War trophies of an embarrassing past

The Bells of Balangiga are going home, where they belong. In spite of the chauvinism of Wyoming’s Congressional delegation, a decades-old debate about where the bells belong has ended. The dictionary notes apt synonyms for “chauvinism” include jingoism and excessive nationalism.

Unlike Wyoming politicians, Defense Secretary James Mattis rejected chauvinism and made the ethical choice, coming to Cheyenne to announce his decision. Mattis’s decision conflicts with the position of many veterans’ organizations, though his respect of veterans is unquestionable.

To his credit, Governor Matt Mead, who opposed repatriation of the bells, admitted Mattis has a perspective and an understanding of history “that is broader than mine.” As war trophies go, a thoughtful perspective and understanding of history leads most to believe that as long as they remain in the U.S., the bells are trophies of an embarrassing chapter in America’s ugly imperialistic past.

Our nation’s politically-polarized psyche results in part from the inability of many Americans to understand their life experience is not the same as those on the other side of a debate or controversy. Those who believe these bells are sacred U.S. war trophies should consider the Philippine side of the story as to how they ended up here in the first place.

In August a dozen years ago, a news correspondent for a popular Filipino investigative news program came to Wyoming to do a story on the bells from his country’s perspective. Listen to how his countrymen and women view the history.

It was “September 28, 1901, during the Spanish-American War. The Philippines then was at the last stretch of Spanish colonial administration and the Americans were already ruling the whole country.”

That raises the question. “What was the U.S. was doing in the Philippines?” Historian Michael Beschloss’s “Presidents of War” documents the American quest for empire, new commercial markets and opportunities to convert “heathens” to Christianity as motives for invading and occupying that small island nation.

Mercado continues, “According to the tale of the Balangigans, various types of abuse were experienced by them at the hands of the Americans, from stealing to inflicting physical pain.” Mercado says it was these abuses by U.S. occupiers that caused the people to plan an attack on the Americans.

“The plan,’ he reported, ‘was for all the males to gather inside the church, to hide arms [i.e., bolos] inside coffins, and to dress in women’s clothing so that they would not be noticed. The next morning, while the Americans were eating breakfast, the bell of the church rang. This signaled the attack.

“The Filipinos had no other weapons but bolos and knives, but this battle was recognized by history as the worst defeat of the Americans in the war here.”

Mercado’s report describes American retaliation. “They revenged (sic) and burned the entire town of Balangiga and its neighboring towns. This chapter in history is called ‘kill and burn’ and it was enforced by Brig. Gen. Jacob Smith. His order: ‘Make Samar into a howling wilderness…and kill all males 10 years old and above.”

It was a vengeful massacre of the people of Balangiga for which these bells became an American “war trophy,” eventually finding their way to Warren Air Force Base.
As a State Senator in the 1970s, I lobbied for the return of the bells to the Philippines. I thought then and I continue to believe that our country’s values are realized more by its generosity toward other nations than by the exercise of chauvinistic bullying over them.

In the U.S, the bells are jingoistic symbols of a history that 21^st century Americans should regret, a history we have thankfully moved beyond. In the Philippines, these bells symbolize the patriotic courage of their ancestors.

A part of our most recent history with the Philippines includes fighting side-by-side in World War II and Vietnam and the role Filipinos play today as allies in an important part of the world. Wyoming politicians don’t have to take that broad a perspective, though they should and Secretary Mattis did.