Filipinos in the United States Armed Forces

This fourteenth day of Filipino American History Month brings information on Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the United States military.

As a result of the U.S. colonization of the Philippines, the military has played a large role in the lives of millions of Filipinos and Filipino Americans. People of Filipino descent served in all branches of the United States Armed Forces, as enlisted persons as well as officers.

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an Executive Order that gave full veteran’s benefits to Filipinos if they enlisted in the United States Armed Forces.

Filipinos and Filipino Americans answered the U.S. call to war against Japan by volunteering to serve in large numbers during World War II (1939-1945). Many groups of men from different generations did not previously know each other - from Hawaii, the U.S. west coast, coming from the Philippines throughout the twentieth century, and so on. Even though they came from different places and generations, their experiences during their service allowed them to build a familial network many had not available to them before. Soldiers typically fight for one country, but when Filipinos in the United States answered the call during World War II, thousands specifically intended to join in order to liberate the Philippines as well as serve the U.S.

By 1942, the First and Second Filipino Infantry Regiments were established to fight in the Philippines. The Nationality Act Amendment gave Filipino non-citizens who joined the military U.S. citizenship. There were mass naturalization ceremonies where thousands of Filipinos became citizens. The segregated First Filipino Infantry Regiment was activated in California mid-1942 and the Second Filipino Infantry Regiment was formed later in the year. Prior to World War II, Filipinos had long served as stewards in the U.S. Navy, and they continued to do so in large numbers throughout the war. In 1944 about 1,000 Filipino Americans were selected for a secret mission, taken to the Philippines by submarines, and landed in various spots throughout the archipelago to contact anti-Japanese underground groups and to gather intelligence for General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia. The stories of the First and Second Filipino Infantry Regiments were memorialized in a documentary entitled, An Untold Triumph: The Story of the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, U.S. Army.

In the Philippines, Filipinos joined the United States Armed Forces of the Far East (USAFFE) also being promised the same benefits as other U.S. veterans and U.S. citizenship. Their knowledge of the terrain and resilient fighting spirit served invaluable to the war effort and the eventual defeat of the Japanese forces. Some of their heroic story was captured in the books Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission, by Hampton Sides, The Great Raid on Cabanatuan, by Willam B. Breuer, and the movie The Great Raid, starring Philippine actor Cesar Montano.

Today, many of the soldiers that were part of the USAFFE and their allies continue to fight for the rights they were promised at the start of World War II. Slowly, legislation passed over the years has provided for the return of some of the unkept promises, but equity continues to evade them.