USA
Copyright© 2016 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 45
I suppose the American problem with the Philippine Islands was still going on in 1931/32. The violence of the turn of the century colored politics and there were those who remembered.
Lies on both sides put the onus of "Might makes Right" on which ever side happened to be in charge at the moment. There is no doubt that both sides were wrong and both sides were right.
It was an occupied country ... and the United States was doing its level best to effect land reform and separation of the Roman Catholic Church from its position of power, while a great many Catholics were fighting to retain the Church.
One thing for sure ... we were the wrong color, the wrong religion and wealthy ... that in itself a severe wrong.
It seemed that every river and creek had a different warlord ... all struggling to subdue his neighbor. Open combat with US troops hadn't ceased ... but it was descending into isolated acts causing great hardship on the civilians.
Both the guerrillas and the US Army retaliated against rumored atrocities ... and the innocent suffered. Supposedly, the fighting stopped sometime between 1901 and 1916 ... supposedly ... it hadn't.
The Moro ... a muslim sect made our passage up the western side of Mindanao very dangerous. Our weapons were used and used and used again. After we were finally away and rounding the tip, the Dyaks raiding in from the Spratly and Paracel Islands also added to our misery.
Remember when James McDouggle mentioned proa with a hundred men? Yeah. He wasn't joking ... if anything he was understating the situation.
The Dyaks were pirates before Christ was born. They were still pirates today.
These proa weren't hollowed out log canoes with a simple outrigger. No ... these were built hulls made with stitched together planks maybe fifty or sixty feet long. They generally carried a few ancient muzzleloader cannon. The Hotchkiss had at least a mile range on them.
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