Massacre in the Clouds: An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History

Over the course of three days in March 1906, American soldiers on the Philippine island of Jolo killed over 800 local men, women, and children in a single sustained assault. The Battle of Bud Dajo, as it became known, was hailed in the U. S. as a triumph over an implacable band of dangerous savages, a "brilliant feat of arms" according to President Teddy Roosevelt. The slaughter of the Moros was even captured on camera, and three months later--despite the best efforts of U. S. military authorities--delivered to the eyes of the American people. A horrific image of one of the worst massacres in U. S. history was sent home blithely by the perpetrators, and soon turned into a postcard. But the fading photograph and memory of the massacre gradually disappeared from historical record.

In Massacre in the Clouds, historian Kim A. Wagner masterfully recovers the history of this American atrocity and the mysterious photograph that depicts it. His meticulously researched and unsparing account of the massacre--which claimed hundreds more lives than the massacres at Wounded Knee and My Lai together--offers sharp, original insight into the devastating costs of western imperial expansion. This powerful book exposes how a century ago the U. S. strove to emulate its European counterparts and succeeded in the worst of ways.