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Paper short abstract

Using a micro-history of Panay Island, this presentation examines the dynamics of violence and irregular warfare in the Philippines between 1942 and 1945. It argues for the benefits of a multi-perspective approach, suggesting that military violence be viewed as a process rather than an event.

Paper long abstract

Beginning in July 1943, Japanese forces on Panay Island in the Philippines launched a series of subjugation operations aiming to suppress ongoing guerrilla resistance. During these operations, thousands of civilians were killed, and numerous villages were burned, crops razed, and livestock slaughtered as part of a comprehensive scorched-earth strategy that exacerbated the ongoing hardships of wartime occupation. This was a significant radicalisation compared to earlier campaigns in the island which had avoided attacks directed at the civilian population in furtherance of pacification efforts to win their compliance, if not their support. In this respect, the radicalisation of Japanese anti-guerrilla strategy on Panay was a microcosm of escalating irregular warfare in the Philippines during the Asia-Pacific War. Over the course of the occupation, military strategy in the islands shifted from an emphasis on appeasement and collaboration to the indiscriminate use of force and violence, culminating in the Manila Massacre of February 1945. This shift has typically been explained by the deteriorating wartime context prevailing in the final months of occupation in the Philippines. However, a micro-history of the unfolding conflict on Panay Island, an underrepresented area within the history of the Asia-Pacific War, suggests a more complicated interplay of factors centred on the inter-relational dynamics of violence and irregular warfare. This presentation demonstrates this dynamic, drawing upon surviving Japanese military and Philippine guerrilla wartime sources to highlight the importance of analysing military violence as part of a dynamic process of interaction, reaction, and response between belligerents rather than as a singular event.