The Philippines (Location Key)

The Philippines became a U.S. territory after the Spanish-American War and remained one until after World War II. In Sanctuary Lee Goodwin is stationed there around 1917 as a member of a U.S. cavalry outfit. While there he kills another soldier in a fight over a Filipino woman. Two stories that Faulkner wrote and published at the beginning of World War II refer to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, which took place a day after their attack on Pearl Harbor: in "Two Soldiers" and "Shall Not Perish" the two sons of Res Grier follow the events in that distant part of the world on the radio they listen to while standing outside a neighbor's window. As the younger son puts it in the first story: based on the reports he and Pete hear on the radio, "they was at it in the Philippines now" (82).