This year’s theme for AAPI Month is “We Answered the Call.”
In June 1978 the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed a joint resolution to recognize AAPIs that was later signed by President Jimmy Carter on Oct. 5, 1978. AAPI was first declared as AAPI week and in 1992, Congress designated May as AAPI Heritage Month.
This week’s highlight is Domingo Los Banos Jr., who was born in Wahiawa, before Hawaii officially entered statehood. He was raised on Kauai’s pineapple plantation fields along with his siblings.
In 1944, he joined his brother Alfred in U.S. military service. Three of the Los Banos brothers served in World War II and were deployed in the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam. In 1945, as a 19-year-old U.S. Army sergeant, Los Banos was one of the 300 recruits from Hawaii who made up the First and Second Filipino Infantry Regiments.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur deployed these men in retaking the Philippines from the Japanese as part of the United States’ retaliation for the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Los Banos went on to become a Fulbright scholar, Hawaii’s first Filipino principal and then served as a Hawaii State Department of Education district superintendent for Leeward – the first Filipino to hold this position.
Los Banos was an outspoken leader fighting for Filipino veterans’ rights and benefits and rallied about the repercussions and injustices brought about by the Rescission Act of 1946, a law that stripped Filipino soldiers who fought for the United States of their due benefits. As a result of his efforts, a Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Filipino WWII veterans on Oct. 25, 2017, over 70 years after their service in the war.
For additional information or questions regarding AAPI Month, contact the 2019 AAPI Month Special Observance Committee lead 1st Lt. Sophia Schwalbe at sophia.schwalbe@afit.edu.
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