Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints | 2019
Made in Japan: Stories of Japanese-Filipino Children ed. by Rey Ventura (review)
Abstract
273 transcendence over it. We were surprised, awed, by that margin of mystery where all our calculations collapsed” (170). Maggay ends with an assertion of the great social science paradox about structure and agency: “The world moves, not merely by a complex of socioeconomic forces”—and, one may add, US power—“coming to a head, but by people making personal choices that defy predictability” (178). At the same time, the “structure” is much larger than terrestrial forces, for God is the Sovereign Lord; yet Maggay stresses that “[b]elief in the ordering hand of God in human affairs need not mean suspension of belief in the effective significance of human action” (178). In the epilogue, human fallibility is again given explanatory weight, as it “is also part of the reason why our revolutions remain unfinished” (195)—a statement that responds to countless recriminations about the unfinished revolution of 1896–1898 and of the 1986 People Power. Nonetheless, the epilogue underscores the book’s two important themes: “Our Choices Matter, and We Are Not Unaided” (201). Amid its polyphonic voices, the book’s overall tenor is hopeful, informed by faith in the mysterious coming together of human choices and God’s sovereign will.