For churchgoers, the return of the bells to their original church was a joyous occasion.
"We are the happiest people on Earth now," 81-year-old Nemesio Duran told AFP news agency. "The whole town is walking in the clouds because the bells are finally with us."
Others had mixed feelings because of the symbolism surrounding the bells.
Constancia Eleba told AFP the bells gave her "mixed emotions" given the history surrounding them. "It was painful and you cannot take it away from us," she said. "We can never forget that."
Three church bells have been returned to an Eastern Samar church in the Philippines after U.S. troops took them during the Philippine-Ameican War in 1901. For Americans, it was an insurrection. For Filipinos, it was their war for independence.
For over a century, the bells were war trophies seized in revenge for the deaths of U.S. soldiers by Filipino freedom fighters. During the attack, 48 out of the 74 solders were killed.
Under orders of their commander to turn the area into a "howling wilderness."
"I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn," he ordered his men. (Smith was later court-martialed for his conduct.) Villages and crops were burned, animals were slalughtered and 2,500 Filipinos were killed in retaliation
Two of the bells hung in a military base in Wyoming as a memorial to U.S. soldiers who were killed that day in 1901. Another hung in an Army base in South Korea.
"By returning the bells of Balangiga to our ally and our friend, the Philippines, we pick up our generation's responsibility to deepen the respect between our people," said Secretary of Defense James Mattis during ceremonies in Wyoming.
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