A Microhistory of the event known historically as the Balangiga Massacre that asks the question — was this a massacre? And of so, of whom? The American Company C, Ninth U.S. Infantry, occupied the Philippine coastal town of Balangiga on the island of Samar beginning on August 11, 1901, during the latter stages of the Philippine American War. Six weeks later the townspeople rose up against the Americans and drove them from the town. The story of how that happened, and why, is at the center of a controversy that continues until today, with the U.S. Army holding onto war booty in the form of church bells used to signal the attack, seized in 1901. The author argues for the heroic nature of the actions of participants on both sides.
