Isle vets honored for service in the face of discrimination

It took 75 years, but 92-year-old Kapolei resident Domingo Los Banos finally received recognition for his service as a Filipino fighting alongside American forces in World War II.

Los Banos is one of 260,000 Filipino veterans of WWII whom Congress honored Oct. 25 with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award in the nation. Some 300 of those Filipinos were from Hawaii.

On Saturday, Los Banos, who served in the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment, participated in a rainy wreath-laying ceremony at Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe in observance of Veterans Day. He said it was terrific that Filipino veterans were finally being recognized.

“It took 75 years for our Congress to say ‘Thank you’ to my troops,” he said. “To me, today is a very important day.”

Filipinos who fought for the U.S. in WWII were promised full veterans’ benefits, but the benefits were rescinded in 1946. Congress bestowed the congressional medal upon the Filipino veterans for playing an integral part in the Allied victory in the Pacific, according to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office.

Gov. David Ige, the keynote speaker at the Veterans Day ceremony in Kaneohe, spoke about the racial discrimination that some military members faced a century ago and that still exists in parts of society today.

He said in the summer of 1917 a patriotic fervor had overcome the islands as young men raced to join the military to prove their loyalty to the country during World War I.

In Hawaii, more men per capita — about 1 in 5 men — volunteered to serve in the military, more than in any other state or territory in the country at the time, and those men enlisted despite the racial segregation and discrimination that were a normal part of the U.S. military at the time, he said.

He noted residents of European ancestry also faced discrimination in the islands, such as the German owner of Hackfeld’s Dry Goods, which was sold and renamed Liberty House, the precursor to Macy’s in Hawaii.

The patriotism in the islands continued in World War II and Japanese-Americans, such as Ige’s father, who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion, volunteered for duty while other Japanese-Americans were being held in internment camps, Ige said.

America is the greatest nation on earth “not because we are perfect, but because we have the capacity to learn and to improve from our mistakes,” the governor said. “We are reminded of how far we have come over the past century.”

Ige said his administration has aggressively fought against prejudice because “if history has taught us anything, it is that discrimination against one religion or ethnic group diminishes all of us.”

“Doing what is right for all Americans and being on the right side of history is not always easy, but it is one of our moral obligations,” he continued. “These are the values our veterans of the past century fought to protect regardless of their ethnicity or religion.

“These are the values we must remember and live today.”

Ige did not mention President Donald Trump, but Hawaii’s attorney general, Douglas Chin, has filed several lawsuits against Trump’s travel bans, alleging their discriminatory nature.

Since the country’s founding more than 40 million Americans have served in the country’s armed forces and more than 1 million have died in defense of the country.

Earlier on Saturday, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said during a ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl that Hawaii has paid a high price for the wars in Europe, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East because of the willingness of Hawaii’s sons and daughters to serve.

He also called the families of those who serve “heroes” for their support.

“Our battles, our victories — indeed, our very way of life are owed not to great moments or important dates,” he said. “They are owed to the actions and sacrifices of individual women and men who are willing to step into the breach, to stand in the gap for their country and for the cause of freedom.”