Ceremony bittersweet for family of veteran

WASHINGTON >> “My father isn’t here,” said Milagros Kaahanui when the Hawaii delegates arrived Tuesday afternoon.

Excited and eager but also feeling bittersweet about the Congressional Gold Medal event, Kaahanui explained her feelings.

Alfonso N. Sta Ana died in the Philippines at age 52 from service-related injuries, she said. “And there’s a dark side to his story.” He was a second lieutenant in the cavalry division under USAFFE (United States Army Forces Far East) formed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur as part of his command of military units in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation.

“My dad never made it to America before he died, although he had a chance to come here after the war. He was too angry with the Americans, the way his white superiors treated the Filipino boys in his unit, calling them ‘monkeys.’” He was always firm about not coming here, she added. “‘If they treat us this way in the Philippines, how will they treat us in America?,’ he would say.”

Then when Congress “pulled back on the promise to give them citizenship rights and military benefits after the war,” this reneging became a dark stain for many Filipino veterans who came to the U.S. in 1992 on that promise and who later returned to the Philippines when it never came to pass. This was an unfair slight, Kaahanui said, affecting thousands who had been active under the U.S. command in the Philippine Army, in the elite Philippine Scouts or in recognized guerrilla units.

“I know my father to be a person who spoke his mind and did not put up with any kind of injustice. He wrote letters to the military command. I still have some of his letters protesting the action taken by the U.S. Congress after the war to strip the Filipino veterans from the Philippines of military benefits,” said Kaahanui, 73, of Ewa Beach, who came to the U.S. herself as a student and a political refugee.

And now, 75 years after the Filipino vets began their service in World War II, Congress is awarding them and their families bronze medals — replicas of the Gold Medal that will be on display at the Smithsonian.

But with no funding provided for the replica medals, “the Filipino community under the leadership of the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project has to raise funds to pay for the bronze medals that costs $52 each,” said Kaahanui, who is a volunteer with the project. “Without the funds, the veterans might end up paying for the medals pinned on them. … Such a travesty of justice. So, our team in Hawaii has started fundraising.”