I was an overly curious college student when I stumbled upon a notorious oddity: the film Men Behind the Sun (1988).
The film detailed the activities of Unit 731, the chemical and biological weapons arm of the Japanese Imperial Army. The film showed in detail the graphic and inhumane experiments done on Chinese men, women, and even children during World War II.
The assorted butcheries shown include having a prisoner’s limbs frozen solid before having the flesh removed, people strung on crosses and bombed with infectious diseases, and the dissection of a still-living child.
There are plenty more historical horrors that the film did not depict, but the message it presented was clear: all of these atrocities happened, regardless of future history. If that statement was still unclear, the director, the late T. F. Mous, plastered it in the opening of the movie, with white characters on a black background.
The message reads: Friendship is Friendship, History is History.
That message is even more poignant today, especially in discussing the murky area that is Philippine-American Relations, specifically our present government's pivot to the USA instead of China.
With the recent kerfuffles involving the water-cannoning of our supply boats and the discovery of a possible sleeper agent embedded in one of our LGUs, it is appropriate to re-examine our relationships with our current (and long-time) ally.
Turn a rock over, and you'll find many arguments against returning to the side of America, parroted over and over by the previous government's sycophants. These arguments start, appropriately, with the American Occupation of the Philippines (1899-1902). They opine: How can we be so trusting of a superpower that massacred 2,000 Moro civilians on Bud Dajo in Sulu or carried out the disproportionate response in Balangiga, resulting in the deaths of 2,000 Filipinos (with a specific order from General Jacob H. Smith to kill everyone over 10).
The arguments don't stop there: They even mention what many consider to be the major faux pas of the USA in the last 23 years: the War on Terror. The argument goes that since the USA was disingenuous in their reason behind the invasion of Iraq (the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction), none were found until this day), we should be very doubtful and assume the worst about their benevolent intentions towards us.
They are right about these things. These are palpable faults, perpetually attributable to the USA. They should always be remembered and condemned for what they are. However, how would these horrible facts help with our present predicament?
They can't. The recitation and regurgitation of history bring no practical value to the present situation. For starters, it's not the USA harassing our fishermen in the West Philippine Sea.
Also, it's not the USA that is planting amnesiac (?) spies in our municipalities. That is all the doing of our supposed friend, whom the previous administration made us believe would have no intention of ill will towards us. From a realist perspective, that is complete and utter nonsense.
So, where do we go from here? Do we simply heed the call to remember every atrocity done to us, effectively paralyzing our present? Or do we also consider present friendships and partnerships as a way of moving forward?
Ironically, the answer lies in the message conveyed in that propaganda movie. We should remember the past, but we should also not let it define our present.*
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Tomas Gerardo T. Araneta's passion is writing about what interests him the most. Those things include movies, books, and other unnoticed social phenomena.