The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Alvin I. Dacanay
This month marks the 70th anniversary of one of World War II’s most brutal episodes: the Battle for Manila. In this conflict, which lasted from February 3 to March 3, 1945, United States forces shelled the Philippine capital to compel the remaining Japanese troops in the city to come out of hiding. They did, but at great cost to the residents: these soldiers, keenly aware that their country is losing the war, responded by slaughtering more than 100,000 civilians—men, women and children. The battle so ruined Manila that many consider it, after Warsaw, as the most devastated city in the world at the end of the war.
Several special events were held this month to commemorate this very traumatic period in Philippine history. The most recent of these was the gala premiere of the full-length documentary Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story and launch of the coffee-table book of the same name, which was held at the historic Old Senate Hall of the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) in Manila last February 5.
Government officials, most notably Senators Cynthia Villar and Loren Legarda and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno of Manila; diplomats; historians; academics; and World War II survivors and members of their families were among those who graced the nighttime event.
Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story is the follow-up to Spyron-AV Manila Productions’s 2007 documentary Manila 1945: The Forgotten Atrocities, which was presented and narrated by award-winning actor Cesar Montano. Two people involved in the first film, writer-director Peter Parsons and director of photography Lucky Guillermo, acted as the writer and creative director, respectively, of the sequel, which was produced by Mai Guillermo, executive-produced by Sylvia Lichauco, and edited and directed by 22-year-old International Academy of Film and Television graduate Joel Nathan “Bani” B. Logroño.
‘Collective amnesia’
According to the filmmakers, Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story seeks to cure the “collective amnesia” afflicting Filipinos today and remind them, especially the younger ones, that war is not a fun and entertaining videogame. The speakers at the gala premiere-cum-book launch—NMP Director Jeremy Barns; Philippine Veterans Bank Chairman and former Finance Secretary Roberto F. de Ocampo; Brian L. Goldbeck, deputy chief of mission of the US Embassy in Manila; and Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Evelyn Austria-Garcia—emphasized this in talking about the war stories related to them by their parents or in praising our veterans for all the sacrifices they had made and commending the filmmakers for making the documentary.
Their sentiments were echoed by the people interviewed in Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story—former Ambassador Juan Miguel Rocha, Dr. Benito J. Legarda Jr., Dr. Ricardo T. Jose, Dr. Augusto V. de Viana, Col. Emmanuel V. de Ocampo, Michael Charleston “Xiao” B. Chua and James T. Litton, among many others. Some of them lamented the tremendous damage the Second World War had inflicted on the Filipino psyche; all underscored that war—and the very high toll they exact—should be avoided for any reason, at any cost.
Young people in mind
One of the things that Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story makes very clear is that it was made with young people in mind. Unlike many documentaries on the subject, The Rest of the Story—whose $12,700 budget, interestingly, was raised on crowdsourcing platform Kickstarter—used animation, computer graphics and fast-paced editing, as well as old footage, to tell its story, presumably to appeal more to its target audience, which is thought to have a shorter attention span.
Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story is at its most absorbing when it deals with the very sensitive issue of Filipinos collaborating with the Japanese—the notorious Makabayang Katipunan ng mga Pilipino, or Makapili, comes to mind—and the very tight rope many of our political leaders—most notably President Jose P. Laurel, whom the documentary portrays very sympathetically—precariously walked on during the Japanese Occupation.
Of the many ideas the documentary presents, none is more provocative than this: some Filipinos’ willingness to betray the nation’s interests for their own, either out of convenience or conviction, without suffering the consequences could be traced to what we experienced during and immediately after the war. Yes, instances of betrayal have been recorded throughout our history, but it seems that World War II increased our capacity to commit it.
On the sidelines of the gala premiere-cum-book launch, Logroño said he and his Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story team would embark on a road show in the coming school year and show the documentary to students. Obviously, this effort needs to be supported, because what the Philippines, particularly Manila, went through during the Second World War—the savagery and utter senselessness of it all—deserves more than a couple of passages in history textbooks. It deserves to be remembered, and its lessons to be learned well.
DVD copies of Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story can be bought for P650 each. For more information on the documentary and Spyron-AV Manila, call (632) 942-0273 or visit www.facebook.com/Spyron.AVManila/