Japan’s Invasion of Philippines

What is Happening in "Independent Commonwealth" Created by U.S.A.

THE Commonwealth of the Philippines came into being in 1935, under an arrange ment by which the United States will gradu ally give to the Filipinos their complete independence. Prior to 1935, they were gov erned by U.S.A., through a Governor-General.

From 1935 until 1946, they are a “Common wealth”—or practically a republic, under the protection of U.S.A. In J 946, they become an independent republic. Manuel Quezon, in 1935, was elected president, for six years.

In the past two years, in face of Japan’s aggressive spirit, leaders in the Philippines have become increasingly uneasy about their con dition, in relation to Japan, and it has been suggested that the independence planned for 1946 should be indefinitely postponed. A pro posal in that direction, made in the Philippines legislature in October was overwhelmingly defeated, however.

The following are extracts from an article by Edgar Snow, which was published in the October number of “Asia” (a New York journal).

JAPANESE from childhood are taught —in lessons illustrated by maps coloring the Philippines as part of the future empire—that Asia’s richest archi pelago by right belongs to the Emperor.

They are taught, also, that not America but Japan is bringing freedom to the Filipino, and that only America thwarts the completion of the liberation.

And what a lot there is to be liberated!

Scarcely scratched, the huge Philippine iron reserves would furnish at least twice as much of the metal as Japan can hope to get in all China. The world’s largest chrome deposits are in these islands that indifferent America is about to cast adrift in a Pacific infested with hungry sharks.

Here are far greater forests of splendid timber than in any equal area in East Asia, and the Philippine Commonwealth owns 97 per cent, of it. Luzon Island alone is producing gold worth 30,000,000 dollars every year. Oil, nickel, rubber, copra, tobacco, hemp, wonderful fruit and rice and sugar lands—what booty to lure piratical eyes along the Japanese main!

In the Philippine Paradise there is more cultivable land than in Japan proper, and two-thirds of it is still untouched. Ex perts estimate that its 114,000 square miles could comfortably accommodate no less than 30,000,000 Japanese—in addi tion to twice its present native popula tion of 15,000,000.

Japan abhors this vacuum. She has al ready sent about 30,000 Japanese to the islands. (Manila alone holds 12,594.) Over 95 per cent, of them have entered since America raised its flag in the Phili ppines, and most of them since the Jones Bill first announced that the flag was soon coming down. Already Japan’s sub jects in the Philippines outnumber Americans by four to one. At the present rate of increase there will be over 50,000 Japanese to look after Nippon’s interests in 1946, when America stages a full dress retreat.

Japan’s propagandists and spies now inhabit every major Philippine Island, and every city. Her fishing vessels encom pass the coast line of over 11,000 miles.

Her Philippine trade is second only to America’s, and despite her preoccupation in China she moved more ships to and from the islands in 1937 than America did. On Mindanao alone Japan has settled about 15,000 Emperor-worshippers, who already control most of the province of Davao.

1N the Philippine Legislature Japan’s in fluence has been sufficient to quash bills inimical to the privileges her im migrants now enjoy. Behind-the-scenes pressure resulted in the suppression of a Philippine boycott of Japanese goods, while movements to eliminate Chinese merchants are officially encouraged. There is evidence that Japanese for years fin anced certain anti-American “independ ence at any cost” elements, and some Filipino politicians appear to be under ob ligations to Japan.

“And why not?” ask the new arrivals, “We’re all Malays, all of the same blood, aren’t we? Why shouldn’t we lead them?”

Like most Orientals, Filipinos began to take serious notice of their island neigh bours after 1905, when Japan brought vicarious pride and colour consciousness to many an eastern people by defeating Czarist Russia. Philippine independence agitators took heart, and those who did not point to America as model pointed to Japan. Subsequently Japan welcomed Filipino students and radicals to her shores, and thereby converted some into Pan-Asia enthusiasts.

Even to-day, despite Japan’s perfor mances in Manchuria, Korea, China and Mongolia, many Filipinos still vaguely fancy that Japan is leading the emanci

baXl°nflu h en c rof°Th P r whl^ gainSt the oaneiul influence of the whites.

Japanese propaganda organs—in English, Spanish and Tagalog—echo pro- Japanese ideas every day throughout the islands. So do frequent “cultural” and trade missions that visit the Philippines in a manner similar to previous cxpeditions to China.

A triumph of Nipponese diplomacy was the sudden visit to Japan a year or so ago of President Quezon who was given a flattering ovation in Tokyo. On his return he called upon Philippine youth to emulate the principles of “bushido”—a proposal which, in the face of Japan’s bombing forays in China, met with such a storm of criticism that he did not repeat it.

There is, of course, every diplomatic

leason why President Quezon should cul tivate Japan’s friendship rather than her enmity, for the Philippines face a pre carious future in which he carries a heavy responsibility. This undoubtedly, together with the American Department of State’s reluctance to force the issue, explains why the President and other nationalists in the machine which he so adroitly manipu lates, have avoided challenging Japan’s rapid colonisation of Mindanao, the is land jewel of the Philippines.

SHORTLY after the inauguration of the Commonwealth and the new National Assembly, Secretary of Commerce Rodriquez actually ordered the cancellation of 120 sub-leases illegally secured by Japanese nationals from Bagobo tribesmen in Davao. Japanese simply ignored the order, and openly challenged the authority of the new Gov ernment to evict them from the land.

In response to aroused public opinion, President Quezon himself made a trip to Davao, promising to settle the matter speedily, and “once and for all”.

At the height of popular agitation, the Japanese Foreign Minister (then Hirota) was reported to have authorised his Davao Consul to warn Quezon of “grave conse quences” if any “indiscreet solution” were sought to the problem, which possesses

much of the political dynamite contained in Japan’s former “special position” in Manchuria.

This Japanese advice, if given, seems to have been heeded. Upon his return to Manila, Quezon astonished the public by reporting that no Davao question existed —since when he has maintained official silence. The Government’s order against illegal Japanese sub-leases has never been rescinded; neither has it been enforced.

A dangerous precedent has thereby been established.

Nearly a hundred Japanese corporations are operating plantations in Davao, the largest being held by Furukawa, Ohta and the giant Mitsui trust of Japan. Of Davao’s abaca production the Japanese own 70 per cent. Davao abaca, together with Borneo holdings, enables the Japan ese to monopolise much of the world mar kets for hemp. Well over half of all hemp, lumber, copra and fish exported from Davao goes through Japanese, who con trol 95 per cent, of Davao’s exports to America.

Legally and illegally, Japanese dominate much of the fishing along the Philippine coasts, but in and around Davao it is nearly a Japanese monopoly. Completely unfortified Davao Gulf, which is three times the size of Manila Bay, is a fine natural haroour and may some day make a splendid naval base. To-day the Ris ing Sun flies there oftener than any other flag, for Japanese merchantmen do the bulk of the carrying, usually berthing at privately-owned Japanese wharves.

Davao’s best customer is Uncle Sam, but it buys only 2 per cent, of its imports from America while it takes over 80 per cent from the fatherland—Japan. This is not surprising, since the bulk of Davao’s retail trade is controlled by Nipponese.

They know that every bolt of Japan-made cloth imported helps to provide foreign exchange, to build battleships, to seize more markets, to provide more exchange, ad infinitum.

Japanese chain stores are spreading throughout Mindanao with amazing speed. Davao banks, factories, ware houses, transport, utilities, schools, even one-quarter of the roads, are Japanese owned. Seventy thousand natives are said to be dependent on Japanese enterprises for their food.

Perhaps it is not surprising that the Davao Japanese Chamber of Commerce —which boasts 6,000 members and controls a payroll of several millions annually— can shape politics of the island to suit a pattern of its own.

THE Japanese got their foothold here from 1905 onward, before there was a Philippine Commonwealth. Although in 1919 the Philippine Legislature finally passed a law making it illegal for aliens to lease or buy public lands or estates in Mindanao, thousands of Japanese had already flocked to Davao. A technique of land-grab had been perfected which en abled Japanese to flout efforts to exclude them.

A Filipino forest ranger named Vincente Ceballos appears to have been the real culprit. Entrusted with the guardianship of an enormous area, he made a fortune by selling out Davao to the army of Japanese immigrants and corporations.

Conniving with them in intrigue, brib ery, forgery and fraud, he fleeced the simple Bagobo tribesmen, aboriginal natives of Davao, securing land titles and leases for the Japanese at a fraction of their value. He condemned vast tracts of standing timber in tribal hunting grounds, and turned it open to invasion. Compla

centlv falsifying his reports, he stood by while Japanese cut or burned tens of thousands of acres and claimed the land: 100 000 000 dollars was the Government Forestry Bureau’s estimate of the loss in timber when the pract.ce was Anally For Ceballos was investigated at last.

Charged with bribery and wholesale forgery, he was brought to Manila, but “escaped” before trial to an unknown destination—reportedly Japan. No attempt was made however to recover the land which he had alienated.

The value of Japanese land in Davao cannot accurately be estimated; one Japanese Agure placing it at the equlvalent of about 150,000,000 yen is beheved to be very low.

Although since 1919 it has been illegal for foreigners to lease public lands in the Philippines, thousands of acres are nevertheless still being acquired each year. The commonest method of acqmsilion to-day is by Japanese marriage to Bagobo women. Being natives, Bagobos can acquire free homesteads. They can also buy preferred land, and promptly transfer it to their immigrant husbands. who frequently have, or later acquire, Japanese wives as well.

Children of such marriages also have Filinino citizenship and can hold land in 5J32 n ifnTteht I But although the off- Se are nominally Mlipino in other resiects they remain Japanese. They

wiSSSn at 7 Japanese shrines speak

Japlnese, oLerve P Japanese customs. P live Tonfinptip bouses eat Japanese food Japanese schools. Some go for higher education to Japan, and some do their term of service in the Japanese army or navy. But they return to Davao toroid land as Filipinos.

MANY Philippine-born Japanese, who have Philippine-citizenship, still re port regularly to the Japanese Con sulate. For all practical purposes they enjoy dual citizenship, much as do “nat uralised” Japanese in Manchuria and China. This provides a convenience for Japanese banks and corporations finding it necessary to circumvent provisions in the 1935 Constitution, which requires that, in all new land and industrial en terprises formed in the islands, 60 per cent, of the stock must be controlled by Filipinos. Philippine-born Japanese and Japanese mestizps having Philippine citizenship gladly co-operate in provid ing a Filipino front for new Nipponese companies, aided by Filipino law firms, which specialise in the practice.

A device widely employed in Davao, where Japanese and other aliens are to day forbidden to buy new lands, is typi cally Japanese in its ingenuity.

The Japanese sublease Bagobo tracts of timber and abaca, but by special ar rangement with the tribesmen they figure officially only as labourers, whereas it is actually the Bagobos who labour on their “own” land for Japanese masters. Tip ped off in advance of any investigation, the Japanese closely drill their wild men in set replies, so that the inquirers nearly always fail to uncover the facts.

The report of one recent mission, for example, revealed that in several in stances the investigators arrived at al legedly native-owned plantations just in time to see Japanese “labourers” mov ing from the owner’s home into the labourers’ huts.

Poor tribesmen of Davao naturally look upon the Japanese as all-powerful, and their participation in such schemes, for which they are generously rewarded, is easily forgivable. Less defensible is

somewhat similar activity by a few offi cials and politicians elsewhere in the is lands, who are fully conscious of their treachery.

The most notorious case of this nature at present is the illegal sublease to Jap anese of a vast timber tract in strategic Dingelan Bay, in East Luzon. This huge slice of coastline, a government land grant to Filipino interests, now being exploited entirely by Japanese engineers, could ac commodate Japanese landing forces suf ficient to launch a major attack on Manila, the only point in the islands be lieved impregnable—from the sea!

A SMALL-SCALE war over fishing rights near Busuanga, an island about 180 miles south-west of Manila Bay, un covered a situation more or less typical of conditions in many Philippine atolls and islets.

Here, about 500 Japanese have estab lished a fishing base, and practically monopolise waters which, by law, they have no right to enter, except in service of native operators. Many of them dy namite their catch —an illegal but wide spread Japanese practice which has de stroyed some of the best Philippine fish ing preserves.

Some Philippine water police, stopping a Japanese vessel to search for dynamite, found it not only well supplied with ex plosives but. as often occurs, operating without a license. When they ordered the vessel to put in to shore for inves tigation the “insulted” Japanese attempt ed to throw them into the sea. Out numbered, the Filipinos managed to reach land, but there some 250 Japan ese mobilised and attacked the small na tive police force in a battle resulting in a number of casualties. One Japanese

was killed. Some of the natives were tied to trees and severely beaten.

Finding it necessary to intervene, the American-commanded Constabulary or dered the arrest of over 100 Japanese, although the Japanese authorities, who were anxious to hush up the affair, made a great effort to have the search droo ped.

When the Japanese fishermen are equipped with fishing licenses at all, they hold them in Filipino names—by arrange ment, it is alleged, with Philippine poli ticians. An American admiral assures me that naval patrols have frequently informed the Commonwealth Government of this, without visible effect.

JAPANESE settlers are land-owners in other islands than Mindanao. Fili pinos have recently become alarmed over the growth of a Japanese colony in the

Kalinga-Layal Valley, among the Igorots. near the Baguio goldfields.

In addition to the Japanese rubber estates established in Mindanao, there are Japanese holdings on other islands in sugar, fruit, truck-farming and to-

Dcicco.

In anticipation of Philippine inde pendence, and complete customs auton omy which may bring prohibitive tariffs on American goods, Japanese are taking an interest in light industries. Japanese corporations and branches of the great Japanese banks, in Manila, are looking for Filipino partners with vision—political as well as economic. When the huge Jap anese-owned (nominally Philippine-Jap anese) Balintawak Brewery opened in Manila with a three-day celebration of free food and drinks, its list of guests read like an official reception.