Hi all, as some of you might know, I reside in the Philippines for many years. Now we have a new President that is a bit more outspoken and apparently less US-American friendly than his predecessors. President Duterte has mentioned US war crimes on the island of Mindanao at the turn of the century but has failed so far to mention the Genocide committed by the USA in other parts of the Philippines. Did the USA ever apologize for it?
Peace
It occurred to me that one might not want to read everything I linked to, so did some copy/paste.
"The total number of Filipino who died remains a matter of debate. In 1908 Manuel Arellano Remondo, in General Geography of the Philippine Islands, wrote: “The population decreased due to the wars, in the five-year period from 1895 to 1900, since, at the start of the first insurrection, the population was estimated at 9,000,000, and at present (1908), the inhabitants of the Archipelago do not exceed 8,000,000 in number.”[100] However, it is not known where Remondo derived his figure for 1895, the official Spanish population estimate was less than 6 million.[101]
John M. Gates estimates that at least 15,000~20,000 Filipino soldiers were killed,[not in citation given] with up to an additional 200,000 civilian deaths, mostly from a cholera epidemic.[102] Filipino historian E. San Juan, Jr. argues that 1.4 million Filipinos died during the war and that constitutes an act of genocide on the part of the United States.[103] E. San Juan Jr’s source quotes a far lower figure.[101] Most sources cite a figure of 200,000 to 250,000 total Filipino civilians dead with most losses attributable to disease.[104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111] The United States Department of State states that the war “resulted in the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants”, and that “as many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease”.[112]"
“American operations into the countryside often included scorched earth campaigns[88] in which entire villages were destroyed; the use of torture including the water cure;[114] and the concentration of civilians into “protected zones”.[115] In November 1901, the Manila correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger wrote: “The present war is no bloodless, opera bouffe engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog…”[116]”
Peace
The edit window expired, the copy/paste was from this link: Philippine–American War - Wikipedia
Peace
No, the US has never formally apologized for its actions in the Philippines.
Since the OP seems to mainly be making the case that the US should apologize for these actions, let’s move this over to Great Debates. I have also edited the thread title to indicate the subject.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
We’ve done much worse things that we haven’t apologized for. But it was a different time with different rules and different sensibilities. And the problem with an apology is that you open yourself up for legal action. Sorry(no pun intended), but the past from > 100 years ago is the past.
Thanks for the straight answer, BUT why not! Why does the USA not want to apologize for it’s war crimes?
And I think it is not very fair to take it out of the “General Questions” because obviously there was an factual answer and most likely there would be more if it would have stayed there.
Now we can debate it to death and that was probably your intend.
Peace
I don’t know if you know about the ongoing dispute between several countries about the Genocide committed to the Armenians by the Turks? But the time (1919) is about the same and they don’t want to bury the issue.
Peace
What genocide did the USA commit in The Philippines?
I gave you the factual answer to the question you asked, which was simply “no.” You didn’t ask any other questions originally.
The question of why the US might not want to apologize for its actions, or even whether it should, is not a factual question and is better suited to Great Debates.
As far as I can see, you want to discuss your personal opinions on the issue, not simply obtain facts, so this is the appropriate forum.
The Turks certainly do.
Did you not read the links in the OP?
Did Spain ever apologize for colonizing the Philippines originally? Did the Japanese apologize to the people of the Philippines for conquering and subjugating them under the guise of autonomy? Did the British ever apologize to the U.S. for atrocities on U.S. soil during the Revolutionary War? Has President Duterte apologized for encouraging Filipinos to shoot anyone they deem to be a drug addict in the head because it would be a less painful death?
How far back should we take this? Did Gruuk ever apologize to Ngaaa for hitting him over the head with a club and taking over his cave?
Now that we are here in GD, I will try anyway to ask factual questions and not broadcast my personal view.
First question, why was it allowed that the military did not keep any records of operations conducted during the war?
Second question, if the intend was not to pursue this atrocities, what other reason was there to bring in the large number of soldiers, amounting to more than 120’000 US troops?
Peace
I asked some Filipinos this exact question once and they seemed confused. They said the war didnt affect where they were from (Manila) and besides, the US did alot for the Philippines afterwards so much that many of them wanted the Philippines to become a state.
Wait, are you asking why the US brought 120,000 troops to a war? How about, it was a war?
Because countries don’t generally do that at all. Exceptions are quite rare. Germany and Japan have apologized for World War II, but that was an extraordinary circumstance.
The list of owed apologies is longer than you can type. Countries are just not in the habit of apologizing for everything they did 100+ years ago because they’d end up doing nothing else. The United Kingdom would need to set up a Ministry of Apologizing.
Something to bear in mind is that everyone involved is now dead. While there is still a United States, and a country called the Philippines, nobody who would be issuing or receiving the apology would be connected to the events of the war and in very few cases would even have known anyone who was. I’m a big fan of apologizing for things, but there is, in my opinion, less value in an apology given by people on behalf of other people to people who receive it on behalf of other people. It’s akin to me apologizing to you for my grandfather punching your grandfather.
What is vastly more important, to my mind, is simple awareness; the education of people. Most Americans are quite unaware of U.S. atrocities in the Philippines; a few years ago I worked with a guy, a big white Republican type, who’d read about it and was clearly shocked and appalled, and wanted to share the book with anyone who would read it, saying “Geez, you’ll never believe what we did, it’s incredible, I knew none of this.” There is value, I believe, in knowing what your country’s history is. both good and bad.
“…it didn’t affect where they were from…”
It would not surprise me if through much of history for some segments of Filipino population the events taking place in other islands or parts thereof might as well have been happening in a foreign land, just because of distance and ethnocultural difference.
Or that the political/cultural dominant factions at various times – which would be even more present around Manila, the seat of power – might have sanitized and spun the telling of the story as they have in every country.
Then again it would ALSO be plausible that many peope DO take the attitude of “eh, history happened. It was bad. Let’s not do that again” and NOT be interested in trying to relitigate it generation after generation to get the last word in.
I don’t think you’re succeeding, since the questions you ask are not factual or are contradicted by information you yourself have cited.
This is an absurd assertion, which it contradicted by your own links in the OP. There are extensive citations about military operations, as well as a critical report by the Senate investigating committee.
This is an illogical question. The US brought in the number of troops they believed necessary to defeat the rebellion against US rule. What number of troops do you believe they should have brought?
It is a matter of historical record that the US committed actions that would be considered as atrocities or war crimes under present standards during the Philippine rebellion, and these were noted and criticized at the time. However, your question about “why hasn’t the US apologized” is a separate question from whether or not such crimes were committed. As noted, it is very rare for any country to apologize for reprehensible actions committed during wartime. Most countries have such actions on their records.
Duterte in particular has no moral standing to insist on an apology from the US, having a reputation as the “death-squad mayor” of Davao and probably responsible for thousands of extrajudicial executions himself - something he has even celebrated and continues to advocate as President. When is the Philippine government going to apologize for the atrocities committed against its own people from Marcos on down?
No war crimes were committed. That was then, this is a century later.
On the topic of national apologies for long-ago events with no living witnesses/victims:
Outcome 1: Assume you get an apology.
Outcome 2: Assume you will NEVER get an apology.
What’s the practical difference between these two outcomes?