Filipino WWII vets keeps promise, rings bell at Balangiga memorial

By ROSE SAN DIEGO
September 30, 2015

CHICAGO – In a first time event in the US, bells chime at a Memorial led by Filipino WWII veterans along with members from the Fil-Am community assembled at a local American Legion in a Post Everlasting program, remembering the fallen during the Balangiga battle in Samar the morning on September 28, 1901.

The names of the forty-eight soldiers killed in action from the roster of US Army Company - 9th Infantry Regiment were read following a strike from a miniature bell.

A separate list containing many names of the villagers residing in the surrounding barangays on that day was folded, in hopes that one day the actual 28 names of the towns people killed would also come to be known. Then the pieces of papers with the names were collected, ripped and a match was used to ignite the internal flame. US veterans organizations use this symbolic ritual to commemorate the fallen. The chime echoed a historic memory after each named read.

We should not only be impressed, but grateful of a promise kept from our elder WWII vets. The circumstances of that September 28th day is seldom mentioned in our own news media, even representation from the Philippine Consulate Chicago Officers, an extended arm of our Philippine Government designated to work with the Fil-Am community was absent from this historic event. The WWII vets produced a program that not only brings recognition to better foreign policy of our two countries, while showcasing a crucial time in our history never to be forgotten.

The healing process must begin somewhere, and from someone and it took our nations heroes of 1942 who knows the ugly face of war. The event accomplished its mission displaying a solemn way of forgiveness from the heart that ended tragically for both Americans and Filipinos on its anniversary, now 114 years ago.