Apat na Taong Pagsikat ng Nakapapasong Araw: Musika sa Filipinas sa Panahon ng Hapon, 1942–1945
Article
World War II in the Philippines was as much a treacherous mind game as it was physical. While it brought almost total devastation to the cultural heritage bequeathed by the country’s colonial past, it sought to create, albeit in the spiritual-emotional realm, a template of Asian-ism that the Filipinos were to live by as a supposed member of the Imperial Japan-colonized Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Songs, organizations, programs, speeches, religion and many other activities and things that could be used to sway the Americanized Filipino psyche were employed in this devastating “game of thrones”.
This study questions how music and related propaganda materials were used to pacify and control the conquered Filipino nation. Music, to a degree, was symptomatic of the progress of the occupation, from the initial settling down of the Japanese soldiers to the seemingly quiet acceptance of many locals in occupied areas. In these stages of the war, imposed music crept into the consciousness of the conquered—from Japanese children’s songs at the basic education level to the concert platforms with music composed by Filipino musicians heralding the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity theme.
The Filipino Broadcasters on Overseas Propaganda Radio in World War II
Article
The use of radio broadcasting for propaganda in the Second World War is well known. In the Philippines, the pre-war KZRH was taken over by the invading Japanese forces, who changed its call letters to PIAM and used it to try to win the hearts and minds of Filipinos. Counter-propaganda was heard on the short-lived resistance stations Voice of Freedom and Voice of Juan dela Cruz as well as shortwave signals emanating from the US and other countries.
Also recorded in historical accounts is the work of some Filipinos who broadcast on PIAM, Voice of Freedom and Voice of Juan dela Cruz. Little is known, however, about the work of Filipinos in overseas propaganda radio stations, such as that of Carmen Ligaya on KGEI in San Francisco, California, who was the US’s answer to Tokyo Rose; of at least seventeen others who also broadcast on KGEI; and of Norman Reyes on the Zero Hour on Radio Tokyo. Their experiences, previously under-examined, indicate the extent by which radio broadcasting has since been a tool for shaping public consciousness, particularly in wartime.
