1st Filipino Infantry Regiment

Background

In 1898, the Philippines was ceded by Spain to the United States and, after a conflict between Philippine independence forces and the United States, Filipinos were allowed to immigrate freely to the United States as U.S. nationals. Most immigrants chose to settle in the Territory of Hawaii and the West coast. In 1934, U.S. policy changed, and their status as nationals was revoked.

In 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, while other Japanese forces attacked the Philippines. Filipino Americans, like other Americans, attempted to volunteer for military service, but were not allowed to enlist since they were neither citizens nor resident aliens. Following a change in legislation it was announced on 3 January 1942, the day after Manila fell, that Filipinos would be permitted to volunteer, and could be drafted, for military service; in California, almost half of the male Filipino American population enlisted. Some who volunteered to serve were refused due to their age; other older volunteers were refused due to the need for agricultural labor. Filipinos were strongly encouraged to volunteer for the Regiment, and only those who did so were assigned to it. Those who did not volunteer to serve in the Regiment served in regular (white) units in various theaters of operation. One example was PFC Ramon S. Subejano, who was awarded the Silver Star for actions in Germany.

History

Stateside

Constituted in March 1942, the 1st Filipino Infantry Battalion was activated in April at Camp San Luis Obispo, to liberate the Philippines. Colonel Robert Offley was selected as the unit's commanding officer, as he spoke Tagalog and had spent time on Mindoro in his youth. During the following months, Filipino Americans continued to volunteer, and the unit grew. Philippine Army personnel who were in the United States and Filipino military personnel who had escaped the fall of the Philippines and were recuperating in the United States were also instructed to report to the unit. On July 13, 1942, the battalion was elevated to a regiment at the California Rodeo Grounds in Salinas, California.*

• The Regiment was made up of three battalions, each consisting of a headquarters company and four infantry companies. The Regiment had a separate regimental headquarters company, a service company, an anti-tank company, a medical detachment, and a band. Members of this regiment were notably issued bolo knives in place of rifles.

The Regiment continued to train and grow, leading to the activation of the 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiment at Fort Ord in November 1942. The 2nd Regiment was assigned to Camp Cooke and the 1st to Camp Beale. Eventually, more than 7,000 soldiers would be assigned to the Filipino Infantry Regiments. While at Camp Beale, there was a mass naturalization ceremony of 1,200 soldiers of the Regiment. As members of the armed forces they were able to become citizens; in 1924 naturalization of Filipino Americans had been barred, as it was determined that only aliens could be naturalized and Filipinos at the time were nationals.*

• In November 1943, it paraded through Los Angeles, with Carlos Bulosan, the influential Filipino author of America Is in the Heart, there to witness it.

Members of the Regiment faced discrimination during this period. The anti-miscegenation laws in California meant that the soldiers were banned from marrying non-Filipino women; those soldiers who wished to marry in this way were transported to Gallup, New Mexico, as New Mexico had repealed its anti-miscegenation law after the Civil War. Soldiers of the Regiment faced discrimination in Marysville while visiting from neighboring Camp Beale, as the local businesses refused to serve Filipinos. This was later remedied by the Regiment's commander, who informed the Chamber of Commerce that they were failing to cooperate with the Army, at which point they changed their business practices. Further instances of discrimination against soldiers of the Regiment were also reported in Sacramento and San Francisco, where they were mistaken for Japanese Americans.

Deployment

In April 1944, the Regiment departed California aboard the USS General John Pope for Oro Bay, New Guinea. On the way to New Guinea, the Regiment spent part of June in Australia. Upon arriving at Oro Bay, it was assigned to the 31st Infantry Division, 8th Army to provide area security and continue training. Some soldiers were then assigned to the Alamo Scouts, the 5217th Reconnaissance Battalion, and to the Philippine Regional Section of Allied Intelligence Bureau. One example was Second Lieutenant Rafael Ileto, a future Vice Chief of Staff in the Philippines, who led a team in the Alamo Scouts. Due to the reassignment of these soldiers, both Filipino Infantry Regiments became smaller than authorized. In response, the 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiment was disbanded and used to bring the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment to 125% of its standard allocated size. The remaining soldiers of the 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiment who did not join the Regiment formed the 2nd Filipino Infantry Battalion (Separate). During its time at Oro Bay, the Regiment was reinforced with Filipinos from Hawaii. These men had not been able to enlist in the Army until 1943 as the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association had successfully argued that their labor was needed in the sugar industry.

In February 1945, the Regiment was sent to Leyte and was assigned to the Americal Division, 10th Corps. It would later be reassigned back to the 8th Army, in May 1945, along with the Americal Division. Finally, in the Philippines, it conducted "mopping up" operations on Leyte, Samar, and other islands in the Visayan islands group. In addition, some of the companies of the Regiment provided security for 8th Army General Headquarters, Far East Air Force, two airstrips at Tanauan and Tacloban, and Seventh Fleet Headquarters. Other soldiers would also participate in the Luzon Campaign, fighting on the Bataan Peninsula, and the recapture of former Fort Mills; the Regiment was not awarded formal campaign participation for these individual actions.

Post-combat

By August 1945, operations came to a close due to the Japanese Emperor's decision to end the war following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Soldiers of the Regiment who had been detached to the Alamo Scouts, 5217th Reconnaissance Battalion, and other units were reassigned back to it. During the period between the close of operations and their return to the United States, and without the Imperial Japanese Army to fight, the men of the Regiment clashed with soldiers of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and Philippine Constabulary over differences in pay, culture and local women. Others married women under the War Brides Act, which allowed spouses and adopted children of United States military personnel to enter the U.S. For these newly married couples, a "tent city" was established by Colonel William Hamby, who had succeeded Offley as the Regiment Commander. Many younger soldiers connected to a culture to which they had previously only had a distant relationship, learning language and customs that were not used or practiced in the United States.

Soldiers of the regiment who chose to remain in the Philippines and those who did not qualify to return to the U.S., either due to having an insufficient Adjusted Service Rating Score or were otherwise ineligible were transferred to 2nd Filipino Infantry Battalion (Separate) in Quezon City. Returning to the United States aboard the USS General Calan on 8 April 1946, the rest of the Regiment was sent to Camp Stoneman, near Pittsburgh, California, where it was deactivated on 10 April 1946.

Legacy

During the war the efforts of Filipino and American defenders during the Battle of Bataan were widely covered by the press, as were the actions of the 100th and 442nd Infantry. After the war, the efforts of the 442nd continued to be lauded,

• with the 1951 film Go for Broke! portraying their endeavors. By contrast, the activities of the Filipino Infantry Regiment and her sister units were largely unpublicized; it was not until the documentaries Unsung Heroes and An UnTold Triumph that any significant visual media covered the history of the Regiment. In 1984 an association of veterans of the Regiment erected a marker in Salinas in honor of their former unit.

The War Brides Act of 1945, and subsequent Alien Fiancées and Fiancés Act of 1946, continued to apply until the end of 1953, allowing veterans of the Regiment, and other Filipino American veterans, to return to the Philippines to bring back fiancées, wives, and children. In the years following the war, some sixteen thousand Filipinas entered the United States as war brides. These new Filipino American families formed a second generation of Filipino Americans, significantly expanding the Filipino American community.

Discriminations

During World War II, an estimated 400,000 Filipino males served in the United States Military, Miscegenation laws prevented Filipino soldiers from marrying white american women. Filipinos cohabited with many white females and had children. For example, the state of California refused to grant licenses for Filipino soldiers to marry what the state calls "white women". Chaplain Noury said to the Chief of Chaplains said "It just happens that there are very few filipina girls here and consequently they have to go out with white girls. [...] As I said there is great number of our Filipino soldiers who are now living for several years with white girls and were never married..... and they have children."

References

References

1. Fabros, Alex S.. "California's Filipino Infantry". California State Military Department.
2. (1996). ""Pineapples," "Hawayanos," and "Loyal Americans": Local Boys in the First Filipino Infantry Regiment, US Army". University of Hawai`i at Manoa.
3. Ishikawa, Scott. (30 November 2001). "New Film Depicts Filipino Regiments' Exploits". [[Honolulu Advertiser]].
4. McKibben, Carol Lynn. (2009). "Seaside". Arcadia Publishing.
5. Frank, Sarah. (2005). "Filipinos in America". Lerner Publications.
6. Crouchett, Lorraine Jacobs. (1983). "Filipinos in California: from the days of the galleons to the present". Downey Place Publishing House, Inc..
7. . (1 May 2011). ["Statement of Service"](http://www.history.army.mil/html/topics/apam/filipino_regt/sos/01filrgt.htm). *United States Army*.
8. (1943). "1st Filipino Infantry and 2nd Filipino Infantry in Bataan, Philippines.". CriticalPast.com.
9. Frank, Sarah. (2005). "Filipinos in America". Lerner Publications.
10. Espiritu, Yen Le. (1995). "Filipino American lives". [[Temple University Press]].
11. McNaughton, James C.. (2006). "Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service During World War II". Department of the Army.
12. Ueda, Reed. (2006). "A Companion to American Immigration". Wiley-Blackwell.
13. Powell, John. (2005). "Encyclopedia of North American Immigration". Infobase Publishing.
14. "Filipino Immigration". Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation.
15. Eftihia Danellis. "Fight for Democracy: An Educator's Resource Guide". National Center for the Preservation of Democracy.
16. (3 October 2003). "Philippine Islands". [[United States Army]].
17. Robert Barkan, Elliot. (1999). "A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America's Multicultural Heritage". Greenwood Publishing Group.
18. Frank, Sarah. (2005). "Filipinos in America". Lerner Publications.
19. "Key Events in the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt". [[University of Virginia]].
20. Bradford, James C.. (2003). "Atlas of American Military History". Oxford University Press US.
21. Goggans, Jan. (2004). "The Pacific region". Greenwood Publishing Group.
22. (1994). "The Long Struggle for Acceptance: Filipinos in San Joaquin County". The San Joaquin County Historical Society.
23. Sisson, Richard. (2007). "The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia". Indiana University Press.
24. Al Livingston. (December 2008). "Remembering Ramon Subejano, A One Man Army". taxi-usa.com.
25. The reference ''Creating Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila'' (España-Maram, 2006) used the word "Formed". By Army terminology this is incorrect. Per [http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r220_5.pdf Army Regulation 220-5] {{webarchive. link. (29 September 2011 the correct term is "Constituted". The article has been edited to reflect that.)
26. España-Maram, Linda. (2006). "Creating Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila". Columbia University Press.
27. Cave, Dorothy. (2006). "Beyond Courage: One Regiment Against Japan, 1941–1945". Sunstone Press.
28. "Fort Ord". California State Military Department.
29. (1943). "1st Filipino Infantry". United States Army.
30. (2016). "World War II Arroyo Grande". Arcadia Publishing.
31. (30 January 2003). "An Untold Triumph: The Story of the 1st & 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, U.S. Army". Smithsonian Institution.
32. Chen, Edith Wen-Chu. (2006). "Teaching About Asian Pacific Americans: Effective activities, Strategies, and Assignments for Classrooms and Communities". Rowman & Littlefield.
33. (2008). "World War Two 1st Filipino Infantry". [[Smithsonian Institution]].
34. Starr, Kevin. (2009). "Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950–1963". Oxford University Press.
35. "Selected Dates and Events of Asian Pacific American History". State of Washington.
36. Dr. Riz A. Oade. ""The Day of Infamy" SD's Unsung Heroes of World War II". Asian Journal.
37. Alex S. Fabros Jr.. (1995). "My Funny Valentine: A Battle In The Filipino American Civil Rights Movement". [[San Francisco State University]].
38. Pascoe, Peggy. (2009). "What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America". Oxford University Press US.
39. Takaki, Ronald T.. (1998). "Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans". Little, Brown.
40. A Filipino Wife. "Letters from Readers: The Filipinos Do Not Understand". [[San Francisco State University]].
41. Baldoz, Rick. (2011). "The Third Asiatic Invasion: Migration and Empire in Filipino America, 1898–1946". NYU Press.
42. "USS General John Pope (AP-110)". Office of the [[Chief of Naval Operations]].
43. Adjutant General's Office. (20 September 1948). "Disposition Form". [[United States Army]].
44. (10 May 2011). "1st Filipino Regiment". United States Army.
45. Rottman, Gordon. (2009). "The Cabanatuan Prison Raid: The Philippines 1945". Osprey Publishing.
46. (20 August 2013). "US Special Warfare Units in the Pacific Theater 1941–45: Scouts, Raiders, Rangers and Reconnaissance Units". Bloomsbury Publishing.
47. Hogan Jr., David W.. (1992). "U.S. Army Special Operations in World War II". Department of the Army.
48. Alexander, Larry. (2005). "Philippine Wars and the Politics of Memory". Duke University Press.
49. Baldoz, Rick. (2011). "The Third Asiatic Invasion: Migration and Empire in Filipino America, 1898–1946". NYU Press.
50. Captain Francis D. Cronin. (1951). "Americal Division Order of Battle". Americal Division Veterans Association.
51. Smith, Robert Ross. (1969). "Triumph in the Philippines". Government Printing Office.
52. Cannon, M. Hamlin. (1993). "Leyte: The Return to the Philippines". Government Printing Office.
53. Eftihia Danellis. "Fight for Democracy: An Educator's Resource Guide". National Center for the Preservation of Democracy.
54. M. Hamilin Cannon. (1993). "Chapter XXII: Leyte is Liberated". ibiblio.org.
55. Merriam, Ray. (1999). "World War II Journal". Merriam Press.
56. Bell, Walter F. Bell. (1999). "Philippines in World War Two, 1941–1945". Greenwood Publishing Group.
57. (31 August 2011). "History of the US Army's 1st Filipino Regiment and 2D Filipino Battalion (Separate)". United States Army.
58. "Japan Capitulates, August – September 1945". [[United States Navy]].
59. (29 March 2011). "The Philippine Airborne". The Corregidor Historic Society.
60. Mabalon, Dawn B.. (2008). "Filipinos in Stockton". Arcadia Publishing.
61. (1998). ""Out of an Obscure Place": Japanese War Brides and Cultural Pluralism in the 1950s". Brown University.
62. (2 July 2010). "The Philippine Army World War II". Sirzib Publishing Inc..
63. Sucheng Chan. (1991). "Asian Americans: an interpretive history". Twayne.
64. Shibusawa, Naoko. (2006). "America's Geisha Ally: Reimagining the Japanese Enemy". Harvard University Press.
65. (4 May 2011). "Philippine Studies Audio-Visual Resources". University of Hawaii at Manoa.
66. Dennis Harvey. (26 March 2003). "An Untold Triumph: The Story of the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, U.S. Army". Variety.
67. Andrew Ruppenstien. (21 January 2010). "The First and Second Filipino Infantry Regiments U.S. Army". Historic Marker Database.
68. Media Projects Incorporated. (2004). "Student Almanac of Asian American History: From the Exclusion Era to Today, 1925–Present". Greenwood Publishing Group.
69. Baldoz, Rick. (2011). "The Third Asiatic Invasion: Migration and Empire in Filipino America, 1898–1946". NYU Press.
70. Maria Virginia Yap Morales, Allison. (18 August 2018). "Filipinos in the East Bay". Arcadia Publishing.
71. "Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Programs". [[National Park Service]].
72. Carruthers, Susan. (2022). "Dear John Love and Loyalty in Wartime America". Cambridge University Press.