Robert Diaz recently gave a lecture in the Wang Center on war, memory and Filipino cinema. It focused on the cultural repercussions of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War including the idea of victimhood and reparations.

In the case of Filipino filmmakers, he focuses on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War. This period of occupation is often associated with negative depictions and ideas about the Japanese as war mongers and rapists. In comparison, it depicts a very positive image of the United States in the role of savior and imperialist power after the war.

The lecture itself included the screening of two films which both examined the idea of comfort women during the time, queer identity in the Philippines, as well as the collective consciousness of Filipinos. In the case of the latter, the films and lecture were able to give us some insight into the collective memory of Filipinos and how these ideas are depicted in collective fantasy through media such as movies and novels.

The first movie we saw scenes from is called “Markova: Comfort Gay” which is based on the life of Walter Dempster Jr., a Filipino comfort gay during World War Two. While we were able to see only some small clips, we discussed the idea of Japanese occupation and the narrative of violent abuse that is prevalent in all depictions of Japanese soldiers. While not seeing the scenes themselves, Robert Diaz does state that through the film the violent depictions of the Japanese are prevalent and not only prevalent but reminiscent of older films. In the film the violence includes the rape of the protagonist as well as sexual harassment and physical abuse when they figure out that he is in fact a man who is cross-dressing. The ideas of queer identity in this film skew the ideas of victimhood but it still recycles the image of the violent Japanese occupier.

In other films from earlier time periods, the violence of the Japanese towards Filipinos classifies the relationship of imperialism of that time. Robert Diaz mentions that although all the actors in the film are Filipino and are not convincingly Japanese, the violence from the soldier is reminiscent enough to classify the soldier as Japanese and enough to fit it into the narrative of the Japanese occupation. The recycling of the violent Japanese soldier abusing the Filipino people is a cultural memory that is used again and again through mediums of collective social consciousness such as films.

In the little we saw of the second movie, “Sex Warriors and the Samurai” directed by Nick Deocampo we were also able to see this theme of violence and rape. The film explores the lives of “Japayuki” or Filipino entertainers who work in Japan for a living and how their lives were influenced by the previous occupation and the parallels between the two. In the first scene we are introduced to the idea of the Japanese occupation by a short mock Kabuki theatre scene. The images here are the same ones from the previous film of Japanese occupation being a period of violence and rape for the Filipino people. The Japanese occupiers are seen as demons that come with katana swords that rape the woman and stab her, leaving her to die as the Japanese flag unfurls while Japanese music plays in the background. The images in this film are the same as the last, the memory of the Second World War creates this narrative of the violent abusive Japanese occupiers who kill and rape.

The collective memory of the Filipino experience forges the narrative in movies by the Filipino film makers. The narrative of a violent Japanese invader who is inherently violent that rapes and kills Filipinos is an image that is often repeated in many forms of media and serve as a way to create a collective memory of the Japanese occupation. The recycling and repetition of the images help to form the narrative affirming the views of these filmmakers and legitimizes this image of the warmongering Japanese soldier.

While not discussed much in the lecture, the image of Americans the savior for the Filipinos is also prevalent in the movies and film which has the same effect as the narrative of the Japanese soldier except in a positive light.