45
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.R. NO.              H.D. 1
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________


                     HOUSE  RESOLUTION
  REQUESTING THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND CONGRESSIONAL
    LEADERS TO WORK TOWARD ALLOWING FILIPINO-AMERICAN VETERANS
    TO BE INTERRED IN NATIONAL OR STATE VETERANS CEMETERIES.



 1        WHEREAS, on July 26, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt
 2   called back to active duty Lieutenant General Douglas
 3   MacArthur, who was then serving as military adviser to the
 4   Commonwealth government in the Philippines.  President
 5   Roosevelt appointed General MacArthur to command the newly
 6   formed United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE); and
 7   
 8        WHEREAS, General MacArthur mobilized the entire Philippine
 9   Commonwealth Army, consisting of approximately 212,000
10   soldiers, into the USAFFE and reinforced approximately 10,000
11   American soldiers, including the 10,000-strong Philippine
12   Scouts (who were the Filipino regulars in the American army)
13   and the 6,000-strong Philippine Constabulary, under the command
14   of American military forces; and
15   
16        WHEREAS, with the destruction of the United States fleet
17   at Pearl Harbor and the United States Air Force at Clark Field,
18   and with the withdrawal of United States naval forces to Java,
19   the USAFFE lost its naval and air support in the first few days
20   of the war in the Pacific; and
21   
22        WHEREAS, within days, Japanese troops landed in Aparri and
23   Vigan, in Legazpi and Davao, in Lingayen, Atimonan, and Mauban,
24   while their planes bombed military objectives and government
25   centers.  Within a few weeks, the American and Filipino forces
26   defending Luzon were in full retreat to the stronghold where
27   General MacArthur proposed to make a last stand--the peninsula
28   of Bataan and the island fortress of Corregidor; and
29   
30        WHEREAS, in the ensuing months Japanese Imperial Forces in
31   the Philippines focused all their military might against the
32   USAFFE in Bataan and Corregidor; and
33   
34        WHEREAS, on February 20, 1942, President Manuel Quezon and
35   Vice President Sergio Osmena of the Philippine Commonwealth
36   left Corregidor for the United States to form a government in
37   exile.  On March 11, 1942, General MacArthur left Corregidor
38   for Australia to take over the defense of the southern Pacific
39   area.  It was upon his arrival in Melbourne that he issued his
40   famous pledge, "I shall return"; and
41   

 
Page 2                                                     45
                                  H.R. NO.              H.D. 1
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1        WHEREAS, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the East Indies
 2   (Indonesia) fell before the fierce Japanese advance in the week
 3   following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The soldiers in the
 4   Philippines, under the command of Lieutenant General Jonathan
 5   Wainwright, fought on.  Their valiant struggle, the only Allied
 6   resistance in East Asia during the winter and spring of 1942,
 7   slowed down the enemy and gave Australia more time to
 8   strengthen its defenses; and
 9   
10        WHEREAS, thousands of Japanese infantrymen, supported by
11   artillery barrages and tank fire power, pounded the Filipino-
12   American lines.  Overhead, Japan's air corps soared and bombed
13   the foxholes, hospitals, and ammunition dumps of Bataan.  From
14   the sea the enemy warships poured lethal shells on the
15   defenders' positions.  Bataan was doomed.  The defenders,
16   weakened by hunger, disease, and fatigue, fought fiercely and
17   many died as heroes; and
18   
19        WHEREAS, Bataan fell on April 9, 1942.  Corregidor's Voice
20   of Freedom radio station announced, "Bataan has fallen, but the
21   spirit that made it stand--a beacon to all the liberty-loving
22   peoples of the world--cannot fall".  As many as 36,000 Filipino
23   and American soldiers were captured by the victorious Japanese.
24   Forced to set out on the infamous "Death March" to San
25   Fernando, tens of thousands died from hunger, thirst, disease,
26   and exhaustion.  Survivors were crammed into boxcars and
27   shipped to imprisonment in Capas; and
28   
29        WHEREAS, General Wainwright and the 12,000 Filipino and
30   American soldiers manning the rocky fortress of Corregidor
31   continued to fight, but after the fall of Bataan, the end was
32   in sight for them as well.  On May 6, 1942, Major General
33   William Sharp was ordered to stop future useless sacrifice of
34   human life in the Fortified Islands, and to surrender all
35   troops under his command in the Visayan Islands and Mindanao.
36   Corregidor fell almost five months to the day after the attack
37   on Pearl Harbor.  Organized military resistance to the invasion
38   of the Philippines ended that day; and
39   
40        WHEREAS, many Filipino officers and men refused to heed
41   the order to surrender.  They fled to the hills with their arms
42   and, with the help of the civilian population, waged a
43   relentless guerrilla war against the invaders.  The guerillas,
44   almost without arms at the beginning, hungry, and unclothed,
45   gave battle to the enemy from every nook and corner of the
46   land.  For three seemingly interminable years and despite
47   unbelievable hardships, they carried the torch of freedom; and

 
Page 3                                                     45
                                  H.R. NO.              H.D. 1
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1   
 2        WHEREAS, it was against the backdrop of Bataan,
 3   Corregidor, and other theaters of battle, where alien soldiers
 4   under the United States flag fought bravely and fiercely, that
 5   the United States Congress amended the naturalization
 6   provisions of the Nationality Act of 1940; and
 7   
 8        WHEREAS, in 1942, Congress reestablished the policy it had
 9   set forth during the first World War by providing for the
10   naturalization of aliens honorably serving in the armed forces
11   of the United States during the war.  As part of the second War
12   Powers Act, Congress waived the requirements of residence,
13   literacy, and education for alien soldiers.  The law allowed
14   any alien who was inducted or who enlisted into the United
15   States Army, Navy, or Air force during World War II to become a
16   United States citizen; and
17   
18        WHEREAS, even while the war was raging, alien soldiers in
19   England, Iceland, and North Africa, who served in American
20   military forces, could be naturalized as United States
21   citizens.  The naturalization was made possible because
22   beginning in January 1943, naturalization officers were
23   dispatched to foreign countries where they accepted
24   applications, performed naturalization ceremonies, and swore
25   into American citizenship thousands of alien soldiers; and
26   
27        WHEREAS, while the Philippines was under Japanese
28   occupation, approximately 7,000 Filipino soldiers were
29   naturalized outside the Philippines.  The great majority of
30   Filipino soldiers in that country, however, were not even aware
31   of these liberal naturalization benefits.  The United States
32   withdrew its naturalization officer from the Philippines and
33   allowed the law to lapse in 1946, so few Filipino veterans were
34   able to exercise their rights in a timely manner--rights that
35   had been supposedly earned on the battlefield for a lifetime;
36   and
37   
38        WHEREAS, the Immigration Act of 1990 rectified this
39   foreclosure of rights by permitting Filipino veterans of World
40   War II to apply for naturalization, and to receive benefits
41   after May 1, 1991; and
42   
43        WHEREAS, while Filipino-American veterans who served
44   honorably in an active-duty status under the command of the
45   USAFFE or within the Philippine Army, the Philippine Scouts, or
46   recognized guerrilla units, between September 1, 1939, and
47   December 31, 1946, braved the same dangers and were entitled to

 
Page 4                                                     45
                                  H.R. NO.              H.D. 1
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1   apply for naturalization, only those persons who joined the
 2   Philippine Scouts before October 6, 1945, currently have the
 3   right to be buried in national or state veterans cemeteries;
 4   and
 5   
 6        WHEREAS, there is no greater honor for a former soldier
 7   than to be laid to rest next to the soldier's comrades-in-arms,
 8   no greater act of respect that a grateful country can show a
 9   former soldier than to inter the soldier's remains on hallowed
10   ground, and no greater tribute that future generations of
11   freedom-loving Americans can visit upon a former soldier than
12   to remember those sacrifices made by the soldier on the
13   battlefield; and
14   
15        WHEREAS, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs is authorized
16   to designate persons or classes of persons as being eligible
17   for burial in a national or state veterans cemetery; now,
18   therefore,
19   
20        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
21   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
22   of 2000, that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and
23   congressional leaders are urged to work toward allowing
24   Filipino-American veterans who served honorably in an active-
25   duty status under the command of the USAFFE or within the
26   Philippine Army, the Philippine Scouts, or recognized guerrilla
27   units, between September 1, 1939 and December 31, 1946, to be
28   interred in national or state veterans cemeteries; and
29   
30        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature urges Hawaii's
31   congressional delegation to intercede on behalf of Filipino-
32   American veterans in their request to be interred in national
33   or state veterans cemeteries as soon as possible in light of
34   these veterans' advanced ages and fragile health; and
35   
36        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
37   Resolution be transmitted to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
38   the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, and the
39   Adjutant General.