In 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navyattacked Pearl Harbor, while other Japanese forces attacked the Philippines.[18] Filipino Americans, like other Americans, attempted to volunteer for military service, but were not allowed to enlist since they were neither citizens nor resident aliens.[19][20] Following a change in legislation it was announced on 3 January 1942, the day after Manilafell,[21][22] that Filipinos would be permitted to volunteer, and could be drafted, for military service; in California, almost half of the male Filipino American population enlisted.[23][24] Some who volunteered to serve were refused due to their age; other older volunteers were refused due to the need for agriculturallabor.[25] Filipinos were strongly encouraged to volunteer for the Regiment, and only those who did so were assigned to it.[13][26] Those who did not volunteer to serve in the Regiment served in regular (white) units in various theaters of operation.[1][26] One example was PFCRamon S. Subejano, who was awarded the Silver Star for actions in Germany.[27]
History
Stateside
Constituted in March 1942,[28] the 1st Filipino Infantry Battalion was activated in April at Camp San Luis Obispo,[23] to liberate the Philippines.[1] Colonel Robert Offley was selected as the unit's commanding officer, as he spoke Tagalog and had spent time on Mindoro in his youth.[10] During the following months, Filipino Americans continued to volunteer, and the unit grew. Philippine Army personnel who were in the United States[1] and Filipino military personnel who had escaped the fall of the Philippines[29] and were recuperating in the United States were also instructed to report to the unit.[1][30] On July 13, 1942, the battalion was elevated to a regiment at the California Rodeo Grounds in Salinas, California.[1][31] The Regiment was made up of three battalions, each consisting of a headquarters company and four infantry companies.[32] The Regiment had a separate regimental headquarters company, a service company, an anti-tank company, a medicaldetachment, and a band.[32] Members of this regiment were notably issued bolo knives in place of rifles.[33]
The Regiment continued to train and grow, leading to the activation of the 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiment at Fort Ord in November 1942.[1] The 2nd Regiment was assigned to Camp Cooke and the 1st to Camp Beale.[1] Eventually, more than 7,000 soldiers would be assigned to the Filipino Infantry Regiments.[34][35] While at Camp Beale, there was a mass naturalization ceremony of 1,200 soldiers of the Regiment.[36][37] As members of the armed forces they were able to become citizens;[38] in 1924 naturalization of Filipino Americans had been barred, as it was determined that only aliens could be naturalized and Filipinos at the time were nationals.[39] In November 1943, it paraded through Los Angeles, with Carlos Bulosan, the influential Filipino author of America Is in the Heart, there to witness it.[40]
Members of the Regiment faced discrimination during this period. The anti-miscegenation laws in California meant that the soldiers were banned from marrying non-Filipino women; those soldiers who wished to marry in this way were transported to Gallup, New Mexico,[41] as New Mexico had repealed its anti-miscegenation law after the Civil War.[42] Soldiers of the Regiment faced discrimination in Marysville while visiting from neighboring Camp Beale, as the local businesses refused to serve Filipinos.[4][43] This was later remedied by the Regiment's commander, who informed the Chamber of Commerce that they were failing to cooperate with the Army, at which point they changed their business practices.[4] Further instances of discrimination against soldiers of the Regiment were also reported in Sacramento and San Francisco, where they were mistaken for Japanese Americans.[44]
Deployment
In April 1944, the Regiment departed California aboard the USS General John Pope for Oro Bay, New Guinea.[45][46] On the way to New Guinea, the Regiment spent part of June in Australia.[47] Upon arriving at Oro Bay, it was assigned to the 31st Infantry Division, 8th Army to provide area security and continue training.[48] Some soldiers were then assigned to the Alamo Scouts,[49] the 5217th Reconnaissance Battalion,[50] and to the Philippine Regional Section of Allied Intelligence Bureau.[51] One example was Second LieutenantRafael Ileto, a future Vice Chief of Staff in the Philippines, who led a team in the Alamo Scouts.[52] Due to the reassignment of these soldiers, both Filipino Infantry Regiments became smaller than authorized. In response, the 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiment was disbanded and used to bring the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment to 125% of its standard allocated size.[1] The remaining soldiers of the 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiment who did not join the Regiment formed the 2nd Filipino Infantry Battalion (Separate).[1] During its time at Oro Bay, the Regiment was reinforced with Filipinos from Hawaii.[1][3] These men had not been able to enlist in the Army until 1943 as the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association had successfully argued that their labor was needed in the sugar industry.[13]
By August 1945, operations came to a close[1] due to the Japanese Emperor's decision to end the war following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[61] Soldiers of the Regiment who had been detached to the Alamo Scouts, 5217th Reconnaissance Battalion, and other units were reassigned back to it.[1][62] During the period between the close of operations and their return to the United States, and without the Imperial Japanese Army to fight, the men of the Regiment clashed with soldiers of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and Philippine Constabulary over differences in pay, culture and local women.[3] Others married women under the War Brides Act,[63] which allowed spouses and adopted children of United States military personnel to enter the U.S.[64] For these newly married couples, a "tent city"[1] was established by Colonel William Hamby, who had succeeded Offley as the Regiment Commander.[1] Many younger soldiers connected to a culture to which they had previously only had a distant relationship, learning language and customs that were not used or practiced in the United States.[3]
Soldiers of the Regiment who did either not qualify to return to the U.S., either due to having insufficient service points[48] or their being otherwise ineligible,[1] and those who chose to remain in the Philippines,[1] were transferred to 2nd Filipino Infantry Battalion (Separate) in Quezon City.[1]Returning to the United States aboard the USS General Calan on 8 April 1946, the rest of the Regiment was sent to Camp Stoneman, near Pittsburgh, California, where it was deactivated on 10 April 1946.[1][2]
During the war the efforts of Filipino and American defenders during the Battle of Bataan were widely covered by the press,[11] as were the actions of the 100th and 442nd Infantry.[65] After the war, the efforts of the 442nd continued to be lauded,[66] with the 1951 film Go for Broke! portraying their endeavors.[67] By contrast, the activities of the Filipino Infantry Regiment and her sister units were largely unpublicized;[3] it was not until the documentariesUnsung Heroes and An UnTold Triumph that any significant visual media covered the history of the Regiment.[68][69] In 1984 an association of veterans of the Regiment erected a marker in Salinas in honor of their former unit.[70]
The War Brides Act of 1945, and subsequent Alien Fiancées and Fiancés Act of 1946,[26][71] continued to apply until the end of 1953,[1] allowing veterans of the Regiment,[1] and other Filipino American veterans,[35] to return to the Philippines to bring back fiancées, wives, and children.[1] In the years following the war, some sixteen thousand Filipinas entered the United States as war brides.[72] These new Filipino American families formed a second generation of Filipino Americans,[26] significantly expanding the Filipino American community.[35]
^ abcdefgh"Statement of Service". Center of Military History. United States Army. 1 May 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2011. "Statement of Service". United States Army. Center of Military History. 10 May 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
^ abcdefIshikawa, Scott (30 November 2001). "New Film Depicts Filipino Regiments' Exploits". Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved 10 May 2011. Soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiments also participated in bloody combat and mop-up operations in New Guinea, Leyte, Samar, Luzon and the southern Philippines.
^ abMcKibben, Carol Lynn; Seaside History Project (2009). Seaside. San Francisco, California: Arcadia Publishing. p. 39. ISBN978-0-7385-6981-9. Retrieved 24 May 2011. The 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments trained at Fort Ord, after which they distinguished themselves in the Battle of Leyte and on the Bataan Peninsula.
^ abFrank, Sarah (2005). Filipinos in America. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications. p. 40. ISBN978-0-8225-4873-7. Retrieved 8 June 2011. Members of the first and second regiments also served in the parachute-naval assault to recapture the island of Corregidor in 1944
^McNaughton, James C. (2006). Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service During World War II. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army. p. 87. ISBN0-16-072957-2. Retrieved 26 May 2011. The War Department already had several long-serving segregated units for African Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Filipinos and established several more during 1942. The Office of War information saw propaganda value in having combat units of different nationalities. Thus during 1942 the War Department organized the 1st Filipino infantry in California and battalion-size units of Norwegians, Austrians, and Greeks.
^"Filipino Immigration"(PDF). Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
^Eftihia Danellis; Ann Du. "Fight for Democracy: An Educator's Resource Guide"(PDF). National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2011. However, in 1934, they were reclassified as "aliens".
^Goggans, Jan; Aaron DiFranco (2004). The Pacific region. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 137. ISBN978-0-313-33043-8. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
^Perez, Frank Ramos; Perez, Leatrice Bantillo (1994). "The Long Struggle for Acceptance: Filipinos in San Joaquin County"(PDF). The San Joaquin Historian. 8 (4). The San Joaquin County Historical Society: 3–18. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2011. In San Joaquin County many Filipinos who volunteered for military service were rejected because of their age and/or the need for them to continue to work in the fields harvesting the crops to feed the armed forces.
^The reference Creating Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila (España-Maram, 2006) used the word "Formed". By Army terminology this is incorrect. Per Army Regulation 220-5Archived 29 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine the correct term is "Constituted". The article has been edited to reflect that.
^"Fort Ord". California Military Museum. California State Military Department. Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2011. Another unit of interest, the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment, was activated in April and eventually included a few veterans of fighting on Bataan that had been wounded, evacuated, and returned to duty in the United States.
^ ab"1st Filipino Infantry"(PDF). Camp Roberts Trainer. United States Army. 1943. Archived from the original(PDF) on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
^"An Untold Triumph: The Story of the 1st & 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, U.S. Army". Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program. Smithsonian Institution. 30 January 2003. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2011. An Untold Triumph captures the never-been-told story of how the U.S. Army's World War II 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, made up of more than 7,000 immigrants and sons of immigrants, played a vital role in General Douglas MacArthur's covert plan to retake the Philippines.
^"Selected Dates and Events of Asian Pacific American History". Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. State of Washington. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2011. As members of the armed forces, Filipinos are allowed to become U.S. citizens. 1,200 Filipino soldiers stand proudly in "V" formation at Camp Beale as citizenship is conferred on them.
Posadas, Barbara Mercedes (1999). The Filipino Americans. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 23. ISBN978-0-313-29742-7. Retrieved 21 May 2011. Thus, although all children born in the United States to Filipino immigrants were U.S. citizens, before World War II, no matter how many years Philippine-born Filipinos had lived in the United States, they were ineligible for naturalization, and, therefore, could not vote, or be absolutely sure of their future status and security.
M. Licudine v. D. Winter, JR 1086, p. 5 (U.S. District Court for D.C. 2008) (""[f]rom the time the United States obtained dominion over the Philippines in 1899 until it granted independence to the islands in 1946, [the United States] Congress classified natives of the Philippines as Philippine citizens, as non-citizen United States nationals, and as aliens, but never as United States citizens."").
^"1st Filipino Regiment". Center of Military History. United States Army. 10 May 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
^Smith, Robert Ross (1963). Triumph in the Philippines. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. p. 437. ISBN9780160899539. Retrieved 24 May 2011. Reinforced by elements of the 1st Filipino Infantry, U.S. Army, the 182ds battalion overran organized resistance on northwest Samar by 1 March, and on the 4th of the month relinquished responsibility for patrolling in the region to the 1st Filipino Infantry and attached guerrillas.
^ abCannon, M. Hamlin (1993). Leyte: The Return to the Philippines. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. p. 365. Retrieved 25 May 2011. In the X Corps phase, the island of Samar was cleared of Japanese troops. The Americal Division, advance elements of which arrived on 24 January, extensively patrolled both the islands of Leyte and Samar. During the Eighth Army Area Command phase, the constant searching out of isolated groups of enemy soldiers continued. In addition to the Americal Division, the Regiment patrolled Leyte. On 8 May, the control of the Eighth Army over the area came to an end.
^Eftihia Danellis; Ann Du. "Fight for Democracy: An Educator's Resource Guide"(PDF). National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2011. Assigned to the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment, Domingo came ashore on Leyte Island in the Philippines. His unit had been assigned the dangerous task of "mopping up" enemy soldiers who refused to surrender at all costs.
^M. Hamilin Cannon (1993). "Chapter XXII: Leyte is Liberated". Leyte: The Return to the Philippines. ibiblio.org. Retrieved 24 May 2011. In addition to the Americal Division, the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment patrolled Leyte.
^Merriam, Ray (1999). World War II Journal. Bennington, Vermont: Merriam Press. p. 27. ISBN978-1-57638-164-9. Retrieved 24 May 2011. Additional American units were called into the battle of Leyte: the 32nd Infantry Division, the 77th and 37th Infantry Divisions, the Americal Division, the 11th Airborne Division, the 112th Cavalry Regiment Combat Team, the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, the 20th Armored Group, and the 1st Filipino Infantry.
^Bell, Walter F. Bell (1999). Philippines in World War Two, 1941–1945. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 74. ISBN978-0-313-30614-3. Retrieved 24 May 2011. "On Samar, elements of Americal Division and 1st Filipino Infantry clear Mauro area.
^"The Philippine Airborne". The Corregidor Historic Society. 29 March 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2011. Shortly after the mission, the 5217th, now the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, was sent to Manila, where Walter and his cadre were returned to the 503d PRCT. Shortly thereafter, in August 1945, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion was disbanded and the men reassigned.
Slavicek, Louise Chipley (2007). Daniel Inouye. New York, New York: Infobase Publishing. p. 74. ISBN978-0-7910-9271-2. Retrieved 21 May 2011. The previous summer, the Nisei veterans of the 442nd Regiment Combat Team had gathered at the White House for special review by President Harry Truman in recognition of their battlefield achievements.
^Andrew Ruppenstien; Manny Santos (21 January 2010). "The First and Second Filipino Infantry Regiments U.S. Army". Historic Marker Database. Retrieved 8 June 2011. Personnel won more than 50,000 decorations, awards, medals, ribbons, certificates, commendations and citations.