On This Day: Filipino massacre campaign by U.S. military - Mar. 5, 1906
(edited from Wikipedia)
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The Bud Dajo Massacre: An American War Crime in The Philippines?
If asked to name atrocities carried out by the United States military, responses would most likely focus on Wounded Knee or the My Lai Massacre. Few would have knowledge of US military presence in the Philippines during the early 20th century, and fewer still would have heard of the Bud Dajo Massacre.
Sometimes euphemistically referred to as a “Battle”, the Bud Dajo Massacre was a counter-insurgency operation perpetrated by the US Army in 1906 against Filipino Muslims - known as the Moros - who had sought refuge at Bud Dajo, a volcanic crater on the island of Jojo. Despite the appalling death toll – as high as 1,000 Moros by some estimates – the Bud Dajo Massacre does not feature prominently in histories of the US military, US imperialism, or in popular understandings of US power projected abroad.
With the outer rim secured, US forces spent the night heaving mountain guns up to the edge of Bud Dajo. At first light the blood bath began. The guns, positioned carefully to allow a sweeping arc of bullets to be rained down on Moro defences, opened fire. What exactly happened next is difficult to determine. One account suggests that the defenders retaliated, using a mixture of kalis, barung and homemade grenades improvised from black powder and seashells. Another claims that all Moros fortified in the crater perished. Without dwelling on the inconsistencies, all accounts concur that few, if any, Moros survived. The corpses piled five deep, with many of the bodies wounded multiple times. Where twenty-one Americans lost their lives, Moro casualties ran as high as 1,000. This figure includes women and children.
U.S. Army embroiled in public relations nightmare
Mark Twain also condemned the massacre. "In what way was it a battle? It has no resemblance to a battle ... We cleaned up our four days' work and made it complete by butchering these helpless people”. Such coverage fuelled public cynicism about the role of the US in both the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War. The protracted conflict with the Moros was not common knowledge, and many were appalled to learn of the killings.
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https://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2023/4/16/the-bud-dajo-massacre-an-american-war-crime-in-the-philippines
(edited from article)
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Genesis or Genocide? Leonard Wood, Theodore Roosevelt and the
White Man’s Empire in the Southern Philippines
Omar H. Dphrepaulezz1, 2016
On March 5, 1906, United States Army units under the command of Brigadier General Leonard Wood attacked a band of Filipino Muslims, Tausug Moros, who had taken refuge on Bud Dajo, a volcanic summit on Jolo Island in the Sulu archipelago of the southern Philippines. The operation culminated in the massacre of approximately 600 to 1000 men, women, and children. It fed outrage among anti-imperialists in the United States appalled at the carnage of empire building. Prior to the assault on Bud Dajo, Brigadier General Wood and his staff believed that the gathering on the summit was an opportunity to demonstrate U.S. military dominance and political authority in the region. In its aftermath Wood and his staff viewed the event as an extremely effective operation, which had met all its stated objectives.
It also exemplified an approach to dealing with the indigenous Muslim population, the Moros, which Wood had advocated since his arrival as Governor General of the southern Philippines, a territory renamed the Moro Provinces by the Philippines Commission in 1901. U.S. policy-makers had decided that the Moros were a savage people for whom “warfare was their religion and like a national sport” and who were incapable of self-rule.
Once the shooting ceased, General Wood gave the order to incinerate all the bodies in place and withdraw immediately, actions that resulted in an inaccurate count of bodies and weapons. Numerous reports by the attackers claimed that the Tausug used women and children as “shields,” claiming this tactic accounted for the great loss of life among them. The Colt Automatic Machine guns that destroyed the community Masjid
inflicted many deaths of non-combatant women, old people, and children. In addition many Tausug women willingly participated in the fight against the Americans. Instead of acknowledging the agency of the Tausug women as capable and willing to sacrifice their lives en masse, Americans participants attributed their deaths to the cowardice and barbarism of the “Moro race.” U.S. Army and Moro Constabulary forces
lost a total of twenty-one killed and seventy-three wounded. Approximately twenty-six Tausug prisoners were taken prisoner, and it was estimated that anywhere from fifty to one hundred Tausug Moros escaped down a fourth trail left unguarded.
Even though the army took control of its objective and considered the massacre at Bud Dajo a successful operation, not all Americans were so congratulatory. In particular, Secretary of War, and former Governor of the Philippines, William Howard Taft questioned the “wanton slaughter,” deaths of women and children, and subsequently requested Wood to defend the attack on Bud Dajo. Despite Taft’s objections, solidarity between key U.S. officials in charge of the war against the Moros ensured that their particular justifications for American expansion would prevail.
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https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/58082221/Article-libre.pdf?1546110508=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DGenesis_or_Genocide_Leonard_Wood_Theodor.pdf&Expires=1709617552&Signature=SQN1EcJzVdS5QbfMWl1r8OpcHmJ9bSeHjdzfcENYX33vLCZVGJBoxCxAXHKR6ydVw-nZBwFKwHimI3Gcexv9bQtl2SJC2-IxapgakLl0MFqwvH010NXxZ73IdGDSwaVZPnMc-uevOm1GXuKsZxv7HE-4KCxl1Qtg~MxbLRf1VdLZpnWA2SbgcuNsLfCdDUjan9DXNxgLsSjba4DlM7Lcah~NsD4enlZwNBoPDdVtOsDwpj9YQoeweIq0~NDdzFWy10eN7lwdjRO5zH5M6etUDoDGIjOOXap5OyzOdf-T12Lea6lrTo95fiBrGI6q1~IrFya-WZ0HhokzNT08WkFi8Q__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
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