Benutzer:Shi Annan/Balangiga bells

The Balangiga bells are three church bells that had been taken by the United States Army from the Church of San Lorenzo de Martir in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, Philippines, as war trophies after reprisals following the Balangiga massacre in 1901 during the Philippine–American War. One church bell was in the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment at Camp Red Cloud, their base in South Korea, while two others were on a former base of the 11th Infantry Regiment at F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The recovery of the bells had been sought by various individuals representing the Catholic Church in the Philippines, the Philippine government and the residents of Balangiga since the late 1950s. These efforts, however, have been met with frustration until 2018. On 10 December 2018, all three church bells were in Kadena Air Base in Japan awaiting repatriation to the Philippines. The morning of the next day, the US Embassy in the Philippines stated that the bells were on board a US Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules on the way to Manila. The plane arrived later that day, and the bells returned to Philippine soil after 117 years.

Balangiga massacre

On 28 September 1901, Filipino militants from the village of Balangiga ambushed Company C of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment, while they were at breakfast, killing 48 and wounding 22 of the 78 men of the unit, with only four escaping unhurt and four missing in action. The villagers captured about 100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. An estimated 20 to 25 of the villagers had died in the fighting, with a similar number of wounded.

In reprisal, General Jacob H. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a "howling wilderness" and that any Filipino male above ten years of age capable of bearing arms be shot. From the burned-out Catholic town church, the Americans looted three bells which they took back to the United States as war booty. The 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment, however, maintains that the single bell in their possession was presented to the regiment by villagers when the unit left Balangiga on 9 April 1902. In fact, that bell had been given to them by the 11th Infantry Regiment, which had taken all three bells when they left Balangiga for Tacloban on 18 October 1901.

Smith and his primary subordinate, Major Littleton Waller of the United States Marine Corps, were both court-martialled for illegal vengeance against the civilian population of Samar. Waller was acquitted of the charges. Smith was found guilty, admonished and retired from service, but charges were dropped shortly after. He was later hailed as a war hero.

History

The Balangiga church was dedicated to the Spanish martyr San Lorenzo in 1854. Fr. Fray Manuel Valverde, a Franciscan, was its first parish priest. The town probably took four years to raise funds to acquire its first church bell. It was cast circa-1853 and bears what was believed to be the Franciscan coat of arms; latter sources state that the bells are Franciscan. It has a mouth diameter of Vorlage:Fraction inches and height of 30 inches. The following inscription appears on this bell: "R. San Francisco Ano El 1853" ("R. San Francisco The Year 1853"). R. San Francisco could have been the parish priest at that time, or the term may represent Religioso de San Francisco, a reference to the name of the religious order of Franciscans.

The town may have acquired its second bell, cast circa-1889 and having a mouth diameter of Vorlage:Fraction inches and height of Vorlage:Fraction inches, in 1889 through the initiative of Fr. Agustin Delgado, whose name is inscribed on the bell. The following inscription appears on this bell: "Se Refundio Siendo Cura Parroco El M.R.P.FVorlage:Ref Augustin Delgado Ano 1889". The aforementioned bells were referred to as campana colgante in Spanish, meaning literally, "hanging bells". These are usually hung from a beam and are rung using a rope attached to the clapper.

The third and smallest bell may have been acquired in 1895, through the initiative of Fr. Bernardo Aparicio. Estimates of its size deduce a 23– 24-inch height and a mouth diameter of about 20 inches. It bears the Franciscan emblem. The following inscription appears on this bell: "Se Refundio Siendo Parroco P. Bernardo Aparicio Ano 1895". Bells of this type are known as esquila (small bell) or Campana de vuelo, literally a "flight bell", a bell used to sound warning for locals to escape or evade in times of peril. The Spanish word refundio meant that the bell had been recast from scrap bronze.

Removal to the United States

After the Balangiga incident, the town was recaptured on 29 September 1901 by 55 men of Company G, 9th Infantry. That unit departed the town the same day, and was replaced by 132 men from Companies K and L of the 11th Infantry Regiment which garrisoned the town until relieved on 18 October 1901. When the 11th Infantry departed, they took the bells removed from the burnt-down Balangiga Church and a cannon from the plaza in front of the church. The bells were taken because one had been used by the Filipinos to signal the attack on Company C, 9th Infantry. Another reason the bells were taken was that the bell metal could have been turned into weapons such as cannon and bayonets. All three bells remained under the charge of the 11th Infantry's quartermaster, Captain Robert Alexander at their Tacloban headquarters.

Small signal bell

The small signal bell was the bell that signalled the attack against American troops by the Filipinos in Balangiga incident. The bell was later given by the 11th Infantry to the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment at their headquarters in Calbayog a few months before the 9th Infantry's departure for home. They arrived in San Francisco on 27 June 1902. The unit was returned to its old Madison Barracks in Sackets Harbor, New York. There, a brick pedestal was built to display the bell. In 1928, it was moved to Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington. The bell was later kept at the 2nd Infantry Division Museum in Camp Red Cloud, Uijeongbu, South Korea. It had previously been displayed at the unit's Camp Hovey headquarters.

Two large bells

The 11th Infantry left the Philippines in February 1904 taking their trophies with them and redeployed to Fort D.A. Russell in Wyoming, arriving on 23 March 1904. On 16 May 1905, the Cheyenne Daily Leader newspaper reported that the cannon had been mounted on the parade ground near the flagpole along with other relics from the Philippines "...to include the famous bell which gave the signal for the massacre of a whole company. Two large bells three feet tall and a seven-foot cannon were proudly displayed in front of the flagpole on the parade ground of the fort".

A sign was installed over one of the bells that said;

The sign above the bell erroneously credited units of the 11th Infantry with being the first to reach Balangiga after the battle. After further research, the sign was changed in 1911 giving proper credit to Company G, 9th Infantry, for recapturing Balangiga. The 11th Infantry reposted to Texas in 1913, leaving the two large bells behind.

In 1927, Fort D.A. Russell was renamed Fort Francis E. Warren. The United States Army left Fort Francis E. Warren in 1941, again leaving the bells right where they were. On 7 October 1949, the former Army base became Francis E. Warren Air Force Base. Officially the bells became artefacts in the collection of the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

In 1967 Colonel Robert J. Hill, then commander of the 90th Missile Wing, had a curved red brick wall constructed in the F.E. Warren AFB trophy park for the bells, with a bronze plaque on the wall between the bells telling the story of the massacre at Balangiga. Vorlage:As of, a faint inscription was visible on the back of both bells, reading:

In 1979 it was discovered that the bronze cannon taken from Balangiga along with the bells was in fact British in origin. It had been cast in London in 1557 and bore the monogram of Mary I of England. Vorlage:As of, a glass case housed the bells along with the 400-year-old Falcon cannon.

Recovery attempts

In November 1957, Fr. Horacio de la Costa of the Department of History at the Ateneo de Manila University wrote a letter to the Thirteenth Air Force's command historian Chip Wards at Clark Air Force Base stating that the bells belonged to the Franciscans and that they should be returned to the Philippines. This is the earliest record of Filipino interest in the Balangiga bells. The following year, a group of American Franciscans based in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental again wrote Wards stating that the two large bells were Franciscan.

1990s

Vorlage:Quote box In the mid-1990s, during the term of Fidel Ramos as Philippine President, attempts were initiated by his administration to recover one or more of the bells from Bill Clinton's administration. The United States government has been adamant that the bells are US government property, that it would take an Act of Congress to return them and that the Catholic Church has no say in the matter. For their part the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines hold the position that the bells are inappropriate as trophies of war.

In 1998, Ramos proposed casting two new bells, then having each country keep an original and a duplicate. Philippine Ambassador to the United States Raul Rabe visited Cheyenne, Wyoming, twice, trying to win support for this proposal. He was not successful.

2000s

In 2002, the Philippine Senate approved Senate Resolution No. 393, authored by Aquilino Pimentel Jr., urging the Arroyo administration to undertake formal negotiations with the United States for the return of the bells.

In 2005, the Bishop of Borongan, Samar, Bishop Leonardo Medroso and Balangiga parish priest Saturnino Obzunar wrote an open letter addressed to President George W. Bush, the United States Congress and the Helsinki Commission, requesting them to facilitate the return of the bells. That same year, the Wyoming Veterans’ Commission favored the return of the Filipino-American War relics, however, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal stated that he disagreed with the Commission and opposed returning the bells. On 13 January 2005, United States Congressman Bob Filner had introduced H.Res.313, urging the President to authorize the transfer of ownership of one of the bells to the people of the Philippines. The resolution died on 3 January 2007, with the sine die adjournment of the 109th United States Congress.

On 26 September 2006, United States Congressman Bob Filner, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Congressman Ed Case co-sponsored House Concurrent Resolution No. 481 urging the president of the United States to authorize the return of the church bells. The resolution died on 3 January 2009, with the sine die adjournment of the 110th United States Congress.

In 2007, Napoleón Abueva, the Philippines' National Artist for sculpture, wrote American Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney asking for her help in the bells' recovery. On 25 October of the same year, during the 14th Congress of the Philippines, Senator Manny Villar filed Senate Resolution No. 177, a resolution "expressing the sense of the Senate for the return to the Philippines of the Balangiga Bells which were taken by the US troops from the town of Balangiga, Province of Samar in 1901".

2010s

Vorlage:Quote box The townspeople of Balangiga asked the United States to return their church bells after receiving relief from the U.S. military subsequent to Typhoon Haiyan hitting the town in 2013.

In his second State of the Nation Address on 24 July 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte demanded the bells' return, citing ownership of the Philippines. He however did not raise the issue in a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump held in November 2017 during the 31st ASEAN Summit.

In February 2018 two US lawmakers, Randy Hultgren and Jim McGovern, objected to the bells being returned to the Philippines due to the current human rights record established by Duterte's Philippine Drug War. The bells were restored and returned by December 2018.

Repatriation

The two Balangiga bells in Wyoming after removal from display at F.E. Warren AFB.

The Balangiga bells on display during a 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 centre 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.

During the 2017 ASEAN Summits, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana met with his counterpart, United States Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis; at this meeting, Lorenzana raised the issue of the Balangiga bells. In a later meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Mattis made a personal commitment to secure the bells' return. Mattis then sought legislation to enable the legal repatriation of the bells. Philippine Ambassador to the United States Babe Romualdez, however, disclosed in an interview with CNN Philippines that President Duterte personally told Mattis to return the bells during the ASEAN Summit meeting in Clark, Pampanga, in October 2017.

In August 2018, the US Embassy in the Philippines issued a statement that the US Department of Defense had notified the United States Congress that it planned to return the bells to the Philippines at an unspecified date. Three months later, Dr. Rolando Borrinaga of the Philippines' National Commission for Culture and the Arts stated that the two bells at the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base will be turned over to Philippine representatives on 15 November 2018. The third bell in South Korea was also ready for repatriation. The two bells in Wyoming were then shipped to Philadelphia for restoration work before being sent to Japan, where they joined the third bell. All three bells were then returned to the Philippines.

Arrival in Manila

The bells arrived in the Philippines at Villamor Air Base on 11 December 2018; and were returned to the Balangiga Church on 15 December 2018. While in Manila, The bells were put on display at the Philippine Air Force Aerospace Museum until 14 December.

On 13 December 2018, Borongan Bishop Crispin Varquez released a statement objecting to the proposal embodied in Philippine Senate Resolution No. 965 introduced by Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri on 6 December 2018. The resolution urged the Philippine government to place one of the three bells in the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila, "to be shared with the Filipino people". The representatives of the Catholic Church stated that while the bells are historical artifacts, they are above all sacramentals, sacred objects that "call the faithful to prayer and worship" and therefore rightfully belong in a church. Zubiri characterized the statement as "arrogant"; National Museum director Jeremy Barns for his part expressed sadness over the incident, and stated that the National Museum had not been involved in Zubiri's resolution, nor had they been informed about it before the fact.

Return to Samar

The bells were airlifted by a Philippine Air Force C-130 plane to the nearby town of Guiuan, arriving on 14 December. These were then delivered to Balangiga in a two-hour journey via road. The bells were then turned over to the Balangiga town the next day. In a ceremony attended by President Rodrigo Duterte, the transfer certificate was given to Mayor Randy Graza. Duterte then rang one of the bells, and remarked that the credit for the return of the bells "goes to the American people and the Filipino people".

The successful campaign to return the bells came about due to the support of veterans organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, according to Dr. Borrinaga. Another source cited Borrinaga, and former United States Navy officers Dennis Wright and Dan McKinnon as those who "campaigned to have the bells repatriated"; these same American ex-servicemen had spearheaded the recovery from West Point in 2016 of another church bell taken in 1901 from the Saints Peter and Paul Church in Bauang, La Union.

In the afternoon of 15 December 2018, the three church bells were finally returned to the San Lorenzo de Martir Parish Church to where they originally belonged.

In popular culture

A Chicago-based, Philippine-American theater company called The Pintig Cultural Group presented a musical based on the incident, The Bells of Balangiga.

See also

• Elgin Marbles
• Golden Tara

Notes

a.Vorlage:NoteM.R.P.F. is an acronym for the title Muy Reverendo Padre Fray ("Most Reverend Friar").

External links

• Official Stand of the Philippine Catholic Church regarding the Bells of Balangiga
• Image of the two Balangiga bells at F. E. Warren Air Force Base
• Image of the third Balangiga bell in South Korea