any one from the philippines heard about the 'balangiga massacre' or the balangiga bells?

Question

i'm trying to learn the history of those balangiga bells.. thanks.

Answer 1

I've seen it in news program d other day and I think dat bells really belongs to Filipinos and should be return to them. I think that massacre happened way back 1901 during American-Filipino war but that 2 countries have good relations now so there is ongoing negotiations to settle the return of that historical bells.

Answer 2

The "Balangiga massacre" was an incident in 1901 during the Philippine-American War (or "Philippine Insurrection", according to older US terminology) where many American soldiers were killed in a guerilla ambush by Filipinos in the town of Balangiga on Samar island. This incident is described as one of the United States' worst single defeats in its entire history. For Filipinos, the attack is hailed as one of the bravest maneuvers in the war.

The subsequent retaliation by American troops resulted in the killing of thousands of Filipinos on Samar, a majority of whom were civilians. The heavy-handed reprisal by American soldiers on hapless civilians, resulting in untold thousands dead, brought a court-martial upon Gen. Jake "Howling Wilderness" Smith who had ordered the massacre of everyone ten years old and over. Reprimanded but not punished, Smith lost his command for the most sordid affair in Philippine-American War annals of such affairs.

This incident and the subsequent retaliation remains one of the longest-running and most controversial issues between the Philippines and the United States. Conflicting records from both American and Filipino historians have muddled the issue. Demands for the return of the bells of the church at Balangiga, taken by Americans as war booty and now collectively known as the Balangiga Bells, remain an outstanding issue of contention related to the war. To this day, one church bell is in the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment at their base in South Korea, and two others remain on a former base of the U.S. 11th Infantry Regiment at Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

According to some nationalist Filipino historians, the true "Balangiga massacre" was the subsequent American retaliation against the Samar population.