It's VJ Day (Victory over Japan) in Rhode Island. Rhode Island is the last state to observe such a holiday to commemorate the end of World War II.
This day has significance for the Philippines as well as the United States. Coincidentally, I called Ramilyn this morning. I told her about the holiday and what it meant. Apparantly very little about important events of history is taught in the Philippines. I asked Ramilyn about Bataan, and the U.S. role of liberating the Philippines from the Japanese imperialists, and I tried to explain the importance of why the U.S. had to detonate atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ramilyn seemed to have a vague idea of what this was all about. I asked if she was taught about World War II in school but she said she already forgot. I tried to explain that when important events in history like this (ex. the Death March to Bataan) are forgotten, history tends to repeat itself.
These historical events aren't a trivial matter. I think while history, as it's being taught to youngsters in the United States, is being diluted and twisted, it is probably worse in the Philippines. That's my impression.
My impression of the perspective in the Philippines is that now it's taught that the U.S. had relatively little significance in the shaping of the Philippines, and perhaps was just another repressive, colonial power. To a younger Filipino today, the United States is only a western country like Germany or France, and only is as significant in its relation to the Philippines as any typical European country. When I called Ramilyn for the first time to introduce myself, she thought I was a German. The Japanese seem to be held in higher esteem than Americans in the modern-day Philippines, with all the Japanese business interests there, and that Japanese men are described as being "generous" whereas Americans are regarded as "cheap" (when it comes to considering marriage to a non-Filipino). To me, this is a sense of shortsightedness and ignorance. Some of it probably intended to be this way. But that's just my opinion based on observations.
- Kevin
