IT WAS a long ride from General Santos City to the IMIN Philippine-Japan Historical Museum in Calinan, Davao City. However, we couldn’t be dissuaded from reaching the place because museums inspire us, and we had homeschooled kids with us who needed the exposure to expand their knowledge and appreciation of the world. Talk about fortitude, huh! The museum is located inside the Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School Calinan in Durian Village, Davao City
Visiting the museum is like coming full circle. I was in Japan in my younger life—another lifetime ago—to participate in “The Friendship Programme for the 21st Century,” organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency under the International Cooperation Programme of the Government of Japan. It was a month-long exchange programme and boy, was it fantastic! Learning about Japan was extraordinary! I had two sets of foster parents who hosted me for one week each. The rest of the weeks were spent in posh hotels such as the Metropolitan Tokyo Hotel, offering a fantastic view of Tokyo, the bustling capital of Japan.
I couldn’t remember the number of temples we visited—there were plenty—but most astonishing of all was the Imperial Palace grounds, with its fascinating koi pond! We participated in Japanese tea ceremonies, joined the school children in cooking Soba soup, attended the welcome ceremonies of prefectures which were shown on local TV, haha, gamely flung our opponents in Kendo demonstrations minus the shinai, blown away by the impressive World Design Exhibition 1989—I can remember walking in my high heels that appalled my fellow participants, toured shops and practiced our Nihongo—I did learn the language (but with no practice, I gradually lost touch except for phrases that stuck with me over the years), watched the splendor of Mt. Fuji from a distant lake in Yokohama, and most impactful of all, explored the interactive Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum that featured the aftermath of the American bombing on August 6, 1945. At the end of one month, I felt like the study tour was too short!
Back to the museum experience. According to museum records, the Philippine-Japan Historical Museum was constructed in 1994 “through the generosity of the Tokyo Musashino Lions Club and the late Tatsuo Uchida, a 2002 Datu Bago awardee and adopted son of Davao City,” who provided funds to construct the building. In 2019, the Japanese Government provided a grant to renovate and enhance the museum.
From the photos that formed part of the exhibits, I learned that 19th-century Davao was a huge forest inhabited by about 10,000 Indigenous People (IPs) of various origins, 4,000 Muslims, and some settlers from Luzon, Visayas, and other regions in Mindanao. Moreover, the “inhabitants in Davao spoke different languages collectively known as ‘Davaoeño.’ However, the lingua franca of many traders and early foreign settlers at that time was Davao-Chavacano (broken Spanish),” as influenced by the Spaniards. Interesting!
Even before the Second World War (WWII), Japanese migration to the Philippines had already begun. It was recorded that on January 8, 1903, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted immigration agents free access to the country. By February 1903, Toshio Morishima sent twenty immigrants to the Philippines, followed by fourteen Welfare immigrants in the same period. In March 1903, sixty-seven people joined the Kobe travel and immigration, and by April 1903, through Ryosuke Suda from Kagoshima Prefecture, S. Koba, and about thirty other Japanese had arrived in Davao to work in the abaca plantation of Juan Awad.
Given this migration, the “Five Powers in Davao” had already existed. These include the Consulate of Japan in Davao, Dabao Okinawa Kenjin-Kai (The Association of People from Okinawa Prefecture in Davao), Ohta Kogyo, Inc. (The Ohta Development Company), Furukawa Takushoku, Inc. (Furukawa Plantation, Inc.), and the Association of Independent Cultivators.
Museum memorabilia include a map showing areas where the Japanese migrated into the country, the production of Manila hemp, a model of Little Tokyo, a replica of Bayabas Shrine, Japanese arms and munitions used during WWII, among others.
But what caught my attention was a display titled, “Casualties During the 2nd World War.” It states, “Due to the fact that the Philippines was still under the sovereignty of the United States during the outbreak of World War II, it became one of the battlefields during the war between Japan and America. As a result of the tragic war, Japan lost half a million or more or less 500,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians in the islands of the Philippines. However, the records also revealed that about a million (1,000,000) Filipinos died during the Pacific war.”
There. That short statement captured it all.
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Comprising the power team that explored the museum were spouses, Engr. Manuel Reinhold B. Tawagon Jr. and Laarni Ramlene Valmoria Tawagon, with kids Liora Reilene, Myeisha Raynne, and Fyodr Eoin, who donned the kimono and yukata, respectively, and this writer.
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Woman Talk with Belinda Sales is taking a wellness break. You may send your email to belindabelsales@gmail.com. Follow us on X at @ShilohRuthie./PN
