wanting to remember the memories and horror of combat. Grandmaster Giron would eventually pick up his

combat weapons and further sharpen his escrima skills when he heard the news of Filipino nurses

murdered by a lone assailant. Saddened that the nurses could have easily overcome their assailant with

rudimentary knowledge of escrima, Giron opened the Bahala Na Martial Arts Association to train people in

self‑defense and a fighting art that was proven very effective in combat. Today, Bahala Na Martial Arts‑‑

which translates into "Come what may" and is also slogan of the Filipino Regiments‑‑has affiliate

organizations throughout the United States, England, and Europe.

POST‑WORLD WAR II MIGRATION

World War II opened other avenues for Filipinos to immigrate to America. In 1946, the Hawaii

Sugar Planters' Association exercised an option to recruit more Filipinos for work in the sugar plantations.

Know as the Sakada '46, this group of Filipinos was more educated that the previous plantation labor

migrants and mere able to bring along their families. The influx of thousands of Filipino labor immigrants

played an important role in shaping the formation of Hawaii's current Filipino American community,

My family's journey to America also began after World War II. My father was recruited from the

Philippines by the US Navy to rebuild the island of Guam. Like the Philippines, Guam was also acquired as

a US territory after the Spanish American War. He was a civilian worker to rebuild the infrastructure‑ of

Guam, which was devastated after the War. When Guamanian residents were granted citizenship rights in

the 1950 Organic Act of Guam, like the thousands of Filipino labor who came to the Island, my father also

became an American citizen. My mother, sister and I came to Guam in February 1965, a few months before

the passage of the Immigration Reform Act. We lived in ram‑shackled homes in Guam, but eventually found

our social and economic footing when my mother Violeta became a middle‑school teacher. We were now a

dual‑income family and were able to become nominally middle‑class. Upon completion of high school at

Father Duenas Memorial School, I left for the University of Washington and earned a BA in Philosophy‑I

would go on to write an MA thesis in Aristotle's politics. After completion of my doctoral degree from UC

Berkeley, I became a tenure‑track assistant professor at California State University.

My story is somewhat typical of the "post‑1965" immigrants, who came as a result of fundamental

changes in immigration and civil rights lam. Unlike my grandfather delos Santos, who was directed to go to

the back of a church in Stockton where all the other minorities sat, today's Filipino immigrants do not have to

face the harsh legal, racial, and economic barriers that delos Santos, Giron, Mabalon, and Silverio had to

endure. Racism and prejudice still exists, but today's Filipinos have civil rights laws and organizations that

protect and enhance their chances of socio‑economic mobility.

TELLING THE "UNTOLD TRIUMPH”

Domingo Los Banos joined the Filipino Regiment as a young man. Los Banos is the inspiration and

driving force behind the production of the "Untold Triumph." For me, the most important moment in the

documentary occurred when Los Banos opened a locket from a young Japanese soldier killed in battle and

discovered a photo of the young man's family. Los Banos cried when he realized that here was someone's

son, a person loved by his family and whose death would bring great pain and sorrow. Los Banos realized

the senselessness of war. Giron has a similar quality. As a world‑renowned martial arts grandmaster, Giron

could have always eulogized the superiority of the Giron arnis escrima system. Instead, he emphasized how

he "fought in the jungles for over a year, not knowing if I would survive from one day to the next ... I fought for

my life in a real war, and it is not glamorous or pleasant.'

Over the years, as a Filipino American historian, I have come to know many of the Filipino American veterans

who served in the Filipino Regiments, including many who were featured in the "Untold Triumph”