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Description

The first presence of the Japanese on the island of Luzon began in the 16th century with the Wakou pirates that terrorized the East and South China seas. Pirates began using the Cagayan river valley as a base for operations against the southern Ming coast and for extorting traders elsewhere in the South China Sea. When the Spanish military presence that began colonizing the Philippines reached the Cagayan valley, the 1582 battles of Cagayan river ensued. Leaders of small pirate bands, including the famous Tay Fusa engaged in battles with the Spanish. After weeks of back and forth river battles, the quick Sampan boaters of the Wakou were able to stalemate the Spanish. The Captain-General in Manila decided to strike a deal with Tay Fusa and other leaders, allowing for a degree of local autonomy by the Wakou as long as they did not raid ships or lands of the Spanish Crown. The Treaty of Cagayan in 1583 established the genesis of Japanese influence in northern Luzon.
By the next century, the golden age of the Wakou was over and the age of the Red Seal ships began. Sailors of the Seto and Ariake seas no longer joined pirate bands but Tokugawa-sanctioned merchant ships that sailed from Ryukyu to Siam, and from the Spice islands to Malacca. Japanese sailors established Japanese districts in cities such as Ayutthaya and Batavia, and trade in the region flourished. The small Japanese community in the Cagayan valley soon began to grow rapidly as the area became a welcome rest stop for Red Seal Ships, marking the First wave of Japanese settlement to Luzon. Settlers primarily came from the Sanyou region and Kyushu, many of whom were Catholics escaping the rising persecutions against Christians. Catholics tended to also settle in Manila, establishing the Japanese community in the city which still exists today.

Eventually, however, immigration from the mainland abruptly halted as the Tokugawa Shogunate instituted the policy of Sakoku and the Red Seal Ships ended their expeditions. While some new settlers arrived from other parts of Southeast Asia as Japanese communities consolidated while locked outside of Japan, the Ruson-Japanese, as they called themselves, were now isolated. The reluctance of the Tokugawa to take part in external affairs now gave Spanish colonial officials an excuse to tighten their control over northern Luzon and abandon the Treaty of Manila. Over the next two centuries, while the Ruson-Japanese managed to survive by establishing small businesses in cities and fostering rural communities, repression by the Spanish crown was common, and several small-scale revolts occurred during this period.
During the 18th century, Rusonese (Ruson-go) developed as a distinct Japonic language with elements of the Satsuma dialect and Ryukuan. Ruson-Japanese culture was also influenced by the Ryukyu kingdom and Kyushuan elements, while incorporating native Austronesian and Negritos cultural elements. Trade was also established from the port of Kagakou to Ryukyu, Macao, Dai Viet, and Taiwan. Taiwanese-Ruson trade was notably prominent as Rusonese sailors often visited the island to trade wares with Natives and Hokkien.

Everything changed for the Ruson-Japanese when Japan opened its borders and entered the world in the middle of the 19th century. Japanese immigrants entered the country in large numbers, seeking jobs and opportunity. The Ruson-Japanese community was bolstered both in the Cagayan valley, Ilocos region, and Manila. The city of Vigan in Ilocos (known as Bigan to the Japanese) quickly became a center of Japanese immigration in the north. Bigan Japanese were some of the best-educated in the community, including many freemasons and western-educated intellectuals. It was here that the first stirrings of Ruson nationalism began as Spanish mistreatment of the Japanese continued despite the increasing prominence of the community. In 1893, the Bigan Ruson Japanese Revolutionary Council (Bigasu Nikkei Rusonjin Kakumei Doushikai or BNRKD) was established, quickly establishing ties with the Katipunan in Manila.
In August of 1896, the Kapitunan declared a national revolution and the Philippine Revolution began in earnest against the Spanish colonial authorities. Tagalog revolutionaries across the nation began resisting Spanish colonial rule. In the north, the fire of revolution was yet to ignite due to the influence of the Kapitunan being weaker. However, on September 18, a Ruson-Japanese man suspected of being a revolutionary was beaten to death by Spanish police. The BNRKD immediately declared an uprising and armed revolutionaries took to the streets of Vigas. The city was soon occupied by BNRKD forces, and revolution in the north began. However, after months of stalemate and eventual de-escalation, the leaders of the BNRKD joined the leaders of the Kapitunan in self-exile in Hong Kong.

Opportunity arose for both Tagalog and Ruson revolutionaries when the Spanish-American war began, as the battle of Manila bay quickly dashed any hopes of the Spanish holding on to the colony for any longer. The Tagalog republic was quickly reestablished, and the BNRKD declared the North Ruson Provisional Republic. The BNRKD of the time was split between Republican and Nationalist factions. The former seeked the establishment of an independent, Ruson-Japanese republic, while the latter desired for the Empire of Japan to annex or make a protectorate out of North Ruson. The Nationalist faction were mostly made up of Second Wave Ruson-Japanese while the Republicans were primarily Catholic and First Wave. While the Provisional Republic was meant to be a stop-gap measure, the Americans quickly arrived on the Island and dissolved the fledgling state, opening the Luzon front of the Philippine-American war. Like the Tagalogs in the south the Ruson fought against the Americans through guerilla warfare and resistance, but by 1902 the struggle was over and American control over Luson was complete. While north Luzon was incorporated into the new Insular Government of the Philippines, Ruson areas enjoyed considerable autonomy and a voice in the Philippine assembly, retaining the cultural split from the south that was solidified through the BNRKD’s Provisional Republic.
However, the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines marked a sharp end to Ruson autonomy. The Filipino and Tagalog dominated government cut down on much of the autonomy of the Rusonese, angering much of the population and reigniting the independence movement. The government in Manila feared that the increasingly aggressive Empire of Japan would use the Rusonese as a tool for aggression, but these efforts backfired immensely.

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy sent shockwaves throughout the Pacific, and when news reached Manila the Commonwealth Government immediately knew that it was under threat. On December 8 1941, Japanese forces landed at Kagakou, Vigan, and Rosario, quickly marched southwards towards Manila. The local defences were quickly overrun and the conquest of northern Luzon was complete. The Ruson-Japanese population was split on how to approach the occupying Japanese, mostly along revolution-era lines. The collaborative Republican faction seeked to petition Tokyo for independence and entry into the Greater Co-prosperity Sphere as a nominally sovereign nation, while the Nationalists wished for the Empire to directly annex Northern Ruson and settle it with new Japanese colonists. Many members of the Republican faction, however, saw the Japanese as an Imperialist occupier and joined forces with the Hukbalahap in resisting the Japanese.
In June 1942, the region of North Ruson was officially annexed into the Japanese empire as a colony and was reorganized into prefectures. Tokyo seeked to placate many Republican leaders by offering them positions in the colonial government, but some refused and were arrested by Kenpeitai forces. The Nationalists celebrated the annexation, and worked with Imperial bureaucrats to settle many Okinawans and Kyushuans in Luzon, primarily in cities in the central region rather than the historical Cagayan valley. It is estimated that 300,000 Japanese settlers moved to Luzon during the war, marking the third wave of immigration. During Imperial rule, the Kenpeitai ruthless cracked down on any resistance, and the collaborationist government helped the Japanese in suppressing non-Japonic peoples on the island, and the aggressive promotion of the Japanese language in schools and government.
The Japanese victory at Midway seemed to truly herald the new Japanese century in Asia, and people of Luzon listened on their radios with pride or fear. However, this was not to last. By 1946, the Japanese were defeated in Indonesia and cut off from the southern resource area, and there were stirrings of an invasion of the Philippines by the Americans. Things took another turn for the worse when the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria and the Kurils, quickly crushing all Japanese resistance. Finally, in May 1946, the unthinkable occured. Through the Kurils, Soviet armor raced through Hokkaido and crossed the Tsugaru strait. The Hondo Kessen had begun, and the Japanese were doomed. First, the Emperor was taken to Kyoto as the Soviets occupied the Tohoku. Then to Hiroshima. Then to Fukuoka. Finally, as a Soviet division crossed into Kita-Kyushu, the military leaders around the Emperor knew that the only way to save any semblance of the Kokutai was to flee south. On August 10 1946, the Emperor landed on Luzon via submarine. The home islands were gone, but Ruson had survived. The Emperor surrendered unconditionally to America, and American troops finally returned to Luzon, this time as liberators.

The Americans quickly set up the provisional Commonwealth of the Philippines to deal with the aftermath of the war, but with the establishment of the People’s Republic of Japan and the increasing strength of the Chinese Communists, Washington began to consider the possibility of establishing an independent North Luzon to contain Japanese soldiers returning home and refugees, in addition to serving as a strategic American base. The Japanese population of the island had ballooned during the war, and was only increasing as Imperial loyalists fled the Red Terror on the home islands through the Ryukyu islands. This marked the fourth and final wave of immigration, mostly Japanese from the populace regions of Kyushu and Kanto and some Tohoku and Koshinetsu Japanese settlers who escaped from the now-defunct Manchukuo. North Luzon was a convenient place to contain this torrent of refugees, and the Philippine government in Manila was not deemed capable of handling this crisis by Washington. Thus, on December 20 1946, the North Ruson Republic was established.
After independence, the Republicans of the BNRKD formed the Ruson Democratic Party, and took up the mantle of government, with collaborationists purged from the party. The opposition was formed at first by the few Nationalists who resisted the Japanese, but by 1950 as American control over the government relaxed, many collaborationists returned to government and formed the Ruson Japanese People’s Party. The party holds claim to all of Japan and have pushed for the Emperor of Japan-in-exile, Hirohito, to become the sovereign of North Ruson. The Emperor lives in a house in the capital of Bagio, with the house surrounded by either Nationalists proclaiming three banzais or Republicans shouting their opposition to any monarch, depending on the day of the week. The Emperor is a central issue in North Ruson politics, symbolizing the still-present struggle between an independent Rusonese identity and one under the shadow of Japan. The year is 1952, and the future holds much more for the North Rusonese.

Description

The first presence of the Japanese on the island of Luzon began in the 16th century with the Wakou pirates that terrorized the East and South China seas. Pirates began using the Cagayan river valley as a base for operations against the southern Ming coast and for extorting traders elsewhere in the South China Sea. When the Spanish military presence that began colonizing the Philippines reached the Cagayan valley, the 1582 battles of Cagayan river ensued. Leaders of small pirate bands, including the famous Tay Fusa engaged in battles with the Spanish. After weeks of back and forth river battles, the quick Sampan boaters of the Wakou were able to stalemate the Spanish. The Captain-General in Manila decided to strike a deal with Tay Fusa and other leaders, allowing for a degree of local autonomy by the Wakou as long as they did not raid ships or lands of the Spanish Crown. The Treaty of Cagayan in 1583 established the genesis of Japanese influence in northern Luzon.
By the next century, the golden age of the Wakou was over and the age of the Red Seal ships began. Sailors of the Seto and Ariake seas no longer joined pirate bands but Tokugawa-sanctioned merchant ships that sailed from Ryukyu to Siam, and from the Spice islands to Malacca. Japanese sailors established Japanese districts in cities such as Ayutthaya and Batavia, and trade in the region flourished. The small Japanese community in the Cagayan valley soon began to grow rapidly as the area became a welcome rest stop for Red Seal Ships, marking the First wave of Japanese settlement to Luzon. Settlers primarily came from the Sanyou region and Kyushu, many of whom were Catholics escaping the rising persecutions against Christians. Catholics tended to also settle in Manila, establishing the Japanese community in the city which still exists today.

Eventually, however, immigration from the mainland abruptly halted as the Tokugawa Shogunate instituted the policy of Sakoku and the Red Seal Ships ended their expeditions. While some new settlers arrived from other parts of Southeast Asia as Japanese communities consolidated while locked outside of Japan, the Ruson-Japanese, as they called themselves, were now isolated. The reluctance of the Tokugawa to take part in external affairs now gave Spanish colonial officials an excuse to tighten their control over northern Luzon and abandon the Treaty of Manila. Over the next two centuries, while the Ruson-Japanese managed to survive by establishing small businesses in cities and fostering rural communities, repression by the Spanish crown was common, and several small-scale revolts occurred during this period.
During the 18th century, Rusonese (Ruson-go) developed as a distinct Japonic language with elements of the Satsuma dialect and Ryukuan. Ruson-Japanese culture was also influenced by the Ryukyu kingdom and Kyushuan elements, while incorporating native Austronesian and Negritos cultural elements. Trade was also established from the port of Kagakou to Ryukyu, Macao, Dai Viet, and Taiwan. Taiwanese-Ruson trade was notably prominent as Rusonese sailors often visited the island to trade wares with Natives and Hokkien.

Everything changed for the Ruson-Japanese when Japan opened its borders and entered the world in the middle of the 19th century. Japanese immigrants entered the country in large numbers, seeking jobs and opportunity. The Ruson-Japanese community was bolstered both in the Cagayan valley, Ilocos region, and Manila. The city of Vigan in Ilocos (known as Bigan to the Japanese) quickly became a center of Japanese immigration in the north. Bigan Japanese were some of the best-educated in the community, including many freemasons and western-educated intellectuals. It was here that the first stirrings of Ruson nationalism began as Spanish mistreatment of the Japanese continued despite the increasing prominence of the community. In 1893, the Bigan Ruson Japanese Revolutionary Council (Bigasu Nikkei Rusonjin Kakumei Doushikai or BNRKD) was established, quickly establishing ties with the Katipunan in Manila.
In August of 1896, the Kapitunan declared a national revolution and the Philippine Revolution began in earnest against the Spanish colonial authorities. Tagalog revolutionaries across the nation began resisting Spanish colonial rule. In the north, the fire of revolution was yet to ignite due to the influence of the Kapitunan being weaker. However, on September 18, a Ruson-Japanese man suspected of being a revolutionary was beaten to death by Spanish police. The BNRKD immediately declared an uprising and armed revolutionaries took to the streets of Vigas. The city was soon occupied by BNRKD forces, and revolution in the north began. However, after months of stalemate and eventual de-escalation, the leaders of the BNRKD joined the leaders of the Kapitunan in self-exile in Hong Kong.

Opportunity arose for both Tagalog and Ruson revolutionaries when the Spanish-American war began, as the battle of Manila bay quickly dashed any hopes of the Spanish holding on to the colony for any longer. The Tagalog republic was quickly reestablished, and the BNRKD declared the North Ruson Provisional Republic. The BNRKD of the time was split between Republican and Nationalist factions. The former seeked the establishment of an independent, Ruson-Japanese republic, while the latter desired for the Empire of Japan to annex or make a protectorate out of North Ruson. The Nationalist faction were mostly made up of Second Wave Ruson-Japanese while the Republicans were primarily Catholic and First Wave. While the Provisional Republic was meant to be a stop-gap measure, the Americans quickly arrived on the Island and dissolved the fledgling state, opening the Luzon front of the Philippine-American war. Like the Tagalogs in the south the Ruson fought against the Americans through guerilla warfare and resistance, but by 1902 the struggle was over and American control over Luson was complete. While north Luzon was incorporated into the new Insular Government of the Philippines, Ruson areas enjoyed considerable autonomy and a voice in the Philippine assembly, retaining the cultural split from the south that was solidified through the BNRKD’s Provisional Republic.
However, the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines marked a sharp end to Ruson autonomy. The Filipino and Tagalog dominated government cut down on much of the autonomy of the Rusonese, angering much of the population and reigniting the independence movement. The government in Manila feared that the increasingly aggressive Empire of Japan would use the Rusonese as a tool for aggression, but these efforts backfired immensely.

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy sent shockwaves throughout the Pacific, and when news reached Manila the Commonwealth Government immediately knew that it was under threat. On December 8 1941, Japanese forces landed at Kagakou, Vigan, and Rosario, quickly marched southwards towards Manila. The local defences were quickly overrun and the conquest of northern Luzon was complete. The Ruson-Japanese population was split on how to approach the occupying Japanese, mostly along revolution-era lines. The collaborative Republican faction seeked to petition Tokyo for independence and entry into the Greater Co-prosperity Sphere as a nominally sovereign nation, while the Nationalists wished for the Empire to directly annex Northern Ruson and settle it with new Japanese colonists. Many members of the Republican faction, however, saw the Japanese as an Imperialist occupier and joined forces with the Hukbalahap in resisting the Japanese.
In June 1942, the region of North Ruson was officially annexed into the Japanese empire as a colony and was reorganized into prefectures. Tokyo seeked to placate many Republican leaders by offering them positions in the colonial government, but some refused and were arrested by Kenpeitai forces. The Nationalists celebrated the annexation, and worked with Imperial bureaucrats to settle many Okinawans and Kyushuans in Luzon, primarily in cities in the central region rather than the historical Cagayan valley. It is estimated that 300,000 Japanese settlers moved to Luzon during the war, marking the third wave of immigration. During Imperial rule, the Kenpeitai ruthless cracked down on any resistance, and the collaborationist government helped the Japanese in suppressing non-Japonic peoples on the island, and the aggressive promotion of the Japanese language in schools and government.
The Japanese victory at Midway seemed to truly herald the new Japanese century in Asia, and people of Luzon listened on their radios with pride or fear. However, this was not to last. By 1946, the Japanese were defeated in Indonesia and cut off from the southern resource area, and there were stirrings of an invasion of the Philippines by the Americans. Things took another turn for the worse when the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria and the Kurils, quickly crushing all Japanese resistance. Finally, in May 1946, the unthinkable occured. Through the Kurils, Soviet armor raced through Hokkaido and crossed the Tsugaru strait. The Hondo Kessen had begun, and the Japanese were doomed. First, the Emperor was taken to Kyoto as the Soviets occupied the Tohoku. Then to Hiroshima. Then to Fukuoka. Finally, as a Soviet division crossed into Kita-Kyushu, the military leaders around the Emperor knew that the only way to save any semblance of the Kokutai was to flee south. On August 10 1946, the Emperor landed on Luzon via submarine. The home islands were gone, but Ruson had survived. The Emperor surrendered unconditionally to America, and American troops finally returned to Luzon, this time as liberators.

The Americans quickly set up the provisional Commonwealth of the Philippines to deal with the aftermath of the war, but with the establishment of the People’s Republic of Japan and the increasing strength of the Chinese Communists, Washington began to consider the possibility of establishing an independent North Luzon to contain Japanese soldiers returning home and refugees, in addition to serving as a strategic American base. The Japanese population of the island had ballooned during the war, and was only increasing as Imperial loyalists fled the Red Terror on the home islands through the Ryukyu islands. This marked the fourth and final wave of immigration, mostly Japanese from the populace regions of Kyushu and Kanto and some Tohoku and Koshinetsu Japanese settlers who escaped from the now-defunct Manchukuo. North Luzon was a convenient place to contain this torrent of refugees, and the Philippine government in Manila was not deemed capable of handling this crisis by Washington. Thus, on December 20 1946, the North Ruson Republic was established.
After independence, the Republicans of the BNRKD formed the Ruson Democratic Party, and took up the mantle of government, with collaborationists purged from the party. The opposition was formed at first by the few Nationalists who resisted the Japanese, but by 1950 as American control over the government relaxed, many collaborationists returned to government and formed the Ruson Japanese People’s Party. The party holds claim to all of Japan and have pushed for the Emperor of Japan-in-exile, Hirohito, to become the sovereign of North Ruson. The Emperor lives in a house in the capital of Bagio, with the house surrounded by either Nationalists proclaiming three banzais or Republicans shouting their opposition to any monarch, depending on the day of the week. The Emperor is a central issue in North Ruson politics, symbolizing the still-present struggle between an independent Rusonese identity and one under the shadow of Japan. The year is 1952, and the future holds much more for the North Rusonese.