Philippine E-Journals

Nationalism and Language Planning in the Philippines During the Japanese Occupation 1942-1945

Andrew Gonzales

Discipline: History, Languages

 

Abstract:

Thirty-two years have passed since the painful and agonizing events of 1942-1945 in Philippine history. With the perspective accorded us by the healing balm of time, we can now look at this period with a fresh look and, freed from a justifiable emotionalism and endowed with the calmness born of patience, we can assess this period of our history and discover initiatives in our progress toward; a national community that were remarkable and have had their impact even now on our contemporary life.

 

The Filipino nation, a young national community preparing itself for the burden and the glory of independence at the end of 1941, found itself, to use Theodore Friend's phrase, 'between two empires', between two world powers, themselves inheritors of a tradition of colonialism and imperialism that they have since tried to shed.