Davao-kuo

Scholars studying the movement of people in colonial Southeast Asia have principally focused on the Chinese impact in shaping export based economies in the region. Until recently, lesser notice was given to two other migratory labor forces in the colonial period: the Indians moving eastward and establishing their presence in areas like British Malaya, and the Japanese who—until the first decades of the twenti eth century—competed with the Chinese for work in the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, and Singapore. This essay examines the experi ence of the Japanese labor diaspora in the province of Davao, one of the more successful migrant enclaves that the Japanese set up in South east Asia.3 Until recently, this successful community that became popu larly known as Davao-kuo has received little attention, in part because the consequences of World War II: victors (Filipinos and Ameri cans) get to tell their stories and claim these be the only true version, losers (the Japanese) do not. This marginalization has been reinforced by an academic perspective that views Philippine political develop ment from the lens of the capital (Manila), and assigns the periphery and frontier minor roles in the configuration of the national narrative. This essay is therefore partly a corrective to these elisions, and partly

Colonialism · Development economics · Diaspora · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Frontier · Geography · Narrative · Notice · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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