Kamikaze statue in Mabalacat, When was the last time Filipinos were honored in Japan? Options

[InsTg8er]

Money seems to be the driving force for Mabalacat when they chose to erect a statue that honored the Kamikaze pilots to bring in Japanese tourism.
In the article bitter victims of WW2, including comfort women, were ignored when they protested the statue. Read on and judge for yourself if you think it's right that this statue should be there to honor the tools that promoted Japanese Imperialism.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1114043.html

[silangan]

Do you think the Americans have totally captured the hearts and minds of Filipinos when they colonized the Philippines?

I don't think so. Resistance never stopped. Armed rebels continued to wage war.

Another thing is, Davao and its provinces has some of the largest population of Japanese BEFORE world war 2 at the height of Abaca. Naturally, when world war 2 erupted, large number of Pinoys over there were on Japanese side. Not many were in combat but many were sympathizers and undercover agents.

I don't know the history of the Japanese in Mabalacat or Pampanga as a whole. But in Davao, you sit in a barber shop and listen to old folks who still reminisce the past. They miss their Japanese friends.

[InsTg8er]

Do you think the Americans have totally captured the hearts and minds of Filipinos when they colonized the Philippines?

I don't think so. Resistance never stopped. Armed rebels continued to wage war.

Another thing is, Davao and its provinces has some of the largest population of Japanese BEFORE world war 2 at the height of Abaca. Naturally, when world war 2 erupted, large number of Pinoys over there were on Japanese side. Not many were in combat but many were sympathizers and undercover agents.

I don't know the history of the Japanese in Mabalacat or Pampanga as a whole. But in Davao, you sit in a barber shop and listen to old folks who still reminisce the past. They miss their Japanese friends.

The answer to your question is no. At the time of the American occupation, White Americans could do as they please. However, Today it seems that Pinoys love being American. There is a big difference from the US that were once occupiers to the US that the Pinoys want to occupy.

I don't know much about Davao or how Pinoys were treated by the Japanese residents before WW2 but it seems that not much information is known about that part of Davao's history. If you can, would you post any link about that period of Davao's past?

[InsTg8er]

Mabalacat = SELLOUTS!
I can imagine the US and Pinoy soldiers rolling in their graves at what is erected in the land that they died for. I pity the victims, mainly comfort women, who have to endure in knowing that the very same soldiers who raped them are worshipped by the same Filipinos who sold them out for Japanese tourist profits.

I can't see the part where the mayor claims that it was erected for peace when the statue itself glorifies the lone Kamikaze pilot. If they wanted a statue/monument to stand for peace, they should have erected a statue that represented the three countries that were involved in the war.

Someone should shoot that dumb mayor before he dies of old age!

[orient]

I'm surprised no one blew it up yet.

[martin_nuke]

Dapat ibenta nalang yan sa bote-bakal para may pakinabang maski paano.

[orient]

Dapat ibenta nalang yan sa bote-bakal para may pakinabang maski paano.

May pakinabang naman pagdating sa paghalik sa pwet ng Hapon

[chiuchimu]

Mabalacat = SELLOUTS!
I can imagine the US and Pinoy soldiers rolling in their graves at what is erected in the land that they died for. I pity the victims, mainly comfort women, who have to endure in knowing that the very same soldiers who raped them are worshipped by the same Filipinos who sold them out for Japanese tourist profits.

I can't see the part where the mayor claims that it was erected for peace when the statue itself glorifies the lone Kamikaze pilot. If they wanted a statue/monument to stand for peace, they should have erected a statue that represented the three countries that were involved in the war.

Someone should shoot that dumb mayor before he dies of old age!

Can you prove this? Maybe it's you that is bios.

[InsTg8er]

Can you prove this? Maybe it's you that is bios.

I don't know whether I should be laughing at a 31 year old perv, MMA wannabe who puts up pictures of teenage girls on his profile or answer your question that exposes you for not knowing the atrocities of Japanese militarism towards its Asian neighbors during WW2.

My only reply is what is there to prove? Click on the link if you know how. (sorry they don't attach joysticks on fake vaginas for you to learn how to use a computer)...but someday you'll grow out of your phase and learn how to click on a link, hopefully some day.

日本人ですか。俺は日本語しゃべりますよ。Read that you Japanese wannabe!

[chiuchimu]

I don't know whether I should be laughing at a 31 year old perv, MMA wannabe who puts up pictures of teenage girls on his profile or answer your question that exposes you for not knowing the atrocities of Japanese militarism towards its Asian neighbors during WW2.

My only reply is what is there to prove? Click on the link if you know how. (sorry they don't attach joysticks on fake vaginas for you to learn how to use a computer)...but someday you'll grow out of your phase and learn how to click on a link, hopefully some day.

日本人ですか。俺は日本語しゃべりますよ。Read that you Japanese wannabe!

私は　日本人です。
日本語書けるのに　日本の事きらいみたいですね。　

Trans:
I'm Japanese.
for a person who can write Japanese, strange that you hate Japan.



You revealed just how bios you are so I don't have to bother arguing with you. You can't understand someone else perspective so you call them sell outs or attack them anyway you can. Yet, you never proved the town is doing it to attract more Japanese tourist - I can tell you, building a monument for Kamikaze pilots will NOT attract more Japanese tourist. That's you're own spin on things. You are the one that is trying to link WW2 atrocities to this statue and reasoning that those Filipinos are sellouts and traitors.

[InsTg8er]

私は　日本人です。
日本語書けるのに　日本の事きらいみたいですね。　

Trans:
I'm Japanese.
for a person who can write Japanese, strange that you hate Japan.



You revealed just how bios you are so I don't have to bother arguing with you. You can't understand someone else perspective so you call them sell outs or attack them anyway you can. Yet, you never proved the town is doing it to attract more Japanese tourist - I can tell you, building a monument for Kamikaze pilots will NOT attract more Japanese tourist. That's you're own spin on things. You are the one that is trying to link WW2 atrocities to this statue and reasoning that those Filipinos are sellouts and traitors.

I clearly understand your perspective, you on the other hand don't. Let me put it clearly. If every female member of your family was raped and every male member of your family was tortured or killed would you make a monument out of the people who murdered them?
Clearly you CHOOSE not to understand or sympathize the victims that suffered under the Japanese imperial army. Keep in mind that the japanese civilians during WW2 were led to believe by their leaders that Nihon was great and it was Nihon's duty to unify Asia under Japanese rule. Study your history and ot the biased Japanese history books that has your Asian neighbors upset over the whitewashed details of WW2.

you never proved the town is doing it to attract more Japanese tourist - I can tell you, building a monument for Kamikaze pilots will NOT attract more Japanese tourist.

You may have a hard time reading English because it is the only reason why you insist that I provide you the proof when all you have to do is google the subject OR click on the link provided and then read and comprehend. Why is it that for a 31 year old you can't follow the directions I've given you?

あなたは英語を分かるのに俺の書いた英語を分からないの。それは変じゃない?　そればっかりじゃなくて日本語分かるけど日本のこときらいと意味じゃないよ。
Translation:
Even though you can understand English you can't understand the English I wrote? Isn't that strange? Not only that, I may understand Japanese it doesn't mean that I hate Japanese.
分かりますか。

[silangan]

I'm surprised no one blew it up yet.

Filipinos generally are not inclined to do that. Muslim and Communist Pinoys maybe, but not the regular ones.

[chiuchimu]

あなたは英語を分かるのに俺の書いた英語を分からないの。それは変じゃない?　そればっかりじゃなくて日本語分かるけど日本のこときらいと意味じゃないよ。

これは英語、日本語の問題じゃないです。
Ｔｒａｎｓ：　ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ｎｏｔ　ａｎ　Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ，　Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　ｉｓｓｕｅ．

I read the article.
I don't have a problem with it.

I am questioning your interpretation of this article.

You make it sound like there is this overwhelming movement against building this Monument but the city government did it anyway because tourist money to them was more important than the feelings of war victims.

That's not what the article said.

First, this monument was built 10 months ago. Why try to make a ruckus now? Second, the article talked in general about existing feelings in the Filipinos about ww2 not the local people in the city were against the building of this monument. In fact, the article talks of how this could be an interpretation of Filipinos forgiving the passed and moving forward with Japan. And last, even though the author implied money might have been an influence, he stops short of claiming it as fact. In fact, the Aurthur states the man behind the monument building has been interested in WW2 Japan since he saw them as a 15yr old kid. He began making WW2 memorials for Kamikaze pilots before there were any tourist.


anyway, I'm done.

This post has been edited by chiuchimu: Jun 9 2011, 03:44 PM

[InsTg8er]

これは英語、日本語の問題じゃないです。
Ｔｒａｎｓ：　ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ｎｏｔ　ａｎ　Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ，　Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　ｉｓｓｕｅ．.

No it isn't an English Japanese issue. It's my way of getting an opinion out of the Japanese members of this forum because, we both know, that the Japanese are not open to debate especially when it comes to WW2 issues.

I read the article.
I don't have a problem with it.

I am questioning your interpretation of this article.

You make it sound like there is this overwhelming movement against building this Monument but the city government did it anyway because tourist money to them was more important than the feelings of war victims.

That's not what the article said.

The article is the messenger. The opinions of the reader is what I'm communicating. Finally you read ther aritcle but you're still not sympathetic to the victims of WW2.

First, this monument was built 10 months ago. Why try to make a ruckus now? Second, the article talked in general about existing feelings in the Filipinos about ww2 not the local people in the city were against the building of this monument. In fact, the article talks of how this could be an interpretation of Filipinos forgiving the passed and moving forward with Japan.

1) Ten years ago it was built, not 10 months ago(十ヶ月前じゃなくて十年前にできました)。This was built without any knowledge by the victims of the war. You never answered my question if you are willing to build a monument if someone were to rape all the women and kill all the men in your family. I doubt you will answer that question because you know that this is what that statue represents. It represents the Kamikaze who sacrificed their life so that the Japanese imperial army can do what they wish with the people of Asia and their land.
2)The town SOLD OUT! The people are poor and they do not have any attractions to lure tourists or visitors to their town. This is their own way of doing so even though they knew that it represented killers of their people. Can you tell me if there are any monuments of Americans, Chinese, Mongols or any other military force that have a monument in Japan? I don't think there are because the Japanese people are too proud to disgrace their fallen soldiers by honoring foreign soldiers in their homeland. Do you understand that part?
Do you honestly believe that the Kamikaze pilots represent peace? Would you give a gun to a peace treaty? Would you think it would be acceptable for the pilots of the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the atom bomb) to have a monument in their honor at Hiroshima?
A peace memorial shows more than one side of the people who were in the battle. If there was something that represented Filipino, US and Japanese unity in that monument then that would be a peace monument. Not a Kamikaze pilot!

And last, even though the author implied money might have been an influence, he stops short of claiming it as fact. In fact, the Aurthur states the man behind the monument building has been interested in WW2 Japan since he saw them as a 15yr old kid. He began making WW2 memorials for Kamikaze pilots before there were any tourist..

IT IS FACT that the reason for building the monument was for monetary gain. READ THE PART WHERE IT SAYS THAT THE TOWN NEEDED AN ATTRACTION SO THAT THEY CAN RAISE MONEY! The Japanese tourists started coming when they learned that there was a Kamikaze monument that honored the killers of WW2 who gave their lives in order to preserve the Japanese Imperial army's goal of conquering Asia!

The man who admired the Kamikazes since he was 15 was a Japanese sympathizer. There were more Filipinos who suffered and died than there were Japanese sympathizers. But does that mean that he is right because he gets his selfish wish at the cost of his Filipino brothers and sister? Again, think about answering my question about building a monument if a person were to murder your family.

anyway, I'm done.

This issue will not die easily. I hope this issue stays in your head because I know that not many Japanese, young and old, do not like to discuss WW2 with non-Japanese because of it's sensitive details and it was a dark hour in Japanese history. Even if you were to read the Japanese history books, you would not be able to read much about that period.
I even went as far as the Japan Ministry of Education when I lived in Japan and ask an official about the subject and they declined to comment. You will not get a straight answer from a Japanese teacher, principal or student if you were to ask a sensitive question.

[DPSlock]

No it isn't an English Japanese issue. It's my way of getting an opinion out of the Japanese members of this forum because, we both know, that the Japanese are not open to debate especially when it comes to WW2 issues.


The article is the messenger. The opinions of the reader is what I'm communicating. Finally you read ther aritcle but you're still not sympathetic to the victims of WW2.


1) Ten years ago it was built, not 10 months ago(十ヶ月前じゃなくて十年前にできました)。This was built without any knowledge by the victims of the war. You never answered my question if you are willing to build a monument if someone were to rape all the women and kill all the men in your family. I doubt you will answer that question because you know that this is what that statue represents. It represents the Kamikaze who sacrificed their life so that the Japanese imperial army can do what they wish with the people of Asia and their land.
2)The town SOLD OUT! The people are poor and they do not have any attractions to lure tourists or visitors to their town. This is their own way of doing so even though they knew that it represented killers of their people. Can you tell me if there are any monuments of Americans, Chinese, Mongols or any other military force that have a monument in Japan? I don't think there are because the Japanese people are too proud to disgrace their fallen soldiers by honoring foreign soldiers in their homeland. Do you understand that part?
Do you honestly believe that the Kamikaze pilots represent peace? Would you give a gun to a peace treaty? Would you think it would be acceptable for the pilots of the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the atom bomb) to have a monument in their honor at Hiroshima?
A peace memorial shows more than one side of the people who were in the battle. If there was something that represented Filipino, US and Japanese unity in that monument then that would be a peace monument. Not a Kamikaze pilot!


IT IS FACT that the reason for building the monument was for monetary gain. READ THE PART WHERE IT SAYS THAT THE TOWN NEEDED AN ATTRACTION SO THAT THEY CAN RAISE MONEY! The Japanese tourists started coming when they learned that there was a Kamikaze monument that honored the killers of WW2 who gave their lives in order to preserve the Japanese Imperial army's goal of conquering Asia!

The man who admired the Kamikazes since he was 15 was a Japanese sympathizer. There were more Filipinos who suffered and died than there were Japanese sympathizers. But does that mean that he is right because he gets his selfish wish at the cost of his Filipino brothers and sister? Again, think about answering my question about building a monument if a person were to murder your family.


This issue will not die easily. I hope this issue stays in your head because I know that not many Japanese, young and old, do not like to discuss WW2 with non-Japanese because of it's sensitive details and it was a dark hour in Japanese history. Even if you were to read the Japanese history books, you would not be able to read much about that period.
I even went as far as the Japan Ministry of Education when I lived in Japan and ask an official about the subject and they declined to comment. You will not get a straight answer from a Japanese teacher, principal or student if you were to ask a sensitive question.

u should be angry at the people who erected it then..they are the ones who sold out for money

This post has been edited by DPSlock: Jun 10 2011, 07:59 AM

[InsTg8er]

u should be angry at the people who erected it then..they are the ones who sold out for money

"IF they build it they will come"

Here in Mabalacat, next to former Clark Air Base in the northern Philippines, city tourism chief Edgar Hilbero says there was "a lot" of criticism of the statue, and concedes the decision to put it up was driven by tourism as much as by history.
Every October, hundreds of Japanese tourists, war veterans, students and Buddhist monks travel here to honor the kamikaze with flowers, incense and prayers.

Rechilda Extremadura is a spokeswoman for more than 100 women among the thousands enslaved in Japanese military brothels in several Asian countries. She said the women protested to the provincial governor about the kamikaze statue.

"Why should we have a monument to glorify that war? We were victimized," she said. "It's OK for me for Japan to glorify their troops, but not for a country like us, who were pillaged and destroyed by the Japanese. It's not proper."

In Manila, writer Francisco Sionil Jose applauds the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"I haven't changed my feelings, and I am 80 years old," he said. "If you were here during the Japanese occupation, you would understand how I feel. And this is precisely the problem -- that many Filipinos don't have a living experience of that occupation, so they can afford to be very blase, very forgiving.

"But not those of us who lived through it."
http://www.semissourian.com/story/1114043.html

If they didn't come, then it would have been a waste to even build it. If the Japanese tourist come to pay homage to the victims of WW2 and NOT pay homage to the Kamikaze pilots then that would be different. BUT that's not what they come for. They come to patronize and pay homage to their war heroes, ON SOIL WHERE FILIPINOS WERE VICTIMIZED BY THE SAME PEOPLE THEY PAY HOMAGE TO. Would you want to visit the Yasukuni (memorial to Japan's imperial army) shrine so you can thank the Japanese Imperial army for killing Filipinos?

For years, he struggled to persuade the owners to allow him to put up a small marker on the fence around the nondescript, single-story house. They relented only after Dizon enlisted the help of a local businessman, who saw a chance to make money in a landlocked province with few other attractions.

When it saw Japanese tourists starting to pour in, he said, the city prodded him to find and mark other kamikaze spots.

Now if the townspeople weren't so poor do you think they would have opposed the monument? If you ever lived below the poverty line you would say yes to anything if it promised jobs. Read the part where the caretaker justifies his job even though he didn't like the monument.

In that context, what happened 60 or more years ago tends to lose relevance. "The Japanese were very brutal, very hostile to Filipinos," says Faustino Arceo, the toothless 68-year-old gardener who tends the shrubbery around the statue of the goggled, helmeted flier. "Before, I was angry. But now, I can't do anything. It's the past."

Walang hiya ang Mabalacat...

This post has been edited by InsTg8er: Jun 10 2011, 06:57 PM

[Fictionicon]

.

[pinkcreamreturns]

one thing can be learnt about this topic and that's silangan clearly has EA c@ck in and around his mouth.

[silangan]

one thing can be learnt about this topic and that's silangan clearly has EA c@ck in and around his mouth.

Many Japanese soldiers were left behind in Mindanao even after the war. Many different stories, some people say they did not want to surrender. Others say they got lost in combat, etc. etc. But the FACT IS they were not living alone as hermit in the jungles. They have company. They were hidden in the jungles of Mindanao by Visayans and natives. They got married there. They have children, grand and great grand children.

Why would these Filipinos hide and protect them? Simple---Not all Filipinos were pro American during the war.

You there in Luzon don't have these left over Japanese soldiers that's why you're so quick to judge.

[Fictionicon]

Many Japanese soldiers were left behind in Mindanao even after the war. Many different stories, some people say they did not want to surrender. Others say they got lost in combat, etc. etc. But the FACT IS they were not living alone as hermit in the jungles. They have company. They were hidden in the jungles of Mindanao by Visayans and natives. They got married there. They have children, grand and great grand children.

Why would these Filipinos hide and protect them? Simple---Not all Filipinos were pro American during the war.

You there in Luzon don't have these left over Japanese soldiers that's why you're so quick to judge.

wasn't there was puppet government by the japanese?