THE BUD DAJO EVENT: BATTLE OR MASSACRE?

An investigation of claims and arguments regarding the national historical controversy.

 INTRODUCTION

The conclusion of the Philippine-American War in 1902 marked the beginning of the American
colonization of the Philippines, what with their army having gained control of most of the islands. With
the keyword being most, the fight for the complete annexation of the Philippines was still a work in
progress in the Southern parts of the archipelago, as they were resisting their forces as stubbornly as they
had successfully done so during the 333-year long reign of the Spaniards in the country. This resulted to
many clashes between the American forces and the Moros, as the Spaniards have come to call them, and
one of these events is the infamous Bud Dajo Event.

The Bud Dajo Event on March 1906 erupted between the Tausug of Jolo and the American army
under General Leonard Wood’s command. It took place within the extinct Bud Dajo crater where an
estimated 600 Moro villagers were living then executed by 790 US soldiers by means of modern and
advanced weaponry.

The event is known to people under varying titles: the Bud Dajo Battle, Bud Dajo Massacre, the
First Battle of Bud Dajo, or the Moro Crater Massacre. Whilst some may not think much of the difference
in the titles, it is still rather confusing should one take into consideration the stark distinction between the
words “battle” and “massacre.” According to Oxford Languages, a battle is a sustained fight between
large organized armed forces while a massacre is the indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people. This
clearly insinuates that there is a division between the people on what they perceive the nature of the affair
as.

With no lives spared, including women and children, and less than 20 taken from the opposing
American forces, the subject is held at close scrutinization, especially in the United States, due to the
many conflicting views and versions that have come forward regarding the context of the cruel and
bloody occurrence. Was it truly fought between two equally armed and willingly engaging groups, or was
it a manifestation of cruelty and bloodthirstiness in the name of imperialism?

BATTLE OR MASSACRE?

Below are two tables mapping out the several chosen arguments about the true nature of the Bud
Dajo Event, arranged such that the stand of the corresponding claimant is highlighted as whether they
believe it a massacre or a battle. Although some claimants may not have explicitly referred to the event as
either, it is upon the aforementioned definitions of the two words that we are basing their arguments to
identify their stand on the topic.

THE BUD DAJO EVENT IS A BATTLE

CLAIMANT ARGUMENT VALIDITY
1. President I congratulate you and the officers and men of 26th
president of
Theodore your command upon the brilliant feat of arms the U.S., Roosevelt
Roosevelt wherein you and they so well upheld the honor had been the
of the American flag. President during
the events of Bud
Washington, March 10, 1906 Dajo.
2. General A severe action between the troops, a It was under
Leonard Wood naval detachment and the constabulary General Leonard
and hostile Moros has taken place at Wood’s command that
Mount Dajo near Jolo. the event
commenced.
Manila, March 9, 1906
3. Chief of the The shelling … necessarily killed all who came The annual reports
Bureau of in the way of missiles and the women fought from the Philippine
Insular beside the men and held their children before Commission are
Affairs them. The Moros, men and women, were all officially
fanatics, sworn to die rather than to yield, recognized.
and certain, as they believed, of a glorious
reward in the world to come if they died
killing Christians.

Excerpt from Report of the Philippine

Commission to the Secretary of War, Seventh
Annual Report of the Philippine Commission
1906

THE BUD DAJO EVENT IS A MASSACRE

CLAIMANT ARGUMENT VALIDITY
1. Samuel Clemens The savages were all massacred. The plain American writer
intention was to massacre them all and leave Samuel Clemens,
none alive. […] The dispatches call this more popularly
battue a “battle.” In what way was it a known as Mark
battle? It has no resemblance to a battle. In Twain, wrote
a battle there are always as many as five Comments on the
wounded men to one killed outright. When this Moro Massacre on
so-called battle was over, there were March 12, 1906,
certainly not fewer than two hundred wounded mere days after the
savages lying on the field. What became of event itself.
them? Since not one savage was left alive!

Excerpt from Comments on the Moro Massacre

2. Vic Hurley By no stretch of the imagination could Bud Vic Hurley is an
Dajo be termed a "battle." Certainly expert on the
the engaging of 1,000 Moros armed with krises, Philippine Islands,
spears and a few rifles by a force of 800 having lived in the
Americans armed with every modern weapon was country for several
not a matter for publicity. The years since 1925.
American troops stromed a high mountatin peak
crowned by fortifications to kill 1,000
Moros with a loss to themselves of twenty-one
 killed and seventy-five wounded!

Excerpt from Swish of the Kris: The Story of

the Moros
3. Robert A. Although beginning as a genuine military Robert A. Fulton is
Fulton contest, it ended as a tragic and terrible, an Oregon author
one-sided massacre, with no more than a small who has published
and pitiful handful of the Muslims left alive. three histories
regarding the Moro
Excerpt from Honor the Flag: The Battle of Bud peoples in the
Dajo – 1906 and the Moro Massacre Philippines during
the early 20th
century. His
research also
included private
correspondence with
individual authors,
historians, and
descendants of
persons involved in
the period.
 CONCLUSION

Upon further investigation, the writers found that the Bud Dajo Event is indeed a
massacre, the indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of 600 Moros by the US Army under General
Leonard Wood’s command in the span of four days. The very description of it suggests a
massacre, the indiscrimination coming in the form of the women and children killed instead of
just their fighting fathers, as the Seventh Annual Report of the Philippine Commission 1906 so
clearly insinuates. Despite the many opinions of what the Tausug were like, be it helpless
(Twain, 1906) or fanatical (Hurley, 2010), or that their being in the crater was a declaration of
having no interest in fights (Scott, 1906), it does not change the fact that they were completely
and thoroughly annihilated by the US Army.

Should one take a closer look at the table, they will find that some of the only existing
claims of the event being a battle have direct connections to the event itself, and that of the
opposing side too. This suggests bias and the covering up of the misconduct, if the date had
anything to say. In his essay, Comments on the Moro Massacre, Samuel Clemens mocks the
pride of the Americans for the US Army in another “great victory” in what they had officially
called a battle, only for the tides to change as news of the women and children’s involvement in
the five feet pile of corpses came to light. According to Professor Andrew J. Bacevich of Boston
University, what truly happened in Bud Dajo would have been kept had it not leaked to the press.

Below are only some of the newspapers the writers found proving Clemens’ words:

The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, March 10, 1906

Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928,

March 09, 1906
Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume], March 10, 1906
The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, March 09, 1906
 Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, March 10, 1906

Whilst President Theodore Roosevelt seems to have only spoken once of the event, it is
rather evident that he only did so to protect General Wood from the storm of criticism that he and
military officials in Sulu were beginning to face, including from Cong. William Jones of
Virginia, Sen. Augustus Bacon of Georgia, and Rev. Dr. Charles J. Parkhurst (Hawkins, 2011),
as more information of the massacre leaked on the press. Both Twain and Bacevich say that the
General was the President’s “favorite”, hence the immunity. Sources also show that Wood felt no
remorse in the killings and had intended it even, calling the Moros as “nothing more nor less
than an unimportant collection of pirates and highwaymen,” suggesting that this save from the
president is truly needed should he like his reputation remain clean. All in all, even the pro-battle
claimants know that it is a massacre, and that it is only for the sake of face-saving that they claim
otherwise.