Philippines: Thou art of the same lineage as the sovereign.

Photograph of Shigeru Hashimoto and his wife Rosario on display at the museum. Photo by Tomoaki Takeshita.This year marks the 120th anniversary of Japanese immigration to the Philippines. Before the war, Davao City was one of the biggest Japanese towns where about 20,000 Japanese people lived. Cullinan, which used to have a particularly large population of Japanese, is now home to the Japan-Philippines Historical Museum.
There is a quiet display of the testament of Japanese immigrant Shigeru Hashimoto, who was the manager of Furukawa Takushoku, a city that flourished in the Manila hemp (abaca) industry before the war.
In the final letter he left to his wife Rosario and daughter Kazue, it was written on the night of August 26, 1944, at the end of the Pacific War.
(To his wife Rosario) “Since your husband Shigeru Hashimoto dedicated his life to His Majesty the Emperor, I will repay you in full for the Emperor’s favor. It is as if my words and deeds have dishonored your husband’s honor without pride.”
“Your hope is beyond your lifetime. Raise Kazueda as a Japanese, raise him honorably as a son of your father, and raise him with pride.”
(To my daughter, Kazue) “Alaba, you are very concerned about your personal affairs.
“You are Japanese, so your ancestors are Amaterasu Omikami, and your master’s family is not an imperial family. You have the same blood as the emperor’s body, and a single drop of blood resides in your body.”
“The emperor’s country, the Empire of Japan, will soon be your father’s country, and at the same time, you will be your protector.
Hashimoto, who was recruited by the Japanese army, is said to have died in a bombing raid by the US military during a military exercise on Samar Island.
Hashimoto, who entrusted the fate of his child, who is “the baby of His Majesty” with the same blood as “the emperor’s body”, to the motherland and literally dedicated his life to repay the “emperor’s favor”. His last words to his wife were, “I believe in the uniqueness of your love for me, and I am grateful.” It concludes with a parental sentiment that says, “I’m sorry for the high altitude.”
Similarly, Hashimoto must not have been the only father who left his family behind in the ravages of the “holy war” and turned into water-soaked corpses.
In response, on August 14, 1945, the day the Japanese government accepted the Potsdam Declaration, Shigenori Togo, Minister of Greater East Asia, issued an “Instruction regarding the acceptance of the Three-Party Declaration and to local organizations overseas.” Declared that “the residents will take a policy of settling down as much as possible,” and decided to keep the Issei’s families in the area in the midst of the revenge of the Filipinos and the hunting of Japanese by anti-Japanese guerrillas.
After the war, many of the remaining Nisei were exposed to raging anti-Japanese sentiment, hiding their origins and fleeing to remote areas such as mountainous areas.
78 years have passed since then. Have the wishes of the fathers, who were never able to see their children again due to being in a foreign land or being forcibly repatriated to Japan and the chaos after the war, fulfilled? What happened to their descendants afterward? We visited the former Japanese town of Davao City. (Honorifics omitted, Tomoaki Takeshita, continued)