ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
December 17, 2018
U.S. returns three disputed bells taken in 1901 to Philippines
By Jim Gomez
The Associated Press
ANILA, The Philippines —
Three church bells seized by
American troops as war trophies
more than a century ago were returned to
the Philippines in a move long demanded
by Filipino leaders, including the current
president, who is critical of Washington
and has moved closer to China.
U.S. defense officials and the American
ambassador handed back the Bells of
Balangiga to the Philippine defense chief
in a solemn ceremony at an air force base
in the capital, closing a dark episode in the
treaty allies’ love-hate relationship.
“It is my great honor to be here at this
closing of a painful chapter in our history,”
U.S. ambassador Sung Kim said. “Our
relationship has withstood the tests of
history and flourishes today.”
Defense secretary James Mattis has
said the handover is an important gesture
of friendship and is in the U.S. national
security interest. Some U.S. veterans and
officials had opposed the return of the
bells, calling them memorials to American
war dead.
The bells are revered by Filipinos as
symbols of national pride, and their arrival
on a U.S. military transport plane and the
handover ceremony were shown live on
national television. Two of the bells had
been displayed for decades at F.E. Warren
Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming,
and the third was with the U.S. Army in
South Korea.
After being colonized by Spain for more
than three centuries, the Philippines
became a U.S. possession in 1898 in a new
colonial era that began with the outbreak
M
of the Philippine-American War.
American occupation troops took the
bells from a Catholic church following an
attack by machete-wielding Filipino
villagers who killed 48 U.S. soldiers in the
town of Balangiga on central Samar island
in 1901 in one of the U.S. Army’s worst
single-battle losses of the era.
One of the bells was sounded to signal
the attack by the villagers, some of whom
were disguised as women who hid in the
church near an American garrison,
historian Rolando Borrinaga said.
The Americans retaliated, reportedly
killing thousands of villagers above the
age of 10, and a U.S. general, Jacob Smith,
ordered Samar to be turned into a “howling
wilderness,” Borrinaga said.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who has had
an antagonistic attitude toward the U.S.
and has revitalized ties with China and
Russia, asked Washington in his state of
the nation address last year to “return
them to us, this is painful for us.”
“Give us back those Balangiga bells. ...
They are part of our national heritage,”
Duterte said in the speech, attended by
the U.S. Ambassador and other diplo-
mats.
Philippine defense secretary Delfin
Lorenzana said with the resolution of the
issue, “It’s time for healing, it is time for
closure, it is time to look ahead as two
nations should with a shared history as
allies.”
Duterte has referred to violence by
DIPLOMATIC GESTURE. Roman Catholic
priest Monsignor Pepe Quitorio, second from left,
poses with other priests and officials before one of
three church bells that were seized by American
troops as war trophies more than a century ago, fol-
lowing a handover ceremony on December 11, 2018
in suburban Pasay city, the Philippines. American oc-
cupation troops took the bells in 1901 from a Catholic
church following an attack by machete-wielding Fili-
pino villagers who killed 48 U.S. troops in the town of
Balangiga on central Samar island in one of the U.S.
Army’s worst single-battle losses of the era. The bells
are revered by Filipinos as symbols of national pride.
(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Americans in Balangiga and on southern
Jolo island in the early 1900s in public
criticism of the U.S. government after it
raised concerns about his brutal
crackdown on illegal drugs in which
thousands have died.
A breakthrough on the bells issue came
with an amendment to a U.S. law banning
the return of war relics and memorials to
foreign countries. That allowed the
homecoming of the Balangiga bells, said
Lorenzana, who saw the bells last year in
Wyoming, where he was notified by Mattis
of the U.S. decision.
Philippine officials led by Duterte
turned over the bells to officials and the
church in Balangiga, a small coastal town
where villagers applauded while watching
troops on television screens pry open the
wooden crates containing the bells.
“The Bells of Balangiga will once again
peal, it will still remind the people of
Balangiga of what happened in the town
square more than a century ago,”
Lorenzana said. “But we would also look at
that history with more understanding and
acceptance.”
Associated Press journalists Alberto “Bullit” Marquez
and Cecilia Forbes contributed to this report.
U.S. military identifies five dead in warplanes that crashed off Japan
TOKYO (AP) — The U.S. military has identified five
Marines who were declared dead after their refuelling
plane collided with a fighter jet off Japan’s southern coast.
Search-and-recovery operations ended after finding
only one survivor, who was aboard the fighter jet.
The five crew members identified were on a KC-130
Hercules refuelling aircraft that collided with an F/A-18
Hornet during regular training. The warplanes crashed
into the sea south of Japan’s Shikoku island.
The Marine Corps identified the crew members as Lt.
Col. Kevin R. Herrmann, 38, of New Bern, North Carolina;
Maj. James M. Brophy, 36, of Staatsburg, New York; Staff
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Difficulty
HARD
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#34897
# 37
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Puzzle #68432 (Medium)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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MARINES MOURNED. In this December 6, 2018 aerial photo,
Japan’s Coast Guard ship and a U.S. military plane are seen at sea off
Kochi, Japan, during the search-and-rescue operation for missing crew
members of a U.S. marine refuelling plane and a fighter jet. The U.S. mili-
tary has identified five Marines who were declared dead after the plane
and jet collided off Japan’s southern coast. (Kyodo News via AP)
involving U.S. military forces deployed in and near Japan.
In November, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the
aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea
southwest of Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, though
its two pilots were rescued. In mid-October, a MH-60
Seahawk also belonging to the USS Ronald Reagan
crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff,
causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors.
Two years ago, a MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft Osprey
crashed during a nighttime refuelling exercise off the
southern island of Okinawa, injuring two crew members.
More than 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan
under a security pact.
Photos from Japan space rovers show rocky asteroid surface
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level: Hard
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Sgt. Maximo A. Flores, 27, of Surprise, Arizona; Cpl.
Daniel E. Baker, 21, of Tremont, Illinois; and Cpl. William
C. Ross, 21, of Hendersonville, Tennessee.
They were based at Iwakuni air station near Hiroshima
as part of the Marine Aerial Refueller Transport
Squadron 152.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the names of
our fallen Marines,” Marine Corps Lt. Col. Mitchell T.
Maury, the squadron’s commanding officer, said in a
statement. “They were exceptional aviators, Marines, and
friends whom will be eternally missed. Our thoughts and
prayers remain with their families and loved ones at this
extremely difficult time.”
The two crew members in the fighter jet were recovered
after the accident, but one died. He was earlier identified
as Capt. Jahmar Resilard, 28, of Miramar, Florida. The
Marines said the survivor was in stable condition when
rescued.
The search for the five missing crew, joined by Japanese
and Australian forces, was halted and they were declared
dead. The cause of the crash is still under investigation,
the Marines said.
It said Herrmann served in the Marine Corps for 16
years and is survived by his wife and three daughters. He
was promoted posthumously to the rank of lieutenant
colonel. Brophy, who served 12 years in the Marine Corps,
is survived by his wife, son, and daughter. Flores served
nine years in the Marine Corps and is survived by his wife.
Baker joined the Marines two years ago and is survived
by his mother and father. Ross also served two years and
is survived by his mother and father, the Marines said.
The crash is the latest in a series of recent accidents
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Continued from page 3
JAXA says it has narrowed down
potential landing spots and still plans
to attempt the touch down to collect
samples. Scientists are analyzing
data sent by the rovers to finalize the
plans, including whether to have an
additional touch-down rehearsal for
the spacecraft, JAXA senior project
member Takashi Kubota said at a
news conference.
One of the two rovers is believed to
have travelled about 300 yards by
hopping on the asteroid, where
gravity is too weak for wheeled
vehicles, and has sent more than 200
photos and other data to the
spacecraft, which then relayed it to
Earth, Kubota said. The other rover
took about 40 photos and stopped
moving after about 10 days, he said.
The lower-than-expected surface
temperature of the asteroid may have
helped slow the rovers’ deterioration,
Kubota said.
He said the data collected so far
shows similarities, including the
shape and surface, with Bennu, an
asteroid being investigated by the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) with its
spacecraft Osiris-Rex. The initial
findings show the asteroids are more
moist and studded with boulders
than initially thought.
Asteroids, which orbit the sun but
are much smaller than planets, are
among the oldest objects in the solar
system and may help explain how
Earth evolved.
“We are extremely interested and
looking forward to further analysis,”
Kubota said. “We hope to find
anything that may help explain the
origin of space and its evolution.”