Inequality in the Ranks
S 1156 and HR 2297 Deny 120,000 American Veterans MLK’s Dream
By Feliciano Bunagan – President of the California Filipino WWII Veterans Association

I would like to tell the public, most especially the people of America and others who are here, in as much as they respect Martin Luther King Jr., they should grant respect and recognize the Filipino WWII Veteran. One hundred and twenty thousand of us sacrificed our lives, some of us even died to save democracy. Now we are denied. How can America honor Martin Luther King Jr. and discriminate against us at the same time?

I am one of the remnants alive to tell you the sentiments of 8,000 Filipino WWII Veterans living in the United States in crowded rooms. It is a pity that most Filipino veterans are receiving welfare when they should be enjoying the full benefits and compensation of an American Veteran.

The two bills that congress just passed to address our injustice, S 1156 and HR 2297 continue the discrimination against us. Even those very few who are allowed to receive full compensation because of these new laws cannot go home. If we stay with our families in the Philippines for longer than two months our benefits are cut in half. We are offered justice only if we give up living in our homeland.

If I could only explain, my sentiments are the same as other veterans. We are lamented, discontented, discriminated. We were denied social justice which makes us feel pain in our hearts.

We were inducted into the United States Armed Forces of the Far East which meant we were U.S. Army. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that we were to serve under the American flag. This was not the Filipinos’ war, it was an American war.

When we were fighting against the Japanese on Bataan, General Homa tried to convince the Filipino soldiers to withdraw from the side of the Americans. He told us over the bull horn that we were only involved in this war because we were a colony of the United States. He said we should not let the Americans use us to defend them. But we remained loyal and fought side by side with the Americans because that was our duty.

Even when we were taken as prisoners of war and forced into labor building landing fields for the Japanese, we continued to fight for America. We found ways to escape from the concentration camps by getting Japanese flags and clothes from Filipinos who were pro Japanese. Then for one whole week we walked hundreds of kilometers to the mountains and became guerillas there.

From time to time we went down disguised as civilians making reconnaissance. We carried the Japanese flag so that we could travel free because they did not know we were guerillas. Then we stole all their fire arms, we got some dynamites, grenades and 37mm bullets.

We freed many Americans from the concentration camps. We pitied them because they where there forced to labor under the hot sun and even in the rain. We gave them our hats and clothes so they looked like Filipinos and then ran. We accompanied them to the tunnels and then to the mountains.

Page 2