BEFORE THIS MONTH, Filipino American History Month, is over, we need to recount why the Filipino veterans of World War II were recently given the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given in peacetime by the U.S. Congress.
It is unfortunate, but many Filipino/American youngsters and recent immigrants from the Philippines, still don't know why such importance was given to this historic event that occurred in Washington DC last week.
Watch this video from the Filipino Veterans Recognition & Education Project:
For 75 years, Filipino American leaders sought to correct this grievious slight and broken promise of a recalcitrant Congress and a reluctant President Harry Truman.
Of the 66 nationalities that fought alongside the U.S. during World War II, only those from the Philippines were denied this recognition.
If you have spent time with these men, you know they are full of pride. Their loyalty to the U.S. and the ideals of democracy remained steadfast, even though they were insulted by the broken promise of benefits, recognition and citizenship as promised by President Franklin Roosevelt.
In the late 60s and 70s, some Filipino American leaders lobbied sympathetic Congressional representatives in California and Hawaii, some who were WWII veterans themselves, to fulfill Roosevelt's promise.
Leading the charge was Alex Esclamado, publisher of the Philippine News, and founder of fledgling umbrella organizations such as the Filipino American Political Association and the Filipino American Council of Northern California.
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I'm proud to say that for a number of successive terms, my father, Melchor V. Diokno, was president of the FACNC during this era. As a documented member of the US Army, my father had no problem with his benefits. He did not fight for personal gain. He fought for his comrades and the thousands of others he found with and who he marched with in the Bataan Death March and with whom he shared rice with in the POW camp. He fought to correct an injustice and for what was right.
The Filipino community, up until then was fractionalized into regional and professional groups and weakened by the divisions caused by the Marcos dictatorship. They learned to use the power of collective action to garner the attention and support of congress members. This era marked a period of educatoin: The first stirrings of political activism in the Filipino/American community as theiy began to learn the ins-and-outs of US politics; members of Congress had to be educated at the injustice of what had happened to the veterans.
The issue came up to Congress, time and time again, under the authorship of a long series of congressional representatives, only to have the bill die in committee and buried in red tape.
But they never gave up. Victories started to come in: Citizenship for all former members of the United States Armed Forces of the Far East; benefits for those with documentation of their service; widening of benefits to include those veterans who fought in guerrilla units or whose documentation was destroyed in the war; benefits for their children, reunification with their families.
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| Image of the Congressional Gold Medal for Filipino WWII vets. |
Replicas are available to be given to those veterans or their descendants, who can prove their participation in the war or who can prove the eligibility of their elderly relatives. Unfortunately, the medals will not be free. They cost several hundred dollars each.
There were 250,000 Filipino veterans who answered Roosevelt's call to fight against the Japanese Empire and who became eligible for the award but there are only about 18,000 surviving veterans left after the long battle for recognition.
The Filipino Veterans Recognition & Education Project is raising funds to help defray the expenses involved. If you, your business or your organization would like to donate, click here, or copy and paste this website: https://www.filvetrep.org/resource.
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