Cultures of Empire, Nation, and Universe in Pres. José P. Laurel’s Political Thought, 1927–1949

In order to refigure the period of Japanese occupation along a longer historical narrative of Filipino resistance to foreign domination, this article examines the mobilization and definition of the Filipino nation vis-à-vis Western imperialism and empire in the political thought of the wartime Philippine president and Japanese “collaborator” José P. Laurel. In order to elucidate the historical genealogies and legacies of empire informing his thought, this article reconstructs and interrogates his universalism against his nationalism and his construction of Pan-Asianism and the Orient against that of Western imperialism and the Occident.