Balangiga bells, Old War Booty, returned to Philippines by US more than a century later

Fox News ^ | 12/11/2018 | Frank Miles

[SeekAndFind]

Three war-trophy church bells seized by U.S. troops more than a century ago were returned to the Philippines Tuesday morning, according to reports, following the controversial decision to repatriate them as an important gesture of friendship between the two countries.

“This morning, a US Air Force plane bearing three historic bells from San Lorenzo de Martir Church in Balangiga will land at Villamor Air Force Base. These bells were taken 117 years ago; later today it will be my honor to return them. Their safe return is thanks to the efforts of US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, supported by President Trump, and is driven by respect for the Philippines, our friend, partner, and ally,” the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, wrote in The Philippine Star.

U.S. Army soldiers took the bells after an attack killed 48 American troops in 1901, during the U.S. occupation of the Philippines. Two of the Bells of Balangiga were at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., and the third was with the U.S. Army in South Korea.

Citizens of the Philippines revere the bells as symbols of national pride. President Rodrigo Duterte repeatedly had called for their return.

“Good hearted individuals and groups labored for decades to bring the bells home. Former presidents, Cabinet secretaries, Philippine and US ambassadors, historians, philanthropists and many others worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the history of the bells and to advocate for their dignified return,” Kim added.

The Trump administration agreed that bolstering the U.S. relationship with a key international ally outweighed concerns at home, even among Republican political allies.

[SeekAndFind]

A brief history of the Bells:

After being colonized by Spain for more than three centuries, the Philippines became a U.S. possession in 1898 in a new colonial era that began with the outbreak of the Philippine-American War.

American occupation troops seized the bells from a Catholic church following an attack by machete-wielding Filipino villagers, who killed 48 U.S. soldiers in Balangiga, on central Samar island off Leyte Gulf, according to Filipino historian Rolando Borrinaga.

The Americans retaliated, with a general, Jacob Smith, ordering troops to shoot villagers older than 10 and turn the island into a “howling wilderness,” Borrinaga said. Thousands of villagers were reported to have been killed.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has had an antagonistic attitude toward the U.S. and has revitalized ties with China and Russia, asked Washington in his state of the nation address last year to “return them to us, this is painful for us.”

“Give us back those Balangiga bells. … They are part of our national heritage,” Duterte said in the speech, attended by the U.S. ambassador and other diplomats.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said at Tuesday’s ceremony that with the resolution of the issue, “It’s time for healing, it is time for closure, it is time to look ahead as two nations should with a shared history as allies.”

Duterte has referred to violence by Americans in Balangiga and on southern Jolo island in the early 1900s in public criticism of the U.S. government after it raised concerns about his brutal crackdown on illegal drugs in which thousands have died.

A breakthrough on the bells issue came with an amendment to a U.S. law banning the return of war relics and memorials to foreign countries. That allowed the homecoming of the Balanggiga bells, said Lorenzana, who saw the bells last year in Wyoming, where he was notified by Mattis of the U.S. decision.

Philippine officials led by Duterte are to turn over the bells on Saturday to officials and the church in Balangiga, a small coastal town where villagers, some in tears, applauded while watching troops on TV screens pry open the wooden crates containing the bells.

“The Bells of Balangiga will once again peal, it will still remind the people of Balangiga of what happened in the town square more than a century ago,” Lorenzana said. “But we would also look at that history with more understanding and acceptance.”

[NFHale]

“...Duterte has referred to violence by Americans in Balangiga and on southern Jolo island in the early 1900s ...”

Has Duterte ALSO referred to the thousands of Americans soldiers who died protecting the Filipinos from Japanese barbarity in WWII???

Just wondering...

[DoodleDawg]

Has Duterte ALSO referred to the thousands of Americans soldiers who died protecting the Filipinos from Japanese barbarity in WWII???

Just wondering...

Breezed right by that part apparently.

[Sacajaweau]

The right thing to do. Why have they made held back until now? Booty is booty....but church bells?

[buwaya]

The Filipino point of view is mixed. Since 1945 public opinion largely agreed with you, and appreciated the US liberation.

But its not that simple, nor can it be. Official opinion, among the Filipino upper and educated class, was less simple. Indeed, in 1939-41 the Philippine government was desperately trying to get the US to leave, to oermit the Philippines to declare neutrality, or failing those, to get the US to massively reinforce the country.

In their eyes it was the US responsibility to stop provoking the Japanese, or to defend the country adequately from an inevitable Japanese attack, or to permit the Philippines to determine their own foreign policy, which would, it was hoped, permit an arrangement with Japan to spare the Philippines from the horrors of war, as Thailand did.

The US of course did back Japan into a corner, and then the US failed to adequately defend the country, and moreover it denied the Philippines the right to negotiate independently with Japan. The result was a national disaster, exactly as the Filipino leadership foresaw.

The Roosevelt administration cynically used the Philippines as bait, to serve its global strategic goals. The Filipino people, and the tens of thousands of written-off US military personnel, abandoned as a forlorn hope even before hostilities began, suffered the pain of being bait.

[Deepeasttx]

When I went to the Philippines this past summer, a banner read: “Welcome to the Philippines, province of China.” The Chinese are buying up all kinds of realestate there and buying out businesses. The people are not happy; they are poor; and can’t do nothing about it but to watch it happen. I feel (knowing the history of what happened, and is currently transpiring there) we should have kept the bells for now. I hate saying that because I love the Filipino people—with admiration. Americans can learn a lot from a people that have nothing and still remain content and happy.

[SES1066]

"The Balangiga bells on display during repatriation ceremony at Villamor Air Base. The left-most bell is the particular one that had been kept by the US Army's 9th Infantry Regiment at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea; it is the smallest of the three. The bell in the center is the largest, and along with the right-most bell were those that had been displayed at the F.E Warren Air Force Base's Trophy Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming."

Regardless of Duarte, this is the right thing to do and I'm glad we are doing it.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: a banner read: “Welcome to the Philippines, province of China.”

That was done by some frustrated group after President Duterte jokingly remarked that the Philippines might as well be a province of China ( this was in resignation of the fact that China has been building military bases on islands the Philippines claimed as its own, and which the Philippines won the arbitration case it brought before the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea ).

Until now, the ones who put up the banners have not been identified.

Lesson: If you have no capacity to protect your borders, your land will be colonized.

RE: I feel (knowing the history of what happened, and is currently transpiring there) we should have kept the bells for now.

What good does it give for American-Filipino relationship by keeping the bells?

The Philippines has already been humiliated, I see no reason why we should compound the humiliation.

[NFHale]

“...Official opinion, among the Filipino upper and educated class, was less simple....”

My uncles that fought and bled there would ... disagree ... with them.

[NFHale]

Conveniently.

[Deepeasttx]

The only reason I feel that we sbould have kept the bells for now was for the appearance that Duerte won a PR to get the US to return the bells. My fiancee lives there and she tells me the people feel their President isn’t doing enough to curb the China dilemma. They feel this major Chinese influence at the lower population level. Yes, the bells are theirs and I don’t know if we ever will have a major influence in the near future. Unless economic conquest turns militarily. Hopefully, that will never happen; we cannot predict the future. Personally, I am glad the bells are back and I know the people are so glad to have them. They are proud. I don’t know how the government views it.

[buwaya]

Every Filipino family, almost, “bled” during the war.
Ours was devastated. For decades, when the aunts got together, the talk was always about what had happened to this person or that, relatives and friends, men women and choldren, most of which had “died in the war”.

The effect of that sort of demographic calamity on a society is profound.

One needs to get over the emotional knee-jerk. The larger point is why the Philippines had been afflicted by this disaster. The short answer is that it had been carried into it unwillingly by US foreign policy.

[buwaya]

The government sees it as good PR. Its a nice gesture and good for US relations, as far as that goes.

The government sees the strategic situation as terrifying.

They are as patriotic as any of the Filipino masa (masses), but they see the chessboard rather more clearly. There are no good options.

[Paul R.]

That simplistic viewpoint assumes everything would have turned out hunky-dory for Philippines, and Thailand, if the US had not opposed the Japanese.

The idea that Philippines or Thailand would have been independent for long, with the US out of the picture, is just absurd.

The idea that US and its allies opposition to Japan eventually conquering everything from Burma (at least) to Hawaii was “backing Japan into a corner” is similarly absurd. The US was strongly isolationist in the 1930’s — If the Japanese had just nibbled around the edges a bit, militarily, and concentrated on trade and a strong economy, no serious US / Allied opposition would have developed or been necessary.

[buwaya]

There is very little the government can do to oppose China.

The power disparity is too great.

And the Philippines is target#1, an hour from Chinese airfields, and it cannot hope to defend itself in an air and naval war. It is also peculiarly vulnerable to an air and naval war. Air and naval wars are for rich countries, not poor ones, for great powers, not little ones.

The feeling among policy makers moreover is that they can put little faith in any of the greater powers, the US, Japan, Korea.

[Paul R.]

No, the short answer is that the Japanese military rulers had embarked on a campaign of conquest. Anyone who thinks the Japanese, unopposed by a major power, would not have gotten around to countries like Thailand, when it suited them, is naïve as hell.

Like Chamberlain. (Not really “parallel”, but close enough.)

Do you think such would not be worse? Try asking the (occupied) Chinese.

[NFHale]

“...Ours was devastated. ...”

So was “ours”.

Every American family who lost a son, nephew, father, brother, uncle, cousin, was devastated too.

Tragedy is tragedy.

[Paul R.]

That said, I am glad the bells have been returned. :-)

[buwaya]

Bangkok did not get flattened, there was no widespread famine, there were no horrific massacres, 2/3 of the Thai army did not die in captivity, there were no cruel conquerors stationed in every town torturing the people.

Pre-emptive surrender was not heroic, but if the cost of heroism is to be borne, in large part, by innocents? That is how a government must think.

Making a deal with Japan, as Thailand did, would have, very likely, avoided these disasters. Circumstances could have gone the other way of course, even a pre-emptive surrender could still have brought the horrors of war. Wars are volatile.

The Philippine government of the day wanted the opportunity to do what their judgement directed, to make a higher-odds bet, which may have miscarried of course. But the alternative was certain disaster.