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How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

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Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#11

Post by jacobolus »

13thLetter wrote: post #9
danmaz74 wrote: post #2

> The Philippines was a large American holding in the South Pacific "holding"... looks to me like the whole history of the Philippines as a US colony has been written out of history.

I can't speak for your schools, but it was in my history classes as well as commonly mentioned in almost every book about World War II in the Pacific I've read.

I looked at probably two dozen American History and World History textbooks aimed at high school students, back when I was a high school student in ~2003, and none of them had more than a couple pages about US involvement in the Philippines, at the end of discussions of the Spanish–American war.

I think it’s safe to say that most Americans have little to no understanding of this history. Maybe “written out” is an exaggeration, but “quickly glossed over and afterward ignored” would be a fair summary.

Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#13

Post by [deleted] »

ghshephard wrote: post #10

“The Bataan Death March has never, ever,” Gaerlan says, “been part of the history curriculum in American schools.” She also says it’s neglected in education in the Philippines. Is this true? As a Canadian, it certainly got a mention in our (Grade 9? Grade 10?) social studies.

[deleted]

Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#14

Post by Phithagoras »

ghshephard wrote: post #10

“The Bataan Death March has never, ever,” Gaerlan says, “been part of the history curriculum in American schools.” She also says it’s neglected in education in the Philippines. Is this true? As a Canadian, it certainly got a mention in our (Grade 9? Grade 10?) social studies.

What provincial curriculum were you following? In Alberta, it was not covered at all.

Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#15

Post by jacobolus »

afarrell wrote: post #7
danmaz74 wrote: post #2

> The Philippines was a large American holding in the South Pacific "holding"... looks to me like the whole history of the Philippines as a US colony has been written out of history.

It's definitely got a section in The American Pageant, a textbook used for Advanced Placement US history in some high schools. I was aware of the counterinsurgency war but didn't know many specifics. I think I just assumed "It was like Vietnam, but with more racism, less press coverage, and consequently more murder of civilians." I believe I remember also learning that Kipling published White Man's Burden at the same…

I’m not sure I’d say it “got a section” in The American Pageant. The coverage is pretty slim and light on detail. There’s discussion of how atrocious the American military was, but with some “oh the Filipino soldiers did bad things to American soldiers and then the Americans retaliated” excuses thrown in.

It’s on pp 637–638 here: http://www.scuc.txed.net/webpages/cbaker/files/chapter%2027%...

And pp 646–647 here: http://www.scuc.txed.net/webpages/cbaker/files/chapter%2028%...

And page 807 here: http://www.scuc.txed.net/webpages/cbaker/files/chapter%2035%...

Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#16

Post by ghshephard »

Phithagoras wrote: post #14
ghshephard wrote: post #10

“The Bataan Death March has never, ever,” Gaerlan says, “been part of the history curriculum in American schools.” She also says it’s neglected in education in the Philippines. Is this true? As a Canadian, it certainly got a mention in our (Grade 9? Grade 10?) social studies.

What provincial curriculum were you following? In Alberta, it was not covered at all.

British Columbia, 1983/1984. I'm struggling to remember whether it was Grade 9 or Grade 10 - it was in the section covering world war II. Mind blowingly boring, and the teacher was clearly just checking off all the bullet points in the curriculum, one after another. Horrible way to teach.

I'm wondering if that particular segment was dropped(or was added at one point) to the curriculum for propaganda purposes - certainly didn't make the Japanese sound like very nice people.

Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#17

Post by davidw »

jacobolus wrote: post #11
13thLetter wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for your schools, but it was in my history classes as well as commonly mentioned in almost every book about World War II in the Pacific I've read.

I looked at probably two dozen American History and World History textbooks aimed at high school students, back when I was a high school student in ~2003, and none of them had more than a couple pages about US involvement in the Philippines, at the end of discussions of the Spanish–American war. I think it’s safe to say that most Americans have little to no understanding of this history. Maybe “written out” is an exa…

> Americans have little to no understanding of this history.

That's different than 'written out of'.

Americans know little about the Astor expeditions to the Pacific Northwest, the Fremont expeditions, Californian independence and statehood, or any number of other things.

Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#18

Post by jacobolus »

davidw wrote: post #17
jacobolus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked at probably two dozen American History and World History textbooks aimed at high school students, back when I was a high school student in ~2003, and none of them had more than a couple pages about US involvement in the Philippines, at the end of discussions of the Spanish–American war. I think it’s safe to say that most Americans have little to no understanding of this history. Maybe “written out” is an exa…

> Americans have little to no understanding of this history. That's different than 'written out of'. Americans know little about the Astor expeditions to the Pacific Northwest, the Fremont expeditions, Californian independence and statehood, or any number of other things.

American textbooks spend large amounts of text recounting the horrors of European colonialism in Africa, India, China, the Americas. Likewise, some recent textbooks do a half–decent job of discussing slavery and the genocide of indigenous Americans. There’s usually extended coverage of e.g. the Korean and Vietnam wars. By contrast, American colonial occupation of the Philippines is glossed over in a few pages, as a footnote to the Spanish–American war.

Do you think high school history textbooks should have detailed coverage of the Astor expedition, etc.? Or if not, what’s your point?

Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#19

Post by [deleted] »

jacobolus wrote: post #18
davidw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Americans have little to no understanding of this history. That's different than 'written out of'. Americans know little about the Astor expeditions to the Pacific Northwest, the Fremont expeditions, Californian independence and statehood, or any number of other things.

American textbooks spend large amounts of text recounting the horrors of European colonialism in Africa, India, China, the Americas. Likewise, some recent textbooks do a half–decent job of discussing slavery and the genocide of indigenous Americans. There’s usually extended coverage of e.g. the Korean and Vietnam wars. By contrast, American colonial occupation of the Philippines is glossed over in a few pages, as a f…

[deleted]

Re: How Filipino WWII Soldiers Were Written Out of History

#20

Post by nemo »

ghshephard wrote: post #10

“The Bataan Death March has never, ever,” Gaerlan says, “been part of the history curriculum in American schools.” She also says it’s neglected in education in the Philippines. Is this true? As a Canadian, it certainly got a mention in our (Grade 9? Grade 10?) social studies.

We covered in my 8th grade in my Soc. Studies/History class (in California, in the 80s), though maybe that was because the teacher was WW II obsessed. We watched a lot of films of WW II combat in the Pacific including bits of Corregidor falling to the Japanese as I recall and went over MacArthur's "I came out of Bataan and I shall return" speech, and watched a whole lot of films of combat with the teacher describing tracers and types of aircraft and talking about Kamikazes, so he might have just been a bit obsessed. Some HS history class went over the War in the Pacific too and covered the Philippines, though I can't recall if the Bataan Death March was mentioned.
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