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
Continued

There were four American colonels, Ramsey, Anderson, Brokeman and I cannot remember the last ones name. We got them to the mountains then made them our commanding officers. They where the ones who communicated with the American forces coming to take back the Philippines.

We continued spying and telling the locations of the Japanese in preparation for the attack of General MacArthur. We concentrated that thing there and that thing there so the planes would know where to attack them. On Oct. 24, 1944 we received a message that the Americans were already on the way. When the planes came, there were plenty of them in bunches coming from the east and by golly the Japanese did not know where to go.

We met the American forces after the war and there was already a call for us. All those U.S.A.F.F.E and all those guerillas who joined the war were to please report to Camp Murphy for processing. When I heard the order I went to Camp Murphy. They were processing soldiers that were alive, soldiers that survived the war. It was only I think 50% out of one hundred and twenty thousand, only 60,000 who survived. One half were wiped out, even the officers.

Then the injustice came when the U.S. Congress passed the Rescission Act of 1946. That law stated that we served America but deemed us “to have not served” so America would not have to give us equal benefits. How can America say we do not deserve equal compensation when we fought their war, we were American soldiers. We are not treated equally and that is discrimination.

We are not given the due process of being a veteran. We are called United States Veterans because we are U.S.A.F.F.E. but we are denied equality. One hundred and twenty thousand Filipino WWII Veterans are denied of justice. To tell you frankly, when we go home we have nothing. Especially now in the Philippines it is very hard to live there. We came here to ask help from the Congress of the United States.

The only way to give us justice is to change that language of the Rescission Act of 1946 once and for all. That which says “to have not served” must say we have served so we can be recognized as we are, American Veterans. Only one bill in Congress will do that, HR 677.

I urge both upper and lower houses of the Congress and especially to the President of the United States to please help us change the language of the Rescission Act of 1946 so that we can be given equal treatment under the law. Only then will the 30,000 Filipino Veterans who are dying, sometimes 5 to 7 a day and the 90,000 who have already passed away, receive equality and justice.

They can spend billions and billions on Afghanistan, Iraq and now even North Korea. They can spend for satellites going to other planets. Why can’t they spend for the Filipino Veterans who fought side by side with them? We fought for America and now it is time for America to fight for us.

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