DKI Fellow Colin Moore spotlights Filipino veterans

Colin Moore

Closeup of Denise Konan speaking at podium

College of Social Sciences Dean Denise Konan

Moore speaking at podium next to two large screens with slide that says

Moore gestures toward screen that shows elderly Filipino veterans saluting

Neil Abercrombie

Man from audience stands holding an open book, speaking, with Moore in background

Moore gestures standing next to screen with a slide titled

Gov. Abercrombie, standing, gestures as he speaks to the audience. Moore is still at podium.

Over the last several years, Colin Moore, political scientist and associate professor in the College of Social Sciences, has been researching the more than 200,000 Filipino veterans who, after serving in the U.S. Armed Forces during WWII, spent decades fighting for promised benefits—including naturalization and G.I. Bill benefits—that Congress denied them through the 1946 Rescission Act. This research has brought him to the U.S. National Archives, the Clinton Presidential Library, and the Senator Daniel K. Inouye Papers housed in Hamilton Library’s Hawaiʻi Congressional Papers Collection.

Moore presented his research in a public talk titled, “Soldiers of a Forgotten Empire: Filipino Veterans and the Politics of Denial.” The hybrid event on Feb. 27 was organized by the College of Social Sciences and co-sponsored by UH Mānoa Hamilton Library and the Daniel K. Inouye Institute. Moore’s research was part of DKI Fellows Program, which is supported by the Daniel K. Inouye Institute.

Moore’s talk considered the plight of Filipino veterans within the broader context of U.S. imperialism and later, the Cold War. It also traced Senator Inouye’s decades-long effort to obtain justice for these veterans. Letters that veterans wrote to Senator Inouye reveal their frustration, anger, and disappointment.

The talk was followed by a lively discussion among in-person and zoom attendees, many of whom had personal connections to Filipino veterans who struggled to access the benefits that were due to them. UH Regent and former Governor Neil Abercrombie, who worked with Inouye as part of Hawai’i’s congressional delegation, shared his perspectives on advocating for Inouye’s redress legislation in the U.S. House. Abercrombie’s archives are also accessible to researchers in Hamilton Library.