Resistance and collaboration: The Japanese Occupation of Leyte, Philippines, and the role of the masses in wartime violence

Abstract

Philippine historiography has long ignored the significant but complex role played by the people at the margins of society during the Japanese Occupation, except for some rural movements such as the Hukbalahap in central Luzon. During the Second World War, besides the coercion and violence perpetrated or orchestrated by the Japanese occupying forces from 1942, the people of Leyte experienced many kinds and levels of violence, including among local factions. At the onset of the invasion and from late 1944, Leyte was also the site of major naval and land battles between the returning American forces and the Japanese army, each side seeking to incorporate locals in their campaigns. This essay traces violent episodes involving and among members of the local elite and masses alike in Leyte, during and in the aftermath of the Japanese Occupation and the return of Americans up to Philippine Independence, to show how such violence was not only unleashed by war, but also had deep and complicated roots in colonial history, local politics and rural poverty.