The Akahata News Paper

”Stateless: War displaced Filipino Japanese"
From the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the WW2 in 1945, Japanese companies were running a large scale Manila hemp industry in Mindanao and the Japanese community was formed there. Thousands of Japanese workers moved to Mindanao and many of them were married to local women, resulting the births of thousand of Japanese children. Before the war, the Japanese community in Mindanao enjoyed prosperity of booming industry. There were a Japanese school, shops and even the latest cinema. This project portrays the Japanese descendants who were born during or right after the war, who never knew of such blessing, but had to grow up in poverty and anti-Japan sentiment.
photo (c) Miyuki Okuyama
article by Takeshi Yamazawa, for The Akahata