El genocidio filipino The Filipino genocide

The eradication of Spanish, the revolutionaries' language. American-promoted Filipino. IV

2009-09-14T22:46:00.005+08:00

General Wood, at a recent banquet in Manila, is reported as making the following definition of a stable government:

A stable government means civic courage, courts of justice which give equal opportunities to the senator as well as to the simple tao, resources ready for disposal at any moment they are needed by the country, organization which will enable the country to defend its integrity, adequate hospitals all over the Islands which are not found in the provinces we have just visited, social organization which shows keen human interest in the protection of the needy and the poor, effective public sanitation, common language, and many others.
[underscoring supplied]

Diogenes, with his lamp, searched for less than this! All of the requirements mentioned by General Wood would be desirable in the Philippines; so they would be in the United States. Could either country ever fulfil them in the eyes of a hostile critic? Do any of the existing governments of the world to-day fulfil them? Would not the "common language" bar Switzerland, where there are four official languages, -French, German, Italian and Romansh? One fourth of the Canadians speak French, and English is hardly understood in Quebec. Would the Canadians relish this test as applied to them? Are they unfit for independence because they have not a "stable government"? Have they "adequate hospitals" throughout the provinces, and an "organization which will enable the country to defend its integrity" against all comers? Has Belgium? Has the millennium yet arrived in any part of this troubled globe? I seriously doubt it.

Author: Harrison, Francis Burton, 1873-1957.Publication Info: New York,: The Century co., 1922.

The eradication of Spanish, the revolutionaries' language. American-promoted Filipino. III

2009-09-14T22:38:00.003+08:00

Patriarchal or feudal life in the remote districts was still the order of the day. Authority, always of powerful influence in Malay history, was elevated to the rank of a religion. In the villages a modified form of self-government was permitted, though the local priest was always the power behind the throne and the court of last resort. Schools were maintained by the padres, and instruction given in the native tongue, -in rare instances in Spanish. These schools were, however, skilfully used by the Spanish to accentuate and develop the differences in local dialects. Theirs was the principle "Divide and rule." Originally all speaking the Malay tongue, the Filipinos were encouraged through these centuries to enlarge and enrich the local differences of pronunciation, until to-day the Ilocano, the Tagalog and the Visayan can hardly converse with one another except through English or Spanish. The grammars written by the priests accomplished their purpose. Writing was discouraged by them except upon the religious themes prescribed by the priest himself. Dr. Niewen, of theyouthful but rapidly growing Educational Department of Java, upon his second visit of inspection to the Philippines recently, told me that in Java, in twenty years, the people had broken down the differences between their five dialects and fused them all again into one Malay tongue; it was his opinion that we could, with our much larger public-school system in the Philippines, amalgamate the large number of local dialects into one tongue within five years of teaching in the primary grades.

Francis Burton Harrison, 1922

The eradication of Spanish, the revolutionaries' language. American-promoted Filipino. II

2009-09-14T22:30:00.004+08:00

On the other hand, I met no one, American or Filipino, teacher or layman, who believes that English can become the vernacular of the country, and the authorities do not seem to expect that it can or will. On this account, I paid close attention to the dialects of the several provinces, compared their books, and gathered phonographic records of them. These seven or eight dialects are not essentially different: they are only variations of Tagalog, and whoever knows one can easily acquire the others. The recently published exhaustiveTagalog grammar of Lendoyro says: "The similarity between Tagalog and the other dialects is such as to make it easy for natives from different parts to understand each other by using their respective dialects for general conversational topics."
I roughly calculate that half the words are identical in all and many of the other words have some resemblance, while the grammatical forms are the same. The mutual unintelligibility arises from variation in intonation and accent and from the difference in perhaps 40 per cent of the words.
I made an appeal through my teacher, Mr. Lope K. Santos, Tagalog editor of El Renacimiento, to all native editors and writers to hold a conference and make an attempt to fuse these dialects into a uniform or common one; first, by agreeing on the alphabet and spelling of words; second, by eliminating all Spanish words where a native substitute could be used; third, by collaborating and unifying the vocabularies of the dialects. This conference was held on September 3, 1903, and will doubtless result in some good. As strongly as I can I appeal to the Government, both in Washington and in Manila, to aid in this work of fusion. The editors to whom I spoke in Luzon and in the Visayas approved the movement. The publishers of the numerous popular books which are found for sale in every market place in the islands can easily be induced to cooperate. Men like Tolentino, who is in Bilibid prison pending his appeal on the charge of writing a seditious play, ought to be employed in such work. The constabulary can imprison such men, but I would win them and use them. Which is better politics?

Govt. print. off., 1904] David Jessup Doherty

The eradication of Spanish, the revolutionaries' language. American-promoted Filipino. I

2009-09-14T22:12:00.006+08:00

The first vocabulary of Filipino appeared in 1915. It was published by the American Philosophical Society. Its author, Eusebio T. Daluz.

CERTIFICATE OF APPROBATION

CERTIFICAMOS que este Vocabulario Filipino-Inglés fué aprobado y adoptado oficialmente por la Academia de la Lengua Filipina en sesión ordinaria celebrada el día 7 de Marzo de 1915. Y para que conste firmamos la presente en Manila, 1. F., hoy veintidós de Mayo del año del Señor de mil novecientos quince.

SOFRONIO G. CALDERON, Presidente de la "Akademyang Wikàng Pilipino".

REFRENDADO: PAUL L. STANGL, B. S, M. Ph., Secretario interino y Vice-Secretario de la 'Akademya ng Wikàng Pilipino".

PREFACE

This historical, constructional period, in which the national ideals seem to acquire definite form; when national boundaries are tending to become defined more and more along lines of ethnical cleavage and entities group on race affinity; when the consciousness of a world mission becomes the logical fruit of widespread education, and each racial unit tends to arrange itself upon its natural base, to develop more fully and take its proper place in the concert of world powers to bear its share of the burden and the heat of the day in bringing to richer fruition the heritage of man; this is the time of creating new factors of linguistic development. In this epoch the natives of the Philippines, after being, for over three centuries shut off by a worse than Chinese wall of exclusion of progress, tight bound by the swaddling clothes of religious and secular prejudice, whereby growth was hindered, have at last been freed of the trammels, and in less than two decades have taken enormous strides forward on the path of national greatness. It is at such time, when the trammels of dialects and other variants of speech are most strongly made manifest, and prove the test of true national fitness. A united Germany with its people speaking diverse dialects was only solved by making one of them the standard and from the rest enriching it, making it the virile expression of national consciousness.The world has seen no strong nation adopt the language of another people; still less that of a race alien in thought, feeling, speech and habit. Hence, however well meaning it may be to try or implant the English speech in these islands as a common medium, it is so obviously a violation of all psychic and ethnic unities, that can never, in the opinion of the writer, be a lasting success. Hence a solution along those lines that centuries of experience has proven to be the only logical, because natural one, that of a developed national language based on national stock and material, enriched and perfected, but akin to the native spirit of rich and poor alike, is the only one that, in the end, will succeed. Whatever the place of English, no doubt important in the economic development of land and people, a national malasian language is bound to be the proper vehicle of a united Filipino people. Hence a book like the present, which gives concrete form to this innate aspiration, and whatever its present imperfections, which definitely shapes the raw material along plausible, stable lines of development, is worthy of applause, study and support. It can only be recomended to the thoughtful study of friend and foe alike, in order that it may fulfil its mission of aiding in the solution of that important question, the future language of the Filipino people. May it meet with success, and that each successive edition be a vast improvement on the preceding one, is the earnest wish of

PAUL L. STANGL, B. S. M. Ph.

The price of blood. I

2009-09-05T17:57:00.001+08:00

"The time is rapidly approaching," says Hon. John Barret, President Cleveland's minister to Siam, "when Japan, China, Korea, Siam, and the Philippines will consume every pound of the South's surplus cotton, manufactured or raw, and make her absolutely independent of the British or European market. Every farmer, laborer, and manufacturer in the South have deep concern in America's Asiatic opportunity. There should not be a discordant note from the Roanoke to the Rio Grande in support of a policy to extend, protect and control the markets of Orient."

Friday, December 1, 1899 Akron Pioneer Press

American fury in the Philippines.XLIX / Extermination

2009-06-15T08:00:00.002+08:00

On the eve of the Samar campaign, the war was clearly degenerating into mass slaughter. It was hardly precise to call it “war” any longer. The Americans were simply chasing ragged, poorly armed bands of guerrillas, and failing to catch them, were inflicting the severest punishment on those they could catch _ the people of the villages and barrios of the theater of operations.
In late September [1901], in the town of Balangiga, Samar, American troops had for some time been abusing the townspeople by packing them into open wooden pens at night, where they were forced to sleep standing in the rain. Several scores of guerrilla General Vincent Lukban’s bolomen infiltrated the town and on the morning of September 28, while the Americans were eating their breakfast, Lukban’s men suddenly fell upon them. Heads dropped into breakfast dishes. Fifty-four Americans were boloed to death, and few of the eighteenth survivors escaped serious injury.
The Balangiga massacre initiated a reign of terror the likes of which had not yet been seen in this war. General [“Howling Jake”] Smith, fresh from his “victories” in Northern Luzon and Panay, was chosen to lead the American mission of revenge. Smith’s order to his men embarking upon the Samar campaign could not have been more explicit: “Kill and burn, kill and burn, the more you kill and the more you burn the more you please me”. It was, said Smith, “no time to take prisoners”. War was to be waged “in the sharpest and most decisive manner possible. When asked to define the age limit for killing, Smith gave his infamous reply: “Everything over ten”. Smith ordered Samar to be turned into a “howling wilderness” so that “even the birds could not live there”. It was boasted that “what fire and water [i.e. water torture]….had done in Panay, water and fire would do in Samar.” The now-familiar patterned of operations began once again. All the inhabitants of the island (pop. 266,000) were ordered to present themselves to detention camps in several of the larger coastal towns. Those who did not (or those who did not make it their business to learn the existence of the order), and were found outside the detention camp perimeter, would be shot, “and no questions asked”. Few reporters covered the carnage; one who did noted: “During my stay in Samar the only prisoners that were made ... were taken by Waller’s command; and I heard this act criticized by the highest officers as a mistake…The truth is, the struggle in Samar is one of extermination”…

Luzviminda Francisco, “The first Viet-Nam: The Philippine-American war,1899-1902”

The eradication of Spanish, the revolutionaries' language.

2009-06-14T04:50:00.003+08:00

An Uprooted Race

The first and perhaps the master stroke in the plan to use education as an instrument of colonial policy was the decision to use English as the medium of instruction. English became the wedge that separated the Filipinos from their past and later was to separate educated Filipinos from the masses of their countrymen. English introduced the Filipinos to a strange, new world. With American textbooks, Filipinos started learning not only a new language but also a new way of life, alien to their traditions and yet a caricature of their model. This was the beginning of their miseducation, for they learned no longer as Filipinos but as colonials. They had to be disoriented from their nationalistic goals because they had to become good colonials. The ideal colonial was the carbon copy of his conqueror, the conformist follower of the new dispensation. He had to forget his past and unlearn the nationalist virtues in order to live peacefully, if not comfortably, under the colonial order. The new Filipino generation learned of the lives of American heroes, sang American songs, and dreamt of snow and Santa Claus. The nationalist resistance leaders exemplified by Sakay were regarded as brigands and outlaws. The lives of Philippine heroes were taught but their nationalist teachings were glossed over. Spain was the villain, America the saviour. To this day, our histories still gloss over the atrocities committed by American occupation troops such as the water cure and reconcentration camps.

Renato Constantino , The Filipinos in the Philippines and other essays

American fury in the Philippines. XLIX / Vigán

2009-02-14T07:16:00.000+08:00

Chinese collaboration under the American occupation. VI

2008-09-15T02:47:00.000+08:00

The command bivouacked for the night on the site of this engagement. The hope I had formed of reaching Antipolo by 1 o'clock of this day was not realized, solely because of the unanticipated condition of the trails by which the command was obliged to move and the delay thus experienced.
At 5 A. M. on the 4th instant the march was resumed. The Second Oregon regiment, with the battalion of the Ninth Infantry on its left, was deployed on the hills extending east from the rear of Taytay,to prevent advance of the enemy from the latter place, while the
remainder of the column continued on the trail. The killed and wounded and the considerable number of men otherwise disabled were transported by litters by Chinese coolies and insurgent prisoners, following the Oregon regiment over the hills, with a view of thus reaching the main road between Antipolo and Taytay, upon which the ambulances were to reach us.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanish warand Philippine insurrection

Author: Oregon. Adjutant-General's Office. Page 601

Chinese collaboration under the American occupation. V

2008-09-15T01:51:00.000+08:00

Report of Maj. Herbert W. Cardwell, U. S. V., Chief Surgeon, First Division, Eighth Army Corps, April 21 to May 30, 1899.

HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, EIGHTH ARMY CORPS, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SURGEON, 3Manila, P. I., May 31, 1899.

SURGEON GENERAL UNITED STATES ARMY. (Through military channels.)

SIR: I have the honor to present here with a special report on the work of the medical department and Hospital Corps during the expedition under the command of Maj. Gen. H. W. Lawton, U. S. V., into the provinces of Bulacan, Nueve Ecija, and (A. M.) de la Pampanga from April 21 to May 30, 1899, inclusive.
On receipt of General Orders, No. 20, Headquarters First Division, Eighth Army Corps, dated Manila, P. I., April 19, 1899, designating the troops to take part in the expedition, I required a report from the medical officer of the designated troops as to the physical condition of the medical officers and Hospital Corps men of his command, and as to whether he was sufficiently supplied to carry out the movement contemplated, which was specified as to occupy ten days. Medical offcers.-Twenty-second U. S. Infantry, Capt. John A. Kulp, U. S. A., and Dr. Isaac W. Brewer, acting assistant surgeon, U. S. A.; Gale's squadron, Fourth U. S. Cavalry (three dismounted troops), Dr. G. W. Daywalt, acting assistant surgeon, U. S. A.; First North Dakota Volunteer Infantry, Maj. F. D. Pease-captain and assistant surgeon, Black being on sick leave; Scott's battery, Dr. E. K. Johnstone, acting assistant surgeon, U. S. A., who had not reported, but was hurried from Corregidor in time to take the field; Hawthorne's battery, no medical officer. Under verbal orders from the division commander I detailed Maj. George H. Penrose, brigade surgeon, U. S. V., as brigade surgeon on the expedition, and Lieut. F. M. Kemp, assistant surgeon, U. S. A., from the Fourteenth United States Infantry, to act as ambulance surgeon. I secured from Capt. F. R. Keefer, commanding officer of the ambulance company, four ambulances. These ambulances were in bad order, with leaky canvas and leaky water tanks, no tools, and no spare parts. Animals consisting of one team of four native ponies in bad order and two teams of two mules each, and for the ambulance I secured, through the division quartermaster, one team of four native ponies, the quality of which was not guaranteed, and which proved to be bad. Hearing semiofficially that battalions from Third U. S. Infantry, Oregon and Minnesota Volunteers, would join the column later, I investigated their condition as to medical officers and Hospital Corps men. Finding that the Third Infantry had no medical officer with them the chief surgeon borrowed, at my request, Dr. Van Wagemen from the hospital ship Relief, and secured an order from corps headquarters detailing Doctor Pitcher from the Seventeenth Infantry to the Third Infantry. I drew from the Quartermaster's Department twenty extra litters for the use of a squad of forty Chinese litter bearers furnished by the Quartermaster's Department and assigned by me pro rata to the different organizations. Maj. G. H. Penrose drew from the purveyor's storehouse sufficient medical and surgical supplies to enable him to conduct a brigade field hospital without tentage, and drew from the commissary one hundred rations in addition to liberal supply of beef extract, cocoa, and malted milk. The Quartermaster's Department was unable to furnish any transportation for these supplies, and it was necessary to load them into ambulances if they were to be carried at all. This seriously interfered with our facilities for transportation of the sick and wounded.

In this connection I desire to express the opinion that the Chinese coolie can be made to play a very important and useful part in any campaigning in these islands. If assured that he will receive his pay and rations he will do any amount of work and face any amount of rifle fire, but he requires to be under the constant supervision of some authority. In the Oregons each private of the hospital corps was charged with the oversight and made responsible for the presence at all times of two coolies with one litter, and the service rendered was excellent.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanish war and Philippine insurrection, page 581
Author: Oregon. Adjutant-General's Office.

Chinese collaboration under the American occupation. IV

2008-09-15T01:39:00.000+08:00

During the day, May 4th, the wagon train left for Malolos to bring out supplies which would arrive there the day following; it was accompanied by the sick and wounded in ambulances. Much annoyance was caused by the Chinese coolies, furnished by the quartermaster department as litter bearers and laborers, wandering from the organizations to which they were attached and committing many minor depredations, necessitating the issue of the following orders:

GENERAL FIELD ORDERS,HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, No. 7. EIGHTH ARMY CORPS,
In the Field, Baliuag, May 4, 1899.

Hereafter each Chinese coolie with his command will be required to wear upon his hat, or other conspicuous part of his clothing, a tag which will be legibly marked in English the name of the organization to which the wearer is assigned or belongs. Commencing to-morrow, the 5th instant, all such camp followers found without the identification tax above required will be arrested and turned over to the provost guard.
No coolie wearing such an identification tag will be required to perform labor for individuals or organizations than that to which he is assigned or belongs, and no unauthorized person will, in any way, interfere with any Chinaman not misconducting himself.
Commanding officers of organizations are charged with the prompt execution of the above orders, and will be held strictly accountable for the conduct of the coolies assigned or belonging to their respective commands.

By command of Major General Lawton: CLARENCE R. EDWARDS, AssistantAdjutant General

Chinese collaboration under the American occupation. III

2008-09-15T01:35:00.000+08:00

The Third United States Infantry was posted at the approaches to the ford, where the advance portion of the column had rested the night before, to protect the passage of the transportation. The remainder of the command, with the wagon train, resumed the advance toward the river. The same conditions (or worse, if possible) as on the day previous continued to impede the progress of the wagon train. Captain Gale, with his dismounted squadron of the Fourth Cavalry, furnished the advance guard and convoy of the train, and with his entire command rendered valuable aid assisting in building bridges and making roads.
Lieutenant Hawthorne, with his mountain battery detachment, Maj. GeorgePenrose and Lieutenant Kemp, of the Medical Corps, with their hospital squads and Chinese litter bearers, lent willing hands to overcome what frequently appeared insurmountable obstacles to further progress.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanish warand Philippine insurrection,Author: Oregon. Adjutant-General's Office. Page 558

Chinese collaboration under the American occupation. II

2008-09-15T01:30:00.000+08:00

Efforts to secure a water line of communication by Manila Bay and theMalolos estuary were made immediately and continued for more than two weeks. The proper mouth of the estuary was found with considerable difficulty.
A bar had formed in front of it, making the entrance very tortuous. Up this two of our gunboats worked their way, but encountered well-driven piles and other obstructions which the insurgents had placed there and around which mud and sand had collected, making the water too shoal for navigation. Near the mouth of the stream a dredge was used and the gunboats removed a good many of the pile obstructions, but satisfactory results could not be obtained and the work was abandoned.
A considerable detail of soldiers was made to put in sufficient repair for immediate use of the railway from Manila to Malolos, and Chinese labor was hired. The track had been considerably damaged by the insurgents and a number of bridges partially destroyed, but Major Devol, of the Quartermaster'sDepartment, overcame all difficulties, and, with the engines captured at Caloocan, gave Malolos daily railway train service.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanishwar and Philippine insurrection,Author: Oregon. Adjutant-General's Office. Page 489

Chinese collaboration under the American occupation. I

2008-09-15T01:19:00.000+08:00

The military operations which have since taken place in Panay will be noted in a later portion of this report. As soon as Iloilo was occupied by our troops a government was established and has been successfully prosecuted.
The rapid changes in the spirit, demeanor,and demonstrations of the inhabitants of Manila of all classes between the 5th and 10th of February could be witnessed only in a community made up of the most heterogeneous elements. On the 6th the educated business classes, foreign and native born, were surprisingly hopeful that hostilities would soon end. The natives of the middle and working classes were sullen, though undetermined.
The large Chinese laboring population rejoiced over the punishment of their race enemies and the opportunity offered it for looting the country from which the insurgent forces had been driven. These Chinese had followed quite closely our advancing lines and secured many minor articles of property which by them were considered of value.
We had employed them, too, extensively to perform a good deal of the work connected with supplying the troops at the front, and they performed faithful service.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanish war and Philippine insurrection, pag. 484-85
Author: Oregon. Adjutant-General's Office

American torture in the Philippines. IX

2008-07-13T23:26:00.000+08:00

To get at the truth as to the state of civilization of the Filipinos
at the time of the Spanish conquest one must carefully weigh the
evidences of an accumulation of mainly useless and unreliable
documents, and the history of the Philippines has yet to be written in
the modern spirit; but it is sufficient for this discussion to say
that there is no place for the notion that the Filipinos are savages
held in check by religious awe and superstition. Here, as throughout
the discussion, no reference is had to the Moros, the Indonesian hill
tribes of Mindanao, or the mountain wild people of Luzón and a few
other islands. The Negritos remaining are a negligible quantity. There
are cruelty and indifference to suffering, often to a shocking degree.
These are due to an ever present fatalism, which the little real
religious teaching the people have received has built upon rather than
sought to eliminate, and to the absolute lack of an appeal to, or of
an attempt to educate, higher feelings. If it is to be assumed at the
outset that these people are forever incapable of such higher
feelings, then it ought also to have been assumed that they were
incapable of Christianity. Water torture, which has in some cases been
resorted to on our side, is one of the forms of torture to which these
people are accustomed. The list of victims buried alive by order of
guerrilla chiefs, the maiming, mutilations, and secret assassinations
certainly make up an appalling and shocking chapter. War stirs up the
darkest passions among the most advanced peoples, however, and it was
in a degree to be expected that a people untrained in modern
international usages, and never in the past treated as though they
belonged to the brotherhood of man, or were responsible to humanity
for humaneness, would not exhibit an entirely refined code of slaying.
The "ethics of warfare," - after all, is that not a rather paradoxical
phrase? That instances of real brutality on the part of our troops
have been the exception has been stated to be the opinion of the
writer. On the confession of the officer who conducted it, the
campaign in the island of Samar from October to March last must be
excepted from this general statement. He has met the charge of
violating the rules of civilized warfare with the counter-charge that
the people of Samar are savages, and that it was necessary to suspend
many of these rules in order to restore peace and quiet to that part
of the archipelago. By inference, it then became a war of
extermination till one side or the other should cry quits.

Title: Race prejudice in the Philippines.
Author: LeRoy, James A. (James Alfred), 1875-1909.

American torture in the Philippines. VIII

2008-07-13T23:24:00.000+08:00

Here is a description quoted in the Washington correspondence of the
Chicago Record-Herald, from John Loughran, who had seen it
"administered to natives in the islands during the first year of
American supremacy" (which was certainly before the natives had been
discovered to be a cruel set of people): - A light but strong rope is
passed across the throat of the man to be examined. It is crossed
behind his back and carried under the arm pits, the ends are again
brought around the neck and over to the back, turned under the armpits
and shoulders, and then the free ends are carried as a girdle around
the waist just at the end of the ribs, and tied fast and securely. A
stick is put through the ropes where they cross between the shoulders,
and then turned to suit. " Will it make a man talk?" Mr. Loughran was
asked. "A wooden Indian would make a speech if you gave him the rope
cure," he replied. Mr. Loughran says that this was far more effective
than the water cure, which is slow. The rope cure often persuaded a
native to reveal the hiding-place of his gun; and it did it quickly,
because he knew that as soon as he consented to talk the stick would
be loosened and would fly back, relieving the agony instantaneously.
Of course, if the victim should have a weak heart, he might die of
shock; but the native Filipino does not seem to be troubled with the
malady. This letter could be filled with extracts like this from
newspapers. The testimony before the Philippine committee proves
conclusively that the water torture was regularly used by our troops.
Captain Glenn, who administered it, as shown in Panay, was at the time
the judge advocate of the island, and as such bound to see that
violations of the laws of war were punished. It was he who gave the
orders to burn Igbaras, which was fired between eight and nine in the
morning and by twelve was entirely destroyed. As to the people, " they
only had time to save the clothes they wore at the time," * was the
testimony of Private Smith, who set the fire and who testified also
that Lieutenant Conger ordered torture by saying " water detail,"
showing that this was no isolated case. Corporal Gibbs testified to
knowing of the water cure at Catbalogan; t tried to peep in at the
windows of the place where it was administered; heard the moans of the
victims. He saw the sickly expression on their faces as they came out.
He heard that one died, ) * Evidence, p. t54o. t Ibid., p. 2303. Note
that this was General Smith's headquarters.

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.
Publication Info: Boston,: G.H. Ellis co., printers, 1902.

American torture in the Philippines. VII

2008-07-13T23:23:00.000+08:00

Now Arnold has a detachment of 20 men at Calaca, 7 miles from here. Men that are under him now have told me that Arnold is having men tortured the same as before and other ways besides. This is one of his new ways: A strip of flesh is cut just above the ankle of the prisoner; it is then attached to a stick; the stick is coiled with the strip of flesh. Imagine the torture the poor man must endure! I am told that when Arnold is out looking for some criminal or suspected insurgent he will grab, or have his men grab, any native and ask for information. If the man gives no information, he is put to all kinds of torture. I saw the man that was cut at the ankle. I was over at Calaca the other day. He had his leg all bound up and was out in the road with other prisoners working. Last week a part of this troop, a part of the Calaca detachment, and some of the soldiers from Taal were out in the mountains. I was not along, but have been told by several men that Arnold had his men take an old man to a stream and keep him under water until the man was unconscious. This was because the old man did not give certain information that he was supposed to possess. " Men of H Troop have told me that they have known Arnold to have a man tied to a saddled horse. A few feet of slack was allowed. A man was then mounted on the horse and told to gallop down the road for a mile and then back. If the prisoner could run as fast as the horse it was all well, put if he could not he had to drag. Arnold had had this done several times, and more than once the prisoner was dragged. "Now, I have witnesses for all that I have written about, and should there ever be an investigation of this I will be perfectly willing to be put upon the stand. I know other men that would be willing to do the same. I believe that most of the officers and enlisted men in the army are humane, but those that practise what Arnold has should be brought to justice. It would do me no good to report this matter through army channels, as it would only be hushed up and then I would get the worst of it. Now, I am writing this letter to you; you are a close relation of mine, and for that reason I believe I can write anything. I think that you should bring this before the proper persons. "

Mr. Root must go:
Weir, Andrew K., Weir, P. W.
[Philadelphia?: s.n., 1902]

American torture in the Philippines. VI

2008-07-13T23:20:00.000+08:00

BALAYAN, BATANGAS PROVINCE, LUZON, P. I., April 0o, I90o. "MY DEAR
UNCLE: You are a free American citizen, and as such you are entitled
to know how our government is carried on. I have something to inform
you about. It is the terrible cruelty practised upon Filipino
prisoners by American soldiers in these islands. First, I want to know
if the Constitution of the United States e and international law does
not prohibit torture. "We soldiers are representatives of a civilized
nation sent out to these islands to 'civilize' a so-called lot of
savages. These people, are not nearly so uncivilized as is supposed.
You probably have read about some of our men being put to death by
horrible torture, but what can you expect when we do equally as bad to
our prisoners? *Has any court the right to force any prisoner to
confess, no matter how many crimes the prisoner is supposed to have
committed? When I say force I mean to force by torture. The arms of
the United States in the Philippines is representing the law of the
United States. But whether or not it is proper to torture a man-, itis
done anyway, and under the orders of commissioned officers. I have
heard men of other regiments make their boasts of how they have made
captured insurgents tell where their arms were, but never witnessed
the torture but once. "The instance that I have reference to occurred
about two months ago. I told the officer that he had to stop it or I
would report him to higher authority. He said he would not practise it
anymore, so I never informed on him; but now I have information
about him doing the same, and even worse, nearly every day. "While I
was one of a detachment of 24 men doing garrison duty in the town of
Pasay, 3 miles from Manila, a native man about 2I years ot age was
arrested and accused of being a murderer, highway robber, and accused
of rape. Now, whether the man was guilty or not I do not know, but
anyway Lieutenant F. T. Arnold, for he was the officer in command,
gave orders to Sergeant Edwards, both of Troop H, Fourth Cavalry, to
take the man to the basement of our quarters and get what information
he could out- of the man. So Edwards took the man and asked him if he
had any information to give. The man had none. Edwards said to the
rest of the soldiers who had congregated to witness the 'fun' that he
would have to commence operations. The prisoner was stripped naked and
laid on his back on the bare floor. He was then given the 'water
cure.' A rough stick about 8 inches long and a half inch in diameter
was put between the man's jaws. A soldier held the man's head down by
pressing on the ends of the stick. Another sat on the man's stomach,
and still another sat on the man's legs. Edwards had a bucket of water
at hand. Water was poured down the man until it was vomited up. It was
then repeated. This water cure must be a terrible torture alone. The
man heaved and begged for mercy, but to no avail. While down he was
whipped and beaten unmercifully. He was then stood up and asked to
confess. He did not. He was then beaten and clubbed again. I do not
think that a square inch of the man's body was left untouched. He was
kicked. A rope was then thrown across a beam. The man was strung up by
the thumbs. Another rope was tied to his ankles and his feet jerked
from under him. While up he was beaten. "All this time I was a
looker-on. I hoped that the punishment would stop. I dared not
interfere. But when the man was strung up by the neck I could stand it
no longer, so I went to the lieutenant. Before I went to him -I did
not know that he had given orders to Edwards to torture the man if he
did not confess. I told Arnold that I was an- American and that there
was something going on at the quarters that I could not stand. He
jumped all over me and asked if I was not making myself very busy. I
said I was not; that such carryings on were against all law. He said,
in a very sarcastic manner, that I knew such a lot about law. He said
that a lot of men in the army, especially volunteers, think that they
know how to run an army, but they do not. He said: 'Now, when I give a
man to Sergeant Edwards, I want information. I do not know how he gets
it, but he gets the information anyhow.' He said that these people
have no feelings other than physical and should not be treated as
human beings. I told Arnold that I did not come to,get any one in
trouble, but merely to have the torture stopped, that if it were not
stopped I would report the matter to higher authority. I was then
threatened with court-martial for insubordination. About this time
Edwards came in and said that he had succeeded in making the man tell
where the money was. Arnold told Edwards to take the man with him and
get the money. I told Arnold that as the torture was finished I would
not report the matter if it were not repeated. He promised not to do
it again. I then left him. "The prisoner did not show where the money
was. He had only said that -he would show the hiding-place to have the
torture stopped. Three weeks later the prisoner was released. Now,
that was criminal of Arnold.If the man was guilty he should not be
released. If guilty he should not be tortured anyway. - The rest of
the time that I was with the detachment under Arnold no torture was
committed that I know of. " Now Arnold has a detachment of 20 men at
Calaca, 7 miles from here. Men that are under him now have told me
that Arnold is having men tortured the same as before and other ways
besides. This is one of his new ways: A strip of flesh is cut just
above the ankle of the prisoner; it is then attached to a stick; the
stick is coiled with the strip of flesh. Imagine the torture the poor
man must endure! I am told that when Arnold is out looking for some
criminal or suspected insurgent he will grab, or have his men grab,
any native and ask for information. If the man gives no information,
he is put to all kinds of torture. I saw the man that was cut at the
ankle. I was over at Calaca the other day. He had his leg all bound up
and was out in the road with other prisoners working. Last week a part
of this troop, a part of the Calaca detachment, and some of the
soldiers from Taal were out in the mountains. I was not along, but
have been told by several men that Arnold had his men take an old man
to a stream and keep him under water until the man was unconscious.
This was because the old man did not give certain information that he
was supposed to possess. " Men of H Troop have told me that they have
known Arnold to have a man tied to a saddled horse. A few feet of
slack was allowed. A man was then mounted on the horse and told to
gallop down the road for a mile and then back. If the prisoner could
run as fast as the horse it was all well, put if he could not he had
to drag. Arnold had had this done several times, and more than once
the prisoner was dragged. "Now, I have witnesses for all that I have
written about, and should there ever be an investigation of this I
will be perfectly willing to be put upon the stand. I know other men
that would be willing to do the same. I believe that most of the
officers and enlisted men in the army are humane, but those that
practise what Arnold has should be brought to justice. It would do me
no good to report this matter through army channels, as it would only
be hushed up and then I would get the worst of it. Now, I am writing
this letter to you; you are a close relation of mine, and for that
reason I believe I can write anything. I think that you should bring
this before the proper persons. "Lieutenant Frederick T. Arnold was
appointed to West Point from Iowa in I893. He graduated from West
Point in 1897 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Sixth
Cavalry. He is-now second lieutenant of Troop H, Fourth Cavalry. I
hope that the proper people of the United States will take hold of
this case and have all torture in these islands stopped. "Well, my
dear uncle, as I have already written so much on this subject, I will
not write about other subjects. I am in fine health, and hope that you
are the same. Give my love to all. "I remain, your loving nephew,
"ANDREW K. WEIR, JR., "Troop C, Fourth United States Cavalry, Balayan,

P. I." Title: Mr. Root must go:
Publication Info: [Philadelphia? : s.n., 1902]

American torture in the Philippines. V

2008-07-13T23:19:00.000+08:00

I have another letter. All that I know about it is that it appeared in
the Portland Oregonian of January 29, 1902, and is as follows:

SEATTLE, January 28.
Clarence Clowe, of Seattle, who recently arrived home from the
Philippines, where he served as a private in Company H, Twenty-fifth
Infantry, United States Volunteers, has authorized the publication of
a letter written by him to Senator HOAR from the islands June 10,
1900. Clowe asks in the letter honorable discharge from a service that
is outraging his conscience. In alleging inhuman treatment by American
soldiers toward Filipinos he says in part: "At any time I am liable to
be called upon to go out and bind and gag helpless prisoners, to
strike them in the face, to knock them down when so bound, to bear
them away from wife and children, at their very door, who are
shrieking pitifully the while or kneeling and kissing the hands of our
officers, imploring mercy from those who seem not to know what it is,
and then, with a crowd of soldiers, hold our helpless victim head
downward in a tub of water in his own yard, or bind him hand and foot.
attaching ropes to head and feet, and then lowering him into the
depths of a well of water till life is well-nigh choked out and the
bitterness of death has been tasted, and our poor gasping victims ask
us for the poor boon of being finished off, in mercy to themselves.
"All these things have been done at one time or another by our men,
generally in cases of trying to obtain information as to the location
of arms and ammunition. "Nor can it be said that there is any general
repulsion on the part of the enlisted men to taking part in these
doings. I regret to have to say that, on the contrary, the majority of
soldiers take a keen delight in them and rush with joy to the making
of this latest development of a Roman holiday."

Title: The problem in the Philippines. Speech of Hon. Henry M. Teller,
of Colorado, in the Senate of the United States ... February 11, 12,
and 13, 1902.
Author: Teller, Henry Moore, 1830-1914.

American torture in the Philippines. IV

2008-07-13T23:18:00.000+08:00

That is where General Chaffee, in the letter read by the Senator from
Vermont [Mr. PROCTOR], said the rebellion would be stamped out in a
short tile.
"But no Americans over here blame the army for such measures, as these
natives have no respect for anything short of torture. They are
exceedingly cruel themselves, and they consider leniency a sign of
weakness and fear. The "water cure" is the favorite torture of the
Americans to force the natives to give information concerning the
insurrectos. The native is bound and gagged, and one soldier pours
water and sand down his throat while another beats him on the stomach,
which soon swells out like a drum. This torture is said to be
horrible, and it generally makes the Filipino betray everything, but
many of them are game to the last and carry their secret to the grave.
A soldier who was with General Funston told me that he helped
administer the " water cure" to 160 natives, all but 26 of whome died."

Title: The problem in the Philippines. Speech of Hon. Henry M. Teller,
of Colorado, in the Senate of the United States ... February 11, 12,
and 13, 1902.
Author: Teller, Henry Moore, 1830-1914.

American torture in the Philippines. III

2008-07-13T23:15:00.000+08:00

Upon our return to Philadelphia, a few days later, a gentleman known
to us stepped into our office and placed in our hands a long letter
from another soldier in the Regular Army in the Philippines addressed
to relatives in this city. It had every evidence of being sincere and
genuine. This letter described events as they appeared to the writer,
and was wholly without any tone of exaggeration or sensationalism. It
described the "water-cure" torture just as did the letter quoted
above. We give the following extract:, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, April 5,
1900. MY DEAR --: As this is the last day for some time that I will
have a chance to write, I thought this would be a good time to begin
one. We are still at it, and making preparations for the rainy season,
which is expected about the middle or latter part of June. Any of the
natives who have a gun can turn it in to us and get 830 Mexican
(Mexican money) for it, so a good many are bought in that way. We have
a company of Macabebe scouts here who go out with white troops, and if
they can not get any guns voluntarily they proceed to give the fellow
the water cure-i. e., they throw them on their backs, stick a gag in
their mouths to keep it open and proceed to fill them with water until
they can hold no more, then they get on them and by sudden pressure on
t stomach and chest force the water out again. I guess it must cause
excruciating agony, as they nearly always disclose where guns are
hidden. Of course there is no pay for guns got in that manner. It is
rather a harsh way for us to use them. I wonder how we would feel were
we used in such a manner? The soldiers who look on think it is a huge
joke. These Macabebes are a people who have always been held in
contempt and subjection by the Tagals. They are not very numerous and
not the equal of the latter in anything except ferocity. Had the
former known a year ago that they would take arms for us, I think they
would have exterminated them.

Title: The problem in the Philippines. Speech of Hon. Henry M. Teller,
of Colorado, in the Senate of the United States ... February 11, 12,
and 13, 1902.
Author: Teller, Henry Moore, 1830-1914.

American torture in the Philippines. II

2008-07-13T23:13:00.000+08:00

I am inclined to think that Dr. Stuntz himself, if he had been
subjected to some of the tortures which I know some of our officers
have inflicted on Filipinos, would have admitted things that he does
not really assent to the infallibility of the Pope, for example, in
order to escape the sufferings which these entail. Or, supposing that
he or any of us were called upon to witness inflicted on: some near
and dear relative, or friend of ours, a torture which I have reason to
know one of our officers inflicted on a Filipino woman; he or we might
be induced to say almost anything was true which we knew to be false,
in 'order to free one we loved from such shameful treatment. This poor
woman was completely stripped of her clothing, her feet were tied
together, and she was lowered by ropes, head downward, into a well,
until through suffering and fear she gave so-called testimony which
secured the death of four men. That testimony was actually used to
take these men's lives.

Title: The water cure from a missionary point of view: by Homer C. Stuntz.
Author: Stuntz, Homer Clyde, 1858-1924.

American torture in the Philippines. I

2008-07-13T23:11:00.000+08:00

Later on Mr. George Keunon, the special investigator of the Outlook,
wrote in the issue of that journal, March II, 11 /01 on this subject
as follows: " For the Practice of torture in the Philippines, there
is no excuse whatever, and yet that we have sanctioned, if not
directly employed, the 'water torture' as a means of extorting
information from the natives seems certain. "An officer of the
Regular Army now serving in Luzon, from whose letters, I have already
made quotation, describes the water torture, as practiced by Macabebe
scouts in our service, as follows: "A company of Macabebes enter a
town or barrio, catch some man-it matters not whom-ask him if he
knows where there are any guns, aned upon receiving a negative
answer, five or six of them throw him down, one holds his head, while
others have hold of an arm or a leg. They then proceed to give him
the " water torture," which is the distension of the internal organs
with water. After they are distended a cord is sometimes placed
around the body and the water expelled. From what I have heard, it
appears to be generally applied, and its use is not confined to one
section. Although it results in the finding of a number of guns, it
does us an infinite amount of harm. Nor are the Macabebes the only
ones who use this method of obtaining information.

" Personally, I have never seen this torture inflicted, nor have I
ever knowingly allowed it; but I have seen a victim a few minutes
afterwards, with his mouth bleeding where it had been cut by a
bayonet used to hold the mouth open, and his face bruised( where he
had been struck by the Macabebes. Add to this the expression of his
face and his evident weakness from the torture, and you have a
picture which, once seen, will not be forgotten. I am not chicken-
hearted, but this policy hurts us. Summary executions are and will be
necessary in a troubled country, and I have no objection to seeing
that they are carried out, but I am not used to torture. The
Spaniards used the torture of water throughout the islands as a means
of obtaining information, but they used it sparingly and only when it
appeared evident that the victim was culpable. Americans seldom do
things by halves. We come here and announce our intention of freeing
the people from three or four hundred years of oppression, and
say 'We are strong, and powerful, and grand.' Then to resort to
inquisitorial methods and use them without discrimination is unworthy
of us, and will recoil on us as a nation.
" It is painful and humiliating to have to confess that in some of
our dealings with the Filipinos we seem to be following more or less
closely the example of Spain. We have established a penal colony; we
burn native villages near which there has been an ambush or an attack
by insurgent guerrillas; we kill the wounded; we resort to torture
as a means of obtaining information; and in private letters from two
officers of the Regular Army in the Philippines I find the
prediction that in certain provinces we shall probably have to resort
to the method of reconcentration practiced by General Weyler in Cuba."

Senate of the United States ... February 11, 12, and 13, 1902.

American tyranny in the Philippines. I

2008-06-03T20:13:00.000+08:00

DOCTRINE OF DESTINY

I think I may safely assert that it is not the duty of any individual
or nation to attempt an impossible task, or to attempt a task
difficult in the extreme unless it is to be followed by great good. We
have attempted that task, sometimes under the pretense that it was to
bring a commercial advantage to us, sometimes under the pretense that
destiny or Providence had imposed the duty on us. I do not know what
men mean when they tell us that destiny has required us to do a
certain thing. Do they mean, in the case of the Philippines, that the
Omnipotent has decreed that we shall enter upon a period of spoliation
and war, and that with blood and bayonets, and swords, and the
thundering of cannon we shall force upon the people of the Philippine
Islands that which we think is good for them and that which they think
they know is not good for them? If I had such conceptions of Deity, I
should have to change every sentiment of my heart, and I do not
believe it is much less than sacrilege to say that the Almighty
demands this sacrifice of us.

Title: The problem in the Philippines. Speech of Hon. Henry M. Teller,
of Colorado, in the Senate of the United States ... February 11, 12,
and 13, 1902.
Author: Teller, Henry Moore, 1830-1914.

Annals of American History: The Water Cure: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

2008-05-30T09:18:00.000+08:00

Annals of American History: The Water Cure: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

American fury in the Philippines. XLVIII / Cienta

2008-05-30T07:00:00.000+08:00

March 16.- Instructed Lieutenant Colonel McCaskey, commanding Twentieth
U. S. Infantry, at Pasig, to clear the country in his immediate
vicinity of any of the insurgents who might be lurking near, and soon
after received a dispatch from him that he had sent out two battalions
to be deployed as skirmishers to clear the island of Pasig. Soon
after, heavy and long-continued firing was heard to the east and north
of Pasig. At 12 M. learned that Maj. William P. Rogers, commanding
Third Battalion Twentieth U. S. Infantry, had come upon the enemy,
intrenched one thousand strong at the village of Cienta, and that he
had carried the intrenchments and burned the town, the enemy flying in
the direction of Taytay.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanish
war and Philippine insurrection,page 547

American fury in the Philippines. XLVII / Tondo

2008-05-30T05:06:00.001+08:00

Report of Capt. R. E. Davis, Second Oregon U. S. Volunteer Infantry,
of Pursuit of Insurgents in Tondo, February 23, 1899.

MANILA, P. I., February 24, 1899.

Maj. PERCY WILLIS,
Commanding Second Battalion, Oregon U. S. V.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of my company's
actions during the skirmish and advance to Caloocan from Tondo,
February 23, 1899:

After receiving your order to deploy as skirmishers and protect the
left flank of the line, we advanced steadily with short rests for
better fire facilities, using both individual and volley firing, as
position of our line and enemy would permit. We burned all houses in
our rear, after thoroughly examining them, and sent to the rear about
fifty male prisoners. After the last halt on stone bridge I was
ordered to cross the lagoon and advance in skirmish line toward
Caloocan, examining and burning all houses in our front. In carrying
out these instructions we could not find a single stand of arms and
very few knives of any kind, although careful search was made for them.

After reaching the railroad station about two miles north of Tondo we
relieved the Montana company holding the road, and, awaiting your
advance, halted for lunch. Up to this point the country was full of
houses, and we burned them all after sending about one hundred men and
women to the rear. As they were not armed or in resistance and our
force was small we did not put them under arrest.

To sum up events we killed probably about thirty insurgents, as we
counted twenty five in our front while advancing. We sent to the rear
fifty prisoners and burned nearly one hundred houses.

Our total casualties were a slight superficial wound on index finger
of left hand of Martin Hildebrandt. We had a force of fifty men with
Captain Davis and Lieutenant Dunbar in command. I can not speak too
highly of the conduct of the men, as my only difficulty was to hold
them back and prevent unnecessary exposure to fire.

Very respectfully, R. E. DAVIS, Captain, Second Oregon U. S. Volunteer
Infantry, Commanding Company E.

Rizal as American hero. I

2008-05-26T03:54:00.003+08:00

Quien creó la provincia de Rizal? Parece que el gobierno colonial
americano. En 1902 ya hay una mención a ella.

Rizal is a new province containing a portion of the territory formerly
included in the province of Manila.

Title: Civil government for the Philippine Islands. Speech of Hon.
Julius C. Burrows ... in the Senate of the United States Wednesday,
May 28, 1902. page 14
Author: Burrows, Julius C. (Julius Caesar), 1837-1915

American fury in the Philippines. XLVI / Reconcentration

2008-05-25T23:28:00.000+08:00

And Mr. Bacon well says:

We are apt to think about the reconcentrado camps simply in connection
with sufferings which may be endured by those within the camps; and,
in the case of the Cuban reconcentrado camps, where there was not
food, then, of course, all the added horrors of that tropical climate
constituted one of the features of the reconcentrado camps. But the
greatest horror and the greatest suffering which are occasioned by the
reconcentrado camps is not the horror and the suffering within the
camp, but the horror and the suffering without the camp. When a
general prescribes a certain limited area within which he says all the
people must congregate, there must be the corresponding direction
which will enforce that order; and the corresponding direction is that
everything outside of those prescribed limits shall be without
protection, and, both as to property and life, be subject to
destruction. Only in that way can people be carried within the limits
of the reconcentrado camps. It is because life is unsafe out of them,
because life is almost certain to be sacrificed out of them, because
all property left outside is to be destroyed, because all houses are
to be burned, because the country is to be made a desert waste,
because within a camp is a zone of life and without the camp a
wide-spread area of death and desolation. That is what a reconcentrado
camp means. Do you suppose if there is an invitation to people to come
within a reconcentrado camp, that they are going to come there unless
they are forced there? Is there any way to force them except to say
that it is death to remain outside? Why, Mr. President, when the
limited area of a reconcentrado camp is prescribed, the people cannot
be collected and driven in there. The soldiers cannot go out and find
them and drive them in as you would a drove of horses. It is only by
putting upon them this order, this pressure of life and death, that
they are made to flee within the limits of the reconcentrado camps to
escape the torch and the sword that destroys all without. When a
general prescribes a reconcentrado camp,- and I am going, before I get
through, to read Bell's order to show that that is what it means,-
when a general prescribes a reconcentrado camp, he practically says
that everybody outside must come inside or die: he practically says to
his soldiers, Those who do not get inside shall be slaughtered; and
the practical operation is that those who do not get inside are
slaughtered.

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.

American fury in the Philippines. XLV / Rape

2008-05-25T23:26:00.000+08:00

An anonymous letter signed " An Outraged Citizen" was addressed to
General MacArthur under date of February 26, i9oi, beginning:

It is simply horrible what the Macabebe soldiers are doing in some of
the towns.... The Macabebes are committing the most horrible outrages
in the towns and the officers say nothing, but, on the contrary,
punish and threaten any persons who make complaint.... Some twelve
days ago some Macabebes went into a house, and four soldiers raped a
married woman, one after another, in the presence of her husband, and
threatened to kill him if he dared to say anything. The war will never
come to an end this way, nor will the country be pacified. The people
are compelled to take to the woods.

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.

American fury in the Philippines. XLIV / Liruan

2008-05-25T23:25:00.000+08:00

official report of Major Waller, dated Nov. 23, 1901, from which this
passage is quoted:

On the march to Liruan the second column, fifty men, under Captain
Bearss, in accordance with my orders, destroyed all villages and
houses, burning in all one hundred and sixty-five.
...I wish to work southward a little, destroying all houses and crops,
and, if possible, get the rifles from Balangiga. This plan has been
explained to the general, meeting his approval.

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.

American fury in the Philippines. XLIII / Mass murder

2008-05-25T23:23:00.000+08:00

Howard McFarland, sergeant, Company B, Forty-third Infantry, wrote to
the Fairfield Journal of Maine:

- I am now stationed in a small town in charge of twenty-five men,
and have a territory of twenty miles to patrol.... At the best, this
is a very rich country; and we want it. My way of getting it would be
to put a regiment into a skirmish line, and blow every nigger into a
nigger heaven. On Thursday, March 29, eighteen of my company killed
seventy-five nigger bolomen and ten of the nigger gunners.... When we
find one that is not dead, we have bayonets.

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.

American fury in the Philippines. XLII / Mass murder

2008-05-25T23:22:00.000+08:00

L. F. Adams, of Ozark, Mo., a soldier in the Washington regiment,
describing the scene after the battle of February 4-5, 1899, said:

In the path of the Washington Regiment and Battery D of the Sixth
Artillery there were 1,oo8 dead niggers, and a great many wounded. We
burned all their houses. I don't know how many men, women, and
children the Tennessee boys did kill. They would not take any prisoners.

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.

American fury in the Philippines. XLI / Burning

2008-05-25T23:19:00.001+08:00

Testimony of First Lieutenant Grover Flint,

...He testified further that he had seen hamlets, small towns of fifty
or sixty houses, burned by the American soldiers.... I saw it.... I
think the idea was at that time that the burning of these villages
would drive the people to the woods or to the towns,-a policy of
concentration, I think.... The people who lived in these houses were
apparently engaged in peaceful pursuits...

American fury in the Philippines. XL / San Roque

2008-05-25T23:17:00.001+08:00

Another charge grew out of a letter written by Corporal Williams as to
the looting of a village called St. Roque before June i, I899.
Williams, being asked, said that he wrote the letter, and that the
statement was "substantially true." The captain of his company stated that

the village of St. Roque was looted by the Iowa Regiment and the other
troops stationed at Cavite, that the men helped themselves to what
they found and destroyed articles of property they could not use, that
the colonel and other field officers did not exert themselves to stop
it, and that, while he disapproved of what was done, he did not feel
called upon under the circumstances to do anything about it. The
colonel and lieutenant-colonel stated that the town was burned by the
insurgents, and that the colonel ordered an officer to take charge of
the district, put out the fires, and collect and store all articles of
value. The colonel says, A part of the property so collected was
afterwards removed to Cavite for use of officers and men in the
quarters, which were found absolutely bare of furniture when my
regiment took station there.

American fury in the Philippines. XXXIX / Extermination

2008-05-25T23:15:00.000+08:00

"It was represented to me that the Filipino will not work; that even
when willing he can not work adequately; that increase of wages
merely enables him to enjoy more idleness, and that the introduction
of Chinese labor would act as a stimulus and by competition compel
him to work. I even met Americans (I am ashamed to say) who, in their
impatience at the slow-going Filipino, struck him or abused him with
violent language, and boldly declared that the only thing to do is to
exterminate him like the American Indian, replace him by Chinese, and
develop the country...
My professed friendship for the Filipinos and my indignation at such
un-American conduct on the part of not a few of my fellowcountrymen
compelled me to study this problem..."

David H. Doherty, 1904

American fury in the Philippines. XXXVIII / Genocide

2008-05-25T23:14:00.003+08:00

CONCLUSIONS

From this review of the record certain things clearly appear:

I. That the destruction of Filipino life during the war has been so
frightful that it cannot be explained as the result of ordinary
civilized warfare. General J. M. Bell's statement that one-sixth of
the natives of Luzon - that is, some six hundred thousand persons -
had been killed or died of dengue fever in the first two years of the
war is evidence enough on this point, especially when coupled with his
further statement:

The loss of life by killing alone has been very great, but I think not
one man has been slain except where his death served the legitimate
purpose of war. It has been thought necessary to adopt what in other
countries would be thought harsh measures,

but which Secretary Root calls measures of " marked humanity and
magnanimity." *

2. That at the very outset of the war there was strong reason to
believe that our troops were ordered by some officers to give no
quarter, and that no investigation was had because it was reported by
Lieut.-Colonel Crowder that the evidence " would implicate many
others," General Otis saying that the charge was " not very grievous
under the circumstances."

3. That from that time on, as is shown by the reports of killed and
wounded and by direct testimony, the practice continued.

4. That the War Department has never made any earnest effort to
investigate charges of this offence or to stop the practice.

5. That from the beginning of the war the practice of burning native
towns and villages and laying waste the country has continued.

* This statement is confirmed by the official report made by the
Secretary of the Civil Government in Batangas, the scene of General
Bell's operations. He says that the population has been reduced
one-third; ie., from 3oo,ooo to 2oo,ooo by the war and its attending
conditions.

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.

American fury in the Philippines. XXVI / Finish off

2008-05-25T23:09:00.000+08:00

We advanced four miles and we fought every inch of the way;... saw
twenty-five dead insurgents in one place and twenty-seven in another,
besides a whole lot of them scattered along that I did not count....
It was like hunting rabbits; an insurgent would jump out of a hole or
the brush and run; he would not get very far.... I suppose you are not
interested in the way we do the job. We do not take prisoners. At
least the Twentieth Kansas do not.

--Arthur Minkler, of the Kansas Regiment

American fury in the Philippines. XXXV / Mass murder

2008-05-25T23:08:00.000+08:00

A private in the Utah Battery:

"The cable news has kept the home folks fully informed as to the
progress of this 'goo-goo' hunt, so it is unnecessary to recount any
details of battles. The cruelties of Spain toward these people have
been fully discussed, but if the thing were written up by a recent
arrival here, he would make a tale just as harrowing. But the old boys
will say that no cruelty is too severe for these brainless monkeys,
who can appreciate no sense of honor, kindness, or justice.... With an
enemy like this to fight, it is not surprising that the boys should
soon adopt 'no quarter' as a motto, and fill the blacks full of lead
before finding out whether or not they are friends or enemies."

American fury in the Philippines. XXXIV / Puente Colgante

2008-05-25T23:06:00.000+08:00

Private Fred B. Hinchman, Company A, United States Engineers, writes
from Manila, February 22d:

"At 1:30 o'clock the general gave me a memorandum with regard to
sending out a Tennessee battalion to the line. He tersely put it that
'they were looking for a fight.' At the Puente Colgante (suspension
bridge) I met one of our company, who told me that the Fourteenth and
Washingtons were driving all before them, and taking no prisoners.
This is now our rule of procedure for cause. After delivering my
message I had not walked a block when I heard shots down the street.
Hurrying forward, I found a group of our men taking pot-shots across
the river, into a bamboo thicket, at about 1,200 yards. I longed to
join them, but had my reply to take back, and that, of course, was the
first thing to attend to. I reached the office at 3 P.M., just in time
to see a platoon of the Washingtons, with about fifty prisoners, who
had been taken before they learned how not to take them."

American fury in the Philippines. XXXIII / Finish off

2008-05-25T23:04:00.000+08:00

In a letter to Mr. Herbert Welsh, of Philadelphia, an official of the
War Department says:
The aggregate killed and wounded [Filipinos] reported by commanding
officers is 14,643 killed and 3,297 wounded.... As to the number of
Filipinos whose deaths were due to the incidents of war, sickness,
burning of habitations, etc., we have no information.

The comparative figures of killed and wounded - nearly five killed to
one wounded if we take only the official returns - are absolutely
convincing. When we examine them in detail and find the returns quoted
of many killed and often no wounded, only one conclusion is possible.

In the fiercest battles of the Civil War the proportion was as
follows: at Antietam, where we attacked: killed, 2,o00; wounded,
9,416; at Fredericksburg, where we charged again and again under a
withering fire of rifles and cannon: killed, I, 180; wounded, 9,028;
at Gettysburg, where two veteran armies joined in desperate battle:
killed, 2,834; wounded, 13,709; at Cold Harbor, where the carnage was
frightful: killed, 1,905; wounded, 10, 570.

In the recent Boer War the proportion is the same. At Magersfontein:
killed, I71; wounded, 691; at Colenso: killed, 50; wounded, 847. In
all battles from October, i899, to June, 1900: killed, 2,518; wounded,
11,405.

In no war where the usages of civilized warfare have been respected
has the number of killed approached the number of wounded more nearly
than these figures. The rule is generally about five wounded to one
killed. What shall we say of a war where the proportions are reversed?

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929

American fury n the Philippines. XXXII / Loboo

2008-05-25T23:01:00.000+08:00

BATANGAS, Dec. 26, I901.

I have become convinced that within two months at the outside there
will be no more insurrection in this brigade. We may not have secured
all the guns or caught all the insurgents by that time, and the
present insurrection will end and the men and the guns will be secured
in time.... I am practically sure they cannot remain here in Batangas,
Laguna, and a part of Tayabas. The people are now assembled in the
towns, with all the visible food supply except that cached by
insurgents in the mountains. For the next six days all station
commanders will be employed hunting insurgents and their hidden food
supplies within their respective jurisdictions. Population of each
town will be turned out, and all transportation that can be found
impressed to bring into government storehouses all food that is found,
if it be possible to transport it. If not, it will be destroyed.

I am now assembling in the neighborhood of twenty-five hundred men,
who will be used in columns of about fifty men each. I expect to
accompany the command. Of course, no such strength is necessary to
cope with all the insurgents in the Philippine Islands, but the
country is indescribably rough and badly cut up.... To the ravines and
mountains I take so large a command for the purpose of thoroughly
searching each ravine, valley, and mountain-peak for insurgents and
for food, expecting to destroy everything I find outside of town,. All
able-bodied men will be killed or captured. Old men, women, and
children will be sent to towns. This movement begins January x, by
which time I hope to have nearly all the food supply in the towns. If
insurgents hide their guns and come into the towns, it will be to my
advantage; for I shall put such a pressure on town officials and
police that they will be compelled to identify insurgents.t If I catch
these, I shall get their guns in time. I expect to first clean out the
wide Loboo Peninsula south of Bantangas, Tiasan, and San Juan de Boc
Boc road. I shall then move command to the vicinity of Lake Taal, and
sweep the country westward to the ocean and south of Cavite, returning
through Lipa.

I shall scour and clean up the Lipa Mountains. Swinging northward, the
country in the vicinity of San Pablo, Alaminos, Tananan, and Santo
Tomas, will be scoured, ending at Mount Maguiling, which will then be
thoroughly searched and devastated. This is said to be the home of
Malvar and his parents.

Swinging back to the right, the same treatment will be given all the
country of which Mount Cristobal and Mount Banabao are the main peaks.
These two mountains, Mount Maguiling, and the mountains north-east of
Loboo are the main haunts of the insurgents. After the 1rst of January
no one will be permitted to move about without a pass....
These people need a thrashing to teach them some good common sense,
and they should have it for the good of all concerned. Sixto Lopez is
now interested in peace because I have in jail all the male members of
his family found in my jurisdiction, and have seized his houses and
palay and his steamer.

General Bell

American fury in the Philippines. XXXI / Luzón

2008-05-25T22:58:00.000+08:00

The Boston Advertiser is a Republican newspaper, and in its columns
appeared this statement:

- The time has come, in the opinion of those in charge of the War
Department, to pursue a policy of absolute and relentless subjugation
in the Philippine Islands. If the natives refuse to submit to the
process of government as mapped out by the Taft Commission, they will
be hunted down and will be killed until there is no longer any show of
forcible resistance to the American government. The process will not
be pleasant, but it is considered necessary.

Who has been the person in charge of the War Department ever since
the Taft Commission was appointed, and has not this statement been
proved to be true by what has happened since? On May 3, I9oI, General
James M. Bell, in an interview printed in the New York Times, said:
One-sixth of the natives of Luzon have either been killed or died of
the dengue fever in the last two years;

and, as Senator Hoar said, I suppose that this dengue fever and the
sickness which depopulated Batangas is the direct result of the war,
and comes from the condition of starvation and bad food which the war
has caused. General Bell is a witness whom the War Department cannot
discredit. " One-sixth of the population of Luzon "- one in every six
of men, women, and children - had either been killed or died in two
years. This means 666,ooo people. The population of Luzon is estimated
by the War Department to be 3,727,488 persons.* How many were killed,
and how? General Bell gave a suggestive answer when he said as a part
of the same statement:

The loss of life by killing alone has been very great, but I think not
one man has been slain except where his death served the legitimate
purpose of war. It has been thought necessary to adopt what in other
countries would probably be thought harsh measures.

A Republican Congressman, who visited the Philippines during the
summer of 1901, confirms this answer in an interview published in the
Boston Transcript, and in other newspapers, on March 4, 1902:

You never hear of any disturbances in Northern Luzon; and the secret
of its pacification is, in my opinion, the secret of the pacification
of the archipelago. They never rebel in Northern Luzon because there
isn't anybody there to rebel. The country was marched over and cleaned
out in a most resolute manner. The good Lord in heaven only knows the
number of Filipinos that were put under ground. Our soldiers took no
prisoners, they kept no records; they simply swept the country, and,
wherever or whenever they could get hold of a Filipino, they killed
him. The women and children were spared, and may now be noticed in
disproportionate numbers in -that part of the island. Thus did we here
protect " the patient... millions."

Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.

Bud Dajo massacre, March 7, 1906

2008-05-25T08:50:00.000+08:00

American fury in the Philippines. XXX / Panay

2008-05-24T19:35:00.000+08:00

Letter of Mr. Nelson is in the Boston Herald of August 25, 1902

...There is probably no island in the archipelago where it was used
oftener and with better effect than in Panay.... When General Hughes
began his vigorous campaign, Panay was one of the worst of the
islands: to-day it is one of the best.... And there seems to be no
doubt that these conditions are due to the stern measures adopted to
crush out guerilla warfare and ladronism. There was talk of
promiscuous burning in connection with General Smith. Let me tell you
what it really means when you can see it. The Eighteenth Regulars
marched from Iloilo in the south to Capiz in the north of Panay, under
orders to burn every town from which they were attacked. The result
was they left a strip of land sixty miles wide from one end of the
island to the other, over which the traditional crow could not have
flown without provisions. That is what burning means, and no more.

American fury in the Philippines. XXIX / Extermination

2008-05-24T19:34:00.000+08:00

Letter of an officer who had served in the islands .
- There is no use mincing words. There are but two possible
conclusions to the matter. We must conquer and hold the islands or get
out. The question is, Which shall it be? If we decide to stay, we must
bury all qualms and scruples about Weylerian cruelty, the consent of
the governed, etc., and stay. We exterminated the American Indians,
and I guess most of us are proud of it, or, at least, believe the end
justified the means; and we must have no scruples about exterminating
this other race standing in the way of progress and enlightenment, if
it is necessary.

American fury in the Philippines. XXVIII

2008-05-24T19:33:00.000+08:00

Senator RAWLINS. If these shacks were of no consequence what was the
utility of their destruction?
General HUGHES
S. The destruction was as a punishment. They permitted these people to
come in there and conceal themselves and they gave no sign. It is always _
Senator RAWLINS. The punishment in that case would fall, not upon the
men, who could go elsewhere, but mainly upon the women and little
children.
General HUGHES. The women and children are part of the family, and
where you wish to inflict a punishment you can punish the man probably
worse in that way than in any other.
Senator RAWLINS. But is that within the ordinary rules of civilized
warfare? Of course you could exterminate the family, which would be
still worse punishment.
General HUGHES. These people are not civilized.
Senator RAWLINS. Then I understand you to say it is not civilized
warfare?
General HUGHES. No: I think it is not.
Senator RAWLINS. Is it not true that operations in the islands became
progressively more severe within the past year and a half in dealing
with districts which were disturbed?
General HUGHES. I think that is true. I would not say it is entirely
so. The severities depend upon the man immediately in command of the
force that he has with him. In the department I suppose I had at times
as many as a hundred and twenty commands in the field. Each commander,
under general restrictions, had authority to act for himself. These
commanders were changed from time to time. The new commanders coming
in would probably start in very much easier than the old ones.
Senator HALE. Very much what?
General HUGHES. Easier. They would come from this country with their
ideas of civilized warfare, and they were allowed to get their lesson.

American fury in the Philippines. XXVII / Marilao

2008-05-24T19:32:00.000+08:00

The special correspondent of the Boston Transcript, as early as April
14, 1899, wrote from Marilao:
"Just watch our smoke " is what the Minnesota and Oregon regiments
have adopted for a motto since their experiences of the last few days.
Their trail was eight miles long; and the smoke of burning buildings
and rice heaps rose into the heaven the entire distance, and obscured
the face of the landscape for many hours. They started at daylight
this morning, driving the rebels before them and setting the torch to
everything burnable in their course. This was in retaliation for a
night attack."

American fury in the Philippines. XXVI / Reconcentration

2008-05-24T19:31:00.000+08:00

Here is testimony from another source as to an undoubted concentration
camp. It comes through Senator Bacon, of Georgia, from whose speech in
the Senate the following extract is taken:Mr. President, I want to
read to you a description of a reconcentrado camp. I will say that
this letter is written by an officer whom I know personally, and for
whom I vouch in my place in the Senate as a high-toned man and a
courageous and chivalric officer, one who does his duty regardless of
whether he approves of the cause in which he is told to fight or not,
and one in every way worthy of confidence and esteem. This was a
letter written by him with no injunction of secrecy in it, because he
had no idea or thought that it would ever be made public. I make it
public now simply for the information of the Senate, in order that
they may have some idea of what a reconcentrado camp is. I omit the
name of the place from which the letter was written for the same
reason that I omit the name of the officer. I will not say any more of
him than that he is a graduate of West Point and a professional
soldier. I will state further that there is some allusion in the
letter to vampires. A vampire in those islands is a bird about the
size of a crow, which wheels and circles above the head at night, and
which is plainly visible at night. As I have said, I know the officer
personally and vouch for him in every way. Senators will see from the
reading of this letter that it is simply the casual and ordinary
narration of a friend writing to a friend. He says: — " On our way
over here we stopped at - in peaceful - to leave our surplus stuff so
as to get into "I have left out these names - "light shape; and, as we
landed at midnight there, they weren't satisfied with bolos and
shotguns, but little brown brother actually fired upon us with brass
cannon in that officially quiet burg under efficient civil government.
What a farce it all is " That is his comment on that fact. "Well,
consider, ten miles and over down the coast, we found a great deposit
of mud just off the mouth of the river, and after waiting eight hours
managed to get over the bar without being stuck but three times - and
the tug drew three feet. " Then eight miles up a slimy, winding bayou
of a river until at 4 A.M. we struck a piece of spongy ground about
twenty feet above the sea-level. Now you have us located. It rains
continually in a way that would have made Noah marvel. And trails, if
you can find one, make the 'Slough of Despond' seem like an asphalt
pavement. Now this little spot of black sogginess is a reconcentrado
pen, with a dead-line outside, beyond which everything living is shot.
"This corpse-carcass stench wafted in and combined with some lovely
municipal odors besides makes it slightly unpleasant here. " Upon
arrival I found thirty cases of small-pox and average fresh ones of
five a day, which practically have to be turned out to die. At
nightfall clouds of huge vampire bats softly swirl out on their orgies
over the dead. "Mosquitoes work in relays, and keep up their pestering
day and night. There is a pleasing uncertainty as to your being boloed
before morning or being cut down in the long grass or sniped at. It
seems way out of the world without a sight of the sea,- in fact, more
like some suburb of hell."

American fury in the Philippines. XXV / Torture

2008-05-24T19:29:00.000+08:00

Manila Times of March 5, 1902.
" In several instances natives who were captured were tied to trees
and submitted to a series of slow tortures that finally resulted in
death, in some instances the victims living for three or four days.
The treatment was the most cruel and brutal imaginable. Natives were
tied to trees, and, in order to make them give confession, they were
shot through the legs and left thus to suffer trough the night, only
to be given a repetition of the treatment the next day, in some
instances the treatment lasting as long as four days before the
miserable creatures were relieved by death."

American fury in the Philippines. XXIV / Samar

2008-05-24T19:28:00.000+08:00

[Circular No. 6.]
HEADQUARTERS SIXTH SEPARATE BRIGADE, TACLOBAN, LEYTE-, P.I., Dec. 24,
1901.
To All Station Commanders:
The brigade commander has become thoroughly convinced from the great
mass of evidence at hand that the insurrection for some time past and
still in force in the island of Samar has been supported solely by the
people who live in the pueblos ostensibly pursuing their peaceful
pursuits and enjoying American protection, and that this is especially
true in regard to the "pudientes," or wealthy class. He is and for
some time past has been satisfied that the people themselves, and
especially this wealthy and influential class, can stop this
insurrection at any time they make up their minds to do so; that up to
the present time they do not want peace; that they are working in
every way and to the utmost of their ability to prevent peace. He is
satisfied that this class, while openly talking peace, is doing so
simply to gain the confidence of our officers and soldiers, only to
betray them to the insurrectos, or, in short, that while ostensibly
aiding the Americans, they are in reality secretly doing everything in
their power to support and maintain this insurrection. Under such
conditions there can be but one course to pursue, which is to adopt
the policy that will create in the minds of all the people a burning
desire for the war to cease,- a desire or longing so intense, so
personal especially to every individual of the class mentioned, and so
real that it will impel them to devote themselves in earnest to
bringing about a state of real peace, that will impel them to join
hands with the Americans in the accomplishment of this end. The policy
to be pursued in this brigade, from this time on, will be to wage war
in the sharpest and most decisive manner possible. This policy will
apply to the island of Samar and such other portions of the brigade to
which it may become necessary to apply it, even though such territory
is supposedly peaceful or is under civil government. In waging this
warfare, officers of this brigade are directed and expected to
co-operate to their utmost, so as to terminate this war as soon as
practicable, since short severe wars are the most humane in the end.
No civilized war, however civilized, can be carried on on a
humanitarian basis. In waging this war, officers will be guided by the
provisions of General Orders, No. o00, Adjutant-general's Office,
1863, which order promulgates the instructions for the government of
the armies of the United States in the field. (Copies of this order
will be furnished to the troops of this brigade as soon as
practicable. In the mean time commanding officers will personally see
to it that the younger and less experienced officers of the command
are instructed in the provisions of this order, wherever it is
possible to do so.)
Commanding officers are earnestly requested and expected to exercise,
without reference to these headquarters, their own discretion in the
adoption of any and all measures of warfare coming within the
provisions of this general order which will tend to accomplish the
desired results in the most direct way or in the shortest possible
space of time.They will also encourage the younger officers of their
commands to constantly look for, engage, harass, and annoy the enemy
in the field; and to this end commanding officers will repose a large
amount of confidence in these subordinate officers, and will permit to
them a large latitude of action and a discretion similar to that
herein conferred upon the commanding officers of stations by these
headquarters. In dealing with the natives of all classes, officers
will be guided by the following principles:
First. Every native, whether in arms or living in the pueblos or
barrios, will be regarded and treated as an enemy until he has
conclusively shown that he is a friend. This he cannot do by mere
words or promises, nor by imparting information which, while true, is
old or stale and of no value; nor can it be done by aiding us in ways
that do no material harm to the insurgents. In short, the only manner
in which the native can demonstrate his loyalty is by some positive
act or acts that actually and positively commit him to us, thereby
severing his relations with the insurrectos and producing or tending
to produce distinctively unfriendly relations with the insurgents. Not
only the ordinary natives, but especially those of influence and
position in the pueblos, who manifestly and openly cultivate friendly
relations with the Americans, will be regarded with particular
suspicion, since by the announced policy of the insurgent government
their ablest and most stanch friends or those who are capable of most
skilfully practising duplicity are selected and directed to cultivate
the friendship of American officers, so as to obtain their confidence,
and to secretly communicate to the insurgents everything that the
Americans do or contemplate doing, particularly with regard to the
movement of troops. In a word, friendship for the Americans on the
part of any native will be measured directly and solely by his acts;
and neither sentiment nor social reasons of any kind will be permitted
to enter into the determination of such friendship.
Second. It will be regarded as a certainty that all officials of the
pueblos and barrios are likewise officials of Lukban and his officers,
or at least that they are in actual touch and sympathy with the
insurgent leaders, and that they are in secret aiding these leaders
with information, supplies, etc., wherever possible. Officers will not
be misled by the fact that officials of the pueblos pass ordinances
inimical to those in insurrection, or by any action taken by them,
either collectively or individually. The public acts of pueblo
councils that are favorable to the Americans are usually negative by
secret communication on the part of the parties enacting them to those
in insurrection. Therefore, such acts cannot be taken as a guide in
determining the friendship or lack of it of these officials for the
American government.
Third. The taking of the oath of allegiance by officials, presidentes,
vice-presidentes, consejeros, principales, tenientes of barrios, or
other people of influence, does not indicate that they or any of them
have espoused the American cause, since it is a well-established fact
that these people frequently take the oath of allegiance with the
direct object and intent of enabling them to be of greater service to
their real friends in the field. In short, the loyalty of these people
is to be determined only by acts which, when combined with their usual
course of conduct, irrevocably binds them to the American cause.
Neutrality must not be tolerated on the part of any native. The time
has now arrived when all natives in this brigade, who are not openly
for us must be regarded as against us. In short, if not an active
friend, he is an open enemy.
Fourth. The most dangerous class with whom we have to deal is the
wealthy sympathizer and contributor. This class comprises not only all
those officials and principales above mentioned, but all those of
importance who live in the pueblos with their families. By far the
most important as well as the most dangerous member of this class is
the native priest. He is most dangerous; and he is successful because
he is usually the best informed, besides wielding an immense influence
with the people by virtue of his position. He has much to lose, in his
opinion, and but little to gain through American supremacy in these
island. It is expected that officers will exercise their best
endeavors to suppress and prevent aid being given by the people of
this class, especially by the native priests. Wherever there is
evidence of this assistance, or where there is a strong suspicion that
they are thus secretly aiding the enemies of our government, they will
be confined and held. The profession of the priest will not prevent
his arrest or proceedings against him. If the evidence is sufficient,
they,will be tried by the proper court. If there is not sufficient
evidence to convict, they will be arrested and confined as a military
necessity, and held as prisoners of war until released by orders from
these headquarters. It will be borne in mind that in these islands, as
a rule, it is next to impossible to secure evidence against men of
influence, and especially against the native priests, so long as they
are at large. On the other hand, after they are arrested and confined,
it is usually quite easy to secure abundant evidence against them.
Officers in command of stations will not hesitate, therefore, to
arrest and detain individuals whom they have good reasons to suspect
are aiding the insurrection, even when positive evidence is lacking....

American fury in the Philippines. XXIII / Marilao

2008-05-24T19:26:00.000+08:00

MISSIONARY ASPECT.
The attention of the clergy and of others who advocate the enforcement
of Christianity at the point of the bayonet is called to the following
extract from a letter of a correspondent of the " Evening Post":

The country between Marilao and Manila presents a picture of
desolation. Smoke is curling from hundreds of ash heaps, and the
remains of trees and fences torn by shrapnel are to be seen
everywhere. The general appearance of the country is as if it had been
swept by a cyclone. The roads are strewn with furniture and clothing
dropped in flight by the Filipinos. The only persons remaining behind
are a few aged persons, too infirm to escape. They camp beside the
ruins of their former homes and beg passers-by for any kind of
assistance. The majority of them are living on the generosity of our
soldiers, who give them portions of their rations. The dogs of the
Filipinos cower in the bushes, still terrified and barking, while
hundreds of pigs are to be seen busily searching for food. Bodies of
dead Filipinos are stranded in the shallows of the river, or are lying
in the jungle where they crawled to die, or were left in the wake of
the hurriedly retreating army. These bodies give forth a horrible
stench, but there is no time now to bury them. The inhabitants who
fled from Marilao and Meycauayan left in such a panic that on the
tables our soldiers found money and valuables, and in the rooms were
trunks containing property of value. This was the case in most of the
houses deserted. They were not molested by our soldiers, but the
Chinese, who slip in between the armies, are looting when they can,
and have taken possession of several houses, over which they raised
Chinese flags, some of which were afterwards torn down. An old woman
was found hidden in a house at Meycauayan yesterday, just dead,
apparently from fright and hunger. The old woman named in the last
paragraph may be cited as one converted in this missionary enterprise.

Title: The Anti-imperialist.
Publication Info: Brookline, Mass.,: E. Atkinson.,

American fury in the Philippines. XXII / Albay

2008-05-22T02:55:00.001+08:00

The third count, the extreme methods of suppressing resistance
legalised by the Commission, as already mentioned, is best
illustrated in the policy of "reconcentration" earlier practised by
the military authorities.
The use of this plan for reducing a population to submission is
authorised by sec. 6 of the Commission's Act No. 781, further
organising the constabulary, in the following words:

In provinces which are infested to such an extent with ladrones or
outlaws that the lives and property of residents in the outlying
barrios are rendered wholly insecure by continued predatory raids,
and such outlying barrios thus furnish to the ladrones or outlaws
their source of food supply,... it shall be within the power of the
civil governor, upon resolution of the Commission, to authorise the
provincial governor to order that the residents of such outlying
barrios be temporarily brought within stated proximity to the
poblaci6n or larger barrios....

It is a fact that no recent year has passed without the application
of this policy on a large scale. In 1902, it was undertaken in the
region about Lake Taal, comprising parts of Laguna and Bat@ngas
provinces. It then affected not less than 1oo,ooo people, according
to the report of Colonel Wagner, who inspected the camps, each of
which included from 8,000 to 14,000 persons. During 1903, the same
plan was pursued in Albay, where very large areas were entirely
deprived of population, the inhabitants being herded in camps like
those of Bat@ngas. During the current year, reconcentration has been
ordered for Samar (executive order of August I5th) throughout a
region including about 20,000 inhabitants. Besides the official
applications of the policy on a large scale, other instances have
occurred. Several camps now exist in Cavite, and not long since
reconcentration was tried in Tayabas without official authority,
according to Mr. Taft. The number of persons thus recently affected
by this policy under the civil government may be summed up as follows:
Bat@ngas, 1902..........................100,000
Albay, 1903............................ 300,000
Tayabas, 1903..........................15,000
Cavite, 1904............................16,000
Samar, 1904............................ 20,000
Total.......................... 451,000

Of these cases of reconcentration, the first four occurred on the
island of Luzon, the last on that of Samar. The combined population
of these islands being 3,921,000, it thus appears that about one
person in nine throughout the whole population suffered confinement
in the camps at some time during the years 1902-1904.
An effort has sometimes been made to show that the policy of
reconcentration involves no inhumanity, but it is beyond question,
from the testimony both of natives and Americans who are conversant
with the workings of reconcentration, that its effects are most
disastrous, causing widespread suffering. We may fully accept the
belief that reconcentration results in terrible hardship. In the
camps, food is distributed only when extreme want requires it, work
on the roads being sparingly furnished to those who are able thus to
supply themselves with rations. The lack of house accommodation and
the scarcity of food, as well as the overcrowding of the inmates of
the camps, have invariably caused marked increase in mortality. At
the same time, there has been a tremendous loss of crops and houses
throughout the districts in which reconcentration has taken place.

Henry Parker Willis, 1905

American fury in the Philippines. XXI / Batangas

2008-05-22T02:54:00.000+08:00

"On returning to Manila my attention was called by a communication
from the Division Commander(copy enclosed herewith)to a transaction,
so far as I have ever known in all my experience or reading, is
without precedent and in direct violation of law. It appears that in
the district in which General Bell, commanding the 3rd Brigade,
operated, some 400,000people were concentrated in towns under what is
known as the order of reconcentration.They were given but fifteen days
to gather in what little property they had and come into these towns.
As thre order states, after that their property was subject to
destruction or confiscation. They were hold in those places for
several months, until they had nearly exhausted what little substance
they had. If it had been continued two weeks longer they either would
have had to be fed or they would have starved. During this time
General Bell and Colonel Woodruff, of the Comissary Department,
entered into an arrangement by which money, in the hands of the
Comissary Department, which had been appropiated by Congress to
support the Army, was used in buying great quantities of second
quality rice, which was shipped together with large quantities of
sugar, salt, and damaged flour, at government expense, and hauled to
different places for distribution by Government teams, or by private
teams forced into service without compensation, there to be sold not
at cost, but at a profit of 25 per cent, according to the
communication of General Davis. One excuse for entering into this
transaction and not permitting the ordinary traders to supply rice to
the community was the fear that it would go into the hands of the
insurgents, but the the distribution of supplies in this way continued
after Malvar surrendered, and when it was publicly stated that there
were no insurgents in the field. Not only was this second quality of
rice purchased and sold to a starving community in this way, but
according to the statement of Colonel Woodruff 128,000 pounds of
damaged flour was also sent to be sold at the invoce price of good
flour, together with the added profits that might be charged. In
addition to the costs and the profit, the persons distributing this
rice were authorised to compensate themselves. It does not appear what
the compensation was, whether large or small.
In the communication of General Davis it will be noticed that he
states that these people were considered prisoners of war, but we
might challenge history to produce an instance where prisoners of war,
reduced, as the official documents indicate, to a starving condition,
have been compelled to buy food at a large profit from those who held
them as prisoners..."

A special report from General Miles
Headquarters of the Army
Washington, Feb. 19, 1903

American fury in the Philippines. XX / Batangas

2008-05-22T02:51:00.000+08:00

Headquarters of the Army
Washington, Feb.19,1903

The Honorable, The Secretary of War:
Sir.—i have the honor to submit the following special report: in going
from calamba to bat@ngas on the 9th of november last, i noticed that
the country appeared to have been devastated, large sections lying
waste, and in the thirty-eight miles ride, i did not notice any of the
large fields under cultivation. small patches of ground were being
cultivated, but i should not think enough to supply food for the
people that i saw along the road. it was an open country, and easy of
observation. the people appeared to be more depressed than in any
other section of the archipelago. there were but very few men along
the road.
stopping at lipa, one of the principal towns, to change horses, while
at lunch with the commanding officer one of the officers reported that
some citizens desired to speak to me, which request was granted. the
party consisted of goribio catigbac, the acting presidente of the
town; gregorio aguilera, ex presidente; mr. jose luz, treasurer;doctor
sixto rojas and mr. rafael dimaywga. the conversation was in spanish,
and colonel maus, aide-de camp, and the last named man acted as
interpreter. these men were intelligent, well educated , very much in
earnest and apparently sincere. they stated that they desired to make
complaint of the harsh treatment of the people of that community; that
they had been concentrated in towns through that section of the
country, and had suffered great indignities; that fifteen of their
people had been tortured by what is known the water torture, and that
one man, a highly respected citizen, aged sixty-five, named vicente
luna, while suffering from effects of the torture and unconscious, was
dragged into his house, which had been set on fire, and burned to
death. they stated that these atrocities were commited by a company of
scouts under command of lieutenant hennesy, and that their people had
been crowded into towns, 600 being confined in one building. doctor
rojas stated that he was a practical physician, and that he was ready
to testify before any tribunal that some of those confined died of
suffocation. they asked me to look at the building, which i did. it
was one storey in height, 18 or 20 feet wide and possibly 60 or 70
feet long…"

lieutenant-general nelson a. miles

American fury in the Philippines. XIX / Panay

2008-05-22T02:44:00.000+08:00

American fury in the Philippines. XVIII / Lake Taal

2008-05-22T02:43:00.001+08:00

"The trade conditions observable at Manila are merely a reflection of
what may be witnessed in the interior. A journey through the provinces
can not help giving a most discouraging impression. Many towns,
formerly well-built, were destroyed during the war. Churches are in
ruins;whole villages, here and there, lie waste.

The growth in the import of rice is attributed to 1)The almost total
loss of their farm animals (estimated officially at 90% due to the
war and rinderpest)
2)Injury done to the irrigation system during the
war
3)The scarcity of adult male labour as a result of the war. The
dispropotionate number of women and children consequent upon the war
is still noticeable...

...Notwithstanding that in the beginning many of the provinces were
organized as civil governments, it has been thought necessary now and
again to substitute them with a politico-military government, and
today at least six of the provinces are still organized on that basis.
Extreme military methods for controlling the population are provided
for by law and their application in certain cases authorized. Of
these the most marked is what is known as " reconcentration."

RECONCENTRATION: The use of this plan for reducing a population to
submission is authorized by section (i of the Commission's act No.781,
further organizing the constabulary, in the following words: "'In
provinces which are infested to such an extent with ladrones or
outlaws that the lives and property of residents in the outlying
barrios are rendered wholly insecure by continued predatory
raids, and such outlying barrios thus furnish to the ladrones or
outlaws their source of food supply * * * it shall be within the
power of the civil governor, upon resolution of the Commission. to
authorize the provincial governor to order that the residents of
such outlying barrios be temporarily brought within stated proximity
to the poblacion or larger barrios."

It is a fact that no year has passed without the application of this
policy in a larger scale. In 1902 it was undertaken in the region
about Lake Taal, comprising parts of Laguna and Bat@ngas provinces. It
then affected not less than 100.000 people, according to the
report of Colonel Wagner, who inspected the camps...each of which
included from 8000 to 14ooo persons. During 1903 the same plan was
pursued in Albay, where very large areas were entirely deprived of
population, the inhabitants being herded in camps.
Besides the official application of the policy on a larger scale,
other instances have occurred. Several camps now exist in Cavite, and
not long since, reconcentration was tried in Tayagas, without
official authority, according to ex-governor Taft. It is beyond the
question, from the testimony both natives and Americans who are
conversant with the workings of reconcentration that its effects are
the most disastrous, causing widespread suffering. In the camps food
is distributed only when extreme want requires it. .... The lack of
house accommodations and the scarcity of food as well as the
overcrowding of the inmates of the camps have invariably caused much
increase in mortality. At the same time there has been a tremendous
loss of crops and houses throughout the districts in which
reconcentration has taken place...

It is the testimony of capable American lawyers in Manila that under
existing law it is entirely possible to convict any human being in
the archipelago of "bandolerismo" (the local name for membership in or
assistance to organized bands of insurrectionists), without regard
to guilt. That such conviction can be secured is, in fact, the open
boast of some constabulary officials...
How effective have been may be seen from the situation in the Bibilid
prison...The total number of persons confined August 31, 1903,on
charges of "aiding insurrection, conspiracy,highway robbery, illegal
custody of arms, rebellion, sedition, violation of oath of allegience,
violation on articles of war, and treason was 1093. On a recent date
the number of men confined in Bilibid who had been
sentenced and were awaiting capital punishment was 100.

. As General Davis mildly states the situation (Report, 190.3, p.31):
"Americans in the Philippines have not so far been an unmixed
blessing to the native inhabitants". We have, in fact, destroyed the
public buildings of the country, inflicted continuous crop losses
during a period of six years; ravaged and burned large sections of
territory; produced conditions leading to the death of most of the
farm animals and to serious human and animal epidemics; brought
foreign trade to an unprofitable condition by our tariff legislation;
inaugurated a tremendously expensive government for the benefit of
foreign officeholders; established a partisan judiciary; crowded the
prisons and deported or sent to the gallows the best and most
patriotic of the native leaders.

Senator E.W. Carmack, December 1904

American fury in the Philippines. XVII / Santa Cruz

2008-05-22T02:41:00.000+08:00

" I have just returned to Santa Cruz from a two days' trip in tie
mountains. We left Santa Cruz about 4.30 on the morning of the 5th, and
proceeded about twenty miles into the mountains. Men from each troop
volunteered to walk five miles further to a house where, we were
informed, a Filipino general lived. Besides sixty men, we had two scouts
to show us the way. We sneaked through the bushes from place to place,
and when we had failed to find the house, or even see any native, we
became disgusted, and proceeded to return to Santa Cruz. Just as we were
about to turn back we heard a sound of laughter near us, and we started
ahead again, and creeping through the bushes, we came in sight of a
house. We saw a Filipino officer addressing a crowd of natives. In the
house a wedding ceremony was being performed, an insurgent officer
taking to himself a better half. During the speech the audience cried
out, ' Long live Aguinaldo!' We were about twenty-five yards from the
house when the word was given to charge, but not to shoot the clildren.
Most of the party had been indulging in wine, and were not sober. Each
soldier took aim, and rushed upon the crowd and fired. Those who escaped
took refuge in the building. On the ground near the house were the
bodies of the slain, and among them were the bridegroom and the bride,
both weltering in their blood."

Thomas Jones, 1900

American fury in the Philippines. XVI / Negros, Albay

2008-05-22T02:39:00.001+08:00

I stood on the spot in Negros where Montgomery, the superintendent of
education for that province, was killed. According to my information
it was an ordinary, highway murder for robbery, such as occurs
sometimes in my own city of Chicago. What was the punishment? The
constables were given free hand, the barrio was burned, men were
killed, some were tried and hanged, but the spirit was not that of
American law, but rather of a mob blindly avenging crime.
I drove through Albay Province, and I found 300,000 people
reconcentrated, hemp rotting in the fields, homes empty and not a human
being outside the lines — all punished because some 300 men are in the
mountains as ladrones or insurrectos.

David Jessup Doherty, 1904

American fury in the Philippines. XV / Plunder

2008-05-22T02:37:00.001+08:00

E. D. Furnam, of the Washington Regiment, writes of the battles of
February 4th and 5th:

We burned hundreds of houses and looted hundreds more. Some of the
boys made good hauls of jewelry and clothing. Nearly every man has at
least two suits of clothing, and our quarters are furnished in style;
fine beds with silken drapery, mirrors, chairs, rockers, cushions,
pianos, hanging-lamps, rugs, pictures, etc. We have horses and
carriages, and bull-carts galore, and enough furniture and other
plunder to load a steamer.

American fury in the Philippines. XIV / Mateo river

2008-05-22T02:36:00.001+08:00

Fielding Lewis Poindexter, of the Second Oregon:

"About dark, before Company D's return, Colonel Summers rode over to
General Wheaton's headquarters. Shortly after reaching there reports,
which afterwards proved to be somewhat exaggerated, came in that two
companies of the Twenty-second Infantry had been literally cut to
pieces, having fallen into an ambush. After a hasty consultation it
was decided to proceed at once to kill or drive into the lake every
native possible to be found in the half-moon-shaped district lying
between the mouth of the Mateo river and the farther end of the lake,
a distance of twelve miles."

American fury in the Philippines. XIII / Mass murder

2008-05-22T02:33:00.001+08:00

A Corporal in the California Regiment:

"We sleep all day here, as we do our duty all night, walking the
streets. We make every one get into his house by 7 P.M., and we only
tell a man once. If he refuses, we shoot him. We killed over three
hundred men the first night. They tried to set the town on fire. If
they fire a shot from a house, we burn the house down, and every house
near it, and shoot the natives; so they are pretty quiet in town now."

American fury in the Philippines. XII / Malabon

2008-05-20T22:26:00.001+08:00

"We bombarded a place called Malabon, and then we went in and killed
every native we met, men, women, and children. It was a dreadful sight
the killing of those poor creatures. The natives captured some of the
Americans and literally hacked them to pieces, so we got orders to
spare no one."

--Anthony Michea, of the Third Artillery

American fury in the Philippines. XI / Mass murder

2008-05-20T22:21:00.000+08:00

"When you can realize four hundred or five hundred persons living
within the confines of five or six blocks, and then an order calling
out all of the women and children, and then setting fire to houses and
shooting down any niggers attempting to escape from the flames, you
have an idea of Filipino warfare."
--Sergeant Will A. Rule, Co. H, Colorado Volunteers

American fury in the Philippines. X / Titatia

2008-05-20T22:19:00.001+08:00

"The town of Titatia was surrendered to us a few days ago, and two
companies occupy the same. Last night one of our boys was found shot
and his stomach cut open. Immediately orders were received from
General Wheaton to burn the town and kill every native in sight, which
was done to a finish. About one thousand men, women, and children were
reported killed. I am probably growing hard-hearted, for I am in my
glory when I can sight my gun on some dark-skin and pull the trigger.

--A. A. Barnes, Battery G., Third United States Artillery

American fury in the Philippines. IX / Maypaja

2008-05-20T22:17:00.000+08:00

Writing his own version of the Caloocan fight, Captain Elliot, of the
Kansas Regiment said:

Talk about war being "hell," this war beats the hottest estimate ever
made of that locality. Caloocan was supposed to contain seventeen
thousand inhabitants. The Twentieth Kansas swept through it, and now
Caloocan contains not one living native. Of the buildings, the
battered walls of the great church and dismal prison alone remain. The
village of Maypaja, where our first fight occurred on the night of the
fourth, had five thousand people on that day—now not one stone remains
upon top of another. You can only faintly imagine this terrible scene
of desolation. War is worse than hell.

American fury in the Philippines. VIII / Igbaras

2008-05-20T22:16:00.001+08:00

Senator RAWLINS. I will pass to another subject.
By Senator RAWLINS: Q. How large a town was this village of Igbaras?-
A. I do not know how many acres it covered.
Q. I do not mean how many acres, but about how many houses?-
A. From 400 to 5oo native shacks or bamboo houses.
Q. How long were you there after your arrival that morning?-
A. We were there until about 8 o'clock the next morning We were in the
immediate vicinity of the mountains back of the town. We-left there
between 8 and 8.30 the next morning.
Q. What was done with the town?-
A. After returning from the mountains the town was burned that night.
Q. By whose orders?-
A. By order of Captain Glenn.
Q. How many houses were destroyed?-
A. Practically the entire town, with the exception of the church, the
quarters of the soldiers, and about twenty or thirty houses in the
lower section of the town.
Q. How were those houses occupied?-
A. They were occupied by native families.
Q. Men, women, and children?-
A. Men, women, and children; yes, sir.

itle: Testimony of Charles S. Riley [and William Lewis Smith]:
Author: Riley, Charles S.

American fury in the Philippines. VII / Angat

2008-05-20T22:14:00.000+08:00

April 25, 1899-Capture of Angat; town burned.

American fury in the Philippines. VI / Santa María

2008-05-20T22:11:00.000+08:00

April 12, 1899-Nine companies under command of Colonel Summers, left
Bocaue at 5:45 A. M. and entered Santa Maria at 8:10; town burned.

American fury in the Philippines. V / Taguig

2008-05-19T22:07:00.000+08:00

Mar. 18, 1899-Company D sent to relief of company of Washington
regiment at Taguig; town captured and burned.

American fury in the Philippines.IV / Mariquina

2008-05-18T20:42:00.000+08:00

Mar. 7, 1899-Companies G and K engaged enemy near Mariquina and
dispersed them. Burned the town.

SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE OPERATIONS OF THE
SECOND OREGON VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. Prepared by CAPT. W. S. GILBERT,
Regimental Chaplain and Historian.

American fury in the Philippines.III / Tondo

2008-05-18T18:48:00.000+08:00

The line having been formed, the bugle sounded "Forward," and the
advance commenced. Firing began almost immediately and soon became
very warm. The Mausers could be heard on all sides, and it was
impossible to ascertain where the bullets came from, as smokeless
powder was being used by the enemy. Our men became a little nervous
under this flank fire, and we halted before we had proceeded more than
one hundred yards, the men taking refuge behind a stone wall. Seeing
that nothing could be done until this flank fire by the sharpshooters
had been stopped, and as it seemed to be coming from the native huts,
I sent out orders to burn all the huts, and to advance again, slowly,
burning the huts as we proceeded.

Report of Maj. Percy Willis, Second Oregon U. S. Volunteer Infantry, of Pursuit of Insurgents in Tondo, February 23, 1899.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanish war and Philippine insurrection.

Author: Oregon. Adjutant-General's Office.

American fury in the Philippines. II / Caloocan

2008-05-18T00:29:00.000+08:00

The line had advanced but a short distance when the enemy opened fire
on us from the nipa huts and from the trees. We returned the fire when
we could locate the enemy, but with very slight effect. As the line
advanced it became necessary to burn the native shacks to dislodge
the insurgents. This we did as we advanced, and in a very short time
the main body of insurgents was located in a stone inclosure and
behind breastworks of stone across the streets in front of my company.
A heavy fire was opened up by both sides, with telling effect on the
enemy. The insurgents behind the breastworks retreated to the stone
inclosure and continued the fighting until a flank attack by the right
of my company forced them to surrender. We killed thirty natives,
wounded nine, and took about twenty prisoners, all without a man of my
command killed or wounded. The fighting of the day, so far as my
company was concerned, ended here. I was ordered to deploy my men on
the left of the main road to Caloocan, but after advancing about one
fourth mile found the country impassable on account of water, and had
to return to the main road, which we followed until we reached the
stone bridge, beyond the car shops. Here we deployed on the right of
the Minnesotas, and, with Captain Davis's company on my right, we
continued on to Caloocan, burning all the native huts on the way.

J. M. POORMAN, Commanding Company M, Second Oregon, U. S. V.

American fury in the Philippines. I / Mariquina

2008-05-17T06:31:00.000+08:00

Captain Worrick later took twenty men and dislodged a lot of
sharpshooters that had gathered a little over a mile north of the
Deposito. He had a brief engagement, in which his men saw several
victims of their excellent shooting, which terminated in the rout of
the enemy again. Another move on the Mariquina Road was made March 6th
by Captain Barber, aided by Lieutenant Murphy commanding one Hotchkiss
gun. The captain's men did not discover the enemy until close upon an
outpost in light trenches. The greeting was a few Mauser volleys at
very close range, which were fortunately without serious results to
the Americans. After arranging his men to meet these sharpshooters, a
rapid advance was commenced that bore the outpost back on the main
body. The Filipinos had a commanding position on a ridge beyond the
range of the Springfields. Company K, under Captain Worrick, was sent
to the aid of Company G. Lieutenant Murphy got his Hotchkiss in play,
with apparent effect on the Filipinos. They had begun to shrink from
the accurate fire, when the Hotchkiss broke down, so that it had to be
taken from the field as useless. The two companies then made a general
forward movement that culminated in defeat for their foes after eight
hours of successive fighting. Privates Eide and Stanton of Company G,
who had been detailed with one of the Gatling guns, tried to join the
command during the fighting and were both wounded. After resting a day
Companies G and K moved against Mariquina Village, dispersing all
opposition in that vicinity and burning what remained of that populous
place.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanish
war and Philippine insurrection,
Author: Oregon. Adjutant-General's Office.

Water torture

2008-02-08T06:59:00.000+08:00

Later on Mr. George Keunon, the special investigator of the Outlook,
wrote in the issue of that journal, March II, 11 /01 on this subject
as follows: " For the practice of torture in the Philippines, there
is no excuse whatever, and yet that we have sanctioned, if not
directly employed, the 'water torture' as a means of extorting
information from the natives seems certain. "An officer of the
Regular Army now serving in Luzom, from whose letters, I have already
made quotation, describes the water torture, as practiced by Macabebe
scouts in our service, as follows: "A company of Macabebes enter a
town or barrio, catch some man-it matters not whom-ask him if he
knows where there are any guns, and upon receiving a negative
answer, five or six of them throw him down, one holds his head, while
others have hold of an arm or a leg. They then proceed to give him
the " water torture," which is the distension of the internal organs
with water. After they are distended a cord is sometimes placed
around the body and the water expelled. From what I have heard, it
appears to be generally applied, and its use is not confined to one
section. Although it results in the finding of a number of guns, it
does us an infinite amount of harm. Nor are the Macabebes the only
ones who use this method of obtaining information.

" Personally, I have never seen this torture inflicted, nor have I
ever knowingly allowed it; but I have seen a victim a few minutes
afterwards, with his mouth bleeding where it had been cut by a
bayonet used to hold the mouth open, and his face bruised ( where he
had been struck by the Macabebes). Add to this the expression of his
face and his evident weakness from the torture, and you have a
picture which, once seen, will not be forgotten. I am not chicken-
hearted, but this policy hurts us. Summary executions are and will be
necessary in a troubled country, and I have no objection to seeing
that they are carried out, but I am not used to torture. The
Spaniards used the torture of water throughout the islands as a means
of obtaining information, but they used it sparingly and only when it
appeared evident that the victim was culpable. Americans seldom do
things by halves. We come here and announce our intention of freeing
the people from three or four hundred years of oppression, and
say 'We are strong, and powerful, and grand.' Then to resort to
inquisitorial methods and use them without discrimination is unworthy
of us, and will recoil on us as a nation.
" It is painful and humiliating to have to confess that in some of
our dealings with the Filipinos we seem to be following more or less
closely the example of Spain. We have established a penal colony; we
burn native villages near which there has been an ambush or an attack
by insurgent guerrillas; we kill the wounded; we resort to torture
as a means of obtaining information; and in private letters from two
officers of the Regular Army in the Philippines I find the
prediction that in certain provinces we shall probably have to resort
to the method of reconcentration practiced by General Weyler in Cuba."

Senate of the United States ... February 11, 12, and 13, 1902.

Reconcentration / Negros

2008-02-08T06:49:00.000+08:00

Extermination

2006-01-30T05:18:00.001+08:00

"It was represented to me that the Filipino will not work; that even when willing he can not work adequately; that increase of wages merely enables him to enjoy more idleness, and that the introduction of Chinese labor would act as a stimulus and by competition compel him to work. I even met Americans (I am ashamed to say) who, in their impatience at the slow-going Filipino, struck him or abused him with violent language, and boldly declared that the only thing to do is to exterminate him like the American Indian, replace him by Chinese, and develop the country...
My professed friendship for the Filipinos and my indignation at such un-American conduct on the part of not a few of my fellowcountrymen compelled me to study this problem..."
David H. Doherty, 1904

Senator Carmack's testimony / Reconcentration

2006-01-30T05:10:00.000+08:00

While the American mood fluctuates between benevolent assimilation or
total extermination Senator E.W.Carmack comes on a visit to the
islands and finds Filipinas in full swing:

"The trade conditions observable at Manila are merely a reflection of
what may be witnessed in the interior. A journey through the
provinces can not help giving a most discouraging impression. Many
towns, formerly well-built, were destroyed during the war. Churches
are in ruins;whole villages, here and there, lie waste.

The growth in the import of rice is attributed to 1)The almost total
loss of their farm animals (estimated officially at 90% due to the
war and rinderpest) 2)Injury done to the irrigation system during the
war3)The scarcity of adult male labour as a result of the war. The
dispropotionate number of women and children consequent upon the war
is still noticeable...

...Notwithstanding that in the beginning many of the provinces were
organized as civil governments, it has been thought necessary now and
again to substitute them with a politico-military government, and to-
day at least six of the provinces are still organized on that basis.
Extreme military methods for controlling the population are provided
for by law and their application in certain cases authorized. Of
these the most marked is what is known as " reconcentration."

RECONCENTRATION: The use of this plan for reducing a population to
submission is authorized by section (i of the Commission's act No.
781, further organizing the constabulary, in the following
words: "'In provinces which are infested to such an extent with
ladrones or outlaws that the lives and property of residents in the
outlying barrios are rendered wholly insecure by continued predatory
raids. and such outlying barrios thus furnish to the ladrones or
outlaws their source of food supply * * * it shall be within the
power of the civil governor, upon resolution of the Commission. to
altilorize the provincial governor to order thaut the residents of
suchi outlying barrios be temporarily brought within stated proximity
to the poblacion or larger barrios."

It is a fact that no year has passed without the application of this
policy in a larger scale. In 1902 it was undertaken in the region
about Lake Taal, comprising parts of Laguna and Batangas provinces.
It then affected not less than 100.000 people, according to the
report of Colonel Wagner, who inspected the camps. ...each of which
included from 8000 to 14ooo persons. During 1903 the same plan was
pursued in Albay, where very large areas were entirely deprived of
population, the inhabitants being herded in camps.
Besides the official application of the policy on a larger scale,
other instances have occurred. Several camps now exist in Cavite, and
not long since, reconcentration was tried in Tayagas, without
official authority, according to ex-governor Taft. It is beyond the
question, from the testimony both natives and Americans who are
conversant with the workings of reconcentration that its effects are
the most disastrous, causing widespread suffering. In the camps food
is distributed only when extreme want requires it. .... The lack of
house accommodations and the scarcity of food as well as the
overcrowding of the inmates of the camps have invariably caused much
increase in mortality. At the same time there has been a tremendous
loss of crops and houses throughout the districts in which
reconcentration has taken place...

It is the testimony of capable American lawyers in Manila that under
existing law it is entirely possible to convict any human being in
the archipelago of "bandolerismo" (the local name for membership in
or assistance to organized bands of insurrectionists), without regard
to guilt. That such conviction can be secured is, in fact, the open
boast of some constabulary officials...
How effective have been may be seen from the situation in the Bibilid
prison...The total number of persons confined August 31, 1903,on
charges of "aiding insurrection, conspiracy,highway robbery, illegal
custody of arms, rebellion, sedition, violation of oath of
allegience, violation on articles of war, and treason was 1093. On a
recent date the number of men confined in Bilibid who had been
sentenced and were awaiting capital punishment was 100.

. As General Davis mildly states the situation (Report, 190.3, p.
31): "Americans in the Philippines have not so far been an unmixed
blessing to the native inhabitants". We have, in fact, destroyed the
public buildings of the country, inflicted continuous crop losses
during a period of six years; ravaged and burned large sections of
territory; produced conditions leading to the death of most of the
farm animals and to serious human and animal epidemics; brought
foreign trade to an unprofitable condition by our tariff legislation;
inaugurated a tremendously expensive government for the benefit of
foreign officeholders; established a partisan judiciary; crowded the
prisons and deported or sent to the gallows the best and most
patriotic of the native leaders.

Senator E.W. Carmack, December 1904

The Filipino genocide

2005-11-09T05:45:00.002+08:00

Between the years 1899 and 1913 the United States of America wrote the darkest pages of its history. The invasion of the Philippines__ for no other reason than acquiring imperial possessions, prompted a fierce reaction of the Filipino people. 126000 American soldiers were brought in to quell the resistence. As a result, 400000 Filipino "insurrectos" died under the American fire and one million Filipino civilians died because of the hardship, mass killings and scorched earth tactics carried out by the Americans. In total the American war against a peaceful people who fairly ignored the existence of the Americans until their arrival wiped out 1/6 of the population of the country. One hundred years have passed. Isn't it high time that the USA army, Congress and Government apologised for the horrendous crimes and monstruous sufferings that inflicted upon the peoples of Filipinas?

Alfonso Velázquez

It was American policy at the turn of the century to kill as many Filipinos as possible. The rationale was straightforward: "With a very few exceptions, practically the entire population has been hostile to us at heart," wrote Brigadier General J. Franklin Bell, a propos our seizure of the Philippines. "In order to combat such a population, it is necessary to make the state of war as insupportable as possible, and there is no more efficacious way of accomplishing this than by keeping the minds of the people in such a state of anxiety and apprehension that living under such conditions will soon become intolerable."
The comparison of this highly successful operation with our less successful adventure in Vietnam was made by, among others, Bernard Fall, who referred to our conquest of the Philippines as "the bloodiest colonial war (in proportion to population) ever fought by a white power in Asia; it cost the lives of 3,000,000 Filipinos." (cf. E. Ahmed's "The Theory and Fallacies of Counter-Insurgency," The Nation, August 2, 1971.) General Bell himself, the old sweetheart, estimated that we killed one-sixth of the population of the main island of Luzon—some 600,000 people.
Now a Mr. Creamer quotes a Mr. Hill ("who grew up in Manila," presumably counting skulls) who suggests that the bodycount for all the islands is 300,000 men, women, and children—or half what General Bell admitted to.
I am amused to learn that I have wandered "so far from easily verified fact." There are no easily verified facts when it comes to this particular experiment in genocide. At the time when I first made reference to the 3,000,000 (NYR, October 18, 1973), a Filipino wrote me to say she was writing her master's thesis on the subject. She was inclined to accept Fall's figures but she said that since few records were kept and entire villages were totally destroyed, there was no way to discover, exactly, those "facts" historians like to "verify." In any case, none of this is supposed to have happened and so, as far as those history books that we use to indoctrinate the young go, it did not happen."

Gore Vidal

"EXCEPT during the sixties when the Filipino-American War of 1899-1902 was referred to as “the first Vietnam,” the death of 1.4 million Filipinos has been usually accounted for as either collateral damage or victims of insurrection against the imperial authority of the United States. The first Filipino scholar to make a thorough documentation of the carnage is the late Luzviminda Francisco in her contribution to The Philippines: The End of An Illusion (London, 1973).
This fact is not even mentioned in the tiny paragraph or so in most U.S. history textbooks. Stanley Karnow’s In Our Image (1989), the acclaimed history of this intervention, quotes the figure of 200,000 Filipinos killed in outright fighting. Among historians, only Howard Zinn and Gabriel Kolko have dwelt on the “genocidal” character of the catastrophe. Kolko, in his magisterial Main Currents in Modern American History (1976), reflects on the context of the mass murder: “Violence reached a crescendo against the Indian after the Civil War and found a yet bloodier manifestation during the protracted conquest of the Philippines from 1898 until well into the next decade, when anywhere from 200,000 to 600,000 Filipinos were killed in an orgy of racist slaughter that evoked much congratulation and approval....” Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States (1980) cites 300,000 Filipinos killed in Bat@ngas alone, while William Pomeroy’s American Neo-Colonialism (1970) cites 600,000 Filipinos dead in Luzon alone by 1902. The actual figure of 1.4 million covers the period from 1899 to 1905 when resistance by the Filipino revolutionary forces mutated from outright combat in battle to guerilla skirmishes; it doesn’t include the thousands of Moros (Filipino Muslims) killed in the first two decades of U.S. colonial domination."

E. San Juan, Jr.

In A People’s History of the United States Howard Zinn writes of American sadism during the Philippine-American war:

"In November 1901, the Manila correspondent of The Philadelphia Ledger reported:
“The present war is no bloodless, opera bouffe engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog...
“Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to make them talk, and have taken prisoners people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later, without an atom of evidence to show that they were even insurrectos, stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses.”
In Manila, a U.S. Marine named Littletown Waller, a major, was accused of shooting eleven defenseless Filipinos, without trial, on the island of Samar. Other marine officers described his testimony:
"The major said that General Smith instructed him to kill and burn, and said that the more he killed and burned the better pleased he would be; that it was no time to take prisoners, and that he was to make Samar a howling wilderness. Major Waller asked General Smith to define the age limit for killing, and he replied “everything over ten.”
In the province of Bat@ngas, the secretary of the province estimated that of the population of 300,000, one third had been killed by combat, famine, or disease.
American firepower was overwhelmingly superior to anything the Filipino rebels could put together. In the very first battle, Admiral Dewey steamed up the Pasig River and fired 500-pound shells into the Filipino trenches. Dead Filipinos were piled so high that the Americans used their bodies for breastworks.
A British witness said:
“this is not war; it is simply massacre and murderous butchery.”
Mark Twain said further of the brutal American genocide:
“...I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the philippines. we have gone to conquer, not to redeem... and so i am an anti-imperialist. i am opposed to having the [american] eagle put its talons on any other land.”
Mark Twain
October 15, 1900
the new york herald

“We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining ten millions by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket; we have acquired property in the three hundred concubines and other slaves of our business partner, the Sultan of Sulu, and hoisted our protecting flag over that swag.
“And so, by these providences of god — and the phrase is the government’s, not mine — we are a World Power.”

— Mark Twain

El genocidio filipino

2005-11-09T05:00:00.000+08:00

EL PRIMER GENOCIDIO

El Padre Fray Manuel Arellano Remondo, al informarnos que "la población disminuyó por razón de las guerras", se refiere indudablemente a las víctimas de la Guerra entre la primera República de Filipinas de 1898 y Estados Unidos de Norteamérica.

Esa disminución de la población filipina nos lo señala luego otra fuente, esta vez norteamericana, como constituyendo "la sexta parte de la población filipina".

La fuente norteamericana a la que nos referimos es la del historiador James B. Goodno autor del libro The Philippines: Land of Broken Promises, Nueva York, 1998, cuya página 31 nos suministra esa importante cifra y dato. Si hemos de creer que fue la sexta parte de la población filipina la que pereció como víctima de las sangrientas masacres perpetradas por la soldadesca invasora de Estados Unidos entre 1898 y 1902, las bajas de una población total de nueve millones sumarían, de hecho, a un millón y medio (1,500,000).

Y, diga lo que se diga, este hecho histórico es evidencia de nada menos que un genocidio cometido en contra del pueblo filipino que precisamente es de habla española. Si ahora se puede inclusive decir que el español nunca se habló en Filipinas, ese resultado es la evidencia misma del genocidio perpetrado durante la guerra filipino-usense que se prolongó hasta 1907, ----incluyendo la masiva resistencia armada puesta frente a la invasión militar de Estados Unidos, por parte del segundo presidente y general de la República Filipina de 1898, Macario Sacay y de León.

(El Presidente Sacay asumió el poder tras la captura y arresto domiciliar del Presdiente Aguinaldo; pero en 1906 fue engañado, mediante políticos filipinos (que empezaron a creer en la "benevolencia" norteamericana), con una falsa oferta de amnistía y un puesto a la proyectada Asamblea Nacional. Fue calladamente ahorcado en 1907 de una forma injusta y totalmente criminal en comparación con el caso de José Rizal. ¡Ahorcaron criminalmente al segundo presidente de la República de Filipinas!)

El citado Don Luciano de la Rosa nos informa que "es de esperar que una enorme proporción de esas bajas sean filipinos de habla hispana ya que eran los de este habla los que mejor entendían los conceptos de independencia y libertad y los que escribieron obras en idioma español sobre dichas ideas".

Guillermo Gómez-Rivera