 |
|
|
THE LATEST PROGRAMME |
|
|
|
|
The BBC's former Asia correspondent, Chris Gunness, uses the region's traumatic past to explain its troubled present. |
|
|
|
AMERICA’S LITTLE BROWN BROTHER
Hugh Levinson discovers that the Philippines is more or less grateful for US Imperialism.
Chat with any self-respecting lefty and at some point they will mention a favoured bogeyman: American Imperialism. This omnipresent invisible force apparently damages communities, undermines regimes and recklessly burns up natural resources across the globe.
But once - not so long ago - American Imperialism was more than a metaphor. America actually had an empire. A small one, granted. But an honest-to-goodness pukka empire - and its main colonial possession was thousands of miles away, across the Pacific. Its empire was the Philippines.
So to find out what life under the American overlords is really like, head for Manila.
That’s where President William McKinley sent Commodore George Dewey and 7 small warships - the entire American Pacific Fleet - in April 1898.
|
 |
|
Philippine veterans from the Second World War
|
|
The Americans were at war with Spain, over Cuba. The Filipinos were also fighting Spain, which had ruled them rather badly for nearly 400 years: Spanish governors were so corrupt that they were automatically tried for theft on their return to Madrid. America and the Filipino rebels made common cause.
The effete Spanish offered Dewey pathetic resistance. They had forgotten to mine Manila Bay so the Americans steamed straight in. The Spanish admiral anchored in shallow water so the sailors could avoid drowning by climbing the masts when his fleet was sunk, as was inevitable.
Dewey duly destroyed the Spanish hulks, while casually taking breakfast. Only one of his sailors died - from a heart attack brought on my heat and excitement.
The Filipino rebels were delighted to see Spain humiliated. But back in America, the news of Dewey’s victory went straight to American heads.
The prospect of an Asian outpost - giving access to the lucrative China trade - seemed too good to resist. America it was said, should take the Philippines, before the dreadful Germans, or even worse, the British pinched it first.
“The trade of the world must and shall be ours,” thundered Senator Albert Beveridge. “American law, American order, American civilization and the American flag will plant themselves on shores hitherto bloody and benighted, but by those agencies of God, henceforth to be made beautiful and bright.”
Kipling urged the Americans on, writing “Take up the White Man’s Burden,” specifically about the Philippines.
Other Americans pointed out that their nation was founded on the principle of anti-colonialism. Self-determination was central to the US Constitution.
Mark Twain attacked the imperialists with characteristic irony. “As for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can just have our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and crossbones.”
President McKinley prayed and was instructed from above that it was America’s duty to civilise and Christianise the Philippines. No one had told the president that the Philippines had largely been Catholic for centuries.
|
|
 |
|
Filipinos in the stocks during the Philippine-American war
Images courtesy of The American Historical Collection, Ateneo de Manila University.
|
The Spanish were bought off for $20 million which left the awkward matter of the natives, who were, inconveniently, insisting on the right to govern themselves.
There was only one solution. War.
"Damn, damn, damn the Filipino
Pock-marked khadiak ladrone!
Underneath our starry flag
Civilise him with a Krag
And return us to our own beloved home"
So went the lyrics of one of the most popular American army songs, celebrating its favoured weapon, the Krag-Jorgensen rifle.
Around 4,000 American and 16,000 Filipino soldiers were killed. Far more deadly was the American “reconcentration” policy. Farmers were herded into village encampments, to create free-fire zones in the bush. Cholera and malnutrition in the camps claimed large numbers of Filipino lives. According to the Philippines' National Historical Institute, as many as 600,000 Filipinos died, although other historians have much lower estimates.
Americans have generally forgotten the conflict, but not Filipinos. In the sleepy town of Balangiga on Samar island, I joined a crowd at the edge of a sports field to watch a re-enactment of a notorious battle.
We saw the American troops land, strut around the town, and molest the women. Brave Filipino guerrillas soon attacked the American squadron, viciously hacking them to death with machetes. The Americans counter-attacked under the command of General Jake Smith, who orderered his troops to turn Samar into a “howling wilderness.” Any male over the age of 10 outside the reconcentration camps was shot on sight.
Not a nice beginning. But once the Americans had conquered the Philippines, their rule became unusually benign. For a start, Howling Jake Smith was court-martialled - an outcome unthinkable under the Spanish.
After the troops came teachers. Hundreds of idealistic young men and women boarded The Thomas in San Francisco and sailed for Manila, to educate their little brown brothers. The teachers became known as the Thomasites and are still a legend in the Philippines.
They rolled up their sleeves, built schoolhouses and rapidly set up a near-universal education system. And they brought with them American values. “I believe in pluck, not in luck” said the Barrio Boy’s Creed, to be recited by Filipino students. “I believe in giving and receiving a square deal for everybody.”
Filipinos were treated not as a downtrodden and potentially rebellious mass, but as autonomous individuals with independent spirits.
|
 |
|
Thomasite teachers and pupils
Images courtesy of The American Historical Collection, Ateneo de Manila University.
|
|
“Some Asians have been cowed by the presence of Westerners. Not me. Not most Filipinos,” says Francisco Sionil Jose, the grand old man of Philippine literature. “The very fact that I personally believe that I can face up to any man and look him straight in the eye…that’s part of our heritage from America.”
Most importantly, the Thomasites taught that anyone - even the poorest peasant - could be educated and rise up through society. Learning was the key. Filipinos imbibed deep draughts of the American dream and remain fanatical about education.
Americans saw their entire administration as an act of enlighted tutelage. The Filipinos were to be trained in the necessary skills for self-rule, which would then be granted. Naturally, American governors established freedom of religion, freedom of expression, a free press and separation of church and state. They gave Filipinos a limited measure of self-rule and at least some sort of voting rights. None of this had existed under Spanish rule.
English became - and to a large extent remains - the language of politics and intellectual discourse. Since Filipinos were American citizens, vast numbers could and did move to the US. There are still millions there, making up the second-biggest Asian community in the States.
It’s no wonder that the Philippines is still littered with Americana - from baseball stadiums to repulsive drive-in hamburger joints.
Then the Japanese invaded in 1941. Tokyo offered the Philippines a vision of a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Washington offered independence. Filipinos knew which they preferred and - unlike their Indonesian neighbours - fiercely resisted Japanese rule.
“It brought us all together,” says Father Jim Reuter, an American Jesuit who came to Manila in 1938 and never left. “When you get into a war like that, it breaks down all the barriers.”
Reuter, who is one of the world’s great anecdotalists, tells a popular wartime story about a guilt-ridden Filipino peasant who goes to confession. “Father,” the peasant says, “I stole a bag of rice, and while I was stealing it, a Japanese soldier came along. But he was alone, and unarmed. So father, I killed him!”
|
 |
|
Chris Gunness in Manila during the recording of this programme
|
|
“Will you stop bragging,” the priest says, “and get on to your sins.”
The guerrilla war - and the brutal Japanese occupation - are still vividly remembered. “The Spanish gave us religion, the Americans gave us education and the Japanese gave us hell,” as the local saying goes.
After MacArthur fought his way back to the Philippines, the Americans quickly gave their ally a thank you present: independence in 1946.
That independence was, however, strictly qualified. The US kept its huge naval and air bases as well as preferential economic rights. Washington had little compunction about interfering in Philippine politics, especially in order to maintain its crucial Pacific bulwark against the Red threat.
CIA operatives like Edward Lansdale - once described as the “Walt Disney of counter-insurgency” - were extremely influential in the governments of the 1950s. Lansdale specialised in bizarre tactics for suppressing peasant rebellions.
In one scheme, commandos would grab one member of a rebel band, kill him, drain the body of blood and leave two small puncture marks in his throat. The corpse would be left on a path to awake fears of vampires. Lansdale even set up hidden loudspeakers in graveyards, which broadcast ghostly noises as a way of disorientating the rebels and weakening morale.
More recently, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos became firm favourites in Washington, particularly with the Reagans, who continued to back them long after the exposure of their human rights abuses and massive corruption.
The Marcoses cleverly leveraged this support. Stephen Bosworth, who was US ambassador to Manila, recalls that Imelda would summon him to meetings in the music room of the Malacanang Palace. The room would be filled with photographs of the smiling Marcoses with the smiling Reagans. Bosworth recalls that the message was clear: the developing world’s dynamic duo were on good terms with his boss, so he’d better behave himself.
Curiously, when he visited the music room with other guests the photographs were entirely different.
Over time, American administrations distanced themselves from the Marcoses, emboldening Cory Aquino’s People Power revolution. It was Washington - in the shape of Reagan’s envoy Senator Paul Laxalt - who delivered the coup de grace to Marcos, in a call from Washington.
“I think you should cut and cut cleanly,” Laxalt said. “I think the time has come.”
There was a long pause before Marcos replied “I am so very, very disappointed.”
16 years on, Filipino nationalists say the Americans are still trying to run the country behind the scenes. They see the arrival of US troops to fight Muslim insurgents in the south of the country as the first step towards the reestablishment of an American imperium.
But the nationalists seem to be little more than a small, albeit vocal minority among the Manila intelligentsia. Polls suggest most Filipinos are happy to have the troops back. If they can bring some sort of order to the lawless southern islands, then they are welcome. Filipinos are generally happy to watch Hollywood movies, to holiday in Las Vegas and to buy American products. In fact they often prefer them to the domestic equivalent.
There’s a Filipino joke about a man who goes to the doctor. “You do have a problem,” the doctor says, “and you’ll need a small operation. But don’t worry, you’ll only require a local anaesthetic.”
“Oh no, doc!” the patient replies. “Can’t I have an imported one?”
**********
Hugh Levinson has produced the documentary “Tiger Tales” which is broadcast at 8 pm on the 7th of November on BBC Radio 4.
|
|
|
|
