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General Artemio Ricarte and Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Grant K. Goodman
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Extract

The romantic Filipino revolutionary and “irreconcilable” Artemio Ricarte y Vibora was born in 1866 at Batac, Ilocos Norte. A teacher of Spanish in Cavite by profession but a soldier by inclination, Ricarte secretly joined the independence-minded “blood brother-hood,” the Katipunan. Subsequently, he became an officer in the anti-Spanish Philippine uprising of 1896–1897. When the Spanish-American War broke out, Ricarte was one of those recruited by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo to cooperate with the Americans in destroying Spain's authority in the Philippines. As the commander of a military district in Luzon, Ricarte was rewarded by the revolutionary government with the title of General. As early as December of 1898, Ricarte doubted that the Americans would willingly withdraw from the Islands, and he submitted to Aguinaldo a plan for an immediate uprising against the American troops in Manila. Though this plot was frustrated, the outbreak of fighting on February 4, 1899, which resulted in the bloody Philippine-American War, occurred in an area immediately adjacent to that controlled by Ricarte, and some observers believe that Ricarte's personal belligerence contributed significantly to the edginess of the Filipino soldiers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian History , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , September 1966 , pp. 48 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1966

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References

1. Katipunan is the generally used abbreviation for the full Tagalog name Kamahalmahala't Kataastaasang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (Esteemed and Highest Society of the Sons of the People). The Katipunan was founded as a secret society by Andres Bonifacio in 1892.

2. Eyre, J. K. Jr., “General Artemio Ricarte y Vibora,” The Military Engineer, 11, 1944, 369.Google Scholar

3. Malay, Armando J., “Introduction,” Memoirs of General Ricarte (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1963), xxi.Google Scholar

4. Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereafter “JMFA” plus file number, date and classification, if given) 1.6.2.1–6. Feb. 11. 1911.

5. The material in the paragraphs that follow is all derived from Funazu's report found in JMFA I.6.2.I-6, March 14, 1911. Very Secrete.

6. Almost all of the participants in the Christmas Eve affair had been assigned “commissions” by Ricarte's agents in a non-existent “Revolutionary Army.”

7. In January, 1913 there had been an open split between Sotto and Ricarte. In the columns of his Hong Kong newspaper The Philippine Republic Sotto accused Ricarte of being a liar, a fool and a swindller. The latter charge was based on Sotto's claim that Ricarte had been soliciting funds from gullible Filipinos in the name of a forthcoming revolt which Ricarte was supposedly saying would be supported by Japan. These charges were widely publicized in the Manila press and greatly tarnished Ricarte's image. (See Manila, Times, 01 20, 1913Google Scholar and The Cablenews-American, 01 21, 1913.)Google Scholar

8. National Archives, Bureau of Insular Affairs 1239/128.

9. In the January, 1921 edition of The Asian Review, an English language periodical published by the Kokuryukai (Amur River or Black Dragon Society), an article entitled “The Proposed Independence of the Philippines” appeared under the signature of Ricarte.

10. JMFA I.6.2.1–6, Vol. 2, 10 17, 1923.Google Scholar

11. JMFA I.6.2.1–6, Vol. 2, 11 7, 1923.Google Scholar

12. Ibid.

13. JMFA I.6.2.1–6, Vol. 2, 07 8, 1924. Secret.Google Scholar

14. Ibid.

15. JMFA I.6.2.1–6, Vol. 4, 01 12, 1925. Secret.Google Scholar

16. Details of the Tangulan movement can be found in Stubbs, R.M., “Philippine Radicalism: The Central Luzon Uprisings, 1925–35,” (Unpub. Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1951), 98–108.Google Scholar

17. JMFA K.2.1.0.5–1, 04 8, 1933. Secret.Google Scholar

18. La Opinion, 02 24, 1933.Google Scholar

19. Herald, 10 20, 1934.Google Scholar

20. Tribune, 12 14, 1935.Google Scholar

21. Ibid.

22. Hirippin Joho, (Philippine Information Bulletin) No. 45, 02 28, 1941, 73–4.Google Scholar

23. Jose P. Laurel, for example, wanted no part of Ricarte. See War Memoirs of Dr. Jose P. Laurel (Manila: Jose P. Laurel Memorial Foundation, 1962), 8, 25, 61, 64.Google Scholar

24. “Fortunately or unfortunately, the Japanese found enough number [sic] of more prestigious Filipinos who were willing to establish a government under their auspices. Ricarte was reduced, at best, to the innocuous role of an Elder Statesman and, at worst, of a propagandist who exhorted sullen audiences to cooperate with the Japanese “liberators.” (Malay, , op. cit. xxiii.)Google Scholar General Ricarte's only official appointment during the Japanese occupation was as a Member of the Advisory Council on National Language.

25. The Sunday Tribune Magazine, 05 16, 1943.Google Scholar

26. Herald, 07 28, 1938.Google Scholar