The Philippines
John Pershing and the Myth of Bullets Dipped in Pig’s Blood
A few days ago, Donald Trump made an incendiary comment in public about the supposed actions of an American military officer in the Philippines more
Dr. Francisco Africa and the Burmese Mission in WW II Southeast Asia
I was looking at a report that the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) compiled during World War II about Filipinos who were collaborating with the
Coca-Cola by the People and for the People in the Philippines
Today I came across an educational film that the Coca-Cola Company made in 1955 about Coca-Cola in the Philippines. The video is called “Pearl of
The Long History of Filipino Musicians Playing Western Music
In reading the 16 September 1904 issue of The British North Borneo Herald, I came across a reference to a band from Manila that passed
Getting Back a Commandeered Car in the Japanese Occupied Philippines
I came across a letter that José Laurel, the president of the Philippines when it was under Japanese occupation, wrote to the Japanese consul general
Eating and Drinking in Style in the American-Occupied Philippines
As is well known, the US military began its conquest of the Philippines in 1898. Not long after the first soldiers landed, the supplies that
Henry Chong – Cosmopolitan Clerk Extraordinaire
Beaufort is a nice provincial town on the western side Borneo in what is now Sabah, Malaysia. In 1912 it was part of British North
The Gar Girls’ 1917 Trip to the Philippines
In 1901 the Parliament of Australia passed the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. This law basically gave immigration officials a lot of power to deny
Trafficking Japanese Women in Colonial Southeast Asia
On 27 February 1912, Captain Tucker Wardrop, the chief police officer at the Central Police Station in Beaufort, British North Borneo, wrote a letter to
From Chinese to American by Conquest in Siam
In 1898, shortly after US naval forces had captured Manila, a man of Chinese ethnicity arrived at the port in Bangkok on a boat from
Excluding Chinese from the Philippines by Military Fiat
I’ve been looking at some archival documents, and I came across an interesting issue that was discussed by American government officials in 1899 concerning Chinese
Murder, Rebels, Refugees and Telegrams in Late-19th-Century Southeast Asia
A few days ago I wrote about the technology of “wireless telegraphy” and its use in areas of Southeast Asia under colonial rule in the
Connecting Southeast Asia through Wireless Telegraphy
Today I read a letter that Lester Maynard, the US consul-general in Sandakan, British North Borneo, wrote to the Secretary of the Philippine Commission (an
Typewriters and Colonial Security in Southeast Asia
I’m reading Alfred McCoy’s Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines and the Rise of the Surveillance State (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009).
The Place of “Ta” in “Khoa Học”
I still don’t understand what the term “khoa học” means to Vietnamese scholars. It is how the term “science” was originally translated into Vietnamese, but
Masaharu Homma and José Laurel
Today I came across some documents from the office of José Laurel when he was “commissioner” of the Philippines in 1942. In 1942 the Philippines
Business Success Under Colonial Rule in the Philippines
So one of the first things which popped into my mind when I saw the picture for this adverstisement was that it was a symbol
Jane Palomar on Marriage and the Filipino Race
I came across this article about the Filipino actress, Jane Palomar, from the early 1960s in a magazine called Graphic. The article is called “Girl
Enterprising Filipino Linguists in WW II
This advertisement appeared in a paper in the Philippines not long after Manila was occupied by the Japanese. Where did this secret technique for learning
Wartime Theater in the Philippines
These are a couple of advertisements for theater shows from the middle of World War II in the Philippines. Someone told me once that prior