Forgotten Freedom Fighters
/Solemn and profound with eloquent speeches by dignitaries, the programs make sure there is hardly a dry eye when the roll calls start and the bugle plays. Awed by the salutes and splendor, the audience sits in silence remembering the warriors of freedom who are no longer around. To see on stage once-proud old soldiers surviving well into their 90s, each on a wheelchair and no longer able to understand, hear, or appreciate the ceremony extolling them is an emotional experience.
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The senior center where I work is a virtual repository of WWII veterans’ files, especially of those who had come to the U.S. to become citizens. Since the 1990s, Filipino WWII veterans of varied stripes who chose to settle down in the Northwest have gravitated towards the senior center in Seattle. Many fought in the Pacific War as servicemen in the Philippine Commonwealth Army, as recognized civilian guerillas, or as Philippine Scouts. When the International Drop-In Center (IDIC) invited the old soldiers in 2004 to relocate their small table to IDIC’s Beacon Hill office, they had by then organized themselves as the Filipino War Veterans of Washington (FWVW). The Commander at that time was an Ilocano guerrillero Julio Joaquin. Working closely with Manong Julio, IDIC offered the group a room as their official headquarters, an offer approved by the IDIC Board, which the old soldiers happily accepted. I helped design their white gala uniform, their overseas cap, and designed and produced the FWVW officers’ business cards. As adviser to the FWVW, I interviewed each one and learned about their sad plight.
Thousands had arrived in the U.S. alone because Uncle Sam had legislated that only the Filipino veteran could come if he wished to be a citizen. They had believed that they would also receive long-awaited WWII service pensions. In 1990, then-President George H. Bush had signed an Executive Order allowing WWII Filipino soldiers to come to the U.S. to swear allegiance as citizens. A majority of those who came were mostly economically challenged ex-guerillas and enlisted men. There was hardly anyone with a rank higher than a lieutenant. (Another intriguing phenomenon explained by higher-ranking Filipino veterans.) Already in their mid and early 70s, many had culture shock, coming mainly from provincial parts of the Philippines. Worst of all, most were unemployable due to age and lack of local experience. So IDIC had to arrange for them to receive SSI (supplemental security income), a monthly subsidy enough for an unemployed senior citizen to survive. In order for them to petition their wives and children, the veterans had to prove that they had income.
Again, it was IDIC that referred them to menial jobs to comply with immigration laws that would allow petitions to be filed. It was heartbreaking to see old, frail warriors working in sweat shops as janitors, laundry aides, dishwashers, and kitchen aides, and sharing tiny rooms at the International District and scrimping on rent and food. Of course, they were hurt and angry but could not complain. Many shed tears and shared their agony with us. To be able to save a little to send to their families back home and to officially record them as employed and therefore eligible to file petitions, the aging WWII warriors felt that their dignity was trampled upon and that no one cared.
Scores of poor, aging, sickly, and invalid Filipino Americans still wait to be reunited with their children from the Philippines.
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Starting in 2005 IDIC (www.idicseniorcenter.org) advocated in earnest for the old soldiers by affiliating with local and national organizations. It turned out that their plight was duplicated in major parts of the U.S. like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu. They had wisely chosen to stay in warmer regions. In Seattle, the FWVW had 300 active members in the beginning. Aside from veterans living in the Bush Hotel and subsidized apartment facilities in Chinatown, others lived in King, Pierce, and Kitsap counties. To get to know them better, IDIC conducted a survey focusing on their most critical needs. The result was heart-rending. As expected, all wanted their families to join them in the U.S.
Based on the unprecedented survey conducted in Western Washington via a one-time grant from Governor Christine Gregoire, official endorsements came from the Washington State Veterans Affairs Office (VAO) and the Olympia-based Council of Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA). IDIC worked closely with then-CAPAA Chair Ellen Abellera who made the veterans’ plight her focus. It was the first time that a community group would help make known the foremost desire of aging Filipino soldiers who lived alone in America.
Although a high-profile national campaign led by Washington DC-based Eric Lachica’s American Coalition for Filipino Veterans (ACFV) and the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA) of the late Alex Esclamado sought pension benefits for the veterans as de facto wartime recruits of the U.S. Army, the old soldiers still loudly voiced their preference for their families to join them in the U.S. At that conference in Washington DC, a heated argument arose over whether family reunification should be given equal push as the pension issue. I remember that the majority of veterans under Eric Lachica’s ACFV, who really wanted their families more than the much-delayed pension bill, almost walked out of the Embassy. If not for PH Ambassador Willy Gaa’s appeal, the old soldiers would have left the conference.
Aging WWII veterans rallied in Olympia, seat of Washington State government, to seek help in their campaign for family reunification. The group was led by Commanders Julio Joaquin and Amador Montero (2nd and 3rd from left). Both have passed away.
Unbeknown to the public, it was the FWVW’s and IDIC’s strategic leadership that launched what became known (and still actively pursued) as the Filipino WWII Veterans’ Family Reunification Program. Current FWVW Commander Greg Garcia is officially credited for the initiative and consequent recognition by Filipino veterans’ groups all over the U.S. It was Manong Greg’s position paper, prepared with the help of IDIC, that was roundly applauded by veterans, their widows, and children in Honolulu during a NaFFAA national conference.
A few months later Commanders Montero and Garcia, with their spouses, attended a command conference in Washington, DC organized by the Philippine Embassy and the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA) to address the pending veterans’ pension bill. I was privileged to be part of the delegation. That historic conference of aging Filipino soldiers living in the U.S. was highlighted by meetings with the late U.S. Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka. And there was the unforgettable five-minute testimony delivered by Filipino WWII hero of the Nueva Ecija Great Raid, Lt. Benito Valdez, before the U.S. Congressional Veterans’ Affairs Committee in Washington, DC. In a trembling voice and holding back tears, Manong Benito appealed for family reunification before a hushed audience. After that emotional speech, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a member of the Committee, was so touched that she stepped down from her chair to embrace Manong Benito. She declared how proud she was that a war hero from her home state was performing one more heroic act on behalf of his aging comrades. Two years later the lady Senator was instrumental in arranging for the children and grandchildren of Manong Benito–who was then on his deathbed–to come to the U.S. just in time before he died at age 91.
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Today, the promised reunification of veterans’ families is stuck in a bureaucratic maze. Scores of poor, aging, sickly, and invalid Filipino Americans still wait to be reunited with their children from the Philippines; many were granted temporary status as virtual visitors. The best that Uncle Sam could do for Filipino WWII veterans was to award them a one-time lump sum pension (conveniently timed with the Obama stimulus drive to jumpstart a lethargic economy). And only to those who were still living. The widows and families of those who had died were excluded even if they were listed in official rosters in U.S. military archives!
To address the family issue, petitioned families waiting for visa numbers are selectively given what is known as a parole agreement. Parole visas renewed every three years and issued by the INS are very limiting because the veterans’ children can come to the U.S. but are not allowed to hold permanent jobs. They must wait until their visa numbers come up before qualifying for permanent residence, which could take another decade! Meanwhile, if their fathers should die while they were waiting, the petition could be annulled. What a deal! The situation cries for an advocate in the U.S. government to pick up the cudgels for the remaining aging warriors. It is a situation that is not known to the public, both in the U.S. and in the Philippines. Amid all of the glorious medal-awarding ceremonies, we hope that the old soldiers’ supporters could take another serious look at this sad situation.
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U.S.-based Filipino WWII advocacy groups like the FilVetREP are doing an admirable job at drawing attention to heretofore unknown fragments in the continuing saga of the forgotten warriors. When the medal-awarding ceremonies are over, the next sequel will be an educational program to perpetuate the sacrifices and valor of the Filipino soldier in WWII. Among supportive organizations that are proposing to fund a Professorial Chair in the University of the Philippines’ Department of History is the Beta Sigma Fraternity of the Pacific Northwest. Fraternity officers have met with Prof. Rico Jose in Diliman, Quezon City to propose an academic research and Professorial Chair to study the role of Filipino soldiers in helping win the Pacific War. Because that part of our history is a personal matter to me and my siblings, I had immersed myself in research and advocacy work even before I emigrated to the U.S. All gone now---my father, father-in-law, two of my mother’s brothers, and three uncles---were soldiers who fought in WWII. In my youth, growing up in old Camp Murphy and then at historic Ft. William McKinley in Taguig with fellow-Army brats, I was a member of the Sons & Daughters of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (DBC), which was envisioned by General Dionisio Ojeda as a generation of caretakers of our fathers’ legacies.
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My father’s comrades had shared awesome tales about the war and lamented how pitifully lacking postwar records were in mentioning the role of the Filipino soldier in crucial encounters and bloody battles against the enemy. They were disappointed to discover that After-Battle Reports on military operations in the Philippines were based mainly on American records, viewpoints, and writings. There were hardly any wartime reports from Filipino sources. It was explained that the country was under the Japanese for three long years and operations were conducted underground. It was foolish, they reasoned, to have maintained paperwork in that situation.
Japanese Navy Vice Admiral Kyogoru Shimamoto (right photo) surrendered his command flag (he led a successful submarine sneak attack on Pearl Harbor) to then Maj. C.B.Rigor, (left photo) 3rd Battalion commander, 121st Infantry., USAFIP-NL, after the battle of Bessang Pass. Gen. Yamashita’s symbolic military samurai was surrendered to then Maj. Eulogio Balao, Division Commander of the 121st Infantry, USAFIP-NL.
Other Filipino officers held the view that WWII happened at a time when racial prejudice was raging in the U.S., and Filipino soldiers were condescendingly looked upon as “Little Brown Brothers.” Service records show that Filipinos recruited in the U.S. were assigned as ammo carriers, airplane cleaners, latrine and kitchen crews, bootblacks, battleship rust scrapers, and utility and laundry aides. Contrary to dramatized postwar tales, few saw actual combat. In the Philippines, however, young men in their 20s recruited by General MacArthur into the Commonwealth Army bore the brunt of defending the country from the invading Japanese. Filipino historians and academic researchers should help establish true accounts of WWII in the Philippines from oral and written testimonies. The book written by U.S. Army Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, We Remained, is considered a classic tweak on another general’s “Return” promise and records true accounts of the war.
The marker at the foot of the Cordillera mountains, site of the bloody WWII Battle of Bessang Pass, some 20 nautical miles from the historic battle of Tirad Pass that was fought against another foreign force that featured young Filipino General Gregorio del Pilar.
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Generations of Filipinos and the youth in schools must be able to read true accounts of how their forebears sacrificed for the cause of freedom during the Pacific War. Seven decades later, Filipinos must memorialize genuine accounts of that war, especially of operations where Filipino soldiers wrapped themselves in glory and uncommon valor, with thousands paying the ultimate price. Accounts of brave, selfless Filipino men and women written by Filipinos for Filipinos should be a guiding element. War accounts can hold many truths, and it is our solemn duty as a people to be discerning, to set apart what are genuinely ours. We must distinguish the deeds of others from those that rightfully belong to Filipino patriots. #
Conrado (Sluggo) N. Rigor, Jr. served as Executive Director of a non-profit social services organization based in Seattle. He was Information Attache of the Philippine Consulate General in Seattle in the late 1980s.
