Filipino soldiers began serving with the U.S. Army Forces of the Far East in 1941 when President Franklin Roosevelt offered full veterans’ benefits to Filipinos who enlisted. The Philippines at that time was a U.S. commonwealth, and Filipinos were U.S. nationals. 260,000 Filipinos fought alongside American forces during the war and more than 57,000 Filipino troops died. But once the war ended, the benefits were rescinded by President Harry Truman in 1946, and the Filipinos who served were stripped of their status as U.S. veterans. Many relatives and supporters of the veterans lobbied for recognition for decades. Finally in 2014, the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project was established to push for legislation to bestow the Congressional Gold Medal to Filipino veterans of World War II, and President Barack Obama signed it into law on Dec. 14, 2016.
In this image Urbano Quijance, center, explains why he thinks Filipino soldiers who were inducted into service with American soldiers during World War II should get the same benefits as the U.S. soldiers they fought with. Listening are Cristino Dulay and his wife, Consolacion Dulay (left) and an unidentified man (right).
Born in the Philippines, Urbano Quijance (1916-2011) retired as a major from the U.S. Army after 20 years of service, then served his country for 20 more years as an administrative supervisor for the U.S. Army Reserve at Fort Lawton. He raised 9 children with his wife Aurelia in Seattle, and was a lifetime member of VFW 6599, the Philippine Historical Society (PHS), the Bataan Death March Survivors & Their Families, and served as the president and adviser to the Filipino Community of Seattle (FCS) .
Caption information source: "Fought and forgotten: Filipino World War II veterans honored with medal 75 years later," by Walbert Castillo, USA TODAY, October 24, 2017, retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/24/fought-and-forgotten-filipino-world-war-ii-veterans-get-congressional-medal-recognized-75-years-late/796038001 Caption information source: "Urbano Quijance (1916–2011), veteran, Filipino activist," Northwest Asian Weekly, January 27, 2011, retrieved from http://nwasianweekly.com/2011/01/urbano-quijance-1916%E2%80%932011-veteran-filipino-activist Caption information source: "FDR's Forgotten Promise to Filipino War Veterans," The Seattle Times, April 22, 1997, p. B4. Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.
