Ara Satoshi “Maneuvering between Resistance and Collaboration: Wartime Violence and the Informal Economy at the Margins during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines”

This study explores one of the untold histories at the margins in Philippine society during the Japanese occupation, focusing on the informal economic activities of marginalized people. Most works on the social history of the Philippines during the Japanese occupation tend to highlight the sufferings that Filipinos went through due to the wartime violence inflicted by Japanese soldiers. But it is important to point out that some people at the margins accumulated their wealth navigating between resistance and collaboration. Their activities in the informal wartime economy have long been ignored in Philippine historiography even though these activities contributed to transformations in local society after the war. Although many works of broader economic history have been published on the wartime economy in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia, analysis of the activities of minor players in the microeconomic sphere—such as the black market, buy-and-sell activities, local gambling, and outlaw activities (including the organization of gangs)—remains fragmented and underexplored. The present study examines two cases during the Japanese occupation to show how marginalized individuals rose to prominence in local society, often through violent means—whether by collaborating with the Japanese or through contacts with guerrilla forces.

Keywords: resistance, collaboration, informal economy, wartime violence, Japanese occupation of the Philippines, gangster