A rare publication by occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines during the Second World War, commemorating the graduates of the first class of the New Philippines Cultural Institute.
In 1942, a “small group of Filipinos resisted the returning American forces alongside the Japanese military in order to gain, or rather to sustain, independence for their country” (Terami-Wada, 104). The Japanese realised the importance of cultural propaganda as a complement to military might. As such, across their occupied territories (Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria) they drafted people involved in the arts - writers, painters, philosophers, photographers, theatre and film directors.
Jiro Saito was the Director of the Imperial Japanese Army’s Department of Information, formerly the Propaganda Corp. The name was changed “to reflect the long term propaganda/cultural work that needed to be done in the country, and was facing the vast task of shaping and moulding the minds and spirits of the Filipinos to be a part of the Great East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere” (ibid, 105). He has signed the opening leaf (a printed facsimile of Japanese script): “Colonel Jiro Saito Independent Philippines.”
Under the control of Lt. Shigenobu Mochizuki, the New Philippines Cultural Institute established a program whereby 66 Filipino male university graduates volunteered to be “removed from the decadent buy-and-sell atmosphere” of rural life. They underwent a three-month indoctrination process which involved sacrifice, loyalty tests, physical and intellectual instruction. This “unique, rigorous, concentrated course [was] in preparation for the gigantic task of rebuilding a nation, a strong nation, from the debris of war.” The idea was to build a new Philippines in the mould of Imperial Japan.
This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the program, especially the section titled “How Pillars Are Made” which describes itself as “an essay in pictures.” It starts with two images of the location and buildings, then documents the early morning wake up, exercises in the field, washing in the bath house, chores around camp, communal dining, as well as classes, and inspections by high-ranking officers.
A list of lectures is included, divided into different categories War (“Why Japan is Winning the War”); Economics (“Building the Economic Structure of the New Philippines”); General (“Nippon-Philippine Relations”); Educational (“The Reconstruction of Philippine Education”); Cultural (“Oriental Philosophy”); Political (“New Political Ideology for the New Philippines”); and Historical (“American Invasion of East Asia”).
This is followed by individual photographs of each graduating student (four did not complete the course and so only 62 are listed) and then a directory listing where they went to school, their home address, and place of work.
A rare piece of social history and an important record of life in Japanese-occupied Philippines.
OCLC locates copies at Hoover Institute, UCLA, Williams, Huntington, and Norwich University, VT.
Terami-Wada, M., “Lt. Shigenobu Mochizuki and the New Philippine Cultural Institute” in Journal of Southwest Asian Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1, (Mar., 1996) pp.104-123.
