Hi, I want to ask if you have any topics about the Philippine-American War? I have gotten myself in Philippine History and I want to know deeper. Thanks:)
I was thinking of many ways on how to answer this because this is such a large and complicated topic but I could just try to summarize some stuff here and tell you what I know and what I could find.
The Filipino-American war mainly started as Filipinos felt betrayed by their former American allies after the country was sold to them by Spain after the Spanish-American war during the Treaty of Paris of 1898 for $20 million alongside other Spanish colonies like Puerto Rico, Guam, and Cuba (American Historical Association, n.d.). This feeling of betrayal had come from the fact that the leader and dictator president of the Filipino revolutionaries, Emilio Aguinaldo of the Kataastaasang Kagalang-galang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (en. The Supreme and Honorable Association of the Children of the Nation) or the Katipunan for short, actually sought assistance from the Americans in Hong Kong during the Filipino Revolutionary War against Spain which was happening at the same time (Kedmey, 2013). This is why tensions were so high with the Americans when they first formally colonized the Philippines.
Interestingly, the purchase also included some territories that weren't actually part of Spanish rule such as the Sultanate of Sulu as well as some indigenous territories which led to a strained relationship with the Americans moving forward such as the independent Moros of Muslim Mindanao later being forced to assimilate to the rest of the colony of the Philippines despite previous agreements that state that they will leave them alone, mirroring the way the United States government treated Native Americans (Gowing, 1968).
Fighting between the American army and the Filipino army first broke out when on February 4, 1899 after Private William W. Grayson fired at 4 Filipino soldiers who cocked their rifles in response to them ordering the men to halt which later broke out into the Battle of Manile of 1899 (Chaput, 2012). As the Filipinos and Americans declared war on each other, the Katipuneros resorted to the mountains to start guerilla warfare against the American army (Philippine-American War, n.d.) which then lasted until 1901 when Aguinaldo was captured on March 23, 1901, just a day after Aguinaldo's birthday actually with the capture being attributed to two of his men, Lazaro Segovia and Hilario Tal Placido who betrayed him to the Americans with his other men still being too relaxed from the festivities the day before (Ocampo, 2010).
The fighting continued despite his capture and surrender until the last of the generals, General Macario Sakay, surrendered in July 14, 1906 who was then later executed along side his men on September 13, 1907 despite the initial promise of amnesty by the American government (Pangilinan & Pimintel, 2008).
The war ended the lives of 4,300 American soldiers with only 1,500 having been killed in action with the rest succumbing to diseases, while Filipino forces suffered 20,000 casualties alongside the death of 200,000 Filipino civilians due to hunger, disease, and combat (Philippine-American War, n.d.).
The violence of the situation and especially committed by the American soldiers prompted a lot of protests in the United States to stop the war immediately, as letters of the situation had been sent back to their homes which describes in excruciating detail the war crimes that these soldiers were ordered to commit such as blockading and burning down villages, extreme torture of captured and suspected enemies, and much more. The most well-known of these torture methods that I remember being taught to us in history classes as early as 4th grade was the "Water Cure" where American soldiers would force water down the victim's throat in and force them to vomit it back out. This article has a detailed account of the exact nature of this torture method as it discusses the torture of Mayor Joveniano Ealdama of Igbaras, who, although no American troop was actually hurt in his town, was tortured with his town being burnt down by the Americans the very next day (Vestal, 2017).
I do have to be honest, I was utterly shocked at how little Americans really knew about the Philippine American colonial era and by extension the Philippine-American war especially with the sheer amount of brutality the Americans had done to Filipino locals as well as the large impact the American government and American culture has had in my country and I am glad that more and more people are starting to learn more about this but it's still rather disappointing.
Videos on the Philippine-American War
If you want to learn more about the Philippine-American War, I have a couple of recommendations for videos that you can watch.
This video by Crash Course explains the origins of American Imperial idealization as well as the wars that led up to the colonization of the many territories that America acquired during this time era:
Here's a good summary by history teacher Mr. Beat of the major aspects of the war as well as the American public's perception of it that you can watch:
Here's a video made with a Filipino-perspective by Jonas Tayaban on the topic:
Here's a summary in Tagalog. It doesn't have English subtitles though but it does detail more things about the build-up and the subsequent wars between Spain and America and later the Philippines and Spain and then America too:
Movies about the Philippine-American War
I would also be remiss to not suggest some historical movies that tackle the events of this time period and especially TBA Studios' Artikulo Uno films Heneral Luna (2015) which focuses on the most popular and effective general of the revolution Gen. Antonio Luna, and Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral (2018) which focuses on Gregorio "Goyo" del Pilar, one the youngest generals of Filipino history who died a very tragic death at a young age:
You can watch the full movie here complete with English Subtitles
Another well-known movie about this time period is Viva Films' El Presidente (2012), although I had heard people say it's very much biased to the controversial dictator president Aguinaldo's side with many people citing that as the reason why they don't like the film.
Here's a reupload of the full-movie. It doesn't have subtitles though.
I don't know of any American-made movies that focuses on this topic and I know there's several other films that focus more on the politics of the Katipunan and the Filipino Revolutionary War against Spain, but not necessarily the Philippine-American War so if anyone has other suggestions, please let me know.
I would also like to suggest documentaries but most of the ones I've seen are on World War II and the others are other YouTube videos by history channels that I'm not too familiar with made by mostly white American YouTubers. Not that that would disqualify their videos (I did reference both John Green and Mr. Beat here) but I don't know these history channels and their hosts enough to recommend them in good faith as of right now.
Books and Further Reading on the Philippine-American War
For books on the subject, I often reference the many writings of Ambeth Ocampo such as his Looking Back series, specifically:
Looking Back 2: Dirty Dancing (Shopee, Lazada, Amazon)
Looking Back 11: Independence x6 (Shopee, Lazada)
Looking Back 13: Guns of the Katipunan (Shopee, Lazada)
I'm also currently interested in buying some other books about the topic like The Hills of Sampaloc: The Opening Actions of the Philippine-American War, February 4-5, 1899 (Shopee, Amazon) but I don't really have any extra money to spare for it right now.
I remember that my father had some other books about this too but the names had escaped me and it's far too much work to try to sort out through his entire book pile in our house.
I hope this answer's comprehensive enough since the subject is, as I said before, quite complex and rather large so I can't really get into all the specifics right now.
References:
American Historical Association. (n.d.). How Did America Enter the Picture?. Retrieved on 3 February 2024, from https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-24-what-lies-ahead-for-the-philippines-(1945)/how-did-america-enter-the-picture
Chaput, D. (2012). Private William W Grayson's War in the Philippines, 1899. Retrieved on 3 February 2024, from https://ne-test-site8.cdc.nicusa.com/sites/ne-test-site8.cdc.nicusa.com/files/doc/publications/NH1980GraysonWar1899.pdf
Gowing, P. (1968). Muslim-American Relations in the Philippines, 1899-1929. Retrieved on 3 February 2024, from https://asj.upd.edu.ph/mediabox/archive/ASJ-06-03-1968/gowing-muslim-american%20relations%20in%20the%20philippines%201899-1920.pdf
Kedmey, D. (2013, June 13). Exiled in Hong Kong: Famous Company for Edward Snowden.Time. Retrieved on 3 February 2024, from https://world.time.com/2013/06/15/exiled-in-hong-kong-famous-company-for-edward-snowden/slide/general-emilio-aguinaldo/
Ocampo, A. (2010). Looking Back 2: Dirty Dancing. Anvil Publishing
Pangilinan, F., & Pimintel, A. (2008, September 9). A Resolution Expressing the Sense of the Senate Honoring the Sacrifice of Macario Sakay and all other Filipinos who Gave Up their Lives in the Philippine-American War for our Freedom, Senate Resolution No. 623, 14th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines. Retrieved on 3 February 2024, from http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/83927584!.pdf
Philippine-American War. In Britannica. Retrieved on 3 February 2024, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Philippine-American-War
Vestal, A. (2017). The First Wartime Water Torture by Americans. Retrieved on 3 February 2024, from https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol69/iss1/2/
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Platoon (1986, Oliver Stone)
24/03/2024
Platoon is a 1986 film, written and directed by Oliver Stone, which deals with his time in Vietnam as a volunteer during the war and is inspired by the real experiences the director had between 1967 and 1971 during his military service.
The film won 4 Oscars out of 8 nominations and Oliver Stone was also awarded the Silver Bear in Berlin as best director. In 1998 the American Film Institute placed it in eighty-third place in the ranking of the one hundred best American films of all time, while ten years later, in the updated list, it dropped to eighty-sixth place. In 2019, it was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress.
The bloodiest episode, as in many other films dealing with the Vietnam War, is inspired by the most atrocious event of that conflict, known to history as the My Lai massacre, in which American soldiers committed atrocities including rape of very young girls, indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians, destruction of the homes and resources of the inhabitants, believed to be allies of the Viet Cong, despite there being no evidence. From this perspective, the figure of the platoon commander, Lieutenant Wolfe, both for his inability to control his men and for other characteristics, can be traced back to the main person responsible for My Lai, the then US Army Lieutenant William Calley, convicted to several years of military detention for that very affair.
Due to an error by Lieutenant Wolfe, who gives wrong coordinates via radio, the platoon is decimated by friendly artillery.
In the last war action of his volunteer service, Chris escapes a deadly ambush by the Viet Cong who almost completely annihilate the platoon and the subsequent American bombing with napalm.
Initially Hollywood snubs the script as many producers are of the opinion that what three is to say about the Vietnam War has already been reported in highly successful films such as Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter, however the strength of Stone's script still attracts some producers who see enormous potential in him. He was then assigned to write a screenplay for another film, Stone accepted and wrote Midnight Express in 1977, thanks to which he won the Oscar for best non-original screenplay (first statuette for Stone) a fact that made all of Hollywood understand the Stone's enormous potential; it was therefore not difficult for him to find the producer to begin work on Platoon.
The film was shot, following the great example of Apocalypse Now, director Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece, on the island of Luzon, in the Philippines, starting in February 1986. The film's production was almost canceled due to the political upheavals in country, due to Ferdinand Marcos, dictator of the country. Upon arrival in the Philippines, the cast members underwent a two-week course of intensive training by Dale Dye (former Marine captain during the Vietnam War and interpreter of Captain Harris), during which they had to dig trenches and suffer forced marches and night "ambushes".
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YA Pacific WW2 Books
Today marks the 78th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, 3 days after the bombing of Hiroshima.
I've had a list of WW2 books in a file for a while. I noticed the Pacific side of the war is much less represented in fiction, but there are still many promising-looking books out there. These range from stories in Japan-occupied territories, to Jews in Shanghai, bombs in Australia, and stories of the atomic bombs in Japan and internment of Japanese-Americans.
Let me know if you've read any of these!
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park (Korea)
The Hundred Choices Department Store by Ginger Park (Korea)
The Songbird and the Rambutan Tree by Lucille Abendanon (Indonesia) [releases in 2024]
Anya's War by Andrea Alban Gosline (China)
Little Paradise by Gabrielle Wang (Australia - China)
The Forgotten Pearl by Belinda Murrell (Australia)
The Sky We Shared by Shirley Reva Vernick (Japan - United States)
Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa (Japan) [manga]
The Girl with the White Flag Tomiko Higa, Dorothy Britton (Japan)
The Last Cherry Blossom by Kathleen Burkinshaw (Japan)
Hunt for the Bamboo Rat by Graham Salisbury (United States - Philippines) [more in the series]
Beneath the Wide Silk Sky by Emily Inouye Huey (Japanese-American)
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei (Japanese-American) [graphic novel]
Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata (Japanese-American)
We Are Not Free - Traci Chee (Japanese-American)
Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman (India)
🕊️🕊️ Prayers for peace. 🕊️🕊️
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