A small but not insignificant moment in history took place last Friday at the Philippine air force base adjoining Cebu airport on Cebu island in the central Philippines.
Shortly before lunch, the door to the incident command post was opened by a Philippines military policeman who ushered in naval officer Lieut Cdr K Suzuki of the Japanese defence forces. Suzuki thereby became the first Japanese military officer to engage with his Philippine counterparts since his country’s former imperial army was defeated there in June 1945, the redoubtable US general Douglas MacArthur having returned the previous October as he had promised when leaving in March 1942.
Unlike the charismatic US general, the Japanese did not return following their December 1941 bombing and invasion of the Philippines in the wake of their attack on Pearl Harbor.
While the name of MacArthur remains familiar in the central Philippines where he is revered, with several villages and areas named after him, no Japanese military has been back, at least on official duty, since the end of the second World War.
The notion of the Japanese military working in partnership with the Philippine military, and of being welcomed in such a role, would have been unthinkable – until last Friday.
The Japanese invasion, occupation and temporary rule in Leyte and Samar provinces in the central Philippines, where typhoon Haiyan, or Yolanda as it is known here, did its worst, does not bring back happy memories. Occupying soldiers conducted themselves in the brutish manner that attended their war behaviour across Asia.
'So afraid'
"We were hiding in holes dug under the floor of our homes," Eulalia Macaya (74) told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "The Japanese soldiers were patrolling but we couldn't see much of them. We could only see their boots. We were so afraid."
Beatrice Bisquera (91) recalled hiding in the mountains, something not possible now, she suggested, since the typhoon had stripped the hills: “Now there’s nowhere to hide.”
When he entered the incident command post room, Suzuki had the weight of such history on his shoulders. After the door was closed, he doubtless bowed to his new colleagues in the traditional manner, laying that history to rest and opening a new chapter. Underscoring the significance of the moment, Suzuki was accompanied by two Japanese diplomats: Gsugomu Nakagawa, minister at the Japanese embassy in Manila, and Shoji Otake, Japan’s consul in Cebu.
Since the typhoon struck, key figures in the multinational civil and military disaster relief operation have sat at a diningroom table in the incident command post, discussing and planning how to get help to the victims of Yolanda. The walls are covered in large-scale maps showing the areas of destruction and where help is needed.
Every day from dawn to dusk and often well into the late hours, Filipino, US, Australian, Korean, Indonesian, French, German and Swedish officers, together with aid and logistics personnel, sat at the table, working out what to do, and how.
What Suzuki brought to the table was more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers who will do whatever the co-ordinating team decides needs to be done to help victims of the typhoon.
On Friday, at least part of that involved a Japanese air force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft ferrying typhoon refugees, US marines, aid agency officials and others between Manila and Tacloban, where Japanese non-governmental organisation relief workers are already helping. In addition to its military assistance, the Japanese government has given more than $50 million (€37 million) in direct aid and grant aid.
Japan’s role complements that of most other countries in the region. Highly visible and significant contributions have come from Korea and Indonesia, both of which have sent C-130 transport aircraft. Several Korean NGOs are also active.
The Taiwanese government has to date sent 18 cargo aircraft containing 130 tons of relief aid worth some $2.7 million. A Taiwanese NGO, the Tzu Chi Foundation, is funding a work-for-money programme in Tacloban in which some 6,400 people are participating.
Relations with Taiwan
Relations between the Philippines and Taiwan have been poor since May, when a Philippines gunboat fired on a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing a Taiwanese fisherman. Despite this, however, aid has been forthcoming from Taipei.
The contrast with Beijing has not gone unnoticed here. China, which disputes land claimed and occupied by the Philippines, gave a paltry $100,000 initially to disaster relief.
Last Monday, Beijing said Manila had finally given “permission” for China to send a medical team and hospital ship to the Philippines, and the Chinese Red Cross pledged its own $100,000 in relief aid.
Japan’s involvement has been praised by Manila. “World War II was so long ago,” said Lieut Jim Alagao, spokesman for the Philippines armed forces. “If we still harbour bad feelings against the Japanese, it is a question for our grandfathers to answer.”
At the end of Friday’s meeting, Suzuki and his diplomat colleagues went into the mess room adjoining the incident command post. There, they bowed formally to their new colleagues and to each other.
Joji Tomioka, a Japanese doctor helping to co-ordinate a medical relief team in the disaster zone, said: “We cannot forget the past but we must learn from history so that we will not do the same thing again.”
