War veterans’ woe

James Alderman who gave me his father’s collection of war time newspapers, sent an email on one of the woes of Filipino war veterans – the refusal of the United States to recognize them.

Before I deal with the subject ,let me thank James once more. When I went over the flaked pages of his father’s collection I found two same- day extra issues of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin of December 7, 1941 that bannered in bold letters the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some of the contents of the newspaper had not been cited or used in books about that sneak attack although several volumes of the opening of the war in the Pacific had been published. In due time, I will share with our readers some of details of the attack since many of our readers are in the United States and other parts of the world.

The new information that James Alderman shares is a note in the Registration Certificate of his father. James says that among the personal effects of his father is this certificate for Military Draft during World War II. While James says that “this would ordinarily have nothing to do with any history of the Philippines” his observation has indeed a lot to do with our history, particularly our military history.

James says that on the “reverse side under Description of Registrant there is a block for RACE. Filipino is one of those blocks (and) since the military draft was re-introduced in Feb. 1940, every American citizen between the ages of 18 to 60 had to sign up.”

James continues. “At that time I know that the Philippines was a Commonwealth of the USA. If the draft applied to Filipinos as well as Americans I was wondering if having one of these draft cards in the possession of a WWII Filipino Veteran would make a stronger case for those forgotten soldiers that served in the Armed Forces of the United States?”

James Alderman is right because while we were Filipino nationals we were technically and legally American citizens and therefore had to register or report for mobilization. Our soldiers took the oath like other American soldiers.

Had the Americans respected and honored their word said before and during the war, the issue of non-recognition of the Filipino war veterans of World War II would never had engendered anti-Americanism in post WW II.

However how many Filipinos who registered prior to the war when President Franklin Roosevelt called for national mobilization in 1941 kept their Registration Certificates? While the war raged Roosevelt promised Philippine Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon full compensation for the Filipino soldiers to prevent Quezon from declaring neutrality and withdraw from engaging in the war on either side, Japanese or Americans. Quezon was angry because the promised relief was diverted to England.

Had the Philippines withdrawn from the war, American resistance would have collapsed earlier and freed the Japanese 4th Army destined for invasion of Northern Australia. The history of the war would have been different.

The Philippines stood by the US on the American promise and delayed the Japanese timetable by four crucial months that allowed the Allied forces to begin the counter-attack.

What happened after the war? Why did the US renege on its promise to compensate the Philippines even including the carabao killed in the service of the US? Roosevelt and Quezon had died while the war was going on and the practical postwar American politicians thought the American word of honor died with them.

In 1946, the US Congress passed the Rescission Act that declared the Filipinos who fought as American soldiers as ineligible for veterans’ benefits, except death and disability benefits that were extended to American soldiers and despite assurances made earlier. The US Congress realized the large number of Filipino veterans and the cost involved in placing them under the same legibility as the US soldier under the “GI Benefits” law that provided all range of veteran’s benefits.

President Harry Truman who signed this law in February 1946 said, “I consider it a moral obligation of the United States to look after the welfare of the Filipino veterans” but he also admitted the “practical difficulties” of complying with that moral obligation.

In sum, this issue boils down to money and to setting aside moral obligations.

The clamor for benefits did not die there. Until today many veterans are still fighting their war for recognition. There are moves to compensate, little by little as if to assuage American conscience but thousands had already died without being compensated.

James Alderman shows sympathy for the plight of our veterans but somehow many unrecognized Filipino soldiers of that war remain happy and proud to have fought as they did. Some console themselves with the thought that they did not fight the American war but their own against an invader.*

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