It has been announced that two concerts will be given by the Orchestra Nipponica Tokyo to mark Japan-Philippine friendship and the 40th year of Asean-Japan Cooperation. This is being done at the invitation of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
We all believe in Philippine-Japan friendship, but February is absolutely the wrong month to celebrate it. That was the month in 1945 when about 100,000 civilian noncombatants perished after the Japanese turned Manila into a battleground and a killing ground. It was the biggest crime in Philippine history.
It bespeaks a case of historical amnesia on the part of the CCP, which is partly funded with taxpayers’ money, to schedule such an event in February—an insult to the memory of the 100,000 dead Manilans. Surely it would be more appropriate to have such a celebration held in, say, July, the month we signed a treaty of peace and commenced our productive postwar cooperation.—AMBASSADOR JUAN JOSE P. ROCHA, president, Memorare-Manila 1945 Foundation Inc., PO Box 370, Manila