 This is the story of the Pacific and its people, of the peaceful sea and the lands and lives it touches, and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company as a public service, and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific Basin. This broadcast series comes to you as another public service with drama of the past and present, and commentary by Owen Wathamore, authority on the Pacific, and director of the School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University. The Philippines and their fight for freedom. Day after day, day after day, nothing but tea. Patience, you must have patience. Patience! Three months have passed for us since we sailed through the straight stream for our captain. We must believe in our captain Magellan, and trust in God. Oh, I knew when we sailed through Spain that we would never get back. We will never find the Spites Islands by sailing west, Father. We've lost Captain Magellan, as brought us through every danger. Oh, now we're lost, Father. The only land we've seen in the last three months were those rocky islands, and we found neither food nor water on them. There was nothing on them. Quiet. Here comes Captain Magellan. Oh, yes, I must get back aloft. The men are still complaining, Father. Oh, they are anxious, Captain Magellan. Every eye is straining for land port. It is more than three months now. There is a western route to the Spites Islands, Father. There must be. Our food is running low. The sea must end somewhere. Somewhere. But where? If the Spites Islands can be reached from the east, they must be reached from the west. Look out aloft. Now aloft reports the landfall dead ahead. Dead ahead. Yes. Yes. Mountain peaks. Mountain peaks. Do you see their outlines in the haze, Father? Yes. I see them, Captain Magellan. Praise God. Good day, O Gracia. We will sing a cedule. Land, but not the land they sought. Across the broad Pacific, Magellan had missed the Spites Islands by hundreds of miles. The peaks he sighted were the mountains of Samar in the Philippines. At Lama Sauer, though he was a Portuguese, Magellan was to plant the flag of Spain and mark the start of western empire in the Pacific. Magellan gave the natives mirrors and combs and trinkets and bells. The natives gave the sailors bananas, fish, coconuts and palm wine. With Chief Sula and his people, Magellan enjoyed cordial relations for six weeks. We value your friendship most highly, Chief Sula. That is why I have come to you. Well, how can I help you? Chief Lapu-Lapu is our enemy and yours too. Yes. Chief Lapu-Lapu has resisted all our gestures of friendship. We must conquer Lapu-Lapu, for we never be safe. How many soldiers will you need? Lapu-Lapu is strong. Yes, but he's no match for our arms. He is cunning and fierce. We will crush him. But my men know the strength of Lapu-Lapu. You and your men, Chief Sula, need not fight. You need only to look on and see how Spaniards fight. I will send word to Lapu-Lapu commanding him to submit to the Spanish flag. Lapu-Lapu's answer was as direct as Magellan's. He would resist. With 60 men in three boats, Magellan sailed down the coast to the stronghold of Lapu-Lapu, and there went ashore. Perhaps it was best cut in the fire approach Lapu-Lapu once more. Oh, for them. He would take your life. But we have firearms and they have only arrows and spears. We will deploy here on the beach and then advance. The village on the fringe of the jungle there seems to be deserted. Lapu-Lapu is wily. His men are concealed. The ship's company is in order and ready for the advance, Captain Magellan. Good. We'll advance at once according to our plan. Give the order. Yes, sir. Father. Yes, Captain. You will remain behind me with a rearguard. My place is with the men. You will be more valuable here, as you say, Captain Magellan. Amen. Amen. Oh, God. My heart is pounding, Father. Our men are advancing right into the jungle. They can see nothing. Lapu-Lapu is men. I heard this before. I'm going. Look. Look, there they are. They're shooting arrows. The captain has opened fire down there. Look at the natives. Look at them leaping out of the brush. They're swarming down our men. Our men are falling back. They're driving us back. Look, they're village. Lapu-Lapu's village is a fire. They're driving us back. What does all those natives come from? Come on. We must join the captain. Yes, sir. I have my gun. Captain Magellan. Captain, look out. That's Spear. Captain. We're on. Let's fight you. Captain. Pull out that Spear. Captain. Captain. Captain. Is it bad? Oh, Father. Go back to the boat. No, no, no. I'll stay here with you. You cannot help me, Father. Order the men back to the boat. Back to the boat? Here, let me live with you. Get me back to the boat. My life spent well. My life. Captain Magellan. Captain. With Magellan began Spanish Empire in the Philippines. From Spain and Mexico came great galleons to trade. And each year with the new moon in March, Chinese traders sailed across the China Sea, rough with the monsoons, to the Port of Manila. The Chinese came in fleets of 30 and 40 junks. Horses and mules and geese. How can you Chinese bring such livestock across the sea in your chunks? We have been trading with these islands for generations. Long before you people of Spain and Portugal came here. Well, what is that coming ashore in that boat? That is a buffalo. But buffaloes are wild. We tame them. Well, that beast is strong enough to kick that boat to pieces. If we permitted it to do that, you even bring birds and cages here. Some of them talk, some of them stay. And they perform a thousand tricks. Yeah, so I see. The people of these islands regard them highly. They cannot have use for 40 junk loads of livestock. We unload the livestock first. But we have also brought silks, rocades and furniture. Pearls and gems of all kinds. Roots and nuts. And many gougars and knickknacks. Which you, Spaniards, as well as these people, may hold in higher speed. After the Chinese junks had sailed home each season, the Japanese arrived. Their ships brought wheat, silks, objects of art and weapons. They traded in the islands of the Philippines and when they left... We are taking back to Japan. Gold, deer horns, wood, honey, wax, palm wine, wine of Castile and the raw silk. We shall return next season with more merchandise. From Malacca and India came other fleets of trading ships, manned by Portuguese subjects of Spain. All right! Oh boy! Come upon me! Keep them together! They are curfews from Africa. Oh! They make good slaves. We've had a bad passage. Trouble with them all the way. Keep them moving over there. We'll get them unloaded and stay with the F5s. Rich productions of Bengal, India, Persia and Turkey came to the Philippines. And from Borneo, after the Malays came other traders with slaves, palm mats, sego and oftenware. From Siam came traders with the wondrous products of Cambodia. Manila had become a trading center for all the countries of the East. With the trading ships came immigrants from many lands, Chinese, Arabians, Malays, Indians, Japanese. Spanish galleons came laden to the gunnels with merchandise and Mexican gold and Spanish soldiers and colonists. The Spanish and Mexicans settled in the islands and blended with the island peoples from all over the Orient. Out of this mixture rose the Filipinos, a people linked with the culture of the East, but partly western in language, law, custom and religion. The main was to rule the 7,000 islands of the Philippines for nearly 400 years. But through the passing centuries, the Filipinos grew restive under the hardships and injustices of the Spanish rule. Revolutions smoldered for years. Here at the lunata, three bishops were garoted by the Spanish, put to death because they dared to speak against the crown of space. Here we must pledge our lives to fight for the freedom of the Filipinos. For us who fight for our liberty, there may be death here at this very spot. But we can do no less than the others who gave their blood here. We fight for our sacred freedom. Revolutionary movement seized. Brilliant young Dr. Jose Rizal and other patriot leaders were seized and put to death. The revolution broke out in full fury in 1896. This rebellion against the crown of Spain will be crushed. Your leaders have betrayed you. Put down your arms and return to your homes. The king forces will be used against you with all figure. And those found guilty of revolutionary activity will be put to death without mercy. Freedom! Independence! Freedom! The Filipino fight for freedom instead of being snuffed out lays with greater fury. The United States moved closer to the brink of war with Spain and two years later declared war and sent an historic message to Admiral George Dewey in command of the American fleet in China. Proceed to the Philippine islands. Commence operations at once against the Spanish fleet. Capture their vessels or destroy them. Hold on to that, Admiral Dewey. You may fire when ready, Ridley. Yes, sir. Hold on! Destroyed the Spanish fleet and one by one the towns and provinces occupied by the Spanish soldiers were taken by the Filipinos. In June, 1898, the independence of the Philippines was declared at Cahuiz. On August 13th, 1898, the Americans and the Filipinos captured the city of Manila. Another month and the First Republic was formed in the Orient. But grave days lay ahead for the Philippine Republic almost before the sound of the guns had died out. The representatives of the various provinces met and discussed the problem. What do we gain, gentlemen, to throw off the yoke of Spain only to put down the yoke of America? But America is our friend. Spain was not friend. Admiral Dewey encouraged us to fight the Spaniards and then would not permit us to enter Manila after we had helped capture any Americans we'd trade up. No, no, no, no, President McKinley said the Philippines were not America's to exploit but to develop, to civilize, to educate and to train in self-government. America wishes. America did not conquer the Spaniards for us. We conquered them. The Americans only came in at the last. Yes, and now Spain has turned over the whole of the Philippines to America. The Americans wish only to... If the Americans have any claim at all, they have only the right to the territory which they themselves took from the Spanish soldiers. We Filipinos must remember that the Americans helped us. Our fate is no better under the Americans than under the Spaniards. We have fought this far for our independence. If we must fight the Americans, then let us fight them. Yes, war! War on the Americans! Two friends were at each other's throat. The Filipinos organized guerrilla bans, struck suddenly, disappeared into the forest, struck again, moved and struck. For years they had been gathering arms and ammunition to use against the Spaniards. Now they turned them on the Americans. Aguinaldo has crossed the Corriero Central and is hiding in the heralds, General Funston. The most effective way to end this guerrilla warfare is to capture Aguinaldo. Aguinaldo knows every foot of ground in these hills and jungles. Unless we take him, we must hunt down and destroy his guerrilla bans one by one. General Funston! Yes, Lieutenant? Look at these letters. We took them from a messenger we've just captured. Who's messenger was he, Lieutenant? Aguinaldo's, I think. Hmm. This is a letter from Aguinaldo to one of his generals, asking for more troops to be sent up to Palanan. So that's where Aguinaldo is. Palanan. Oh, this is what we can do. We will go to Palanan, disguised as prisoners as some of Aguinaldo's men. Disguise them about troops as Aguinaldo's guerrillas. We'll dress a company of Maccabeeby troops as guerrillas. We'll go to Aguinaldo as if we are their prisoners. I think we can get to Aguinaldo that way. Our task then will be to capture him and bring him back. General Funston took with him Hilario Tau Placido, who had been one of Aguinaldo's officers. Placido sent a messenger head to Aguinaldo, telling him that the reinforcements he wanted were on their way to him with five American prisoners. For days, General Funston and his party pushed through the dense countries, swimming rivers, pushing their way through forests, climbing steep mountains. Aguinaldo sent a message back to Placido, telling him to bring the reinforcements directly into Palanan, but to leave the American prisoners at a barrier six miles distant. In spite of these orders, General Funston and his entire party, all in disguise, went directly into Palanan. General Funston, some of Aguinaldo's officers are coming out to meet us. Get into the bushes, Colonel. Placido. Yes, General Funston. We five Americans will stay here, hidden in these bushes. You and your soldiers go with Aguinaldo's officers to his house. When you reach there and are sure that he is there, signal to us. Yes, sir. Get into the bushes. The officers are almost here. Placido and an interpreter named Segovia went with Aguinaldo's officers directly to Aguinaldo's house. Aguinaldo's house was under the heavy guard of troops with fixed bayonets. Placido and Segovia greeted Aguinaldo, who were surrounded by seven of his officers, all carrying revolvers. Placido and Segovia went into the house with Aguinaldo and his officers. Placido entertained them with stories of their long march, bringing up the reinforcements. Suddenly, Segovia stepped to the window and shouted, Now is the time of the babies! Get into them! Aguinaldo stepped to the window and shouted, Stop that foolishness. Don't waste your ammunition, Aguinaldo. You are a prisoner of the Americans. You go! Here! Let's go! Attention! Attention! General Aguinaldo, you are under arrest. Arrest? Is that some joke? Who are you? Frederick Funston, sir. We are going back to see the American general in demand. The capture of Aguinaldo marked the end of the American war in the Philippines. Then began the years of reconstruction. From the beginning of the American regime, education was emphasized as a means of preparing the Filipinos for independence. By the time the Tidings-McDuffy Act was adopted in 1934, providing for complete independence for the Philippines in 1946, the world was in a ferment. Observers regarded the plan with misgivings. This is no time to promise the Philippines independence in 1946. You mean because of Japan? Sure. Japan is training every resource getting ready for war. She's taken Manchuria, and she's trying to penetrate into North China. What chance would the Philippines have if the United States wasn't there? We've been promising them independence ever since we moved in there at the turn of the century. I know, but this is no time. It's not only Japan. Look what's happening in Germany. That man Hitler. The Filipinos are going right ahead with their Commonwealth. They've ratified their new constitution. Looks like they're going through with their plan for ten years of transition before they get complete independence. World War II was seething under the surface, but the goal of independence for which the Filipinos had struggled for more than 50 years was now in sight. They went resolutely forward. Of all the colonies in the Pacific, the Philippines were the only ones to be promised independence at a definite date. To many, with interest in the Pacific, this was an error. The Americans are letting this white man down out here. This will lead to unrest in our colonies here in the Pacific. It is a bad example. It will agitate our entire political situation into the Pacific. These and other disquieting echoes were heard throughout the Pacific. The murmuring for and against Philippine independence grew louder. In the background was the rising shadow of Japan. Do you realize how many Japanese there are in the Philippines? I know there are a great many in Davao. There's a whole Japanese colony. There may be that there is something to that rumor about ammunition being smuggled into Davao. It wouldn't surprise me. Everywhere you turn, there are Japanese fishing boats in the harbors. And you've heard about those Japanese lumbering operations in Luzon, haven't you? You mean the clearing of the forest there? Yes, and they're not interested in the lumber. What they're really doing is clearing roadways for an invasion on Lamont Bay. Nobody knows when those Japs will strike. But everybody knows that when we move out of the Philippines, they can expect the Japs any day after. But the march toward Philippine independence was on. The war clouds in the Pacific were rolling up, even as the Philippines were moving toward freedom. In the summer of 1941, the Filipino forces were put into the United States Army, and President Manuel Quezon of the Philippines said, If the outcome of the war means triumph of the democracy and the upholding of the rights of small nations in their own existence, then the Philippines will be independent forever. The Philippines will stand by the United States and will sink or swim with the United States. In the fall of 1941, apprehension grew into tenseness in the Philippines. And two months later, with the same paralyzing power that was used against the United States, the Japanese struck the Philippines, blasted and ravaged and devastated their lands and cities. The freedom that the Filipinos had so long fought and worked for was snatched from them. But side by side with the Americans, they fought until they were vanquished. But Tan and Corregidor have become epics of heroism. Here at last, the Filipinos won their freedom. On August 13, 1943, President Roosevelt announced to the world, the Republic of the Philippines will be established. The moment the power of our Japanese enemies is destroyed. For nearly half a century of fighting and preparation for freedom, the Filipino people face with the United Nations the enormous task of reconquest of their homeland. They face the task before them with confidence. Their leader has said, the Filipino people are proud and grateful to be one of the 32 United Nations. And to have the President of the United States as a warm and sympathetic friend. And here to discuss the underlying meaning of this long fight for freedom is Owen Latimore, authority on the Pacific, and director of the School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Latimore. Nowhere in Asia is the story of the past more dramatically linked with the present than in the Philippines. In the discovery and conquest of the islands, there is all the violence that went along with the romance and adventure of the age of Columbus and Magellan. Arrogantly confident of themselves, the European discoverers went out in search of new land, seeking for gold and quick wealth. They joined in tribal wars, they robbed and killed. They often resorted to treachery, but it did not bother their consciences a bit. They felt that they were superior people and entitled to do what they did by divine right. What they accomplished was the founding of the colonial system. In the Philippines, under the rule of Spain, it lasted four centuries. Then came the Americans and the part played by the Americans leads right up to the war we are fighting today. We must look deeply into American history to get the full drama of the contrast between Spanish colonial rule, the American experiment in trusty ship and training for independence, and Japan's attempt to turn back the clock by conquering and setting up a vast federated Asiatic empire. Our own history began with a revolt against the colonial system. In our Revolutionary War, we fought for our own interests, but we were also deeply convinced that we fought unselfishly for universal principles. That explains why some of the noblest words and phrases in the long history of mankind were uttered and spoken in the years of the American Revolution. We began our life as a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For that reason, whatever the policy of the American government at any particular moment, the American people have always been steady in the belief that anything which Americans think worth fighting for is something that all men everywhere are entitled to have if they will also fight for it and make sacrifices for it. That I feel convinced is the way to look at America's past record in the Philippines and what it is going to mean for the future. We have no need to be hypocritical or falsely sentimental about America and the Philippines. We do not need to pretend that we have always been purely altruistic. Of course not. Mixed elements and factors enter into any historical process. There have been selfish American interests that work in our relations with the Philippines. We have had our twingers of manifest destiny, our tips and starts of imperialism. Our record in Puerto Rico is not too good. We have made our historical mistakes, but as President Roosevelt said on the subject of repealing the Chinese Exclusion Act, we can be big enough to admit them. This is what we have to keep in sight. When we entered the Philippines, we stood at the threshold of empire, but something in the fabric and character of American life prevented us from becoming an imperial people. Take one factor alone, the deep American belief in education as something that not only gives men and women a knowledge of facts, but also liberates their ability to think. Never have any colonial administration spent as much of its budget on education as the Americans did in the Philippines. Generally speaking, the colonial standard of education is easy to recognize. It is intended to provide office clerks and personnel for the lower grades of government service. Colonial administrations train some of the people to help the government rule all of the people. They do not train all of the people to rule themselves as a nation. American education in the Philippines, on the other hand, has been universal education, not colonial education. Step by step, as the desire of the Filipinos to be free and to rule themselves awoke and spread, they found in American education the methods of self-government, the ideas of independence, and the honored words of freedom. They did not learn these things in a way that led to the Filipino challenge of American rule, but in a way that brought increasing harmony and sympathy between Filipino aspirations and accepted American beliefs. Accordingly, Americans have never felt that the gain of freedom by the Philippines would be a loss to America. Because of the revolutionary origin of our own country, I believe that we Americans have always considered it a political article of faith that freedom is something that belongs to everybody by right. You can take freedom away or you can restore it, but you cannot manufacture it and bestow it as a present because it is not yours to give. I said at the beginning of this talk that our record and policy in the Philippines link up the age of colonial history under the Spanish and Japan's attempt to open a new and more terrible age of imperialism. This is where we come to the point. Japan is promising in the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia a form of so-called freedom which is described as a charitable gift from Japan. We have promised to the Philippines our assistance in restoring a freedom which is their own. Combine this with American policy toward China where we have renounced all extraterritorial rights and imperialistic privileges and are now taking steps to recognize racial equality in addition to political equality. The combination can mean only one thing. American policy is already in action far beyond the Pacific. In that sense, American isolation is already a historical curiosity. Policy, however, is the thing that develops only step by step. In addition to policy, I think we can discern a permanent American attitude implemented step by step in our policy toward the Philippines and China. The best way I can describe this attitude in the fewest words is to say that in my opinion, Americans do not feel called upon to declare independence for other people. But we do feel when other people strive for their independence that we must respect the claims of others when they are claiming that for which we ourselves demand respect. I think that this attitude of the American people, combined with the fact that we have no colonial empire to preserve, is going to be of great dynamic importance in the next chapters of the history of Asia and the Pacific. Thank you, Mr. Lathamore. Next week, at the same time over most of these stations, the National Broadcasting Company will present another program on the Pacific with drama of the past and present and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific basin. A reprint of tonight's Pacific Story program is available at the cost of ten cents. Send ten cents in stamps or coin to the University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The address again, University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The musical score is composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. Your narrator, Gail Whitman. This program has been presented as a public service by the National Broadcasting Company and the independent radio stations associated with the NBC network. The program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.