FilAm History: SF monument to tell truth about start of Philippine American War

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Dewey Monument in San Francisco's Union Square will be corrected to reflect the true history of the historic battle that ended one war  and launched another.

FOR A LONG TIME, the monument to Commodore George Perry and the Battle of Manila Bay has been a sore point with the Filipino American community. It was like a slap in the face.
Placed in Union Square, it is also the place where the Filipino American community stages one of its largest celebrations of June 12, Philippine Independence Day, the presence of the Nike the Goddess of Victory atop the tall column added insult to injury even though most attendees never took the time to read the four panel inscription at the monument's base.

Seen as a military victory for the United States, Dewey's defeat of the Spanish Armada and the end of the Spanish American War was also the start of the Philippine American War, but there was no mention of the role of the Philippines independence movement, the betrayal of the American allies and the resultant war that took hundreds of thousands lives of combatants and civilians.

Earlier in October, the Visual Arts Committee of the San Francisco Arts Commission endorsed the idea to tell "the rest of the story."

“First Philippine President General Emilio Aguinaldo made sure that we are already independent even before the Americans came to our country after he followed international protocol in declaring Philippine independence. So we were already independent by the time Commodore Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet and not be granted independence by the Americans,” explained Rudy Asercion, one of most persistent advocates for the historical correction. 

“Some people celebrate the Filipino American History Month but we are part of making history today with this unanimous approval. It was a big help that the Filipino community, not just by one person or one organization but the whole community, showed and up and spoke in behalf and in favor of the plaque,” Asercion beamed. “Basically we are doing this thing for our children so that they know that rich history of the Filipinos with regards to the Filipino American war.”

The full SFAC will formally confirm the visual arts committee recommendation of the proposed on the Dewey monument inscription, including the text and historical accuracy of what is written there, in their November 5 meeting. It is hoped that the new inscriiption will be formally dedicated in time for Filipino American History Month in October of 2019.

“This is obviously a great step in Filipino American History Month. The intergenerational collaboration you really paved the way for young people to really step up,” said National Federation of Filipino American Association executive director Jason Tengco.

“How many of us have gone to Union Square, seen this monument not knowing what it means or what it stands for but again you have paved the way for us and to so many future generations to learn what it is," said Tengco.

The current inscriiption reads:

Ironically, work on the monument began in 1901 and it was dedicated in 1903 while the Philippine American War was still taking place.

Robert Ingersoll Aitken was hired to sculpt a 9-foot (2.7 m) statue representing Nike, the ancient Greek Goddess of Victory in honor of President William McKinley and Dewey. The statue holds a trident that represents Dewey and a wreath that represents McKinley.

Architect Newton Tharp designed the base and column within a budget of $45,000. The column, over 5 ft (1.5 m) in diameter and over 85 ft (25.9 m) in height, was assembled from individual blocks weighing 40,000 lb (18,144 kg). 

The proposed new inscription reads:

The Battle of Manila Bay and the Philippine American War

The people of the Philippines struggled against Spanish colonial rule for over 300 years. At the outbreak of the Spanish American War, Filipinos joined with American forces and rejoiced in Commodore George Dewey’s decisive defeat of the archipelago’s Spanish fleet in May 1, 1898 Battle of Manila Bay.

Within a month of that naval victory, the Philippines declared its freedom from Spain, marking June 12, 1898 as Philippine Independence Day. Filipinos took the historic occasion to declare their national sovereignty and to establish the first republic of record in Southeast Asia.

The Spanish American War ended with the Treat of Paris in December, 1898. However, the United States’ continued military presence in the Philippines led to the conflict later known as the Philippine American War. In that dark period, 4,400 American soldiers died, together with 20,000 Filipino combatants. Civilian lives lost numbered in the hundreds of thousands. The Philippines remained a colony of the United States from 1899 to 1935, and granted commonwealth status thereafter.

The crucible of World War II bonded together the United States and the Philippines as never before against a common enemy. The extraordinary sacrifice and heroism of Filipinos in that struggle for freedom led to the United States’ acknowledgement of Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946.

_______________________________________________________________________________