It was during the 1880s that interest was rekindled towards the Philippine Islands in Japanese society after a hiatus brought about by centuries of isolation during the previous Tokugawa period. This new-found attention reached a peak with the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in August 1896.
The aim of the present paper is to trace Japanese interest in and perceptions towards the Philippines from the late 1880s to the early years of the twentieth century, using the content of such print media as newspapers, magazines and books.
During that time, a very significant change occurred in what interested Japanese authors and journalists about the Philippines and the media they used before and after the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution. Before the Revolution, the Philippines were taken up by a small number of writers concerned with Japan's southward advance, either editorializing in journals published by expansionist groups or arguing their points in book form. These writers' attention was drawn to the Philippines from three main perspectives: as a potential trade partner, as a potential Japanese colony, and as a strategic point for national defense. Their ultimate aim was to bring the Philippines under Japanese rule, either by such peaceful means as commerce or colonization or by cooperating in a Filipino armed rising against their Spanish conquerors. In the background to such dreams of conquest lay the four factors of 1) the geographical proximity of the Philippines, 2) the declining power of the Spanish, 3) increasing dissatisfaction among the Filipino population with Spanish oppression, and 4) the inability of the Filipino people to throw off their Spanish chains on their own. One more characteristic feature of writers concerned with Philippine issues at that time was that despite a deep concern for the land mass itself called the Philippines Islands, no such interest was shared regarding the actual residents of those islands.
After the outbreak of the Revolution, the role of disseminating information about the Philippines in Japan was assumed by that country's daily newspapers. Such dailies as the Tokyo Asahi, Osaka Asahi, Osaka Mainichi, Jijishimpo, and Yorozuchoho published a great wealth of articles and editorials on what was happening during the Revolution, all of which concluded, in unison, that what the pre-Revolution proponents of Japan's advance southward were insisting upon had become a pipe dream. Two factors are important here. First, the occupation of the Philippines by the United States had dashed the hopes of the expansionists; and secondly, the same Filipino people who had been looked down upon by expansionist writers for being incompetent had in fact raised a successful rebellion against the Spanish on their own and, at least for a time, had set up their own independent government.
The present paper goes into particular detail concerning the reporting on the Revolution done by the Tokyo Asahi and Osaka Mainichi papers during the period from August 1896 to July 1902. During that time, the editorial stances taken by both papers were characterized by concern over what kind of influence the development of the Revolution was exerting on Japan's national interests. Although the opinions expressed by the editorial staffs of these papers were not always in agreement on either issue of the Filipino revolutionaries or US imperialism, still, both papers managed in one form or another to report information sympathetic with and supporting the Revolution. Both papers also carried many features describing the actual appearance and everyday life of the Filipino people. Such extensive coverage of Philippine affairs by these two major newspapers helped to widen interest in the subject among their large readerships and deepen their understanding of Philippine society.
Also during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, through the efforts of such figures as the Philippine revolutionary government's diplomat to Japan Mariano Ponce and Japanese novelist Yamada Bimyo, books were published expressing anger and condemning the condescension and racial discrimination practiced by the Spanish and Americans against Filipinos, as well as criticizing US imperialist aims in the region. When compared to the information disseminated among Japanese concerning Philippine society prior to the Revolution, post-Revolution public opinion had greatly diversified, to a degree that in some circles criticism and genuine resistance was growing towards the southern expansionist diatribes of pre-Revolution times.