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THE PHILIPPINE-AMERICAN WAR IN DIFFERENT EYES by Lisa Guerrero Nakpil The history of wars today has also been written from the viewpoint of the combatants. The letters, diaries and drawings of soldiers in conflicts from the American Civil War to the War in the Pacific have added important perspective to the larger milestones of battles won or lost, and nations defeated or triumphant. The war between the United States and the Philippines was fought on the American side by a largely “volunteer” army. In the book, The US Volunteers in the Southern Philippines: Counterinsurgency, Pacification, and Collaboration, 1899-1901 by John Scott Reed (University Press of Kansas, 2020), he explains, “After the outbreak of the Philippine-American War in February 1899, the US Congress declined to increase the Regular Army above its current statutory limit of sixty-five thousand officers and men. However, it was willing to authorize the enlistment of thirty-five thousand additional “United States Volunteers” for two years’ service in the islands… Indeed, the study says that the “Twenty-five new regiments raised in the summer of 1899: the United States Volunteers (USVs). The USVs were essential to the US pacification effort during their two-year existence. They outnumbered regular regiments in eleven of eighteen military pacification districts, particularly throughout the southern archipelago, where they bore the brunt of field service, combat, and disease casualties until relieved in spring 1901 by a reconstituted Regular Army.” Reed continues, “Less than one-half of 1 percent of the American male population between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine enlisted in the US Volunteer force in spring 1899. More than 60 percent of these men had also served during 1898. In 1898 they hoped to fight the Spanish; in 1899 they knew they would be fighting Filipinos.” Like soldiers from any time, they would write home from the strange land where they fought. These some two dozen letters from men who were the “boots on the ground” in the Philippines provide a jarring but authentic view not only of these ordinary country boys but also of their Filipino adversaries. Pronouncing Filipinos as “niggers’, complaining of the overpowering heat, they were in awe of the remarkable terrain (spying three volcanoes in a single week — Mayon, Bulusan, and later Taal) and yes, even the unexpected courage of the Filipinos. One letter describes how four Filipinos would man one rifle, taking turns as each was felled to shoot at their enemy. Another tells the tale of a legendary black general in the Filipino army who has deserted and joined the insurgents. “Military operations during the Philippine-American War moved through three distinct phases. Between February and December 1899, the US Eighth Army Corps destroyed the Philippine Republic’s field army in Central Luzon and occupied key ports on Panay, Mindanao, and Jolo,” reports Reed. “In early 1900, Filipino nationalists renewed their struggle for independence with a decentralized guerrilla campaign based on village militias and a clandestine support network. That March, General Elwell S. Otis transformed the Eighth Corps into a Philippine Division postured for, in modern terminology, population control and food denial to insurgent forces.” UNRAVELING THE HISTORICAL LIES OF THE PHILIPPINEAMERICAN WAR by Michael Charleston “Xiao” Chua Last Feb. 4, the 122nd anniversary of the first shot of the Philippine-American War was commemorated. As bad as the shooting war was — the various effects of that conflict killed about 200,000 Filipinos — the propaganda war that the Americans waged on us Filipinos basically obliterated this conflict from the memory of many even until today, We only remember the so-called legacies in education and governance which, although no small achievements of the Americans, also cast over our nation a culture of dependency that still affects us today. One lie that was told to us was that the conflict was an ‘insurrection’, meaning that legally, under the Treaty of Paris, our revolutionaries were mere rebels against a nation that had legitimate jurisdiction over them. Hence, it was not a ‘Philippine-American War’ but was called “The Philippine Insurrection against the United States.” However, we already had a national revolutionary government since the beginning of the revolution in 1896, which was headed eventually by General Emilio Aguinaldo who proclaimed Philippine Independence in 1898 on account of the many victories the revolutionaries were already gaining against the Spaniards. That conflict was therefore, rightly, a war between two independence sovereign nations. Another lie would be that it was the Filipinos who started that war, that we were the first one to fire a shot against the Americans on the night of Feb. 4, 1899. Hearing this disinformation in the middle of the debate in the US Congress to ratify the Treaty of Paris, the undecideds swung towards the pro-imperialists and ratified the treaty. It turned out that the first shot came from the side of the volunteer troops of the United States. But before that important incident, it was made to appear that the Americans did not have any intention to occupy the Philippines. Three important original primary documents recently surfaced in Leon Gallery which showed the duplicity in which the Americans conducted themselves in front of the Filipino Revolutionary Government. A letter from the American General Wesley Merritt, General of the Division of the Department of the Pacific and the 8th Army Corps, on Aug. 20, 1898, curiously written by various scribes in Spanish, addressed to “General en Jefe de las Fuerzas Filipinas” but signed by him proposed that Manila and environs should be jointly be placed under the jurisdiction of both the American and Filipino forces. This was seven days after the Mock Battle of Manila when the Americans took over Intramuros after a fake battle with the Spaniards and gave the impression of recognizing the revolutionary government who was at that time trying to create a nation in this, the first time in 333 years to breathe the little air of freedom. But a 22-page typewritten US Navy official report dated Nov. 23, 1898 tells of their ship’s Monadnock’s reconnaissance of Filipino positions around Northern Luzon. This was as the revolutionary government in Malolos had convened a Congress that was creating the constitution which would create the First Constitutional Democratic Republic in Asia. Previously published by historian Gregorio Zaide in his Documentary Sources in Philippine History, the US Navy report assessed the intelligence and education of the native Filipinos, analyses of relations between the rich and poor, the military towards the civil class, church influences, the popularity of the aspiration for independence, attitudes towards the U.S., and how well were we really prepared to wage war on them. And while President Emilio Aguinaldo continued to hope that America recognize our soon-to-be-born Republic, on Nov. 30, 1898, Admiral George Dewey, the so-called “Hero of the Battle of Manila Bay,” signed a typewritten letter on the stationery of the “United States Naval Force on Asiatic Station” while on the famous ship Olympia addressed to Major General Elwell S. Otis, Military Governor in Manila, “It is to be hoped that we will soon receive instructions from Washington which will enable us to take some action in the premises. My ships are ready to move at a moment’s notice, and I hope that your troops will also be prepared, as in my judgment Iloilo and Cebu should be occupied at the earliest possible moment.” The letter referred to their knowledge of a shipment of arms coming to the Philippine revolutionaries, “It appears to me also that the best way to prevent the importation of arms into the North is to occupy Aparri, and there will be vessels ready to convoy your troops whenever they can move.” “I agree with you that the proposed shipment of arms will probably be attempted from Shanghai, but I hope we will be able to block that game.” All of this proved that the decision to occupy the Philippines was taken despite the promises of the consuls Pratt and Wildman to Aguinaldo — and even before President William McKinley fell on his knees and God supposedly answered in the affirmative.