Comparative Studies on the Relations between the U.S. Armed Forces and Ethnic Minorities

本研究项目的重点是案例，其中属于某个少数民族群体的人（即，在美国的菲律宾裔美国人为遭受严重民族歧视的二战老兵寻求“正义、荣誉和公平”，90年代菲律宾二战老兵凭借1990年移民法争先恐后地获得美国公民身份，自豪地移民美国。然而，他们中的许多人很快就面临着痛苦和贫困，依赖于微薄的SSI，而没有获得美国退伍军人福利，尽管他们作为美国武装部队的退伍军人获得了美国公民身份。该研究项目审查了菲律宾退伍军人公平问题的原因和发展，从太平洋战争的最后几天到现在，发现美国政府和国会肯定故意歧视第二次世界大战期间组成美国武装部队的一部分退伍军人，因为他们特殊的民族血统，即，1898年至1946年期间，菲律宾群岛的公民在美国的主权下。然而，该研究项目的主要目的并不是通过讲述他们的历史来为他们的事业辩护，而是争论他们（菲律宾人和菲律宾裔美国人）在利用历史和其他关于民族、民族主义和公民身份的话语来推进各自的愿望方面取得了多大的成功或失败。

This research project put its focus on the case, in which people belonging to a certain ethnic minority group (i.e., Filipino Americans) in the United States seek "justice, honor, and equity" for their World War II veterans who have suffered a serious discrimination based on their national origin.In 1990s the elderly Filipino World War II veterans rushed to acquire U.S. citizenship relying on the 1990 Immigration Act and proudly immigrated to the United States. Many of them, however, soon faced misery and poverty dependent on scanty SSI without receiving U.S. veterans benefits despite the fact they got U.S. citizenship as veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. The research project examined the cause and development of the Filipino veterans equity issues from last days of the Pacific War to the present and found there certainly had been deliberate efforts on the part of U.S. government and Congress to discriminate a portion of veterans who constituted the U.S. Armed Forces during the Second World War, because of their peculiar national origin, i.e., the citizens of the Philippine Islands under U.S. sovereignty between 1898 and 1946. The research project, however, did not primarily aim at giving justification for their cause by means of telling their history but would rather argue how successful or unsuccessful they (Filipinos and Filipino Americans) have been in using history and other discourses on nation, nationalism, and citizenship in their struggle to advance their respective aspirations.