Do you know that Yokohama’s sister cities total eight? (in alphabetical order) Chennai (India), Constanta (Romania), Lyon (France), Manila (the Philippines), Odessa (Ukraine), San Diego (USA), Shanghai (China), and Vancouver (Canada). With the exception of Lyon, they are all seaports like Yokohama. Based on the sister city relationship between Yokohama and Manila, a sister city friendship committee was set up on the Japanese side. The first chair of the committee happened to be Watanabe Hamako (1910-1999), a singer born in Yokohama. How did she become associated with the Philippines? 

The father of Watanabe Hamako was an English teacher at a girls’ teachers training school and her mother was a great granddaughter of a Japanese American. She graduated from a music school and became a music teacher before becoming a professional singer. Through her singing tours, she seemed to show some sympathy for those in need of help including Hanssen’s disease patients.

Then, soon after the end of WW2, Watanabe happened to come across a song written and composed by Japanese war criminals in the Philippines. Watanabe recorded the song in duet, “Ah, night falls in Muntinlupa” in 1952, which became popular in Japan. Through a visiting Philipino politician, Watanabe heard that there were more than 100 war criminals, including some on death row, still kept in Muntinlupa seven years after the end of WW2; actually, 14 of whom had been executed. Watanabe felt that she was the one to help free the war prisoners there.

It was incredible that, towards the end of 1952, Watanabe with the help of the Japanese government somewhat managed to visit and hold a singing concert at the New Bilibid Prison in Mantinlupa (now part of Greater Manila) where the war prisoners were kept. It was more than remarkable considering that the diplomatic relations between the two countries were to be reestablished only in 1956. During her stay there, Watanabe energetically pleaded to the Philippine government for the release of the war criminals. To a large extent due to her visit and the song’s popularity in Japan it helped then President of the Philippines, Elpidio Quirino, to take action. Quirino pardoned all remaining 105 prisoners in 1953.  

Watanabe continued as a singer and died in 1999. She is buried at Myokoo-ji, a Buddhist temple in Yokohama. Incidentally, the temple happened to be near where a Philipino independence advocate named Mario Ponce once lived with his Japanese wife, Okiyo in the late 1890s to 1900s.   

Now, let me turn to Elpidio Quirino (1890-1956).

What were his motives to release the prisoners at that time? Did you know that there is a monument of Quirino in Tokyo? 

I visited Hibiya Park, Tokyo on Sunday, June 1, 2025 to see the monument. The park is close to the Imperial Palace and on the day, there were many people including those attending a music concert there. Away from the people and noise stood the monument in a quiet part of the park hardly noticed by passersby. Inscribed is a statement from his hospital bed as shown below.  

Incidentally, at Hibiya Park you can also find the statue of Jose Rizal, a Philipino hero, who visited Japan in 1888.

Elpidio Quirino hailed from Bigan, Luzon. Quirino graduated from the University of the Philippines studying law in 1915. He became an attorney. Subsequently, Quirino entered into politics in 1919: he was a senator in the Commonwealth from 1925 to 1935. His tenure included stints as finance minister and interior minister. The Philippines gained independence from the USA in 1946 at long last. Under the first president, Manuel Roxas, Quirino was his vice president from 1946 and became a foreign minister as well. However, Roxas was suffering from ill health and died in 1948. So, Quirino ascended to the presidency. He did run for the next presidential election in 1953 but lost it due largely to his ill health.

One of the motives for Quirino to have pardoned the war criminals even against unfavorable national sentiment towards the Japanese at that time, was probably in order to expedite an ongoing negotiation between the two governments regarding compensation for WW2 war damages caused by the Japanese. Actually, such a treaty was concluded in 1956 for the amount of US$ 550 million. Coupled with the effectuation of the San Francisco Treaty of 1951, formal diplomatic relations between Japan and the Philippines were reestablished in 1956.            

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