Celebrations of US military exploits and valor cover the whole gamut of soldiering and foreign policy. WWI , WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq/Aghan War, and the memorials that celebrate and remember them, mute testimonies of warrior sacrifice that speak moral imperatives, of America saving the world from evil.

In 1899, the US went to war in the Philippines and conducted a savage war of imperialism against a new born republic, the first in Asia. The patriotic and nationalist bravado of the young republican army was no match for the well honed US army veterans of the Indian Wars and Civil War  and thier endless military materiel. Many young American soldiers died but many more Filipinos died, including collateral damage. Except for Admiral Dewey’s San Francisco memorial celebrating his victory over the former colonist Spain and a couple of church bells confiscated from Balangiga as dues to the surprise ambush of US troops and the subsequent scorch earth response. Inflicted by the US upon the Philippines, this war is all but forgotten.

Similarly, the grand celebration of the anniversary of D-Day, exposes the eurocentricity of war histories. Other than the coincidental TV feature of the incarceration of US citizens of Japanese ancestry, the Pacific theater was barely glorified, especially the Filipino veterans who valiantly fought in both theaters and more disastrously so in the Philippines against the Japanese Imperial Army. The Filipino soldiers and guerrillas paid dearly for their loyalty to the United States, in spite of  40 years of US colonial rule. Post-WWII, Fil-vets became second-class veterans, rich in medals and memories, but lacking in terms of support, compensation and benefits that was granted and bestowed to regular US military veterans.  As the Fil-vet numbers dwindle, so will America’s memory of their gallantry.