ABSTRACT
The Filipinos carry the distinction of being the first people in Asia to successfully launch an anticolonial nationalist movement for independence. During their visits to other European countries, Rizal and other Filipino students became aware of the high degree of individual freedoms elsewhere. For the Filipinos, both the Spanish and United States (US) regimes represented the white man's rule and a "brown man's burden" that should be excised as soon as possible. The US, committed in theory to individual and national freedom, found it difficult to accept its status as an imperial power and therefore advanced various arguments, moral and material, to rationalize it. The progressive noninvolvement on the part of the US in the internal affairs of the Philippines in the late 1930s gave Japan an opportunity to augment its influence there. In contrast to its economic policies, the US had truly outstanding achievements in health and education in the Philippines, surpassing the work of any other colonial power.
