Location 717 “Damn the Americans! Why don't they tyrannize us more?”

Stanley Karnow's In Our Image was completed in 1988 and published in 1989.

Opinion to take away about American imperialism and imperialists in Philippines: “... in contrast to the Europeans, they were uniquely benign” (location 367) and “Filipinos today feel a closer affinity for America than, say, Indians do for Britain or Vietnamese for France” (l. 371). This is a surprising conclusion to hear from Karnow, whose credentials as a hard-edged journalist and a well-informed critic of US policy in Asia are unmatched. Some dates to support Karnow's opinion:

• 1907: The Philippines had the first elected legislature in Asia. At this time, the right to vote was restricted to the “educated class” (l. 389).
• 1935: The Philippines gets internal autonomy under a commonwealth government, with independence scheduled for ten years in the future (l.424).

Also, Congress barred “American individuals and corporations from acquiring large land holdings in the Philippines”. Karnow makes clear that the motives for this were not all altruistic, but the overall effect was to spare the Philippines “exploitation of the kind practiced by the Europeans” (l. 381).

This general lack of villainy caused Manuel Quezon, the first President of the Philippines, to make the remark of the title.

Karnow makes clear that Americans were not angels, and there are many examples of open racism in thought and deed.

Future President William Howard Taft was the first American civilian governor of the Philippines (“our little brown brothers”, he is quoted (l. 417) as saying), and unsurprisingly he found the conservative rich intelligentsia, called ilustrados, sympathetic and that they shared his opinions about social reforms, meaning, they didn't like them.

Colonialism has resulted in predictably mixed and varying emotions of Philippinos toward the United States, including but not limited to admiration, resentment, and feeling unappreciated.

At the time of the book's writing, the Philippines “was still a feudal society dominated by an oligarchy of rich dynasties” (l. 275). The top 20% receives 50% of the country's income (l.624). “Elections are actually contests between rival clans” (l. 626). In all levels of society, the family is foremost, leading to familiar problems with nepotism, corruption, etc.

Much of the opening part of the book is a set piece chronicling Cory Aquino's 1986 official visit to Washington, where she was met with tepid enthusiasm by most of the Reagan administration (exception: George Schultz), who were, predictably, Marcos supporters. Members of Congress were enthusiastic until the time to vote foreign aid came.

Karnow's opinion was that the majority of Philippinos were in favor of American military bases, but in the early 1990's (after the publication of the book) both Subic Bay and Clark Field were closed after, first, they were trashed by a simultaneous volcanic eruption and typhoon, after which a treaty extending the lease of the bases negotiated with the Aquino government was rejected by the Philippino Senate.

Only about 30 percent of Philippinos speak Tagalog (also called “Filipino”), mostly in Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines and the location of the capital. About the same percentage, living in the islands in the center of the archipeligo, speak Cebuano (also called “Bisaya”).

Tagalog has a word – hiya – which is the equivalent of “face”, in the sense of “save face” or “lose face”. Karnow says that this is very important in Philippino culture.

The Tagalog word for “toothpaste” is Colgate.

Other things I learned because I am reading this book:

• Most important thing: “Philippines” is spelled with only one “l” and a total of three “p”s, two of which occur in the center of the word.
• Kipling's “White Man's Burden” was written to encourage American imperialism in the Philippines.
• John Sayles latest movie (“Amigo”, 2011) is set in the Philippines, and his most recent novel (A Moment in the Sun, also 2011) includes long sections which take place in the Philippines. Both are set in the era when the U.S. became the colonial power. There are interesting interviews with Sayles on Youtube.
• A three-part TV series, also called In Our Image and narrated by Karnow, was made at the time of the book's release and also viewable on Youtube. I've watched the first part and found it inferior to the book so far. It zigzags confusingly from one era to another for no apparent reason. The (at that time) only surviving veteran (allegedly 105 years old) of the fighting in the Philippines is interviewed. He is virtually impossible to understand and there are no subtitles. There are also interviews with wives of American soldiers who were veterans of the era, but given that all information presented is actually recollections of things that happened long ago of recollections of things that happened long ago, I thought that they were of uncertain value. Also, the audio track on Youtube is low quality and has a persistent tinny buzzing, as if you are watching in the presence of a pack of mosquitoes.
• Last item in Youtube roundup: Relatively recent interviews with a now-agèd Karnow, one of which reminded me that Karnow had the honor to be on Richard Nixon's enemies list.
• The Kindle edition of this book does not have page numbers, only location numbers.