Article ID: 26016
This paper examines how the Asia-Pacific War (1941–45) transformed multiracial localities in southeastern Mindanao, Philippines. Through historical analysis of archival sources and oral histories, it compares the transformations in an urban center (Davao City) and an agricultural settlement near the provincial border (National Land Settlement Administration; NLSA). It finds that initial responses to the outbreak and immediate impacts of the Asia-Pacific War were cross-national negotiations reflective of the communities’ prewar cosmopolitan makeup. As the war progressed, however, militarization, intensification of hostilities, evacuation, demographic shifts, and the postwar silencing/valorizing of one people over another polarized both communities in similar yet distinct ways. In postwar Davao City, “Filipino” and “Japanese” came to mean not merely nationalities but rather racial tropes that were antitheses of each other. In NLSA, like in Davao City, “the Japanese” was omitted in Philippine history; however, as NLSA was an agricultural settlement, issues over landownership led to infighting among Filipinos. This paper contributes to the study of the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, which has thus far focused largely on Southeast Asian elites, the Japanese imperial project, and colonial institutions. By highlighting the multicultural makeup and wartime polarization of prewar southeastern Mindanao, the study highlights another legacy of war: the destruction of cosmopolitan communities, a polarization still reflected in war histories today.
