a civil government.

Mayor Jorge B. Vargas

Civil Government Established by the Japanese

On January 23, 1942, Mayor Vargas and other Filipino officers expressed their willingness to obey the High Japanese Command. On that very day, the Japanese High Command installed them in the just constituted Philippine Executive Commission. Aside from Mayor Vargas, six more Filipino officials including Sen. Benigno Aquino were appointed Commisioners of the following Departments:

 Departments:
Interior Agriculture and Commerce Justice and Education

Every department had a Japanese adviser.

 The Japanese High Command also formed the Philippine State Council to serve as adviser to the Executive Commission. There were 32 Filipino leaders in the Council who signed a document stating their willingness to follow the orders of the Japanese High Command. The Japanese High Command later appointed other prominent Filipinos in the Commission.

 The colonialist and the Filipino leaders also founded Kapisanan sa Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas or KALIBAPI in December 30, 1942. Supposedly limited to being a patriotic and non-political organization, this association was in reality, a political party. In fact, it was the only party allowed to exist by the new colonialists. The KALIBAPI served as the main propaganda agency of the Japanese.

 Like the US, Japan tried to convince the Filipinos that they had come to liberate them. Where the US presented itself as the Filipinos liberators from Spain, Japan promised to deliver the Philippines from its western oppressors. Japan presented itself as the Filipinos racial brothers and sisters.

 Japan proclaimed its mission as the liberator of the Eastern Asias oppressed classes. On January 21, 1942, Japanese Premier General Hideki Tojo declared Japan would grant the honor of independence to the Filipinos if they cooperated in building the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Tojo repeated this offer for independence in 1943.

 The Japanese High Command tasked the Filipino officials to prepare for the granting of independence. The KALIBAPI responded immediately and formed a convention to draft the Constitution of the soon to be founded Philippine Republic. As soon as the Constitution was drafted on September 1943, 117 KALIBAPI members held a special general assembly for this purpose and immediately ratified it.

The Establishment of the Philippine Republic

Government Structure
After ratifying the 1943 Constitution, the Japanese colonialists launched a convention in all areas covered by the KALIBAPI to elect half of the 108 members of the National Assembly. The remaining half was granted by Japan to the incumbent governors and city mayors. The members of the Philippine Assembly then elected Dr. Jose P. Laurel as the President of the Philippine Republic in September 1943.

 Led by the Japanese colonialists, the Republic of the Philippines was inaugurated on October 14, 1943. This occasion served to formally dissolve the Philippine Executive Commission; it also signaled the withdrawal of the Japanese Military Administration. Public display of the Philippine Flag, as well as singing of the Philippine National Anthem which were forbidden during early years of the Japanese colonialism, were not allowed.

 The first foreign treaty signed by the Republic on the very day of its founding was the JapanPhilippine Pact of Alliance. It allowed for cooperation between the two countries in the realm of politics, the economy and the military.

Jose P. Laurel

 Laurel and his ministers attended the Assembly of Greater East Asiatic Nations held in Tokyo on November 1943. The participants here supported a Joint Declaration also known as the Pacific Charter, which expressed the conditions for building a Greater East Asia.

Cultural Sphere
Japan already mobilized all of its propaganda agencies to replace American colonial influences in the country. Under Hoodoo-Bu, the propaganda section of the Japanese Army, they coined and disseminated slogans such as Asia for Asians, Philippines for Filipinos and Asia is one.

 They Suppressed freedom of expression. They strove to spread the Nippongo language and culture. The school system was reorganized to rid of American influences. The Japanese and their puppet republic also founded neighborhood associations based on the tonari-gumi found in Japans town and cities.

Filipino Bravery in the Struggle to Liberate the Philippines

The Communist Party of the Philippines established on March 29, 1942 the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon. (HUKBALAHAP), and united the people in armed struggle.

 Even after Mac Arthur left the ranks of USAFFE in March 1942, the Philippines was the only remaining pillar of resistance in Asia against the Japanese invasion. The US forces returned merely to re-establish their colonial dominance in the country.

The Return of the US Colonialists

US fighter planes first bombed Davao in August 1944. after a weeks of intense air attacks the US Armed Forces landed in Leyte on October 20, 1944. Gen. Mac Arthur returned along with the new Commonwealth President, Sergio Osmea. Former President Manuel Quezon died of tuberculosis in New York on August 1944.

Sergio Osmea y Suico

 The Japanese troops formed the Makapili on December 8, 1944 and swore them to resist American forces and Filipino guerrillas. Together with Filipino guerrillas, the Americans re-entered Mania on February 3, 1945. Manila witnessed three weeks of fierce fighting. They were able to reclaim Manila.

 On April 28, 1945, some Japanese leaders along with President Laurel and his cabinet escaped. On July 5, 1945, Mac Arthur declared having liberated the Philippines despite fighting going on.

 Imperialist Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945. Two days later, President Laurel who was then in Japan, dissolved the Republic of the Philippines

Return to Commonwealth Government

On June 1944 as Gen Mac Arthurs troops neared the Philippines, the US Congress approved Resolution No. 93, empowering the US President to grant the Filipinos freedom on July 4, 1946, once the Filipino and American troops had defeated the Japanese.

 They also passed Resolution No. 94 that created the Philippine Rehabilitation Committee. This was composed of nine Americans and nine Filipinos tasked to investigate all post-war economic issues as well as to plan trade relations between the US and the soon-to-be-formed Republic of the Philippines.

 Indeed, on February 1945, the American troops had re-established the center of the Commonwealth Government in Manila., which at that time was in rubbles due to massive burnings of the retreating Japanese troops and the advancing US troops bombings.

 In a ceremony at the Malacanang Palace, Gen. Mac Arthur turned over to President Osmena the full responsibilities and powers of the Commonwealth Government. But Clearly the US still wielded power over the country.