Journal Articles by Jose Mathew Luga
Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2026
This article examines the forgetting of the collective memory of the Filipina "comfort women" pri... more This article examines the forgetting of the collective memory of the Filipina "comfort women" prior to the 1990s transnational redress movement. It argues that the prevailing social norms around prostitution, postwar narratives of heroism versus collaboration, and the interests of state and elite actors contributed to the initial silencing of this memory. However, shifts in societal norms towards sexual slavery and the return of democratic spaces in Asia enabled the later remembering and eventual mobilization of the "comfort women" memory which facilitated the emergence of the redress movement in the Philippines, challenging the state's homogenized official memory of the Asia-Pacific War.
The Journal of Social Science 「社会科学ジャーナル」, 2026
This paper examines the status of the memory of the Filipina "Comfort Women" following its approp... more This paper examines the status of the memory of the Filipina "Comfort Women" following its appropriation into the state's biographical narrative (or history) in the 1990s. In tracing how this memory has been appropriated and expurgated by the state from its history, I exhibit that a memory's status within the state's biographical narrative is not static but rather dynamic due to changes in international structure and in the domestic dialectical community. Furthermore, I extend that though a state may attempt to expurgate such memories which it has already appropriated, it does not lead to the total erasure of such memories from the state's history. Instead, these memories still leave traces in this attempted reorganized biographical narrative, placing such memories in a status of in-between, neither memory nor history, a state of liminality. This paper therefore is an exploration towards a theory of liminal memory, through the case study of the Filipina "Comfort Women" memory.
The Cordillera Review, 2022
Baguio City’s urban growth has always been studied from its American colonial beginnings (1900-19... more Baguio City’s urban growth has always been studied from its American colonial beginnings (1900-1913) yet as late as 1918 Baguio ranked third to the last among seven Philippine cities in terms of density rate per sq. km. Then described by the Halsema family as a “small, quiet … backwater post,” Baguio, by 1939, would report a quadruple growth in its population density from 95 (1918) to 419 (1939) people per sq. km., outpacing all seven cities except Davao. How did Baguio transform from a small
colonial outpost in the 1900s into a burgeoning urban center in Northern Luzon, Philippines by the 1930s? This work posits that Baguio’s rapid urbanization is traceable to the global events of the 1930s gold boom, which made Baguio the “Gold City of the
Orient.” This study takes after the pattern proposed by Alfred McCoy and Edilberto De Jesus in studying local societies in the Philippines, which is to examine how global trade provoked local transformations (McCoy & De Jesus [1982] 1998), a pattern yet to
be charted for Baguio City during the gold boom of the 1930s. It also contributes to the existing literature on the hill stations of Southeast Asia by exploring its locale of study beyond its colonial inception. To do this, it accounts for the factors leading to the gold
boom in the Cordilleras (transportation, gold, capital). It narrates how the growth of the mining industry in the region has shaped the urban character of Baguio, strengthening its service-oriented industries, transforming its once transient population into a
more permanent one, laying the foundation for Baguio’s subsequent development as a services hub for Northern Luzon.
Journal of Philippine Local History & Heritage , 2020
According to the National Artist for Literature Resil B. Mojares, "The Japanese Occupation has be... more According to the National Artist for Literature Resil B. Mojares, "The Japanese Occupation has been one of the most widely written-about periods of Philippine history... Yet, if one thinks of an organized, comprehensive body of scholarly knowledge about the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, there is so much that we do not know..." This observation is particularly true in the writing of the civilian life during the Japanese Occupation, which is often left as "uneven, impressionistic and unintegrated." (Mojares 2006, 356-357)
Following Mojares' observation, this paper argues that understanding the Japanese Occupation better necessitates the division of this history into turning-points indicative of its key phases. Crucial to this periodization is the year 1944 when Douglas MacArthur, along with Sergio Osmeña, has returned to the Philippines, signifying the liberation phase of the Japanese period. This paper emphasizes this turning-point by studying the local case of Baguio. What was the impact of these American campaigns in 1944 to the conditions experienced in Baguio?
This paper answers the question by presenting (1) the initial outbreak of the war, (2) the general condition of Baguio City from December 27, 1941 to September 21, 1944, (3) and the changes that the city experienced from October 20, 1944 until its liberation at April 27, 1945. Utilizing documents from the Philippine Archives Collection of the National Archives and Records Administration, the People's Court Trials, newspaper clippings of the Tribune, together with various eyewitness accounts written by Baguio's survivors, this paper intends to highlight the 1944 Leyte Landings as a vital turning-point in the period of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. In doing, the paper periodizes the history of the Japanese Occupation in Baguio, providing for a systematic analysis for the civilian life in the city during the war.
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Journal Articles by Jose Mathew Luga
colonial outpost in the 1900s into a burgeoning urban center in Northern Luzon, Philippines by the 1930s? This work posits that Baguio’s rapid urbanization is traceable to the global events of the 1930s gold boom, which made Baguio the “Gold City of the
Orient.” This study takes after the pattern proposed by Alfred McCoy and Edilberto De Jesus in studying local societies in the Philippines, which is to examine how global trade provoked local transformations (McCoy & De Jesus [1982] 1998), a pattern yet to
be charted for Baguio City during the gold boom of the 1930s. It also contributes to the existing literature on the hill stations of Southeast Asia by exploring its locale of study beyond its colonial inception. To do this, it accounts for the factors leading to the gold
boom in the Cordilleras (transportation, gold, capital). It narrates how the growth of the mining industry in the region has shaped the urban character of Baguio, strengthening its service-oriented industries, transforming its once transient population into a
more permanent one, laying the foundation for Baguio’s subsequent development as a services hub for Northern Luzon.
Following Mojares' observation, this paper argues that understanding the Japanese Occupation better necessitates the division of this history into turning-points indicative of its key phases. Crucial to this periodization is the year 1944 when Douglas MacArthur, along with Sergio Osmeña, has returned to the Philippines, signifying the liberation phase of the Japanese period. This paper emphasizes this turning-point by studying the local case of Baguio. What was the impact of these American campaigns in 1944 to the conditions experienced in Baguio?
This paper answers the question by presenting (1) the initial outbreak of the war, (2) the general condition of Baguio City from December 27, 1941 to September 21, 1944, (3) and the changes that the city experienced from October 20, 1944 until its liberation at April 27, 1945. Utilizing documents from the Philippine Archives Collection of the National Archives and Records Administration, the People's Court Trials, newspaper clippings of the Tribune, together with various eyewitness accounts written by Baguio's survivors, this paper intends to highlight the 1944 Leyte Landings as a vital turning-point in the period of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. In doing, the paper periodizes the history of the Japanese Occupation in Baguio, providing for a systematic analysis for the civilian life in the city during the war.