[KAS 4] Kababaihan & WWII Hanggang Lumaon

Army Nurse Corps (est. 1901)

established after the Spanish-American War, it officially allowed women to serve in the military.

TRUE

women faced discrimination and were paid approximately half as much as male officers.

Angels of Bataan and Corregidor

The 77 U.S. military nurses (66 Army, 11 Navy) who were taken as POWs in the Philippines during WWII.

Bataan

sent to this location and worked in overcrowded, under-resourced hospitals during the 1941 Japanese invasion

Malinta Tunnel

an underground shelter in Corregidor where nurses endured harsh conditions before the island fell

Bataan Death March

the horrific forced march of prisoners that many nurses left behind in Bataan were forced to endure

Santo Tomas & Los Baños

The two primary internment camps where the military nurses were held and continued to serve

Maude C. Davison & Josephine Nesbit

The strong leaders credited with ensuring that all 77 nurses survived their captivity.

February 1945

the month and year the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor" were finally freed

Decorations for POW Nurses

1. each received a: Presidential Citation and a Bronze Star

2. specific individuals received Purple Hearts for wounds

Maria Y. Orosa

Pioneer pharmaceutical chemist, public servant, and captain of the marking’s guerillas.

• Born: November 29, 1893; Taal, Batangas

• Died: February 13, 1945

1916 (Stowaway)

year Maria Orosa ran away from home to the U.S. as a stowaway; later lived with the Dean of Pharmacy at the University of Washington

1919-1920

Maria Orosa earned BS/MS degrees in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and served as the Assistant State Chemist of Washington

1922 Return to PH

Organized the Food Preservation Division at the Bureau of Science with just one untrained helper.

Centro Escolar University

where Maria Y. Orosa taught upon her return to the Philippines

1926 Pensionada

Sent by the government to study commercial canning, visiting over 50 canneries across the US, China, Japan, and Hawaii.

1932-1934 H.E. Division

• Home Economics Division was created, which later became the Plant Utilization Division of the Bureau of Plant Industry

• Maria headed this until the end of her career

Plant Utilization Division

The government division Orosa headed until the end of her career in 1945.

Feb 3, 1945

Wounded by shrapnel during the war and taken to the Malate Remedios Hospital

Death (Feb 13, 1945)

Killed when she was hit in the heart by another shrapnel during an American bombing raid while in the hospital

Native Crop Substitutes

Maria Orosa conducted experiments and utilized local fruits to create:

1. guava jelly

2. soy sauce from copra,

3. sweet-mixed pickles from cucumber, green tomato, etc.;

4. "magic food” from powdered soy bean

5. calamansi concentrates to replace foreign drinks.

6. cassava flour and powdered saba for wheat flour;

7. peanut brittle, Banana, Mango and ripe tomato into catsup, etc.

Banana Catsup

one of Maria Orosa’s most famous inventions, created by transforming local bananas, mangoes, and tomatoes into catsup.

"Magic Food"

A protein-rich, powdered soybean concentrate Maria Orosa developed to combat malnutrition and sustain soldiers during the war.

Palayok Oven

a low-cost clay oven Maria Orosa designed to help housewives in rural barrios without access to electricity

4-H Clubs

established the Health-Heart-Head-Hand clubs in the Philippines, reaching 22,000 members by 1924.

Home Extension Service

founded to send demonstrators to barrios to teach women meal-planning, childcare, and food preservation

"Green Revolution"

Orosa’s vigorous campaign promoting backyard gardening to ensure food security for Filipino families

Maria Y. Orosa

1. Authored over 700 recipes and trade secrets; many of her experimental records were tragically burned during the Liberation of Manila.

2. Provided employment to 400 women students who were stranded in the city due to the outbreak of war.

Magic Food

as a Captain in the Marking’s Guerillas, Maria Y. Orosa smuggled this into the UST Internment Camp inside hollow bamboo tubes.

Maria Y. Orosa

Regularly supplied food and medicine to Jesuit communities, the Philippine General Hospital, and malnourished Manilans.

Maria Y. Orosa

refused to leave her post during the war, stating: "My place is here. I cannot in conscience abandon my work and my girls."

Hukbalahap Rebellion

a movement of armed resistance to Japanese Occupation and (later) post war policies of the PH government

Felipa Culala / Dayang-Dayang

• a former peasant activist from Pampanga who led the first Huk guerrilla detachments in 1942

• enlisted 35 men which she led in launching surprise attacks and assault to capture the guerillas and free the Filipino prisoners

Battle of Mandili (March 8, 1942)

A turning point in the resistance where Dayang-Dayang’s forces ambushed and killed 30–40 Japanese soldiers

Felipa Culala / Dayang-Dayang

the only woman on the four-member HUKBALAHAP Military Committee; reached a rank comparable to top male officers.

insubordination, theft, demanding attitude

Felipa Culala was tried and executed by the PKP Politburo for these accusations

1 out of 10

• demographics of Women Huks estimated by PKP Secretary General Jesus Lava

• active fighters total between 1,500 and 2,000

protection, resistance, be with family

motivations South Luzon women had for joining HUKBALAHAP

Media Portrayal

The press sensationalized "Huk Amazons" as tough yet alluring (e.g., Carmen Rosales), often using their image for entertainment.

post-war "redomestication"

After the war, the government and First Lady Trinidad Roxas pushed women back into homemaking as a "civic duty" for nation-building.

lack of jobs and U.S ties

these factors forced women to rely on male income post-war, despite their wartime independence.

Amazon

Based on Greek mythology, the term describes female warriors who invert gender roles by acting as leaders and fighters.

Gabriela Silang

A historical "Amazon" figure who led her husband’s revolutionary army and serves as a legacy for modern Filipino feminists

martial capacity, sexuality, maternity

Media often framed captured Huk women through these three lenses

Remedios Gomez

Known as Kumander Liwayway, she fled to Tarlac after her father was killed and studied communist doctrine and guerilla tactics

Liwayway

Remedios Gomez was baptized with this name and picked as the commander of Squadron 3V, conducting operations to secure arms from the Japanese.

Operation Arayat

The military operation during which Liwayway was captured; the event was widely publicized in newspapers as a major success for the state.

Liwayway

Newspapers described her as a "pretty high school senior" and "former beauty queen," turning her into an instant celebrity.

Other Huk Amazon Figures

Notable women include

• Leonila Dizon

• Rosa Carlos

• Julia Reyes (Lucy), and

• Leonila Monteverde (Ningning)

• Filomena Divina (Kundiman)

• Corazon de Castro

• Aurelia Calma (Auring), and

• Leonora Hipas (Linda de Villa)

Comfort Women

Asian women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army; estimated between 50,000 and 200,000 victims globally.

Malaya Lolas

a group of Filipino survivors from the Mapanique district who were abducted and enslaved during the Japanese occupation

1950s reparations treaties

the state argued that all war claims were legally settled using these with Japan, ignoring individual survivors

CenterLaw

The legal organization that has provided representation for 70 Malaya Lolas survivors since 2004.

CEDAW Optional Protocol

A international mechanism used by the Malaya Lolas to petition the UN directly after failing to find justice in domestic courts.

2023 CEDAW Recognition

The UN Committee officially found that the Philippines discriminated against the Malaya Lolas and failed its obligations to them.

Yoshimi Yoshiaki

a leading historian who uncovered official military documents proving the Japanese government's involvement in the comfort women system

Japanese Revisionism

Yoshimi defended the historical record against 2014 waves of ____ that claimed the comfort women system was a fabrication

residence, movement, refusal, quitting

the four denied freedoms that outline yoshimi’s reasoning for why the comfort women system qualifies as sexual slavery

Freedom of Residence

One of the four denied freedoms; comfort women were forced to live in designated rooms within military-controlled stations.

Freedom of Movement

Comfort women were under constant surveillance and required military permission to leave the comfort station.

Freedom to Refuse Sex

Comfort women were denied the right to decline soldiers based on exhaustion or personal choice.

Freedom to Quit

Unlike civilian workers, comfort women had no legal right to end their contracts; the "debt payoff" system defined it as slavery.

Yuki Tanaka

Professor at Hiroshima Peace Institute who studied the procurement of comfort women and their lives as sexual slaves.

history of how comfort women started

korean land ownership system, licensed prostitution, women’s voluntary labor service

Korean Land Ownership System

A Japanese system that caused Korean peasants to lose ownership rights, forcing many young women into prostitution to support poverty-stricken families.

Licensed Prostitution System

Enacted in Korea in 1922; labor brokers used it to deceive women with false promises of factory work, leading them into sex work instead.

Women’s Voluntary Labor Service Law (1944)

A law forcing girls aged 14 and above into service; middle-class families often arranged early marriages to help daughters avoid the draft.

Manila 1943

Early records show 17 comfort stations in this area alone, staffed by 1,064 women.

Tanaka

They argue that comfort women and comfort stations are euphemisms; rape camps more accurately describes the conditions of enslavement.

Postwar Art Scene

A shift in the Philippine art scene where women's wartime suffering and medical/logistical contributions were expressed through modernism.

Battle of Manila (Fe 1945)

The period when Japanese troops turned Manila into the second most devastated Allied city of WWII.

Ermita District

An affluent area and refuge site that became a primary location for mass torture, rape, and execution in 1945.

Diosdado Lorenzo

A pioneer of Philippine Modernism who used thick brush strokes and earthy tones to depict the brutality of war.

• known for his “still life“ works

Rape and Massacre of Ermita (1947)

One of Lorenzo’s largest oil paintings, created to ensure the sufferings and brutality of the war were never forgotten.

memorialize victims

because few war records remained, Lorenzo’s paintings serve as a way to _____

Atrocities in Paco (1947)

A companion piece to the Ermita painting, depicting the Japanese rampage in the Paco district, a major military stronghold.

Atrocities in Paco (1947)

Features a mother protecting her child from soldiers amidst raging flames, representing the brutality faced by Filipino families.

Demetrio Diego

An illustrator and painter regarded as a potential modernist who captured poignant wartime suffering

Capas (1948)

An oil painting depicting the suffering of Filipino and American soldiers at Camp O'Donnell after the Bataan Death March

Loss of Literary Artifacts

Many works by Filipina writers, including those in Spanish stored in the National Library, were destroyed during the 1945 Battle of Manila.

Post-War Reconstruction Effort

A national movement arose to rebuild the literary landscape; many writers only felt able to process and write about the war after it ended.

Memoirs and Biographies

The dominant genre for post-war Filipina writers, as both professional and non-professional writers sought to share their survival stories.

Magdalena Gonzaga Jalandoni

• An Ilongga novelist and artist who lost approximately 20 novels and thousands of pages of work due to war displacement and destruction.

• Despite wartime losses, she survived three occupation periods and eventually authored 36 novels and 122 short stories.

Balay na Bato

Magdalena Gonzaga Jalandoni’s home in Jaro, Iloilo

Sa Ilalim ng Araw na Pula

A 2001 work by Genoveva Edroza-Matute focusing on the psychological impact of war, survival, and the loss of innocence.

Lydia Villanueva-Arguilla

A writer, painter, and journalist who served as a First Lieutenant in Marking’s Guerillas between 1943 and 1945.

Arguilla’s Post-War Impact

Opened one of the first galleries for Filipino modern art and organized the first Philippine Cultural Exhibition in New York in 1953.

Activism for Recognition

Survivor groups like the Malaya Lolas partner with global organizations to amplify voices and push for legislative reformation.

Maria Rosa Hosana (Lola Rosa)

The first Filipina comfort woman to speak publicly; her autobiography reclaimed her identity as a complete human being rather than just a victim.

Media and Film

Modern media like Pulang Araw and Markova: Comfort Gay explore the struggles of comfort women and comfort gays during the war.

Geronima Pecson

Became the first elected woman senator in the Philippines in 1947, breaking gender barriers in the newly independent republic's legislature.

Post-War Women in Politics

Between 1946 and 1971, only 26 women were elected to public office, including 11 Representatives and 7 Senators.

Pae Ponggi

The first former comfort woman to break the silence globally via a 1979 Japanese documentary, inspiring others to publish testimonies.

Kim Haksun

Her 1990 public testimony and subsequent 1991 lawsuit against the Japanese government caused a breakthrough in global public awareness for comfort women.

Movement for Compensation

Survivors from China, Taiwan, and the Philippines joined lawsuits demanding compensation, though the Japanese government initially denied military involvement.

Asian Women’s Fund (AWF)

Established in 1995 by Japan to provide atonement money and medical support to 285 former comfort women, including 211 Filipinas.

Atonement Money

Individual payments of 2 million yen provided to survivors from funds donated by the Japanese people as an expression of remorse.

Signed Letters of Apology

Prime Ministers such as Hashimoto, Obuchi, Mori, and Koizumi sent these directly to individual former comfort women.