Wright notes that in Wyoming the bells had been ignored for decades, sitting in a warehouse unnoticed. claim to the bells on the basis of some deep attachment couldn't be justified. With friends in Congress, they persisted in holding on to the bells even as consensus was building to "do the right thing," says retired U.S. Veterans in Wyoming put up staunch resistance to any return. The third - which researchers believe was used to signal the fateful attack - has been with the U.S. The Americans seized three bells from St. Basically, the whole of Samar was turned into a 'howling wilderness,' " he says, using a phrase contained in an actual order. "Because they were still mad - they burned the village. Historian Xiao Chua says the most credible accounts suggest that the Americans did not "wantonly kill civilians." Rather, they destroyed everything else. Campanero says her great-great-aunt was the lone woman rebel in the plot. Lawrence the Martyr Church past unsuspecting American soldiers to prepare their assault. According to historical accounts, on the eve of the attack, Filipino men disguised as women crept into St. Filipino nationalists went on to fight the Americans for independence.īalangiga staged a cloak-and-dagger attack on the company of American troops occupying the town. at the close of the Spanish-American War in 1898. The United States was the new colonial power: Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S. They represent our faith," she told NPR.įaith would have been sorely tested at the turn of the last century.
On a recent visit, resident Fe Campanero, 57, said the passage of time has not diminished the significance of the bells. Townspeople are feverishly sprucing up the area for the homecoming. In the small town of Balangiga, on the island of Samar, the bells have taken on an almost mythical quality. "It is my honor to be here at this closing of a painful chapter in our history." Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim said. defense officials and the ambassador returned the bells to the Philippine authorities at a military base in Manila. The Philippines has argued for decades that it was a historical wrong that need righting. soldiers carted three of the Balangiga town's church bells off as war trophies during the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War. Now the bells of Balangiga have returned.Īfter a 117-year hiatus, the iconic church bells of a central Philippines town will ring in the country once again, ending one of the most contentious quarrels between the United States and the Philippines. American troops seized three Philippine church bells as war trophies over a century ago.
0 kommentar(er)
