Oh for another Quezon!

This past month of February marked an important national anniversary. This is the 60th year since the Battle for the Liberation of Manila. For the survivors of that event, this past month was sacred to the memory of their loved ones – parents, relatives or friends – who were among the 100,000 who died in Manila (most of them massacred by the Japanese military, others killed by intense artillery shelling by the Americans) or the tens of thousands also massacred by the Japanese military in Batangas and Laguna and other provinces.

For those who loved the old Manila, this past month marked the anniversary of the destruction of a once beautiful city. Japanese bayonets killed people, American shells pulverized buildings.

But what should have been a solemn national commemoration was totally blotted out by the holding of a Japanese festival, precisely in the month of February.

Commenting on that timing, Gemma Cruz Araneta (who lost her father, her grandfather, and their male helpers in the massacre) wrote in her column: "I firmly believe that this choice of a month was deliberate and malicious and in that context these Filipino-Japanese festivities become cruel affronts and insults to the memory of those who suffered and died during the Battle for Manila. I am an avid promoter of cultural relations with all countries and am proud that the Philippines is a member in good standing of the United Nations and various regional associations. However, we must remain vigilant and relentlessly protest against actions like that of the Japanese governmentís that deliberately gloss over if not totally obliterate all reference to what went on during the Second World War."

What makes the matter worse is the fact that, instead of protesting and upholding the national dignity, the President of the Philippines actually wrote a letter praising the Japanese initiative!

In behalf of the survivors represented by the "Memorare Manila 1945 Foundation Inc.", Ambassador Juan Jose Rocha has written a letter to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo: "Your Excellency, It is painful to us survivors or descendants of survivors of the Sack of Manila by the Japanese military in February 1945 to read your letter commending the celebration of the Philippine-Japan Festival in the month of February . While we can and must as Christians forgive those who trespass against us, we cannot, for our own national identity and dignity, forget the greatest crime in Philippine history."

One writer says that, in the case of the Rape of Nanking (a month-long orgy of blood, one of the great war crimes of history), the Japanese either deny that it happened or they dismiss it as an isolated incident which happens in any war. In the case of the Sack of Manila the Japanese cannot very well deny it. So their strategy is to blot out its memory by holding a festival precisely in the month of February. The President’s endorsement of the Japanese initiative is one of the many unfortunate acts of an Administration that has shown very little sense of responsibility.

The Greeks remembered Thermopylae. The British remember Dunkirk. These were national defeats that in fact were moral victories. The Marcos Administration tried to blot out the memory of Bataan by abolishing Bataan Day and giving it another name. The Macapagal Arroyo Administration has tried to make us forget the Sack of Manila.

Oh for another Quezon who was not afraid to stand up for the national dignity and call a spade a spade!