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By Francis Isaac and Joy Aceron
This past week, a movie entitled Quezon’s Game was shown in Philippine cinemas. Set in the late 1930s, the film focuses on a little-known chapter in Philippine history, when Philippine President Manuel Quezon allowed the entry of more than a thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe. (Check this article for more about this moment in Philippine history: https://bit.ly/2Rfoe9N)
An important insight that can be gleaned upon the movie Quezon’s Game is how it sheds light on the Filipino conception of nationalism, and how international solidarity shaped its early development.
1. The film showed how the Philippines, a small nation that is not yet even fully independent, stood against fascist tyranny, underscoring Filipinos’ conviction towards freedom and human rights for all.
Quezon’s Game begins shortly after Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), when Nazi thugs attacked thousands of Jewish shops, homes and synagogues, littering Germany’s streets with countless shards of broken glass. This became the prelude to the Holocaust as Hitler’s regime began sending Jewish families to ghettoes and concentration camps scattered across the Third Reich. In the face of this blatant genocide, European democracies such as Britain and France turned a blind eye, while Canada and the United States turned away shiploads of Jews who were desperately trying to escape certain death.
But halfway across the globe, the Philippines opened its doors to Jewish refugees and in so doing, did its share in fighting Nazism. This is part of our history that is not known to many, but its effects still resonate to this day.
At that time, the Philippines was still struggling to gain full independence from the Americans and build a nation-state of its own. Yet, when the most powerful countries turned their backs on the Jewish people who were then facing the worst oppression imaginable, Filipinos stepped up and stood firm.
This is especially relevant today when the world faces a refugee crisis. Quezon, a Filipino leader, set an example almost a century ago on what is the right thing to do in response to refugees and showed how to get the right thing done against all odds through political astuteness, solidarity work, and by having a deep faith in the generosity of his people.
This is perfectly summed up in a line from the movie where Quezon, played by Raymond Bagatsing, declares:
“This is the Philippines. We will stand against Hitler.”
2. The movie underscored the blending of Filipino nationalism with internationalism.
Using the medium of cinema, Quezon’s Game poetically captures the kind of nationalism that our forefathers embraced—a nationalism that is rooted in a deep love for humanity and a desire for liberation. It is not a rightwing “Us vs. Them” type of nationalism that is so inward-looking and negates everything that is foreign.
It is a nationalism that comes alongside internationalism—that deep recognition and respect for the dignity of every human individual regardless of race, religion or gender. It is the moral compulsion to act and respond when a part of humanity is faced with utter destruction, because it is rooted in the belief that a threat to the rights of others is a threat to the rights of all.
And it was this kind of nationalism that moved Quezon to help the Jews. This is clearly underscored in the movie where Quezon is portrayed extending solidarity to fellow human beings facing an unjust tyranny, even as he was leading his own people’s struggle for freedom and independence. For Quezon, his nationalism and international commitment were not conflicting or contradictory. Rather, they were closely linked and mutually reinforcing. And it was that kind of nationalism that allowed Quezon to repudiate both Hitler and American officials who were in favor of segregation.
One line in the movie stands out as a reflection of Philippine nationalism. When told by an American that there is a difference between a German Nazi and an American racist, Quezon replied: “Not to a Filipino.”
This movie made it loud and clear: we Filipinos love and fight for our country, as we love and fight for our fellow human beings – and yes, that we can succeed in both.
Francis Isaac is a graduate student in De La Salle University (DLSU).
Joy Aceron is Convenor-Director of G-Watch (www.g-watch.org) and Research Fellow at Accountability Research Center (ARC) based in School of International Service at American University.
They are both nationalist and anti-fascist.