Filipino WW II vets get long-overdue honor

vet who would have turned 100 on Oct. 28. He died in February. I wish he and many other Filipino vets could have lived to see this day.

I grew up typing letters for him —on a manual typewriter, then a word processor, then a PC— addressed to the Department of Veterans Affairs and to lawmakers. I wrote an article about his and two decades ago.

I also interviewed my paternal grandfather, Juan S. Sumagaysay, for that article. Like my other grandfather, he was in the Bataan Death March. He also had a Purple Heart. He died in 2000, never knowing that one day he contributing to the Allies’ victory.

My grandmother, Gliceria P. Evangelista, died in 2004. She was a military nurse and met my grandfather during the war.

My grandparents would have appreciated the ceremony, where attendees heard both the US and Philippine national anthems.

At the Novato nursing home where Lt. Col. Evangelista, as he often referred to himself, spent the last decade-plus of his life, he proudly He was 69 years old when he moved to California from the Philippines to help my parents take care of my sisters and me, but he had long felt a kinship with other Americans because of his service in the war. He joined the American Legion, became a commander of one of its posts and made friends with fellow vets, both Filipino and American. In November 2016, he gave a Veterans Day speech at the nursing home.

This week’s Gold Medal ceremony was attended by Republican and Democratic lawmakers amid a divisive political climate.

“We are living in tumultuous times, and we have many disagreements,” Sen. Mazie Hirono, DHawaii, said. “But on this we agree: that it is our responsibility as public servants and Americans to honor each veteran in the same way that they honored our country.”

Hirono sponsored the Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015 with four co-sponsors. The bipartisan list of sponsors eventually grew dragged on so long that Hirono acknowledged the considerable efforts of Senators Daniel Inouye, who is deceased, and Daniel Akaka, who is retired.

I have a boxful of my grandfather’s documents, including denial letters and applications for compensation. In 2010, my Lolo pleaded with the VA to give him more than 30 days “considering the lapse of more than six decades,” he wrote. He needed to track them down, or even remember some of their names. “Please give me more time,” he wrote on the application. He got neither that nor

“It’s the mark of a confident and exceptional nation to look back at its history and say that we made a grievous error,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said at the Gold Medal ceremony. “But we recognize it and pledge to never let it happen again.”

However, under President Donald Trump’s administration, some green-card holders are not being allowed to enlist in the Army Reserves and the National Guard, and other foreign-born recruits are facing tightened rules.

If Filipino war veterans taught us anything, it’s that people born elsewhere have the ability to love America and be loyal to its ideals. I hope Sen. Schumer is right, and that we don’t again deny respect to those