Philippine E-Journals

The Visayas: Islands in the Seas, A Historical Perspective (Series 6)

Earl Jude Paul L. Cleope

 

Abstract:

This paper is part of a modest attempt to offer a new framework for the writing of a “total” national history, one that underscores the role of the sea as a factor in the historical development of the Visayas in the context of national history. Following the trend in historiography inspired by Fernand Braudel, the discussion in this paper is anchored on the maritime perspective as analytical framework for the reconstruction of the history of the Visayas. The paper examines the life of the noncombatants in the Visayas Islands, specifically in the areas that were labeled by the Japanese as “Bandit Zones.” Moreover, the discussion looks into the various activities being done by the civilians in the face of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, which is still an unexplored area about World War II in the Philippines. The paper is a sequel to the collection of essays of an ambitious project on the history of the Visayas. Thus far, the series has explored the role of bodies of water surrounding the Visayas Islands in the historical development of the region by examining the folklore and etymologies of the Visayan Islands (Series 1); the condition of the islands at the time of European contacts (Series 2); the early revolts that rocked the islands up to the 1880s (Series 3); the maritime raiding phenomenon that occurred in the Visayan Seas in the context of the popular concept of slave raiding perpetrated by what the Spanish colonizers labeled as “Moro raids” (Series 4); and the Japanese Occupation in the Visayas in the context of the role of the seas in connecting the resistance movements in the islands (Series 5). It is hoped that this project will prove to be an interesting subject in the schema of studying the Visayas as a whole in the context of developing an evolving historiography towards a national history of the Philippines.