Abstract

A productive way to explore how we have imagined ourselves as a nation after the

spanish colonial era is by exploring how we have imagined other countries japan and

America that have for better or for worse

P.W preston (1987,200) notes that the arrival in the Philippines, in 1941 of Japanese

armed forces polarized the filifinos “roughly speaking its was the elite who collaborated

and the peasantry who resisted

Calculating the america industrial might would make her the ultimate victor in the pacific

war, most filifino leaders maintained their pro-American loyalties and only collaborated

with the Japanese to turvive until MacArthur retured.

What is implied in this explanation is that collaboration with the Japanese was antithencal

to a genuinely nationalist stance.thus, the elite motivated primarily with calculation of

what they can gain calaborated whereas the masses driven by a primordial desire for

independence resisted.

The Japanese Occupation was helpfl to the cause of Indonesian nationalism along three

lines

1. it provided the opportunity for sukarno and hatta, the key leaders to preach

nationalism to the masses

 2. it gave the nationalist leaders invaluable experience in government administration

MacArthur abrupt departure and feeling demoralized by it the Filipinos were even

inspired to greater heights of herosm by his I shall return plede.

I have returned. By the grace of almighty Fod our forces stand again on Philippine soil

The hour of your redemption is here Your patrios have demonstraded an unswerving and

resolutes devotion to the principles of freedom that challenge the best that is written in

the pages of human history..

Rally to me. Let the indomitable spirit of Bataan and Correfitor lead on Let no heart be

faint. Lrt evry arm be steeled.

As we shall see, American officials knew how to appropriate key elements of the folk

tradition, of which the Rizal symbols is a classic example. As McCoy observed, in

cosntrast to the Dutch and the French the Amricans carefully studied the nationalist

tradition of the Filipinos and therefore could appropriate it for their purposes unlike

Japanese.

MacArthur was not the first to deploy the dsicousre of Redemotion. When Francis

B.Harrison arrived on October 1913 as the new governor-general, he pulled a similar

messianic stunt in his inaugural address,which he ended thus.

WWII was not the first time that Filipinos demonstrated their devotion to the United
states. Filipinos also fought under the American banner during WWI. Baskung in the
after glow if the Filipinos