SAN FRANCISCO: A victory for Filipino World War II veterans, California’s board of education has given a go-ahead to the inclusion of their role in WWII in the revised history curriculum framework for the state’s schools.
The green light from the State Board of Education (SBE) came two months after the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) unanimously approved the recommendations of the Bataan Legacy Historical Society (BLHS), reported Inquirer.
Many years of hard work by the BLHS and support from the Filipino community had led to the passage in 2011 of AB 199 sponsored by then-legislators Fiona Ma and Leland Yee, which encouraged the inclusion of the role of the Filipinos during WWII in the history/social sciences curriculum for Grades 7-12.
With support from State Superintendent and concurrently SBE Secretary and Executive Officer Tom Torlakson, this important part of WWII history will be included in the Grade 11 U.S. history (Chapter 16) curriculum framework, said the news portal.
Among the historical events that will be included are: the Philippine Commonwealth; the creation of the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) comprised of Americans and a majority of Filipinos; the disruption of the timetable of the Imperial Japanese Army by the USAFFE Forces despite suffering from disease and starvation and fighting without any air support; the Bataan Death March and its thousands of casualties; the role of the Filipino and American guerrillas during the liberation of the country; the American soldiers who were transported in hell ships to labor camps in Asia; the Battles of Leyte Gulf and the destruction of Manila.
“They revise the curriculum every ten years or so, the last being in 2005, so we had to have this done this year or wait for another ten years before we can even present this recommendations again,” BLHS Executive Director Cecilia Gaerlan was quoted as saying by Inquirer.
Philippine Consul in San Francisco Reginald Bernabe reportedly said that the SBE approval came on the heels of the US Senate’s recent passage of the Congressional Gold Medal bill, which he hopes will also be passed by the House of Representatives.
