Politics of Enlistment, Empire, and the "U.S.-Philippine Nation": Enlisted and Civilian Filipino Workers in and beyond the United States Navy, 1941-1965.

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the experiences of Filipinos shaped—and were facilitated by—the United States Navy since the end of the nineteenth century. It analyzes the conflations of race, gender, and nationalism in the imperial politics of Filipino enlistment and the bi-national imaginaries of U.S.-Philippine relations. I coin this bi-national condition as the “U.S.-Philippine nation.”

By closely investigating the unique historical distinctions and comparisons between enlisted and civilian Filipinos in (and beyond) the U.S. Navy, I explore the following questions within the contexts of empire, militarism, and bi-national recognition. When and why did U.S. military officials enlist Filipinos in the first place? Second, what political implications did Filipino recruitment serve in expanding U.S. practices of war, occupation, and colonial governance in the Philippines—and elsewhere in Asia and the Trans-Pacific? And third, to what extent did these recruited Filipinos shape their own terms of enlistment, upward mobility, and subjectivity beyond their parametrical restrictions by the U.S. military and the nation-state? Based from these underlying questions and frameworks within this dissertation, I argue that the inclusive and restrictive politics of Filipino enlistment, coupled with the intricate bi-nationalities of U.S.-Philippine relations vitally contributed to the Cold War imperial politics and multiethnic alliances within the formal (and informal) U.S. Empire nation-state. These seemingly contradictory politics of enlisting Filipinos played a key role in shaping militarized formations of the U.S.-Philippine nation state during and following the Second World War.