Conrado Balaoro Rigor was student of the University of the Philippines with a fondness for the poetry of T.S. Eliot, when the Japanese struck Manila on December 8, 1942, one day after destroying the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor.

The death toll around him was staggering and, by attrition as much as by his newly acquired military skills, he was in his early 20s when he was promoted to major and put in charge of the 3^rd Battalion, 121^st Infantry of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFE).

Major Rigor was part of the group that cornered, harassed and outlasted the brilliant Japanese commander, General Tomoyuki Yamashita in the Battle of Bessang Pass. It was September 1945. Those Japanese military who could still move were ordered to go to Manila and strip the county of all gold and resources of any value. After several months of pillaging Manila, killing thousands of civilians in the process, the Japanese Imperial Army headed north to Luzon where they were to be picked up by submarines.

The Filipino soldiers pursued the Japanese relentlessly. Units that had been fighting a guerilla resistance for three years, merged back together as cohesive battalions and regiments.

Yamashita, although essentially cornered, was an excellent military strategist. His army was tunneled snugly into the ridges of Bessang Pass. They had the high ground and the sun at their backs in the morning, a position that permitted them to rain mortar fire down on the Filipinos who couldn’t shoot back because of the glare.

The Japanese occupied Korea at that time and had conscripted young Korean boys into the army, mostly as non-combatants. Doing errands for Major Rigor was a 13-year-old Korean boy they had found hiding after a battle. The boy was serving breakfast to the major when a mortar shell landed behind him. The boy’s body absorbed the shrapnel, killing him instantly, while shielding Major Rigor.

The story is recounted by his son, Conrado “Sluggo” Rigor, Jr. to a reporter just before a recent reception in Seattle to honor the dwindling number of Filipino U.S. war veterans from World War II. There used to be a quarter million of these veterans. Now there are around 17,000 – all of them in their 80s and 90s.

One of these is Commander Amador M. Montero, 93, who was part of the unit that broke through at Bessang to capture General Yamashita.

Those battles were 64 years ago. Veterans bristle that it’s the defeats – Bataan and Corregidor – that get all the press and are depicted in the movies. “Nobody talks about Bessang Pass where we won a great victory,” said Montero.

Another seldom spoken of battle, when Filipino and U.S. soldiers liberated the Cabanatuan Prison Camp on Luzon finally made it into the movies. But Hollywood got that one wrong too. According to the veterans gathered in Seattle, John Dahl’s 2005 film overly focuses on the U.S. Army, underplaying the pivotal role of the Filipinos.

A quarter of a million Filipino men joined the U.S. Armed Forces right after Pearl Harbor, swearing “faith and allegiance” to the United States of America,” promising to obey the orders of the President and the officers of the U.S. Army.

They served in Filipino units, within the U.S. Army, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in battle, conducting guerilla actions in the jungles, wasting away in prison camps. President Roosevelt promised they would also get the rewards that come to U.S. veterans in the form of health care, pensions and educational opportunities.

This was reaffirmed by General Omar Bradley who was head of the Veterans Administration after the war. Bradley said there would be equal treatment for all who fought in the U.S. Army, even if they were citizens of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
But only a year after the war, President Truman signed the Rescission Act of 1946, reneging on the promise America had made. The language of the legislation was cold, saying the sacrifices of the Filipino soldiers, “shall not be deemed to be or to have been service in the military or national forces of the United States or any component thereof or any law of the United States conferring rights, privileges or benefits.”

President George H.W. Bush finally signed legislation that gave U.S. citizenship to Filipino veterans of World War II, but it was a bittersweet deal because it applied only to the veterans themselves. They could live in the U.S. but many had a difficult time bringing their spouses with them.

President Obama recently signed legislation giving the Filipino veterans token compensation equal to only about $200 per year for the decades since the war. It’s a pittance and anyway, the money is no longer the main point for the veterans. Commander Montero said monetary compensation “comes too little, too late for most of us. What we want is recognition that we are U.S. war veterans.”

“We are the forgotten, unremembered, unrecognized,” Commander Montero said. “But we are happy to learn that the Universal Peace Federation has reached out to support us, as you support others who have been dismayed and neglected. We are grateful that you have called attention to this situation.”

Sluggo reiterated this feeling, saying, “I remember the words of an old soldier who testified before the U.S. Congress two years ago. He said, we can no longer even be angry. We are too old to be angry. We just want to pass away with our dignity and honor intact, and that our services during the crucial period when democracy was tested and challenged be recognized.”

The Philippines was a colony of Spain for 400 years until they ceded it to the U.S. after the Spanish-American War. A brief period of conflict followed as the U.S. suppressed Filipino resistance to further colonization and the establishment of an American government.

The Philippines was granted a measure of autonomy in 1935 when it was designated a commonwealth, although major decisions still had to be ratified in Washington, DC. Finally and fittingly, it was on July 4^th in 1946 that the Philippines was granted independence from the United States.

General Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. Supreme Commander in the Pacific, had nothing but praise for the Filipino soldiers who carried the brunt of the effort in cornering General Yamashita. MacArthur said, “The work of the Northern Luzon guerillas alone was equal to a front line division.”

U.S. Army Gen. Walter Kruger, who commanded the Filipino units in the U.S. 6^th Army, applauded the valor of its fighting men, saying the significance of the Bessang Pass campaign was, “one whose magnitude and decisiveness far surpasses the U.S Army 32^nd and 25^th Divisions’ battle for the Villaverde Trail and the Balete Pass, respectively.”

Other veterans, such as Amante “Amang” Bigornia, one of the respected deans of Philippine journalism, who fought alongside Major Rigor, have done their best to keep the story and the promise made by President Roosevelt from being forgotten.

Sluggo Rigor still has a photo of Brigadier General McGraw pinning a medal for valor on his father. Standing next to Major Rigor, receiving a similar decoration, is another young major, Ferdinand Marcos, who later became President of the Philippines.

For the people of the Philippines and the 4 million Filipinos living in tightly-knit communities around the U.S., the promise is still the dream. It is a cause being taken up by the children and grandchildren of these veterans who are determined that this generation will not pass away before the President of the United States acknowledges his country’s failure to honor those who died on its behalf.

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