Balangiga massacre
The Balangiga Massacre was a skirmish in 1901 during the Philippine-American War . More than 50 American soldiers were killed during an attack by the Philippine guerrillas near the town of Balangiga on the island of Samar .
This event was considered by the United States Army to be the worst defeat since the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. On the part of the Filipinos, the attack is considered to be one of the bravest actions during the entire war.
As a result, American troops killed thousands of Filipinos on Samar, most of them civilians, in retaliation for this attack. The inappropriately tough crackdown resulted in General Jacob H. Smith , who had ordered the killing of anyone ten years or older, to be tried before the Military Tribunal . Although this order was strongly reprimanded, a formal penalty was never issued. Instead, because of his behavior, Smith was pressured to leave the army and retire.
The ambush, and the resulting retaliation, remains one of the longest debated and contentious matters between the Philippines and the United States. Various interpretations and statements, by both Filipino and American historians, have already greatly mixed up the facts in this affair. One of the unresolved points of contention in relation to this dispute is the expected return of the Balangiga church bells, stolen by the Americans as spoils of war. One of the bells is owned by the US 9th Infantry Regiment at its base in South Korea , while the other two are in a former US 11th Infantry Regiment base at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base , Cheyenne .
The history
On August 11, 1901, the C Company of the 9th US Infantry Regiment arrived in Balangiga, the third largest town on the south coast of the island of Samar , to close the port there and prevent supplies to the Philippine troops in the hinterland. The Philippine Brigadier General Vicente Lukbán had instructed the village leaders to behave peacefully at first, in order to lull the Americans into safety and to be able to attack them later at a strategic moment.
The relationship between the soldiers and the village population initially appeared peaceful. Tensions arose from the fact that the behavior and culture of the villagers were contrary to the puritan ideals of the Americans. For example, they complained about the freedom of movement of the customary sarong , which the local young women wore and which stood in contrast to the high-necked dresses of American women.
During this time the mayor followed all orders of the American occupiers without hesitation. Company captain Thomas W. Connell later ordered the number of able-bodied local males to be increased and ordered them to clean the village of rubbish and dead animals that could contribute to disease among the soldiers. He is said to have later ordered one of his soldiers to rape a young villager. However, such an order is not supported by anything. Equally unsubstantiated is the claim that Connell ordered the destruction of all food stored in the village so that it could not fall into the hands of the Philippine troops.
The attack
At 6:45 a.m. on the morning of September 28, 1901, residents began to move. Local men disguised themselves as grieving women and carried coffins into church. They claimed the coffins for the burial of the children who died of cholera . But instead of the children's corpses , the coffins contained bolo , large machetes that were to serve as weapons for the later attack.
After some armed guards were killed, the Balangiga Police Chief Valeriano Abanador gave the signal for a joint advance. Around 200 men, armed with machetes or axes, came out of their hiding places and hiding at the same time and surprised the as yet unarmed American troops. Since the garrison was having breakfast and was not expecting an attack from the apparently peaceful locals, their rifles were about 20 meters away, piled up in the community hall.
Most of the soldiers were slain with the heavy bolos before they could reach their firearms. Captain Connell led some men into the street before he was encircled and himself killed. The few soldiers who escaped the main attack fought back with kitchen tools, steak knives and chairs. A soldier reportedly kept a number of attackers at bay with a baseball bat before he was also overpowered.
A handful of survivors, many of them wounded, managed to secure their weapons and hold back the attackers. A small number of Americans managed to evacuate the post office by boat. Since they had been discovered, they initially left their flag behind. (This was at half-mast because of the attack on US President William McKinley .) However, three soldiers were found who kept the locals in check and took down the flag. One of them was killed in this action, the other two reached the boat with the intact national flag. Although some escaped the massacre, most of the wounded died on the boat before they reached a safe shore.
Of the original 78 men in C Company, 54 were killed or missing, 20 were seriously wounded, and only four escaped the attack unharmed. The villagers captured a total of 100 rifles and 25,000 ammunition cartridges. According to one estimate, between 20 and 25 guerrilla fighters died in the massacre.
The day after the attack, two companies of the 9th Infantry Corps drove to Balangiga on a commandeered coastal steamer, the SS Pittsburg , together with some survivors of the C Company . They found the scene deserted and the bodies of their comrades mutilated.
The soldiers then buried the remains of the soldiers and set the entire village on fire.
Revenge
The consequence of this surprise attack was a brutal retaliation with massacres against the natives of the island of Samar by the occupying forces of the United States Army .
General Jacob H. Smith instructed Major Littleton "Tony" Waller , the commanding officer of the naval unit assigned to him, to clean up the island of Samar. How he should do this, he explained, “I do not want any prisoners. I want you to kill and burn down; the more that is killed and burned, the happier it will be. ”He said Samar should be turned into a“ howling wilderness ”. All Filipinos who did not surrender and were able to handle weapons should be gunned down. This meant that anyone older than 10 years was eligible. Because of this order he was later nicknamed: Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith.
What followed was a long and widespread massacre of Filipino civilians. The basic element of Smith's policy was brutality. The shipment of food and commerce to Samar were cut off to persuade the revolutionaries to give up. He instructed his officers to regard all Filipinos as enemies and to treat them accordingly. This applied until they showed clear signs that they would behave cooperatively. The cooperative actions Smith expected included providing information on the whereabouts of revolutionaries and weapons, offering himself as a leader or spy, or actively contributing to the surrender of guerrillas. He invoked his unrestricted power of attorney to a subordinate authority of the " General Order No. 100 " ( Abraham Lincoln's 1863, which included the authorization to shoot anyone who was acting as a soldier, even in non-uniform, as well as anyone who committed or sabotage even only endeavoring to commit one).
Smith's strategy for Samar included waging widespread devastation to deter the locals from supporting the guerrillas and to force them to turn back to the Americans in fear and famine. He used his troops to comb the inland in search of guerrilla gangs, and hoped for the capture of the Philippine general Vicente Lukbán . On the other hand, he made no attempt to come into contact with the guerrillas or the villagers. The American units marched across the island, destroyed houses, shot people and confiscated animals.
For example, Littleton Waller reported that his men burned 255 dwellings, shot 13 carabaos and killed 39 people over an eleven-day span . Other officers reported similar atrocities.
As observed by the General of the Military Judiciary Unit of the US Army, only a good overview of those involved and the restriction to the majority of Smith's instructions prevented a complete reign of terror on Samar. Still, the violations were enough to arouse outrage among anti-imperialist groups in the United States when they learned of the event in late March 1902.
After receiving his orders from Smith, Waller issued his own commands to his men on how they should act. He urged them to confiscate and destroy them and expected them to repay the locals in the same way. In the end he wrote: "We are also called upon to avenge our comrades in North China , those murdered by the US Ninth Infantry Regiment." With these words, he fueled the anger of his soldiers. For him, the Chinese and Filipinos were of the same kind, of the same origin, and of the same ideology. There were no differences between any of the Asians.
Waller was later charged with ordering the execution of 11 Filipino leaders for finding edible roots during a long march and allegedly plotting to withhold this knowledge from starving American troops.
See also
credentials
- Rolando O. Borrinaga: The Balangiga Conflict Revisited. New Day Publishers, Quezon City (Philippines) 2003, ISBN 971-10-1090-9 .
- Bob Couttie: Hang the Dogs. The True Tragic History of the Balangiga Massacre. New Day Publishers, Quezon City (Philippines) 2004, ISBN 971-10-1124-7 .
- Joseph L. Schott: The Ordeal of Samar. Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis NY 1964 (Reprinted: Solar, Manila 1987, ISBN 971-170-719-5 ( Filipiniana Reprint Series 19)).
- James O Taylor: The Massacre of Balangiga. Being an Authentic Account by Several of the few Survivors. McCarn Printing Co., Joplin MO 1931.
