Manuel Quezon Extended Biography
Manuel QuezonExtended BiographyYou may wish to share this biography with students, or just to read it for your own information.After 1935, when Adolph Hitler had consolidated power in Germany and stripped Jews of their citizenship, the Nazis began placing Jews, and other “undesirables”, in ghettos and camps and confiscating their belongings. In the ensuing years, Jews faced persecution throughout much of Europe as Axis power grew and fascism and extreme nationalism became the standards of governance. The political capital of the us versus them mentality intrinsic to fascism ultimately played out in the Holocaust which brutally claimed millions of lives through systematic neglect and murder. Naturally, people who found the opportunity to escape these ravages tried to do so. But where could they go? One place that offered refuge, distant as it was, was the Philippines. This was thanks in part to Manuel Quezon, the President. Quezon was the child of two teachers who were classified under the Spanish sistema de castas [system of castes] as mestizo or “mixed.” He was born on the Northeast coast of the Philippines in 1878. At the time the Philippines was under Spanish rule and Manuel reached adulthood in the transition to U.S. rule that took place after the Spanish-American War was concluded with a U.S. victory in 1898. His early years were spent living under two foreign powers with different racial codes and religious norms. He also grew up watching Emilio Aguinaldo, nine years his elder, lead rebellions first against the Spanish and then against the United States. Quezon and Aguinaldo would both become heroes of Philippine independence from very different angles. Quezon was a diplomat who used compromise to secure advantage and Aguinaldo was a revolutionary and a fighter. Aguinaldo fought against the Spanish and then the U.S. and was head of the transitional government from 1899-1901. In 1935, Quezon and Aguinaldo fought each other on the political battlefield. Quezon won and became the first President of the Philippine Commonwealth, using his term to lobby for full Philippine independence. One of Quezon’s favorite places to put his diplomatic gifts to use was at the poker table. Quezon’s diplomatic and card skills helped open the door to Jews fleeing the Holocaust who had the means to reach the Philippines. This is because Quezon used to play poker with other powerful people. At a game with Paul McNutt, U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippines, future U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower (an Army Colonel at the time), and a group of Cincinnati businessmen, the Frieder brothers, the group discussed the Jewish refugee “problem.” Many countries feared that allowing refugees would hurt their economy or involve them in conflicts that they hoped to avoid. The United States used a “paper wall” to limit refugees. This meant creating a difficult and expensive visa system with many administrative layers, such as quotas, to limit immigration. The “paper wall” referred to the extensive paperwork required to apply for entry. But these poker players in high places decided that the Philippines should be more welcoming of Jewish refugees. Quezon approved of the planning, believing that it was the right and just thing to do. Together, they determined to grant visas to refugees and even discussed a plan to set aside an island settlement for Jews fleeing the Holocaust. The immigration scheme was called the Mindanao Plan and, from 1938-39, it helped provide a home to over 1200 Jewish refugees. Refugees in smaller numbers continued to enter the Philippines until the Japanese took control of the islands in 1941. Initially the Japanese treated the Jewish community better than other people. This was because most of the refugees were from Germany and the Japanese considered them allies based on nationality, rather than enemies based on “race.” The refugees were also seen as separate from the estimated 260,000 Philippine guerillas who continued to fight the Japanese, just as they had the Spanish and Americans, in an effort to achieve independence. However, as U.S. forces approached to take the islands back towards the end of World War II, The Japanese were ordered to destroy everything during their retreat, including people. Thus, refugees and locals
2Manuel Quezon - Extended Biographyalike were forced into hiding and many were killed. The Americans successfully regained control of the Philippines thereby liberating the refugee population. But they also arrested guerilla leaders and attempted to disarm the population, leaving the question of independence unresolved. Quezon did not return with the Americans. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines he went into exile in the United States and his health began to fail. Suffering from tuberculosis he died at a health retreat in Saranac, New York in 1944. Two years later, in 1946, the Philippines gained full independence and Manuel Roxas became its first independent President. Later that year, Manuel Quezon’s body was exhumed from Arlington National Cemetery and returned to the Philippines. Neither Quezon nor Aguinaldo lived to see the Philippines achieve independence, a struggle they had both dedicated their lives to in separate ways. Though they had enemies in this struggle: the Spanish, the Americans, and the Japanese, and different tactics, diplomacy (Quezon) and armed struggle (Aguinaldo), it was Quezon’s efforts to help outsiders that stands out. This is especially important because it took place during a time when it was easier to ignore refugees than grant them a place to stay, especially given that the people of the Philippines were already fighting their own battles.