World War Two 1st Filipino Infantry

“[M]ass naturalization ceremonies made thousands of Filipinos into United States citizens. The segregated First Filipino Infantry Regiment was activated in California mid-1942 and the Second Filipino Infantry Regiment was formed later that year. Filipinos had long served as stewards in the U.S. Navy, and they continued to do so in large numbers throughout the war. In 1944 about 1,000 Filipino Americans were selected for a secret mission, taken to the Philippines by submarines, and landed in various spots throughout the archipelago to contact anti-Japanese underground groups and to gather intelligence for General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia.”

Quoted in Sucheng Chan, Asian Americans: An Interpretive History (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1991), p. 122.