Snails on a Razor's Edge - A Review of United States of Japan

United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


When non-Filipino friends come to visit the Philippines, one of the things many of my family suggest they do is take Carlos Celdran’s walking tour of Intramuros. He has an interesting reputation in the local political scene, mostly thanks to his ”Damaso” protest in 2010, and more recently his commentary on and subsequent apology to Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters in the months leading up to the Philippine presidential elections earlier this year. However, one cannot deny that his walking tour (which he describes as “performance art in the guise of a walking tour”) is entertaining and very informative.

One of the things Celdran likes to talk about is the American occupation - in particular, he likes to remind his listeners (particularly the Americans in the audience, if there are any) that the reason why Manila is the way it is now is because Douglas MacArthur decided to bomb the Japanese out of it. Before World War II, Manila was once a beautiful city, probably one of the most beautiful in Asia (or at least Southeast-Asia), but after World War II, it was almost utterly destroyed: the second most-devastated city after Warsaw. During his tour, Celdran says that when the Americans bombed the city - when they levelled the historical, cultural, educational, religious, and political heart of an entire nation - and then replaced all that was lost with American architecture and culture in the years after, they essentially ripped out the identity of a people. And that identity is something Filipinos today are desperately searching for, but can never find.

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