On June 20, 1899, the Japanese vessel Nonubiki Maru left Nagasaki for the Philippines loaded with 10,000 rifles, 5,000,000 rounds of ammunition and other war supplies purchased by Mariano Ponce.
Ponce with the aid of the Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, in his mission to Japan, obtained sufficient support from the Japanese military and a few Japanese politicians to enter into agreement to purchase arms and ammunition in the Spring of 1899. At the same time, arrangements were made for retired Japanese officers to go to the Philippines as advisers to the Filipino army against the Americans. These officers actually served with the Filipino forces but the attempt to ship arms to the islands was a complete failure.
Several Filipino intellectuals who immigrated to Japan like General Artemio "Vivora" Ricarte, became naturalized subjects of the Meiji government and were vying the Japanese government to sell surplus rifles left from the war in Korea to the growing Filipino rebels in the Philippines. But the Meji Government simply do not want to commit anything, as it feared retaliation from Europeans.
Mariano Ponce went to Japan days after Spanish started arresting propaganda leaders, succeeded in buying two shiploads of arms and ammunition from the Japanese government. The first shipment was loaded on the ship Nunobiki-maru, along with 10,000 arms, 5 million ammunition, accompanied with Japanese officers and volunteer soldiers who want to serve in the Filipino Rebel Army. Unfortunately, a typhoon sunk the ship off the coast of Formosa and the second shipment was not delivered until the capture of Aguinaldo by the Americans, which prompted Ponce to donate it to Sun Yat-sen, a close friend and a revolutionary against the Manchu rulers of China.
Tagawa Moritaro, a carpenter from Nagasaki, has become a successful businessman in the Philippines. It appears in June 1895 that Supremo Andres Bonifacio asked him to establish a trading company that exports hemp, tobacco, sugar and other products (produced by Katipuneros) on which the income would be used to buy Murata rifles in Japan. Bonifacio remarked that the Katipunan will pay all the expenses if Moritaro will go to Japan to arrange the purchase. Moritaro agreed to Bonifacio's deal, established the Moritaro Trading Company, went to Japan and persuaded the Meiji government to sell arms to the revolutionaries. However, nothing came out of the deal.
It is not well known that Supremo Andres Bonifacio had a secret meeting with the Japanese consul in Manila and some visiting Japanese naval officers in May 1896 and sought Japanese support for the Philippine revolution.
The man who arranged the meeting and acted as interpreter was a certain "Jose Moritaro Tagawa" (the same Tagawa Moritaro), a resident of Bocaue town, north of Manila, married to a Filipina, who was introduced to the Supremo by Pio Valenzuela. Moritaro is one of the many veterans of the Sino-Japanese War who fought on our side during the Filipino-American War. To name some of these veterans; Lieutenant Sintetu Nishiuchi, Lieutenant Asahiro Inatomi, Lieutenant Keizo Miyai, Lieutenant Kesakichi Mizumati, Sergeant Major Saburo Nakamori and Sergeant Shinobu Masuda. More research is still undertaken not only to trace the background of these men, but also to find out their motivation. Did they sympathized with our struggle for independence or were they gun for hire mercenaries?
Whatever their reasons some were highly regarded, like Captain Chizuno Iwamoto, who served as flag officer of Emilio Aguinaldo during the Filipino-American War. These men arrived in Manila toward the end of June 1899 and were met by a Japanese businessman based in Manila Moritaro Tagawa who arranged their passage by sailboat across Manila Bay to Orani town in Bataan province, west of Manila and from there by land to the headquarters of Emilio Aguinaldo in the province of Tarlac, North of Manila, they were led by a certain Captain Tei Hara.
Captain Tei Hara was born in 1864 in Ina, Nagano, he studied in the Imperial Military Academy and eventually rose to the rank of captain of the Imperial Bodyguard Division. Captain Hara fought under General Tomas Mascardo in the provinces of Zambales and Bataan and was even cited for gallantry in action. He returned to Japan and fought in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He died in 1933. What makes Hara stand out is that his deathbed request was for his sister or her heir to watch and wait for the independence of the Philippines. As soon as the Philippines was independent this news should be reported to him at his grave.
- ka tony
the 19th of June '13
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