Directions: Use the documents and your knowledge of history to answer the questions that follow. Document A: The following is an excerpt from sworn testimony given before the U. S. Senate by Corporal Richard O’Brien in 1902. O’Brien was called to testify in a Senate investigation of alleged war crimes committed by American soldiers in the Philippine-American War.
“The first thing we saw was a boy ... and the first sergeant shot at the boy. Everybody fired at him. That brought the people in the houses out . . . [and] the town was fired on ... Two old men came out, hand in hand ... they had a white flag, they were shot down. At the other end of the town we heard screams, and there was a woman there; she was burned up, and in her arms was a baby, and on the floor was another child ... The fighting was continued until everybody had fled or everybody was killed ... There was not a shot fired on the part of the Filipinos.”
Question 1: Many Americans opposed the war in the Philippines. How does Document A provide evidence of this?