A Little Tokyo Rooted in the Philippines
Davaokuo, as the Japanese enclave was called before WWII, is a symbol of the evolving international Japanese identity.
In Davao, a bustling city on the Philippines' southernmost island of Mindanao, vestiges of its former life as a Little Tokyo still persevere in the city's fabric of life.
From the early 1900s to the beginning of World War II, Japanese sojourners lured by the financial promise of abaca, the country's cash crop, set up a small enclave in the city and called it Davaokuo. Back then, Japanese restaurants, hotels and even a movie theater lined the streets surrounding San Pedro Cathedral, but today the only small imprints are in ruins.
An old monument of pioneering abaca plantation owner Kyozaburo Ohta still stands in the former Japanese settlement of Mintal alongside the ruins of the Furukawa Fiber Plant and a small Japanese cemetery where the original Japanese settlers were buried.
But perhaps the strongest Japanese imprint in the city hugged by the Davao Gulf and the Mindanao Sea are its people - an estimated 1,000 children of Japanese-Filipina parentage left behind in Davao just after the end of WWII. Today, there are around 20,000 Philippine Nikkei-jin or descendents of Japanese Issei, said Shun Ohno, a professor at Kyushu University Asia in Japan.
Like many other Japanese enclaves in the United States, war directly affected the rise and fall of Davaokuo. What was once a city born out of fear of Japanese control (Davao was made a chartered city with appointive officials instead of elective officials to thwart Japanese Filipinos from taking control) has turned into a Japanese-friendly tourism spot.
"It is good to think that I am a Japanese Filipino," said Glenbelle Baslao, 20, of Davao. "How [the Japanese] were able to rise after World War II is somewhat an inspiration for us down here."
Issei Influence
The first group of pioneering Issei arrived in the Philippines in 1903 and settled in Davao's virgin forests and jungles in hopes of capitalizing on the demand for abaca or "Manila hemp." Although the Issei were prohibited from owning land, they managed to go around the law by making deals with local landowners. With the enriched land, they built an agricultural empire.
Among these entrepreneurs were the founders of the Ohta Development Company and the Furukawa Fiber Plant. Ohta and Furukawa Takushouko were said to employ many local residents to work in the fields. Today, Ohta's legacy is frozen in time with his monument and the remains of the employee barracks still on display. Traces of the Ohta influence also can be seen in Davao City's district of Bago Shiro, which derives its name from Kozo Ohshiro, the vice president of Ohta Development Company and the first president of the Davao Japanese Association.
By the early 1920s, Davaokuo's Japanese population was exploding.
"Japanese residential areas were scattered around Davao City and its surround areas such as districts of Mintal and Calinan. There were almost 20,000 Japanese residents at its peak in the whole of Davao just before the outbreak of the Pacific War," said Ohno, who received his Master of Arts degree in Philippines Studies at the University of the Philippines and his doctorate from the Australian National University.
The Issei created their own school, newspapers and Shinto Shrine. They also easily intermarried with Davao's indigenous peoples, but the symbiotic harmony would come to an end with the start of WWII.
Moving On with Memories of the Past
During the War, the abaca industry drastically declined because most of the Issei were conscripted as soldiers and ordered to change their farming crop to rice and other food products for the Japanese armed forces that were headquartered in a Davao residence on Legazpi Street.
By the War's end, the Philippines had suffered war atrocities, including reports of Filipina comfort women who were captured by the Japanese as sex slaves, and a loss of over 1 million casualties.
The origins of Davaokuo's Japanese heritage again became twisted in history.
"Filipinos, however, (just like most Asians) don't like to wallow in the past. We have a way of moving on," said Germelina Lacorte, a Davao City resident and journalist for Davao Today.
Last November, Lacorte, 38, worked on a photo essay on the children of a remote Mt. Apo village, where she met Erpincita Ayap, an indigenous Bagobo woman who is of Japanese descent.
"She told me that she grew up thinking her grandfather had a 'strange name.' It was only later when she learned that her grandfather was part of the imperial army (she surmised he was an officer) who went into hiding among the Bagobo indigenous peoples after the war. He married her grandmother but she only came upon this fact later," said Lacorte.
The older generations may still harbor strong resentment towards the Japanese, but young Filipinos generally have positive sentiments, said Ohno.
But there is a love-hate dichotomy between the nations, especially since the Japanese account for the highest number of foreign visitors to the city, according to the Department of Tourism.
For 10 pesos, tourists can visit Davao's Japanese Tunnel, which was used by soldiers during WWII. Inside officials have placed replicas of Japanese soldiers watching over slaves and counting money from a bag. In the last decade, new Japanese restaurants have been popping up in place of Filipino eateries and the city officials are ramping up efforts towards preservation.
Finding the Nikkei-jin
Since August 2006, the Federation of Nikkei-Jin Kai Philippines Inc. along with the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center (PNLSC) have been trying to locate the Japanese Filipino children who were abandoned or orphaned by their Japanese fathers because of persecution after Japan lost WWII and the Shin Nikkei, those who were born after the war.
"Every person has a right to know their place of origin, which is one of the fundamental human rights," says the PNLSC Web site. "Our goal is to help Philippine Nikkei-jin to restore their identities ..."
The task is daunting. The Philippine government and Japan have no record of the number of neglected Japanese descendants in the country because their birth certificates show their citizenship as Filipino. And even if some individuals are identified, many Japanese fathers deny blood relations.
Many don't even know they have Japanese blood in their veins.
"Most of them have assimilated, usually you could no longer tell them from the rest of the people who live here in Davao since they already look and speak like everybody else. You could no longer tell the difference until you start asking about their history and descent and you discover they have different names," said Lacorte.
But for other Japanese Filipinos like Baslao, heritage is nothing to be ashamed of.
"I admire the Japanese nationals very much," said Baslao. "Japanese history is no longer a big occasion here, but for some schools like the Phil Nikkei Jin Kai and Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku, they still celebrate the Phil-Japan Friendship Day."
July 23 was declared Philippines-Japan Friendship Day and the year of 2006 was declared Philippines-Japan Friendship Year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the Peace Treaty and Reparations Agreement, which required Japan to provide the Philippines with $50 million in services and goods.
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