SAKADAS AND SOLDIERS:
HAWAII FILIPINOS IN WORLD WAR I
Promises Made, Promises Broken
National Guard and Army inductees had a brief career because the war ended in October 1918. Despite planters’ claims of losing 12% of their labor force to the draft and mobilization of the National Guard, they generally had succeeded in preventing the laborers from leaving Hawaii. In 1919 the National Guard and Army soldiers were discharged. Presented with the option of returning to the harsh labor conditions in and lower pay for plantation work, many discharged Filipinos did not return to the plantations. Many reenlisted with the military, moved to the mainland or returned to the Philippines.
A few soldiers in Hawaii died in service from influenza from 1918-1919. Their names, along with others who had died in action abroad, are memorialized (photographs above and below) at the World War I Memorial, also known as the Waikiki natatorium, in Honolulu.
Filipinos were exploited by the sugar planters and the territorial government. Promises of good wages and working conditions, they came to Hawaii to labor in the sugar and pineapple fields and faced poor pay with harsh living and working conditions. Promises of U.S. citizenship and pay for their military service were unfulfilled after the war. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1925 (Toyota v. United States) invalidated U.S. citizenship of Filipinos who served less than three years in the military, resulting in 750 Filipinos not being fully compensated for their National Guard service during World War I.
Sources
Alcantara, Ruben R. 1981. Sakada: Filipino Adaptation in Hawaii. Washington, D.C.: University Press of American, 1981. http://efilarchives.org/publications/books/, accessed October 1, 2017.
Deceased World War I Veterans Collection, Hawaii State Archives.
Filipinos in WW1 Military Service, https://www.facebook.com/Filipinos-in-WW1-US-Military-Service-599745593377002/, accessed September 1, 2017.
Hawaii State Archives Photograph Collection: Hawaii National Guard, PP-116-05.
Hawaii World War I Service Records, http://www.efilarchives.org/collections/WWI.htm, accessed July 1, 2017.
Kuykendall, Ralph S. 1928. Hawaii in the World War. Honolulu, The Historical Commission, 1928.
Newspaper articles from the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star Bulletin, https://staradvertiser.newspapers.com, accessed October 5-15, 2017.
Remigio, Prudencio A. 1919. Report of the Filipino Commissioner in Hawaii to His Excellency, the Governor General and Honorable Secretary of Commerce and Communication. Government of the Philippines Islands. Translated by Edgar C. Knowlton. http://www.efilarchives.org/publications/pamphlets/, accessed on October 10, 2017.
HOME |
Filipino-American
Historical Society of Hawaii
|
Help
Exhibits
| Publications
|
Collections
| Student/Teachers
Photographs
& Maps | Biographies & Oral Histories
| Community Organizations
WWI
Veterans | Centennial
Commission (2006)
Copyright © 2006 by the Filipino-American Historical Society of Hawaii. Updated 2020.