The Huk Rebellion's origins were in two peasant-based movements. The first was a response to the Japanese invasion and occupation. It was led by peasant organizations and the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (Communist Party of the Philippines) and led to the formation of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (People's Anti-Japanese Liberation Army), more popularly known as the Hukbalahap for short. After the Philippine Republic was established in 1946, the Huks attempted to work within its framework. However, as I have said elsewhere, the Republic, both then and now, was under a lot of influence from the US, and was determined not to "fall" to any sort of leftist movements. The Huks were forced to go underground, where they reestablished themselves as the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (People's Liberation Army, or HMB), with the goal of launching a massive resistance movement against the government. By 1950, the amount of armed Huks increased to about 20 thousand. These were supported by an even larger amount of noncombatant peasants. The movement was large enough to capture villages, drive out landlords, and redistribute land, as well as winning engagements with the central government. However, President Ramon Magsaysay instensified military involvement and took advantage of internal Huk political issues to sway peasant support. As leaders were captured, the Huks were in irreversible decline by the end of the 1950s. Despite the movement's relatively brief time of success, it was still the most successful resistance army in Asia during World War II, as well as the first major communist rebellion that was defeated by US counterinsurgency operations.

Women played a central role in the Huk Rebellion. About 1 in 10 active guerillas was a woman, so around 2000 of the Huks' fighting force at its peak. This is of course not including the unknown thousands of women supporters in the peasant movements. The women fighters earned the epithet "Amazons". In the Philippines' precolonial past, gender equality is something that people frequently comment on. And though Spanish colonialism did not eradicate all equality (in fact, some prominent Filipino women political writers under American colonialism, such as Clemencia Lopez, commented on their better social position compared to American women), it did leave a mark on the perceived role of women by the time of the Huks. This was further enforced under American colonialism, which sought to further monopolize the role of men in public Filipino society. By the time of the Huks, women were mostly thought to be holders of "traditional" (so, the Christian/Spanish/American influences on society) values, rather than true leaders of society as in the past. Though women were important in local economic and domestic spheres, their political involvement was not large at this time. The Amazons were seen as something amazing, in the literal meaning of the word; to be sure, American women were not combatants in the military yet either, so this role the Amazons played was very different for the period. Initially, women Huks were often forced to conform to the traditional social roles I touched on above, such as cooking and maintaining camp, but were also trained to be spies and expert fighters. Many of the most famous leaders in the movement were women.

Something extremely notable about the movement was how it so openly addressed issues of sex, family, and morality, when so few movements of the period did. These topics were at the time private converstaions between individual men and women, but the Huks made these topics public. So in a way, the Huks were not just political revolutionaries, but also social revolutionaries in their openness of what are very important matters. Some examples of this were the rules the movement developed in response to growing problems. These were not always ideal; for example, the "sex problem" of extramarital affairs was only solved for one gender. Males were able to take a "forest wife" while in the Huks as long as they followed strict regulations: first the man would have to have this arrangement approved, as well as have the knowledge and approval of both the woman cadre he was in a relationship with and his wife back home. He would also need to pick one only for his life after the revolution. There was also a "family problem", that is the reluctance of people to get involved in the movement because it would pull them away from their families. To remedy this, the Huks targeted the spouses and older children of potential members for recruitment, while sending younger children to live with family not involved.

The Huks always had a close relationship with the PKP, and particularly after World War II, the movement became more communist in theory. "Schools" were set up and members educated in communist philosophy. Women were also educated in communist ideals, though many forgot much of the philosophy over the years, reducing communism to "protecting the rights of the poor", as the Amazon, Luz del Castillo, said; many other women who joined echoed these sentiments, Rosenda Torres and Belen Bagul-Bagul, for example, believing that becoming members of the PKP to be integral to being Huks. In the post-war period, the enemy was in part seen as the Americans because the group (correctly) perceived the new republic as being tied up too much in American imperialism.

A mythology grew around the women commanders of the Huks. This sort of started with the story of Dayang Dayang (princess in many Philippine languages). Dayang Dayang was the Huk name of Felipa Culala, taken in honor of a Muslim princess who led resistance movements against the Spanish. The force she led against the Japanese to rescue her comrades on March 8, 1942 in Candaba, Pampanga, proved that the Huks were capable of defeating a powerful force and were a threat to the Japanese. The Amazons such as Dayang Dayang became a focal point of the Huk movement and captured the imagination of Filipinos everywhere. The newspapers in Manila often emphasized the feminine qualities of the Amazons, while exoticizing them for their fighting abilities (women warriors were not new to Philippine tradition, but the Huks gave a large popular contemporary example). Kumander Liwayway, real name Remedios Gomez, was probably the most famous Amazon. She is also called the "Joan of Arc of the Philippines", for her victories against the Japanese during World War II and her operations after. She also famously combed her hair, manicured and polished her nails, and applied lipstick before going into battle, in her efforts to preserve her femininity in the midst of "masculine" warfare. She explained that doing these things gave the soldiers under her command more confidence, convincing them that their commander was fearless and calm; she also said that she did these things because "I am also fighting for the right to be myself". When she was captured in 1947, she was a media sensation due to her looks and grace while also apparently being ruthless. She was released and she rejoined the Huks and her and her husband, Bani Paraiso, became a part of an expansion force in the Bisayas. She grew less committed as time went on, however, because she disliked fighting fellow Filipinos, and her and her husband had to balance having a child with also participating in revolutionary life, a balancing act that many Amazons tried to do, and many even decided to leave the movement due to it. She was captured again in 1948, and her husband killed. She retired from Huk life after she won her trial (though she did not retire fully from political activism in the Philippines), and she never remarried. Just one prominent example of many famous female commanders in the Huks. For all the movement's shortcomings, it still redefined the sense of place and history for women who joined. The Huks broke new ground in the relationship between public and private lives, and brought to the forefront gender and relationship and family issues. As I said above, the Huks ended up being social revolutionaries.

I hope this is a good introduction to the topic at hand. The book I used mainly was Amazons of the Huk Rebellion: Gender, Sex, and Revolution in the Philippines by Vina A. Lanzona.