Tag Archives: japan

Fighting Basques: Basque Participation in the Resistance and Liberation of the Philippines (1942-1945)

This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario on December 11, 2019. After the surrender of the US armed forces on May 6, 1942, in Corregidor, Japan was free to extend its military occupation throughout the Philippine archipelago. The Philippines was the only Pacific country with a solid and consolidated Basque and Navarrese community […]

Basque Fact of the Week: Saint Francis Xavier

Saint Ignatius isn’t the only Catholic Saint born in the Basque Country. His fellow Jesuit, Saint Francis Xavier, was also born in the Basque Country. However, unlike Saint Ignatius, Saint Francis Xavier spent much of his adult life traveling and proselytizing to the peoples of India and Japan, amongst others. He was known for trying […]

Fighting Basques: Basques on the Forgotten Front of America — The Aleutian Islands of Alaska, 1942-1943

This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario. You can find all of the English versions of the Fighting Basques series here. Even more than the devastating attacks by German U-boats against the Allied merchant navy on the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, or in the Caribbean, or the failed espionage attempts […]

Fighting Basques: The Aluminum Trail. Basques who flew over the Himalayas, 1942-1945

In memory of Dr. Emilia (Sarriugarte) Doyaga (Brooklyn, New York, 1925-2020). This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario. With the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the invasion of the Philippines, the Japanese Empire began an unstoppable expansionist military campaign across the Pacific against American, British and Dutch possessions in response to […]