The UP Asian Center will be holding the onsite public lecture "Pan-Asianism in Modern Japan and Mariano Ponce" on 4 March 2026, 3:00 - 5:00 PM, PST (GMT+8), at the Japan Hall, UP Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. The event is free and open to the public. Online pre-registration is recommended due to limited seating.
ABOUT THE LECTURE
This lecture explores the intersections between Japanese Pan-Asianism and Filipino revolutionary diplomacy through the life and work of Mariano Ponce. Set against the shifting geopolitical landscape of East Asia at the turn of the twentieth century, it examines how intellectual, political, and personal networks linked Japan and the Philippines during a period marked by imperial expansion, anti-colonial struggles, and emerging visions of Asian solidarity.
Mariano Ponce’s activities are situated within the broader East Asian context of the late nineteenth century, when Japan’s rapid modernization and its victory in the Sino Japanese War repositioned it as a rising regional power. In this environment, Filipino reformists and revolutionaries looked beyond the archipelago for diplomatic and material support, regarding Japan as a potential ally in their struggle against Spanish and later American colonial rule.
The discussion also moves beyond formal political history to illuminate the personal dimensions of Ponce’s life, particularly his relationship with his Japanese wife, Kiyo. Through the story of Ponce and Okiyo, the lecture foregrounds the intimate and cross-cultural bonds that accompanied political aspirations. It reflects on the enduring mystery surrounding Kiyo and considers how memory, narrative construction, and archival silences shape our understanding of these transnational encounters.
Attention is likewise given to the legacy of the Ponce family in Baliwag, linking local Philippine history with wider Asian networks of exchange and solidarity. By placing Mariano Ponce within both Japanese Pan-Asian thought and lived experience, the lecture reinterprets Pan-Asianism not merely as an ideological construct, but as a relational and deeply human historical phenomenon. Overall, the lecture contributes to broader conversations on transnational nationalism, Asian intellectual networks, and the entanglement of personal and political histories in the making of modern Asia.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
HIROSHI ONISHI, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Ferris University, Japan
Graduate of Waseda University’s Political Science & Economics Department with a B.A. in Political Science, he is currently Professor Emeritus at Ferris University where he served in the Faculty of Global and Intercultural Studies. He has also been Associate Fellow for the Institute for Research on Contemporary Political and Economic Affairs; Representative of the Foreign Social Research Group at the Yokohama Municipal Historical Archives; Yokosuka City History Committee member; and has been involved with many other regional history preservation activities.
His major publications he authored include: “Studies in the Political History of Yokohama: Political Parties and Bureaucracy in a Modern City” (Yurindō, 2004); co-authored “Sagami Bay Landing Operation” (Yurindō, 1995); edited “Izawa Takio and Modern Japan” (Fuyō-Shobō, 2003); co-edited “A Political History of Greater Tokyo in the 1920s and 1930s” (Nihonkeizaihyōronsha, 2002) and “Seven Stories about Yokohama: History and the World as Seen from Our Region” (Ferris University Press, 2007), Taku Ōe, A Life Aimed at the Periphery, the Margins, and the Bottom (Fuyō Shobō Publishing, 2023), a recipient of the 33rd Kochi Academic Publishing Award, among others. He has contributed to several municipal works of history as well, such as “History of Yokohama II” and “History of Yokosuka City.”
ABOUT THE REACTORS
IAN CHRISTOPHER B. ALFONSO, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, UP Department of History
Ian Christopher B. Alfonso is an Assistant Professor at the Department of History, University of the Philippines Diliman. He is a Board Member of the Philippine Historical Association and a member of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program in the Philippines. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in History and Master of Arts in History degrees from UP Diliman. His research interests are Philippine precolonial and early colonial history, the Philippine Revolution, toponymy, cultural heritage and management, animal history, and the local history of Manila Bay communities. Among his latest books are Dogs in Philippine History (2023), the Best Book Design winner and a Finalist for Best Book on History at the 42 nd National Book Awards; A History of the Sarangani Islands 1521-1921 (2023); The Burning of Macabebe (2024); and Munting Aklat ng Baybayin (2024).
KRISTOFFER R. ESQUEJO, Ph.D.
Professor, UP Department of History
Kristoffer R. Esquejo is a Professor and the Graduate Program Coordinator at the Department of History, University of the Philippines Diliman. An author of two books on Romblon local history: Tahanan, Tanggulan, at Tagpuan: Kasaysayang Pampook ng Bayan ng Looc (2024) and Pu-od Romblon: Mga Sanaysay tungkol sa Kasaysayan at Kultura ng Lalawigang Kapuluan (2015), he has also published journal articles and book chapters. He also edited and co-edited several publications. He obtained B.A. History (magna cum laude), M.A. History, and Ph.D. History from UP Diliman. He was a recipient of various awards such as NCCA Young Historian’s Prize (2011), Aboitiz Foundation Research Grant on the Galleon Trade in Mexico (2011-2012), UP Diliman Centennial Faculty Grant (2018, 2019, 2020, and 2023), One U.P. Faculty Grant for Research and Public Service (2019-2021), One UP Professorial Chair in Teaching and Public Service (2022-2024), and PhD Incentive Award (2023). His interests include local history and religious history. As former president of ADHIKA ng Pilipinas, Inc., a national organization of professional historians, he now represents the organization in the National Committee on Historical Research (NCHR) under the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
GONZALO A. CAMPOAMOR II, Ph.D.
Professor, Asian Center, UP Diliman
Gonzalo Campoamor, Ph.D. is a Professor at the Asian Center, UP Diliman. He previously served as an Associate professor at the UP Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature . He completed his MA in Filipino in UP Diliman, and his MA and PhD in History at the Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, where he was a Monbukagakusho (Japanese Government) scholar. Dr. Campoamor is also served as editor for several journals including Humanities Diliman, Science Diliman, and Social Science Diliman. He has several critical works that have been published in several journals including “Japanese Wartime Intellectuals: The Case of Miki Kiyoshi during the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines” (Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives in Asia, 2016), “Midya at Pasismo” (Media at Lipunan, 2014), and “Elias and the Rizalian Middle Class Imagination of Bonifacio and Revolution” (Salita ng Sandata: Bonifacio’s Legacies to the People’s Struggles, 2013). Dr. Campoamor has been a recipient of numerous awards, including the Sumitomo Foundation 2014 Grant for Japan-Related Research Projects, Japan Student Services Organization Follow-up Research fellowship (2013), and several UP Centennial Faculty Grants.
RICARDO TROTA JOSE, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UP Department of History
DR. Ricardo Trota Jose is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in History at UP, and his Ph.D. from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He specializes in military and diplomatic history, with focus on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Among his major publications are The Philippine Army, 1935-1942 (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992) and Volume 7 (on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines) of the multi-volume Kasaysayan set (Reader’s Digest, 1998). He has delivered papers and lectures in numerous conferences in the Philippines and abroad; he has also visited battlefields around the Philippines and other countries. He is fluent in Japanese. He was awarded the Outstanding Young Scientist award in the field of social sciences in 1997, the first historian to be given this recognition. In 2016, he was awarded the Outstanding Alumni award by the UP Alumni Association for historical research.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
This lecture is organized by the UP Asian Center in partnership with the UP Center for International Studies.
For inquiries, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.
Publicity materials designed by the External and Cultural Affairs Office of the UP Asian Center.