Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was not the first iconic foreign dignitary to visit Davao City. That honor belongs to the late Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel.
According to Tony Ajero, this paper’s editor, Golda Meir visited Davao in the 1960s as the minister of agriculture of Israel and was impressed by the lush greenery and fruits of Davao.
She was escorted to the agricultural farms of Calinan and Baguio district by then Mayor Elias Lopez.
The second was Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Muhamad who graced the launching of the East Asian growth area in Davao City in 1994.
Tony A. added that Mahathir also graced the inauguration of the Ekran Berhad Casino Hotel and visited Samal Island itself.
Brief as the stay of PM Abe and his wife in Davao was, I am sure this did not prevent him from soaking up on the history of Davao where a sizeable Japanese colony flourished from 1910 to the 1940s.
It appeared that several of those that settled in Davao were part of a multinational workforce of 3,000 individuals who were hired to carve the Kennon road from the deep canyons of the Benguet highlands.
That after the road materialized, many of the Japanese took the boat to Davao where they eventually settled.
Accounts reveal that in Davao, they established the first printing presses, the first theaters, the first bazaars and the first coffee plantations. It is safe to assume that many intermarried with locals.
At one time, their numbers grew significantly that Davao was then referred as “Little Tokyo.” Petitions were also sent the Philippine commonwealth government that sought to declare Davao as “Little Tokyo” to no avail.
With the war over, many were eventually repatriated back to Japan while at least several stayed behind. Of course, several who turned out to be combatants perished and only their living descendants knew where they were buried.
In the 1990s one of a few literary narratives I attempted revolved around the character Ma’fok which as the story went was the son of a Japanese trader named Yamaguchi and a Blaan mother named Sagumba who lived peacefully in Davao City until war broke in 1940.
To save the boy Ma’fok, his parents brought him to his mother’s folks back in the mountains where he was to survive the war. He was a well-liked elder in his 60s when he joined his folks one day in visiting a PANAMIN official who landed in a neighboring village by helicopter.
The PANAMIN official took one look at him and commented: “You, Ma’fok, you are no B’laan.”
It disturbed him a lot. And the obvious dawned on him. While he spoke B’laan all his life, his skin was lighter than his cousins. He had a slightly aquiline nose and a pair of slit-like eyes that betrayed his father’s origin.
His path was to cross that of Bagawe the new school teacher.
Determined to teach his students the martial arts, Bagawe gathered several of the youngsters, including one of the elder’s grandsons as his students.
One day, the elder’s grandson quarreled with several of his peers that ended in a free-for-all. Bagawe arrived in time to stop the fight but made the mistake of taking a grip on the elder’s grandson who mistook it as favoring his adversaries.
It reached the old man who lost no time in seeking out the schoolteacher. Armed with a four-foot rattan stick, the old man flailed at the teacher as if he was beating a post in the backyard for his lessons in Kendo as a kid.
It took the teacher by surprise who tried in vain to avoid punishment.
Yet to make a long narrative short, the two eventually became friends and Bagawe was rewarded one day by marrying one of the elder’s granddaughters. Ossu!
