HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

34

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING CONGRESS AND the president of the united states to support legislation to repeal the Rescission Act of 1946 and the Second Supplemental Surplus Appropriation Rescission Act (1946), and to restore Filipino World War II veterans' to full United States veterans' status and benefits.

 

 

WHEREAS, on July 26, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt called back to active duty Lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur, who was then serving as military adviser to the Commonwealth government in the Philippines. President Roosevelt appointed General MacArthur to command the newly formed United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE); and

WHEREAS, General MacArthur mobilized the entire Philippine Commonwealth Army, consisting of approximately 212,000 soldiers, into the USAFFE and reinforced approximately 10,000 American soldiers, including the 10,000-strong Philippine Scouts (who were the Filipino regulars in the American army) and the 6,000-strong Philippine Constabulary, under the command of American military forces; and

WHEREAS, with the destruction of the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor and the United States Air Force at Clark Field, and with the withdrawal of United States naval forces to Java, the USAFFE lost its naval and air support in the first few days of the war in the Pacific; and

WHEREAS, within days, Japanese troops landed in Aparri and Vigan, in Legazpi and Davao, in Lingayen, Atimonan, and Mauban, while their planes bombed military objectives and government centers. Within a few weeks, the American and Filipino forces defending Luzon were in full retreat to the stronghold where General MacArthur proposed to make a last stand--the peninsula of Bataan and the island fortress of Corregidor; and

WHEREAS, in the ensuing months, Japanese Imperial Forces in the Philippines focused all their military might against the USAFFE in Bataan and Corregidor; and

WHEREAS, on February 20, 1942, President Manuel Quezon and Vice President Sergio Osmena of the Philippine Commonwealth left Corregidor for the United States to form a government in exile. On March 11, 1942, General MacArthur left Corregidor for Australia to take over the defense of the southern Pacific area. It was upon his arrival in Melbourne that he issued his famous pledge, "I shall return"; and

WHEREAS, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the East Indies (Indonesia) fell before the fierce Japanese advance in the week following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The soldiers in the Philippines, under the command of Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainright, fought on. Their valiant struggle, the only Allied resistance in East Asia during the winter and spring of 1942, slowed down the enemy and gave Australia more time to strengthen its defenses; and

WHEREAS, thousands of Japanese infantrymen, supported by artillery barrages and tank fire power, pounded the Filipino-American lines. Overhead, Japan's air corps soared and bombed the foxholes, hospitals, and ammunition dumps of Bataan. From the sea the enemy warships poured lethal shells on the defenders' positions. Bataan was doomed. The defenders, weakened by hunger, disease, and fatigue, fought fiercely and many died as heroes; and

WHEREAS, Bataan fell on April 9, 1942. Corregidor's Voice of Freedom radio station announced, "Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand--a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world--cannot fall". As many as 36,000 Filipino and American soldiers were captured by the victorious Japanese. Forced to set out on the infamous "Death March" to San Fernando, tens of thousands died from hunger, thirst, disease, and exhaustion. Survivors were crammed into boxcars and shipped to imprisonment in Capas; and

WHEREAS, General Wainwright and the 12,000 Filipino and American soldiers manning the rocky fortress of Corregidor continued to fight, but after the fall of Bataan, the end was in sight for them as well. On May 6, 1942, Major General William Sharp was ordered to stop future useless sacrifice of human life in the Fortified Islands, and to surrender all troops under his command in the Visayan Islands and Mindanao. Corregidor fell almost five months to the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Organized military resistance to the invasion of the Philippines ended that day; and

WHEREAS, many Filipino officers and men refused to heed the order to surrender. They fled to the hills with their arms and, with the help of the civilian population, waged a relentless guerrilla war against the invaders. The guerrillas, almost without arms at the beginning, hungry, and unclothed, gave battle to the enemy from every nook and corner of the land. For three seemingly interminable years and despite unbelievable hardships, they carried the torch of freedom; and

WHEREAS, it was against the backdrop of Bataan, Corregidor, and other theaters of battle, where alien soldiers under the United States flag fought bravely and fiercely, that the United States Congress amended the naturalization provisions of the Nationality Act of 1940; and

WHEREAS, in 1942, Congress reestablished the policy it had set forth during the first World War by providing for the naturalization of aliens honorably serving in the armed forces of the United States during the war. As part of the second War Powers Act, Congress waived the requirements of residence, literacy, and education for alien soldiers. The law allowed any alien who was inducted or who enlisted into the United States Army, Navy, or Air Force during World War II to become a United States citizen; and

WHEREAS, even while the war was raging, alien soldiers in England, Iceland, and North Africa, who served in American military forces, could be naturalized as United States citizens. This naturalization was made possible because beginning in January 1943, naturalization officers were dispatched to foreign countries where they accepted applications, performed naturalization ceremonies, and swore into American citizenship thousands of alien soldiers; and

WHEREAS, while the Philippines was under Japanese occupation, approximately 7,000 Filipino soldiers were naturalized outside the Philippines. The great majority of Filipino soldiers in the country, however, were not even aware of these liberal naturalization benefits. The United States withdrew its naturalization officer from the Philippines for nine months and then allowed the law to lapse in 1946, so few Filipino veterans were able to exercise their rights in a timely manner--rights that had been supposedly earned on the battlefield for a lifetime; and

WHEREAS, although the Immigration Act of 1990 rectified this foreclosure of rights by permitting Filipino veterans of World War II to apply for naturalization and to receive benefits after May 1, 1991, it did not remedy the betrayal of Filipino veterans orchestrated forty-five years earlier by a cost-conscious country through the Rescission Act of 1946 and the Second Supplemental Surplus Appropriation Rescission Act (1946), which declared that the service performed by many Filipino veterans was not "active service" and denied them their veterans benefits after the fact; and

WHEREAS, while Filipino-American veterans who served honorably in an active-duty status under the command of the USAFFE or within the Philippine Army, the Philippine Scouts, or recognized guerrilla units, between September 1, 1939, and December 31, 1946, braved the same dangers and were entitled to apply for naturalization, only those persons who served in the armed forces of the United States or joined the Philippine Scouts before October 6, 1945, currently are entitled to the full-range of veterans benefits; and

WHEREAS, it should be the right of every Filipino-American veteran of World War II, who served honorably in an active-duty status under the command of the USAFFE or within the Philippine Army, the Philippine Scouts, or recognized guerrilla units, to receive the full-range of veterans benefits, including a nonservice disability burial allowance and pension, treatment for nonservice connected disabilities at Veterans Hospitals in the United States, home loan guarantees, burial in a national or state veterans cemetery and headstones, contract national service life insurance and educational assistance for spouses and surviving spouses; and

WHEREAS, those who served in the armed forces of the United States or Philippine Scouts that enlisted prior to October 6, 1945, are eligible for full veteran's benefits, but others can only receive partial benefits. Those with limited benefits include veterans of the Philippine Scouts enlisted after October 6, 1945, Commonwealth Army of the Philippines enlisted between July 26, 1941 and June 30, 1946, and recognized guerrillas with service between April 20, 1942 and June 30, 1946. For these groups, monetary benefits are received in pesos in an amount equivalent to only half of the dollar value, regardless of whether the recipient resides in the Philippines or the United States; and

WHEREAS, Philippine veterans with military service with the Special Philippine Scouts who enlisted between October 6, 1945 and June 30, 1947, under Public Law 190, 79th Congress ("New Scouts") are not entitled to full Department of Veterans Affairs benefits. They are only entitled to service-connected disability benefits. This is payable to a veteran if he is presently suffering from a disability which the Department of Veterans Affairs determined to be the result of a disease or injury incurred in or aggravated during military service. The disability must have been rated by the Department of Veterans Affairs as ten per cent or more disabling to be compensable. (No compensation may be paid for a service-connected disability rated less than ten per cent disabling.) Medical treatment is provided only for their service-connected disabilities; and

WHEREAS, Philippine veterans with military service in the Commonwealth Army of the Philippines and recognized guerrilla units are entitled to service-connected disability benefits only if they are presently suffering from a disability which the Department of Veterans Affairs determines to be the result of disease or injury incurred in or aggravated during military service. The disability must have been rated by the Department of Veterans Affairs as ten per cent or more to be compensable. No compensation may be paid for a service-connected disability rated less than ten per cent disabling. Benefits are payable in Philippine pesos. Medical treatment is provided only for their service-connected disabilities; and

WHEREAS, there is no greater duty for a nation of free men and women than the care of former soldiers and their dependents, no greater honor for a former soldier than to be laid to rest next to the soldier's comrades-in-arms, no greater act of respect that a grateful country can show a former soldier than to inter the soldier's remains on hallowed ground, and no greater tribute that future generations of freedom-loving Americans can visit upon a former soldier than to remember those sacrifices made by the soldier on the battlefield; and

WHEREAS, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, upon the establishment of the Veterans Administration (now the United States Department of Veterans Affairs), this country has a sacred duty "to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan"; and awarding the full-range of veterans benefits to former soldiers is the very least that a grateful nation can do for those persons who placed themselves in harm's way to protect the United States from its enemies; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2002, the Senate concurring, that Congress and the President of the United States are requested to support legislation to repeal the Rescission Act of 1946 and the Second Supplemental Surplus Appropriation Rescission Act (1946), and to restore Filipino World War II veterans' to full United States veterans' status and benefits; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Hawaii's congressional delegation is again requested to continue its support for legislation and other action to ensure that Filipino-American veterans who served honorably in an active-duty status under the command of the USAFFE or within the Philippine Army, the Philippine Scouts, or recognized guerrilla units, between September 1, 1939, and December 31, 1946, are granted the full range of veterans benefits that they were promised, that they are entitled to and that is provided to other veterans recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, and the Adjutant General.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Filipino World War II Veterans' Benefits