Its sad to know that, there are so many young Filipinos now who dont know or realize how much our own people had given for the two countries we claim as our own. I certainly cant blame young folks from not knowing anything but the stories they may have heard passed down from their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. Not much has ever been made or written about the Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) during WWII. This is a site about a Filipino who is doing his best to get the heroic story of what Filipinos contributed and sacrificed along side with their American brothers-in-arms. Its a story that needs and SHOULD be told -especial since for decades after the war, many Filipino veterans had been treated as second class citizens by the US War Dept. Many who retired after 20 yrs of faithful service for this country, were never given the full G.I. benefits that More than earned and deserved. It was only a few years ago (2009) that these men were finally compensated on a broken promise (of 250, 000 filipino veterans who volunteered, only about 15,000 were alive to receive the benefit, a one time sum of $15,000 each for those whove have become U.S. citizens and $9,000 for non-citizens…, a pitiful pitiful amount considering what these men survived through (e.g., the Bataan Death March and the Japanese prison camps). Even the movie The Great Raid down played the role Filipinos had in the most successful operation of WWII! We have to learn, remember and pass down what our parent/ grandparents/ great grandparents did for this country so that now one can claim anything against Filipinos…, Believe me, bigotry and racism is alive and well in this country. If we really are proud of being Filipino, then wouldnt make sense to know everything about our past? Granted, i only know a few filipino dishes and didnt know much about Lapu Lapu or how many islands or dialects there are in the PI -i was once told by another filipino, i wasnt a real filipino because i had no knowledge of this stuff but, when it comes to WWII filipino veterans, i become very passionate for that knowledge. The passion probably comes from having a dad who had to see his family face racist attitudes from the country he served and fought battles for in several Philippine campaigns, watching 6 friends get torn to pieces by a grenade, to then also get sent to fight in the Korean War before finally retiring from the US Army, made me very passionate to learn more about Filipino vets. I especially want to thank others here, whove posted some historical facts about the Philippines, beautiful pictures of the homes and countryside -and many of the hilarious weird quirks flips have, i didnt know about! Many which have explained a LOT about myself!!!
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 01:47:59 +0000
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