MASSACRE IN THE CLOUDS

A historian resurrects a shocking, forgotten piece of American military history.

Bud Dajo—the site in the southern Philippines where, in 1906, American soldiers massacred hundreds of Moro men, women, and children—should ring in Americans’ ears as loudly as My Lai and Wounded Knee do. So argues Wagner, a professor of global and British imperial history and the author of The Skull of Alum Bheg and Amritsar 1919, in this impressively researched book. Throughout this powerful narrative, which is occasionally difficult to read given the bloody subject matter, the author seeks to rectify the fact that what happened at Bud Dajo has “faded into complete obscurity.” Inspired by a grotesque photograph that shows U.S. soldiers posing proudly among the Moro dead, this work offers a rich accounting of the events leading up to, and following, the moment captured on camera. In exhaustive—and sometimes exhausting—detail, Wagner chronicles the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, the battle at Bud Dajo, and the stateside response to the massacre, including outrage by the likes of Mark Twain and W.E.B. Du Bois, among others. Along the way, the author makes sure to place the tragedy in context, drawing connections both to the U.S. Army’s campaigns against Native Americans and to the European powers’ colonial wars in Asia and Africa. The historical importance of retelling this event in the fullest possible detail sometimes takes precedence over narrative flow—as when, on the cusp of the beginning of the battle, Wagner pauses to relate that “the troops being deployed wore tan, wide-brimmed slouch hats with a center crease” alongside “a khaki tunic and trousers, with canvas leggings and leather boots.” Still, a surfeit of details is a small price to pay for an important historical excavation.

A vital work of history that breaks a century-old silence.