Why did a number of Filipinos join the guerilla movement against the Japanese?

Question

God Bless!

Answer 1

Tsoko is partly right. The Huks are that group and they are a guerrilla movement formed to fight the Imperial Japanese Army who were violating the Filipinos' human rights.

The Hukbalahap was the militant arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (PKP), formed in 1942 to fight the Japanese occupation in the Philippines during World War II. The term is a contraction of the Filipino term "Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon" which means "People's Army Against the Japanese." The group is more commonly known as Huks.

The Hukbalahap began as several groups of resistance against the Imperial Japanese Army that occupied the Philippines after the defeat of the American-Filipino military in the early days of World War II.

Its strength came from the mostly agrarian peasants of Central Luzon. The group's leaders, among them figure-head Luis Taruc, aimed at leading the Philippines toward Marxist ideals. The Hukbalahap Insurrection (1946-1954) is often inaccurately portrayed as an attempt by the group to take over the Philippine government. In fact, The Hukhbalahap's goals were far more understandable - they fought for recognition as WWII freedom fighters who fought alongside Americans and for a share of war reparations.

The group grew quickly and by late summer of 1943 claimed to have 20,000 active military fighters and 50,000 more in reserve, stealing most of their weaponry from battlefields and downed planes left behind by the Japanese and Americans. They fought both Japanese and American troops to rid the country of its imperialist occupation, but they also worked to subvert the Japanese tax-collection service, intercept food and supplies to the Japanese troops, and created a training school where they taught political theory and military tactics based on Marxist ideas.

In areas that the group controlled they set up small governments and instituted land reforms, dividing up the largest estates equally between the peasants and often killing the landlords. After the war the Hukbalahaps remained active (although to a lesser extent and greatly subverted by the American guerilla troops), eventually renaming themselves in 1950 into the People's Liberation Army.

The "Huk" resistance to the new Philippine government formed in 1946 was eventually defeated in 1954.

Answer 2

The Americans launched a propaganda campaign in the Phillippines, dropping pamphlets written out in filipino. This got started I think atleast by the time the Battle of the Coral Seas happened, 1942. The Japanese had no such propaganda campaign written in the native language, since it was the Imperial Army's policy to take over the local education bureau and teach everyone Japanese. Also, it was Imperial policy to only speak the natives in Japanese, although most conquered people didn't know the language, and discontinue local presses from printing the native language. This was probably the major contributing factor why guerilla factions allied themselves with the U.S. forces.

Answer 3

i think it was not a guerilla movement, but it was a group called Hukbalahap (Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon) who became mostly known of their resistance against the Japanese. Japanese invaders maltreated the Filipinos especially young women and even gays were became a victim. These were just few reasons that urged many Filipinos to join Hukbalahap.

Answer 4

The Philippines was a US colony during WWII. The Japanese had invaded the Philippines, and the US invited Filipinos to join the fight against the Japanese, in return they were promised US citizenship.

Answer 5

The Japanese invaded the Philippines on the same day they bombed Pearl Harbor (actually Dec. 8th across the Intl. Date Line).

Answer 6

Because the Japanese were occupying their islands during World War II.