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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.C.R. NO.            
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     HOUSE  CONCURRENT
                        RESOLUTION
  REQUESTING THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND CONGRESSIONAL
    LEADERS TO WORK TOWARD ALLOWING FILIPINO-AMERICAN VETERANS
    TO BE BURIED 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

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

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

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

 
 
 
 
 
 
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 1   Veterans Affairs, the members of Hawaii's congressional
 2   delegation, and the Adjutant General.
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