Memorial Day 2026: US’ broken promises to AANHPI veterans is nothing new

 
It is a pattern as old as the republic itself: America makes a promise when it needs your help, and tears up the contract the second it becomes inconvenient.

Over 250,000 Filipinos answered the call of President Roosevelt to fight for the US during WWII.

For Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, this history is written in ink and blood. The Rescission Act of 1946 is not just a "budget-saving measure" or a legislative technicality. It is a calculated act of betrayal by the United States government.

When the shadow of imperial Japan loomed over the Pacific in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt didn't hesitate. He officially drafted the Philippine Commonwealth Army directly into the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE).

Filipino soldiers were legally serving under the American flag. They were promised full U.S. veterans' benefits, healthcare, and the GI Bill. They held the line at Bataan and Corregidor. They endured the Death March. They bled for a country that called them its own nationals.

But once the war was won, Congress decided their sacrifice was too expensive. With the stroke of a pen, the Rescission Act retroactively declared that their service was not "active military service." Uncle Sam got the victory, and Filipino veterans got the shaft.

A familiar playbook of deception

To anyone paying attention to the "views from the edge" of American history, this wasn't an isolated incident. It is part of a long, dark tradition of institutional dishonesty and structural colonization:

• The stolen Kingdom of Hawaiʻi: In 1893, US-backed sugar barons and military forces engineered an illegal coup against Queen Liliʻuokalani, toppling a sovereign constitutional monarchy just to secure a Pacific refueling station.

• The Original Sin of the Spanish-American War: Decades before WWII, the US.had already perfected the art of the backstab in the Philippines. In 1898, Filipino patriots had spent years fighting Spain and had successfully surrounded Manila, ready to claim independence. Instead of supporting their revolutionary allies, U.S. commanders went behind the back of Emilio Aguinaldo and cut a secret deal with the Spanish. They staged a farcical, pre-arranged Mock Battle of Manila so Spain could "save face" by surrendering to white Americans rather than the Filipinos who actually won the war. The US then bought the Philippines from Spain for $20 million in the Treaty of Paris, locking out the Filipino patriots entirely and turning the islands into an American colony.

• The abandonment of Hmong and Lao soldiers: The betrayal didn't stop in 1946; it was repeated a generation later in the jungles of Southeast Asia. During the Vietnam War, the CIA ran a "Secret War" in Laos, recruiting over 30,000 Hmong and Lao soldiers to fight communist forces, rescue downed American pilots, and block the Ho Chi Minh Trail. US officials explicitly promised to take care of them and their families. But when the US pulled out in 1975, they abandoned their loyal allies to face brutal retribution, labor camps, and genocide by the victorious communist regime. For decades, the U.S. government denied these veterans official recognition, healthcare, or military burial honors, treating their sacrifice as a deniable classified asset.

• The shredded treaties with Indigenous Americans: Hundreds of peace treaties were signed with Native nations, promising land and sovereignty "as long as the rivers run." Every single one of them was systematically violated, broken, or rewritten by the U.S. government when gold, oil, or land expansion beckoned.

• The ongoing courtroom battles for tribal sovereignty: This Native American struggle is far from ancient history; it is actively raging in federal courts today. Tribal nations are constantly forced to sue the federal government just to make Uncle Sam honor those centuries-old promises. From landmark Supreme Court battles like McGirt v. Oklahoma—which finally forced the state to recognize reservation boundaries—to ongoing corporate and state attempts to strip away tribal land, water rights, and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), Indigenous communities are still on the front lines defending their survival against a government that prefers its treaties broken.

View from the edge

The Rescission Act belongs on that exact same shelf of shame. The US government has always treated people of color as temporary wartime commodities or obstacles to empire.

Whether it is trying to close out a fund for centenarian Filipino heroes to balance a congressional budget, or continuing to deny full medical care to Hmong elders who rescued downed American pilots, the underlying theme hasn't changed. 

The US government still treats AAPI service as a temporary contract. The legislation we see today isn't just about policy—it is a continuous, generational fight to force an empire to pay its historical debts. Shamefully, the Rescission Act of 1946 is still n the books and should be repealed.

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