Bluejacket's Manual

Few people read about the Philippine Insurrection in American History. At the treaty ending the Spanish American War, the US purchased thePhilippine Islands. However, the Filipinos who fought alongside the Americansagainst the Spanish felt betrayed and declared war against the occupyingAmerican troops. From the period of early 1899 through 1908, the USfought a protracted war said to have been more brutal than the fighting inthe Philippines during World War II. The Bluejacket s Manual deals with the experience of a young Navy sailor boundby his duty to God, country and the Navy. Torn between the relationshipsdeveloped in the Philippines; he struggles to save his body and soul duringthe period from 1898 to 1904. Originally fighting the Spanish then alongside the Army against theInsurrectos in the jungles of the north then facing the deadly Morosfrom the islands in the south, the sailor works to subdue a hostilepeople to America s will. The book is written in a manner that reflects the Americanpatriotism and moral activism of those times balanced againstFilipino aspirations.