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SAKDALISTAS’ STRUGGLE
FOR PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE,
1930—1945
Motoe Terami-Wada
ATENEO DE MANILA
UNIVERSITY PRESS
SmOBL OTEAl COMMISSION OF THE PWP®
ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bellarmine Hall, Katipunan Avenue
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P.O. Box 154, 1099 Manila, Philippines
Tel.: (632) 426-59-84 / Fax (632) 426-59-09
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ateneopress.org
Copyright 2014 by Ateneo de Manila University
and Motoe Terami-Wada
Cover design by Faith Aldaba
Book design by Paolo Tiausas
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written
permission of the Publisher.
The National Library of the Philippines CIP Data
Recommended entry:
Terami-Wada, Motoe
Sakdalistas’ struggle for Philippine independence,
1930-1945 / Motoe Terami-Wada. — Quezon City :
Ateneo de Manila University Press, c2014.
p. ; cm.
ISBN 978-971-550-679-3
1. Lapiang Sakdalista sa Pilipinas—History—Sources.
2. Philippines—History—1898-1946—Sources. 3. Philippines
Politics and government—1935-1946. I. Title.
DS685 959.903 2014 P320130739
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Prologue xiii
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
Chapter 2
The Early Years of the Sakdalista 11
Movement, 1930-1933
Chapter 3
The Sakdalista Party and its 35
Activities, 1933-1935
Chapter 4
Sakdalista Activities and Another 67
Attempted Uprising, 1935-1936
Chapter 5
Sakdalista Activities and 89
Ramos in Japan, 1937-1938
Chapter 6
Ramos’s Return and 113
the Ganap Party, 1938-1941
Chapter 7
The Sakdalista Membership, 137
Ramos, and Sakdalism
Chapter 8
Under The Japanese Occupation, 165
1942-1945
Chapter 9
The Trials of the “Collaborators” 199
and Aftermath
Epilogue 209
Appendices 213
Chronological Table 222
Notes 229
Bibliography 318
Index 336
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
HP hough only vaguely, I knew of the Japanese military’s atrocities in
JL China, especially in Nanjin, during the second Sino-Japanese War
(1937-1945) and in Southeast Asian regions (1942-1945.) When my
daughter and I arrived in Manila in January 1973, shortly after President
Marcos declared martial law, to follow my husband who was invited to
teach at the University of the Philippines, I felt I should know more about
the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. I tried reading as many books
as I could on this subject whenever I found the time.
When my knowledge of the local language became sufficient, I began
enjoying watching movies and stage dramas. One of the performances
by Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) at Fort Santiago
was about a martial law during the early American occupation of the
Philippines circa 1900. The play was about an ordinary citizen named Juan
de la Cruz who fought against the new conqueror and died, but another
Juan de la Cruz picked up where the former left off. This play was obvi
ously criticizing Marcos’ martial law and urging people to fight against it.
At that time, people often drew an analogy between the oppressive Marcos
vii
viii Acknowledgments
regime and the Japanese occupation period. I became interested in how the
Filipinos expressed a critical attitude and resistance against the Japanese
military occupation through indirect and non-violent means, just like in
this PETA play. This inquiry led to a Master’s thesis, “Cultural Front in the
Philippines: 1942-1945,” in 1985. My interest in the Japanese occupation
continued. Now I became interested in those Filipinos who supported or
collaborated with the Japanese when Japan was not a particularly popular
country among Filipinos after forty some years of American occupation.
As a colonized people, all the Filipinos had to pledge allegiance to the
United States.
In 1984, Dr. Setsuho Ikehata, then professor at Tokyo University of
Foreign Languages and Cultures, invited me to join the three-year project,
"Historical and Anthropological Study on the Philippine Folk Catholicism”
funded by the Mitsubishi Foundation. For this project, I decided to look
into the so-called Rizalista cults in and around Manila.
In the meantime, Professor Shizuo Suzuki, then with the Center of
Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University, who was researching the
history of the Communist movement in the Philippines, asked me to attend
the interviews he was conducting with Luis Taruc, one of the leaders of the
Huks, an anti-Japanese guerrilla outfit during the Japanese occupation
and the anti-government liberation army in the postwar era. Prof. Suzuki
was particularly interested in the postwar alliance of the Communist party
and the former Ganap party, considered to be a pro-Japanese group during
the occupation. I found it interesting to see how Mr. Taruc’s group and the
members of the Ganap forged, or tried to forge, an alliance.
I do not remember exactly how the meeting took place, but a group
of former Ganap/Makapili members (members, hereafter) gathered in a
house in Alabang, Metro Manila, to meet with Mr. Taruc and the Japanese
“guests,” Prof. Suzuki and me. The members seemed to be more inter
ested in talking to us rather than to Mr. Taruc. When the meeting was
almost over, one of them handed us a letter addressed to the Japanese
government, asking for compensation for the service they rendered to the
Japanese military during the occupation. Prof. Suzuki accepted the letter
and promised to forward it to the Japanese Embassy in Manila, which he
did a few days later.
As we were leaving, an elderly man approached me and said that he
was not interested in asking any compensation from anybody because
his supporting the Japanese military was based on his conviction. He
Acknowledgments ix
assisted the Japanese because he believed the Philippines would become
independent from the United States. I was intrigued by his words, and
later on I paid him a visit to know more about his life and activities in the
prewar and occupation time.
His name was Mr. Jeremias Adia, and he was the secretary of the
Ganap party during the Japanese occupation. In the first meeting at his
residence in Cabuayo, Laguna, I discovered that he was the president of
a Rizalista cult called “Iglesia Sagrada ng Lahi (The Church of the Sacred
Race).” I could not help but thank this luck that I could study his church for
Dr. Ikehata’s project and learn more about the members’ activities at the
same time. From then on, my visit to Cabuyao and Silang, Cavite, where
the church’s headquarters stood, became more regular and frequent.
In the meantime, Mr. Adia took me to the site of the 1935 Sakdal
Uprising and arranged meetings with other members. I still remember
vividly my first meeting with those who gathered at Mr. Adia’s residence.
Five or six men and a woman, most of them in their seventies, were seated
in the living room. Some of them were barefooted, and their ankles were
caked with half-dried mud. Obviously they were working in the rice field
just before they came. The woman said to me, “So you are interested in
our revolution” (sa aming rebolusyon). In many get-togethers to come,
they always referred to the 1935 Uprising as the “revolution.” One of them
showed me an undershirt that he wore when he joined the “revolution”; he
wore it to invoke protection from the Higher Being. The sleeveless white
shirt had Latin prayers and figures of angels and other symbols.
These people tried to speak to me in some Japanese they had learned
from the soldiers and related to me fond memories they had of some
individual Japanese. They shared their excitement and expectations of
achieving independence because independence meant better lives for
them and their children. They also shared what they went through at the
end of the occupation and right after the war: some family members were
lynched by anti-Japanese guerrillas or villagers; they had hardly anything
to eat in mountain hideouts at the end of the occupation where many
died of starvation; some were imprisoned for a period of time and most
of them had been treated like outcasts in their respective towns in the
postwar era.
They vehemently denied they were traitors to the country as the
government and other Filipinos labeled them. Mr. Adia and others used
to say that because I was Japanese, they felt very comfortable and relaxed
x Acknowledgments
talking to me freely what they had kept to themselves for a long time.
Once a member asked me whether I knew of a good ophthalmologist in
Manila. I gave him the name and address of a Filipino specialist I used to
go to. He said, "No, no. Give me the name of a Japanese ophthalmologist.
I do not trust the Filipino doctor. He might blind me.” Their mistrust and
fear of other Filipinos were still very strong.
In 1990, the Forum for the Survey of Records Concerning the Japanese
Occupation of the Philippines was formed, led by Dr. Setsuho Ikehata and
funded by the Toyota Foundation. I was fortunate to be invited to this
forum which gave me an opportunity to develop the subject I had been
pursuing. The fund made it possible for me to do research in archives
and libraries, not only in Metro Manila but also in Washington D.C. and
Tokyo. Finally my research took shape as a Ph. D. dissertation in 1992,
entitled “Ang Kilusang Sakdal” (Sakdal Movement), and I submitted it to
the History Department of the University of the Philippines. I was encour
aged to publish it as a book, but the same year, my husband was assigned
to work in New Delhi, India, and I followed him with three children.
My book on Sakdal had to be put off during our four-year stay in India
because I was busy, not only adjusting to a new life and learning about the
fascinating culture of India but also playing the role expected of the wife of
a representative of an international organization. We came back to Manila
in 1996. We had barely unpacked what we had shipped from India when
my husband announced that he wanted to retire early, in a year’s time,
and live in Washington state where we had a summer house. I was devas
tated because I thought he had at least ten years before his retirement.
Leaving Manila was very difficult for me. I felt as if I were forced to leave
my mother country, because after all, I lived there for more than twenty
years and all my children had grown up, two of them being born in Manila.
After settling in at our summer house, now our American residence,
I had to face another difficult challenge. Within barely a year, my husband
passed away from lung cancer. Perhaps he knew of his impending death,
and that was the reason he wanted to retire earlier so that he could enjoy
his retirement life of playing golf and fishing, which he did for a few
months.
Writing a book on Sakdal was not on my mind for some time until
one day in 2003, Dr. Alfred McCoy of the University of Wisconsin encour
aged me to do so. With his encouragement, I finally began organizing the
dissertation into a book, but it has been a slow process. First of all, I had
Acknowledgments xi
to adjust emotionally to the new situation after losing someone so dear.
Other adjustments included learning how to drive, to write check, and to
pay bills, all of which my husband used to do.
Now the book is finally here. It was impossible to reach this stage
without the assistance of so many people: my family, friends, and
colleagues. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude by citing their
names below.
First and foremost, I thank Jeremias Adia who not only spent many
hours patiently answering my questions, but also helped me reach other
members. Equally important support came from Setsuho Ikehata, who
gave me impetus to conduct research by inviting me to various forums
and sending me encouraging words. In the final stage of the manuscript,
she also gave me valuable advice. In the beginning of my research work,
Reynaldo Ileto, who was leaving for Australia, generously shared with me
some material he had gathered for his own research. He also read my disser
tation and gave me useful comments. I would like to thank the members of
the Forum of the Japanese Occupation who inspired me and broadened my
view: Shinzo Hayase, Yoshiko Nagano, Satoshi Nakano, Takefumi Terada,
Hitoshi Nagai, Midori Kawashima, and Ricardo T. Jose. Ma. Terresa Guia
Padilla and Loida Reyes, my research assistants, helped me with reading
and cataloguing the Sakdal and Ganap weekly newspapers from 1932-39.
Reading all available Sakdal/Ganap newspapers was a daunting task, and
their assistance was invaluable. I would also like to thank Lydia Yu-Jose
for reading my dissertation, commenting on it, and sharing some mate
rials. Others who supplied me with or suggested Sakdal-related materials
include Brian Fegan, Jim Richardson, and Florentino Rodao. My special
thanks goes to Bernardita Churchill who obtained pertinent material at
the National Archives in Washington D.C.; in addition, Daniel Doeppers
supplied me with some Ganap issues which were not available at the
Philippine National Library.
When I began writing this book, I realized some materials and books
were missing due to the numerous moves we made: from Manila to New
Delhi and back; from Manila to Kobe, Japan; and from Kobe to Washington
state. Within the state I moved one more time to my present home after
my husband’s passing. It is a small town close to the Canadian border,
with no university or academic institution nearby. Many friends and
colleagues came to my rescue by supplying me with pertinent books and
materials. Especially I thank Thomas Walsh, Shinzo Hayase, and Chizuko
