ANTONIO V. FIGUEROA FAST BACKWARD

In the annals of Davao, 1917 is replete with important historical events. Aside from the establishment of the Davao Public Hospital, it was the year Kyosaburo Ohta, the pioneering Japanese plantation owner, died. His passing raised uncertainty for his investments, and there was palpable grief given the good-natured character of the man who was instrumental in introducing migrant labor in Davao and for transforming Mintal into a little Tokyo.

After over a year since his demise, stories on how he built his fortune, and the success he earned the pearling industry, still caught the fancy of many publications. The Manila-based magazine, The Philippines came out in the December 1918 issue a long narrative, which the New York Tribune, extensively quoted in its July 30, 1919, edition.

“On October 31, 1917, there died in the hospital of the imperial university at [Kyoto] a Japanese millionaire whose fortune was made out of the resources of the Philippine Islands. Kyosaburo Ohta came to the Philippines sixteen years ago.

“He started in Manila as a labor contractor in a humble capacity. In the course of his business, he early found it necessary to make long trips to various parts of the islands. This gave him an opportunity to appraise the country’s resources. He at once saw the opportuni-ties and the vast resources offered in the Davao country, and transferred his office to the old town of Davao. There he engaged in trading in addition to his business as a labor contractor. He later organized the Ohta Development Company, with offices making them docile bodies who obey rules without question.

There is, however, a subtle form of power that undermines people without them knowing about it. This is what Foucault calls disciplinary power. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault analyzed how torture, as a public spectacle, was replaced with subtle forms of control employed in various systems. Its purpose is the reform of the human soul. What happened to Damiens the Regicide is a reminder of the power of the sovereign over his subjects. The spectacle is meant to sow fear on people. In this way, the idea of disciplinary power is for people to believe that they are “watched over” and so their behavior is determined by the notion that they are constantly being monitored. The Panopticon is the symbolic representation of disciplinary power in

Death Of Kyosaburo Ohta

in Davao. Zamboanga, Manila and Kobe, and established the fine hacienda of cocoanuts and hemp at Talomo.

“His subsequent operations involved many of the natural resources of the Philippines. One of the most notable was his cultivation of the pearl-producing oyster, utilizing the dis-covery of a scientist fellow countryman of a method of forcing the oyster to produce pearls.

“At the time of his death the corporation over which Mr, Ohta presided operated one of the most modern and extensive pearl fleets in Philippine waters, fishing on all the pearl fields of the islands, in addition to its own leased waters and shore area, where its cultivated oys-ters were produced.”

Ohta’s death ignited discussion in the hemp industry about the fate of his planta- tions. Originally bought from the American planters, managing the estates fell on the lap of his co-incorporators who, inspiringly, continued to cultivate them into creative ventures. But his legacy of imported labor and land ownership was at the top of the heap. The article contin-ues:

“It is to be noted that in the occupation of this agricultural land of Davao the Japanese, in recent years, have led all other nationalities. Practically all of the open land in this region be-longs to the government and is acquired by private owners by purchase from the government or by lease for twenty-five years.

“During the first six months of the current year, sixteen corporations made applications to the Bureau of Lands for the purchase of land in Davao. Of these sixteen corporations, four-teen the social body. were financed by the Japanese, and the other two by Americans. During the same peri-od, 24 corporations made applications to lease lands in Davao, nearly all of which were composed of Japanese.

Power is everywhere. It possesses us. Schools, clinics, and the prison system for Foucault are places where power is manifest. Discipline makes people behave. Power is constituted by different forms of discourse, understanding, and knowledge. The truth is a result of the effects of power that is produced in society and its very institutions through its manner or type of politics, which helps determine those systems that create new realities, things, and meanings that will eventually form the kind of world in which the human body becomes its own microcosm in terms of control. For Foucault, power creates “regimes of truth” that perform that dominant but positive function in society, constantly defining and redefining, like a flux, what is normal and what is not.

“Of the total number of leases of government land throughout the [Philippines] executed during the first six months of 1918, the majority were made by Japanese for lands in Davao. During this period about 65,000 acres of land in Davao were leased and about 50,000 acres purchased.”

Ohta’s demise allowed Yoshizo Furukawa, to take over the mantle as the most significant Japanese investor in Davao by 1918. Not only did he acquire lands that matched Ohta’s ex-tensive assets, he also expanded his investments to Sarawak, Malaysia, and Ecuador.