Philippine independence

The Event Release of the Philippines from its Commonwealth status and creation of an independent republic

Date July 4, 1946

Place Philippines

Philippine independence brought to an end the one large-scale formal undertaking in imperialism of the United States and was expedited by American calls for the swift granting of independence to British and other European colonies in Asia. Philippine independence turned the page from an era in which the United States sought formal possessions beyond its borders to one in which it acted as a global superpower through a network of alliances and interdependencies with other sovereign states.

When the United States conquered the Philippines in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the islands were not envisioned as a permanent imperial possession of the United States. The islands were largely ruled as a colony for nearly forty years. By the mid-1930’s, the United States foresaw eventual independence, as the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 (Philippine Independence Act) established a Commonwealth of the Philippines, under U.S. suzerainty but with an elected Filipino president, Manuel Quezón. Some of the pressure for Philippine independence during the 1930’s emerged from racist motives, as immigration by Filipinos and economic competition from Philippine products were feared by many white Americans. Before the Japanese invasion of the Philippine islands, Philippine independence was scheduled for 1944; despite the disruptions of war, the process went on nearly as scheduled, though the United States could have chosen to delay it out of wartime exigencies.

Independence possibly was made more urgent by two factors. First, there was considerable American pressure on Britain to decolonize its Asian possessions swiftly. This in turn meant the United States needed to exit the Philippines for appearance’s sake, especially because the West’s colonial presence in Asia was a handy propaganda weapon for the Soviet Union to employ in the incipient Cold War. In addition, there was discontent concerning the large numbers of American soldiers stationed in the Philippines, who wished to return home.

Another factor was the Hukbalahap, or “Huk,” rebellion. The Hukbalahaps engaged in a guerrilla insurgency with substantial communist ties formed originally to fight the Japanese occupation. The Huks sympathized neither with the Americans and their Philippine allies—they assassinated Quezón’s widow, Aurora, in 1949—nor with the leaders who emerged at the head of the independent Philippines, considering Manuel Roxas to have been too friendly with the Japanese. The Huk rebellion both prompted American political withdrawal from the Philippines—as the United States did not wish a second war against a Philippine insurgency, as had happened when the islands were first occupied—and cemented American aid to the new country, seen as justified by its utility in helping suppress the Huk rebellion.

Osmeña, Roxas, and Public Opinion

Quezón died during World War II, and his deputy, Sergio Osmeña, was the Commonwealth president in 1946. The United States expected Osmeña to win the April 23, 1946, presidential election handily, as he was associated with the successful struggle against Japanese occupation. Osmeña was able and well intentioned but was seen as too much of an American puppet. Quezón, having died while both men were in exile from Japanese occupation, never had an opportunity to establish his own power base as president. This was exacerbated by Osmeña’s refusal to campaign, which many Filipinos saw as arrogant.

The electoral victory of Manuel Roxas was seen as a surprise by observers who underestimated Filipino nationalism. Although most Filipinos had opposed Japanese rule, they nonetheless sensed a kernel of truth in Japanese rhetoric of anticolonialism, and men who had cooperated with the Japanese, such as Roxas and José Laurel, were seen less as collaborationists than as motivated by a laudable nationalism. Roxas’s election was also an expression of Philippine national confidence.

The Philippines was a different nation from the one the United States had conquered: English as a universal language of education had given the different nationalities and islands of the Philippines a common medium of communication. Original Filipino literature in English was being produced by internationally recognized writers such as José Garcia Villa. Moreover, the many Filipino émigrés to the United States who had been repatriated under the Tydings-McDuffie Act brought American lifestyles and business practices back home.

Counterinsurgency and Military Ties

Roxas was indeed less pliable with regard to the United States than many Filipinos feared Osmeña would have been. Economic and military links remained tight—Clark Air Field and the Subic Bay air base were anchors of the postwar American presence in the Pacific. It soon became clear that independence was a political reality but not necessarily an economic or geopolitical one. The U.S. government invested heavily in counterinsurgency efforts against the Hukbalahaps, who had considerable support among the poor and disenfranchised and were under the dynamic leadership of the young Luis Taruc. The Huks made a tactical mistake, though, in endorsing Osmeña in the hope that he would be the less creditable figure, and then taking to the hills when the more nationalistic Roxas won the race. Roxas died in 1948, but the insurgency was largely quelled under the leadership of Roxas’s successor, Elpidio Quirino—albeit with considerable American aid.

Impact

July 4, 1946, was chosen as Philippine Independence Day to commemorate the liberty the United States had, with respect for its own traditions, handed to its former possession. July 4 was not retained as Philippine independence day. In 1962, president Diosdado Macapagal switched the date to June 12 in honor of the Philippine independence movement that had been suppressed by the United States from 1899 through 1901. Although Filipinos appreciated the American withdrawal in 1946, for the people of the Philippines the sense of nationhood truly began during the 1890’s with the successive insurgencies against Spanish and American occupations. Still, the 1946 granting of independence marked the inception of the modern Philippine state.

Bibliography

Carlson, Keith. The Twisted Road to Freedom: America’s Granting of Independence to the Philippines. Manila: University of the Philippines Press, 1997. History of the U.S.-Philippines relationship focusing on Philippine independence.

Golay, Frank Hindman. Face of Empire: United States-Philippine Relations, 1898-1946. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1998. Examines the intricate relationship as it developed until Philippine independence, exposing some of the hidden forces at work.

Karnow, Stanley. In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines. New York: Random House, 1989. One of the most comprehensive studies of the Philippine-United States relationship by an author who has published extensively on Southeast Asia.

Lieurance, Suzanne. The Philippines. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2004. A brief, accurate presentation of the history of the Philippines aimed at juvenile readers. Excellent illustrations, valuable supplementary features.

Nadeau, Kathleen. The History of the Philippines. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2008. Comprehensive account, with good coverage of the nation’s struggle to attain an identity. A good resource for high school and general readers.

Olesky, Walter. The Philippines. New York: Children’s Press, 2000. A comprehensive view of the Philippines from a historical perspective. This beautifully illustrated book is intended for a young adult audience and contains helpful features such as a time line and a section entitled “Fast Facts.” Chapter 4, “The Long Struggle for Independence,” is especially relevant.