 And we are navigating the journey. Today, it is in memory of Domingo Los Barrios. Memorials like Veterans Day, December 7, July 4, help us to form collective memory that over time and across generations shapes what a society remembers or what it forgets. I trust this memorial will serve as a news peg for you for journalists that ignite powerful emotional connection for those who live through these events and maybe even more influence those who did not live this event. Because it creates a world they never experienced. Even more important, it impacts whether we remember it at all at the USS Parchee Memorial to set a peace for the submarine base Pearl Harbor. The both-in-base sub-vets have never let a Memorial Day go by without honoring the submariners who are on eternal patrol, those whose lives were spent in difficult and often environmental, beneath the sea in submarine. The submarine force paid a steep price in the fight for freedom. And we are all eternally grateful for those sacrifices. The names of 3,500 submariners who lost their lives are listed on the Laidrate Plaques, which the submarine veterans were a War II and Relief Crew, number one, so proudly honored. There was a year I want to tell you about. It was the first time a little-known story was the hallmark of the ceremony. Gray Admiral Jeffrey Cassis, commander of submarine force USS Pacific Fleet, told of the exploits of the Filipinos aboard submarine. And I wondered why? Why are there soldiers on a submarine? Domenico Los Baños, a member of the US Army's first Filipino infantry regiment, came every year to place a Laid on the special plaque engraved with the names of the 17 Filipinos who were lost at sea. But no one ever said why. How there were soldiers on a submarine. Despite being treated as second class citizens, they campaigned the US government to allow them to serve in the military. As secret of General Douglas MacArthur, and they were sent by submarine to act as spies behind Japanese enemy lines, the Filipino soldiers became indispensable in retaking the Philippines and winning the war in the Pacific. 400 of the best Filipino soldiers who had volunteered and trained in California were selected by MacArthur to form the first reconnaissance battalion. These individuals were sent to act as spies behind the Japanese line and helping to set the stage for General MacArthur's promise to return. It all started December 27, 1942, at a dock in Fremantle, Australia. When seven Filipino mess boys boarded the USS Grunyan, saluted the colors, and proceeded quickly down the hatch. They slid away from the dock and quietly maneuvered out to sea. The mess boys were, in fact, disguised Filipino soldiers and intelligence officers. The Grunyan's top secret mission was to deliver soldiers and 2,000 pounds of gear to Mindanao and Pinae, two key Philippine islands, to help bolster guerrilla forces resisting the Japanese occupation. They were to transfer the men and the supplies into inflatable rafts and put them quietly ashore without being detected, and they succeeded completely. It was the first of many such guerrilla runs that submarines made to the Philippines. They were daring, dangerous missions. No two missions were alike, and many were complicated by enemy interference, bad weather, or communications with friendly forces ashore. The dangers were great. Many encountered enemy ships and were targeted by depth charges, and many encountered greater danger airplanes. And the submarines often had to submerge quickly to avoid bombing and strafing. In all, 19 submarines participated in a total of 41 missions to the Philippines, beginning with the Grunyan in 1942. In the campaign, the US submarines delivered 331 people, evacuated 472 individuals, and delivered 1,325 tons of ammunition and military equipment. They bought not only supplies, but hope to the growing Filipino resistance, a resistance that would prove vital in ultimately defeating the Japanese in the Philippines. One of the submarines that participated in this mission was the USS Seawolf. On October 3, 1944, as the war was ending, as it was carrying 17 Filipino-American soldiers off Morator Island, it was inadvertently sunk by friendly fire. All aboard were lost. The names of these 17 soldiers are inscribed on the wall, along with the crew of the Seawolf. And like the others listed on the wall, they made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation while serving on submarines. So today, we are going to introduce you again to one of my favorite people, the late and great Los Barrios. So stay with us. You'll enjoy meeting him again and again and again. So, aloha, thank you so much for coming. Nice to see you, Emarsha, and you look bellisiba, bellisiba. See why I told you about having friends yet? Why we invite dear friends? So first, tell us about Los Barrios. And you were a child when you went into World War II. So tell us about Los Barrios and World War II. Well, first, let me say I am so proud of my family because my mother was a five-star, gold-star mother. Five brothers were five brothers. We were all in the army. And we fought in World War II, Korea, Vietnam. We were all in there. And my father was a Navy man, first world war. And my mother's father was bought against the American and the Spanish-American wall. Yes. So now you were here. You were born here in America. I was born here in Wahewa. But your other family was in the Philippines. Yes. Oh, no, my brothers were all born here. We were all born here. Yeah, but your father, your grandfather, was in the Philippines. And against, in that horrible war, the American Americans. Early on, against Americans. Yeah, I know what the Americans call, you know, anyway. It was your war, the Filipinos' war. So tell us about being in Wahewa. You were born in Wahewa. Well, I was born in Wahewa, grew up until we were fourth grade. And then we moved to Kauai. But my father, when he first came in the 1920s, he jerk-sorted on Chinatown and worked in a literate bar right next to Hawaii Theater. But during the day, he went to University of Hawaii Pineapple Institute. And he became a technician in chemistry and pineapple. So every pineapple field has an experiment block. My dad was in charge of that. And many of us grew up. We helped dad pick up pineapple, big pineapple. That was how we grew up. So each pineapple is different. Pineapples are not just pineapples. Yes, but I think he was checking the amount of fertilizer and all those things. That's why they have an experiment block. So our days with our father was always working in the pineapple field. And it's tiring work, hard work. It is? Hard work. So you were 16 when you went into World War II. Is that correct? No, no. I was about 60 when war hit. They took our high school away on Kauai. And so we had to go to other schools, to other places for schools. But I went to work for USDD, suckers every day. You know the song, USDD, suckers every day? That's us. So I was a timekeeper for all the vehicles that built Mana Airport. And Mana Airport on Kauai is now with the ballistic missiles going. I also ran a gunite machine which shoots cement through the tunnels that were built. And we did that. I was only 16 years old. Wow. So when we went back to school, and nights were blacked out. So we all had our dances with army bands, and boogie-woogie, and all that. You know, we had afternoon dances. So that's how I grew up. And I spent a year at the University of Hawaii and then getting into the war. Into the army. So let's talk about the war. You know, when I say the war, this young generation looks at me and said, what is the war? And so let's say that World War II is still the war. I grew up with every day with the war. You know, my father was in the war. Everybody's father was in the war. So tell us about the war so that young people understand what we're talking about. Well, World War II was a terrible era. And just recently, just recently, I saw a review of Nazi Germany taking over Czechoslovakia and the next one and the next one. And then they want to take Russia in a tight turn. So I saw movies of this. I saw the growth of Mussolini, Franco, and also the Japan with its navy and its experimentation of taking over in Asia. All that just a month ago, a review. And then the time when America got in. On the day, I'm going into my participation and my knowledge of World War II. I was a youngster about 17, 18, 17. And that morning when Pearl Harbor was hit, they hit Manila also. I was in the camp on Kauai, watching the young Filipino boys training their chickens for cock fighting. And I saw my kid brother and he said, hey, war, war. Over the radio came the news that Pearl Harbor was being attacked. That was our first knowledge of the war. And that was the beginning of my childhood, really, in a way. Because immediately after that, and one year in college at University of Hawaii, I went to battle. Where were you at the battle? Well, we trained in Camp Roberts, California, in Los Apispo, boarded a train. The train took us to San Francisco Harbor. We got to Holandia. There, we joined a convoy of ships with troops, material supplies going to Philippines. So you were, because for people that may not know, the same time that Pearl Harbor was bombed, Manila was bombed, Guam was bombed, exactly the same time. But because of the time difference, it looks like, if you read the history books, it looks like a day difference. But it was exactly the same time. So you were part of the invasion? No, I came later. And this is where I'd like to say that the Filipinos, say, when Pearl Harbor was hit, there were about 150,000 Filipinos who were in the States, working in fruit farms, hotels, houseboys to the movie stars, couldn't marry white girls, prejudiced against dismal life. It was. But when war hit, they wanted to join the army. They could not. So the old folks, the old Filipino fellows, were wise enough to invoke President Roosevelt to sign an executive border, which he did. When he did, 3,000 Filipinos who were in the mainland showed up. MacArthur gets excited, because these people knew the land, they knew the language. So he picked 500 of the cream of the crop of those who volunteered, 3,000, sent them to Australia, training them on the Green Bay, and fighting, jungle fighting, armed them with radio skills. And he spread these people by submarines. It's knocking secretly. And these MacArthur submarines, for the three years that MacArthur was away, he scattered these men along the 7,000 islands of the Filipino archipelago. And that's where we're part of the Australian coastal machine, a coastal watch. And we're going to talk about it. We'll talk about that. Yeah. And so MacArthur's Navy is what I call it now. I don't know what its real name was, but as we know, in fact, this is a very little story that I love, because I'm going to tell it, the story goes. And this, of course, was in the 40s. And there was discrimination in the Navy and all around. And so despite being treated as second class citizens, they campaigned for the US government to allow them to serve in the military. And the secret commandos of General MacArthur's battalion sent by submarines to act as spies behind the Japanese enemy lines, the Filipino soldiers became indispensable in taking the Philippines and winning the war in the Pacific. Let me tell you this. Because of the discrimination, and in the Navy, the only ones, Filipinos, blacks, Chinese, Chamorros, were all messmen. Cooks. They were cooks, and they served. Yes, messmen, yes, yes. It was their official rank. They served the officers. So as spies, they were dressed in messman uniforms so that they could move off in and off of the submarines. And they took money, information, all kinds of things in and out and in and out of the submarines. And it started in 1942 in Australia when the seven boys were dressed as messmen, and they boarded the grunion. Saluted the colors and proceeded quickly down the gangplank. The grunge and then slipped away from the dock and gently moved out to sea. So these messmen went for the whole time of the war, in and out, in and out, thoroughly disguised until the end of the war and on the way back after they had promised, like MacArthur said, I will return. And then at the end, on the ship, on the seawolf, coming back home. Coming back home? Coming back. Oh, gosh. Coming back. And everybody's feeling like the war. Oh. And coming back. Coming back. Coming back. That's worse. It is. And then the ship, the submarine, was lost at sea. And so. There were 17 men, I am, from my outfit. Yeah. 17. Of the 3,000 October 3, 1944. And it was carrying the 17 Filipino-American soldiers off Moritaro Island. It was inadvertently sunk by friendly fire. Friendly fire, yeah. All aboard were lost. So the names of the 17 soldiers are inscribed on the wall, along with the crew of the seawolf. Now, some of them have not been identified. I mean, they all been identified. The Navy keeps good records. But some of them, they're still family that haven't acknowledged. There's still some who are, we don't have pictures of. But if you go to the, what is it? Oh my gosh, since the old age is what? If you go to the, if you have siblings. Yes. Of family members who fought in World War II and were buried, for you to get the ceremony of the bugle and the flag, you had to show your discharge paper to 14. That's valuable. And if your relatives are buried in any of the local cemeteries here and in on the outside islands, I had a meeting with the association just last week. And they have their 214. That 214 will verify they were in World War II. Second, it will give the address of the fellow who died. And hopefully, the next of kin, you can take that and we can run it through the process and you can get a medical, the Congressional Medal of Cross. And that's what we're showing today. What we have here. And for those 17, they are included with the Navy. And at the museum, the Bofin, there is a file. And it has all of them listed. And some of them still haven't been there. Next of kin haven't sent pictures. We have to find them. And we have to find them. So we really want anybody who they think you can go to the Bofin or you can go to the Bofin online, www.bofinmuseum. And they are listed. The Navy has done all they can to find them. OK, good. So anyone, Filipinos, if you're back around the Filipino and you know some relative who was in World War II, this medal is waiting for you. Did we show the medal? This medal is it's the Congressional Medal of Honor. You want to flip it or do you want to? It's a beautiful medal. The original is in Smithsonian. This has a touch of bronze. But it's waiting for you as long as you get the proper information. Now, we had one awarding. And I was disappointed because for me, I was first sergeant to 300 local boys whose parents worked in the plantation. And all those 300, we are only five people left alive. The rest are dead. So I appealed to any Filipina family, if your boys and the ones I was in charge of, they were all 18, we were teenagers, happy, lucky, love dancing and all of that stuff. And what I was saddened when I got mine just on May 6, when only eight of us got it and the rest are still, it's been in the papers, but they're not remembering whether their parents or relatives fought or not. So I appealed to the Filipino public hearing this. Please respond. Remember when you put your family's body, go to that mortuary and you can get the 215, 214, the discharge paper, and then they can begin the process. It's very important that you do that. Well, and again, like I said, with the Bofen Museum, they have everything. And you may not know that your relative was on that submarine because it was so secret. Secret, yeah. So if you are Filipino, please, please, go to the Bofen Museum and they will help you because we need those people identified. I mean, the names are there, but we need the families to. Yes. Now, these are families in the mainland. I mean, in the Philippines. But these are Filipinos from the mainland. These are the Filipinos, some of them are local, some of them are mainland. Now, I met Miss Joner when I went to one of these celebrations of the ship to town. And I asked the admiral, could you, because he would give one time. They ring the bell for every ship that's lost. So I said, in this case, Commander, can you give me, when you come to the Sea Wolf, can you give me 17 bells because we had 17 men on it? And the interesting thing when you mentioned about discrimination early on, well, most Filipinos and other colored groups were mess boys. So on the manifest, they carried men as stewards to hide their identity. So that's how I met Miss Joner. And ever since my buddies and I, we proudly and reverently attend their memorial every year. We need to take a break and we'll come right back. Aloha and welcome to At the Crossroads. I am your host, Keisha King. You can catch my show every Wednesday at 5 p.m. What do we talk about? Whatever you want to talk about, whatever is happening in our community and in our world, we want to make your lives better. Come and watch us at the Crossroads. Aloha, I'm Tim Apachella. I'm here with Cynthia Sinclair. And this is Trump Week. It's going to appear every Friday at 11 a.m. Between Jay Fidel, Cynthia and myself. We talk about Trump, the activities, and the news stories for that week as it pertains to the Trump administration. We hope you tune in and watch the fun. Aloha. See you then. Aloha, and we're back. As you got to see, we introduced Los Barrios in part one. And we talked about all of his exploits in the military and the gold medal that he and all of the others got, all the other Filipinos. Now, part two, we talk about his love for education and all of the wonderful things he did after the war. He got a degree and he became a teacher and a coach and the first Filipino principal and district superintendent. And he also spearheaded the documentary in Untold Triumph. So let's go back and hear the rest of the story. Last week, we talked about all of your exploits in the military. And we ended the program when you said at the bombing of Nagasaki that you made a commitment. So you want to tell us about that? Well, at the time I made that commitment, I was in the midst of a battle in the jungle. And in the jungle warfare, the Filipinos were so crowded, maybe 10 of us could fight the rest of them, just watch. So it was, in any case, soon after they dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, the next day, it was over. So in the midst of the jungle, they pulled me out, brought me to the seacoast. So God kept his promise. I said, God, get me out of this. Get me out of harm's way and I'll become a teacher. So right after that bombing was over for us. So I said, well, I better keep my commitment. So I quit the army. I went to the Philippines on my relatives, my last visit. Caught the boat home. And I enrolled at, I had already spent one year at the University of Hawaii. I went to Springfield College, Massachusetts. I spent my training of three years in physical education and health. Springfield College was noted for training YMCA secretaries, the logo of Springfield College is spirit, mind, and body in a triangle, in balance. So that's where I get my guidance about a good life, a balance between your spirit, your mind, and your body. You need a healthy body, but you need training. That's why I went to college. So I had three wonderful, wonderful years at Springfield College. And I started. Where is Springfield College? Where is Springfield College? Springfield College, Massachusetts. That's where they have the Springfield Rifles. So I spent my time there. And coming from Hawaii, and New England is so whole, I had to get used to that. But I spent three years there and had a wonderful training. By the way, Don Ho was a freshman when I was a senior. And we used to sing together before he was, you know, Po Po Hino Hino. Before his Po Po Hino Hino days, but he was, we used to sing in the elementary schools of Springfield and talking about Hawaii. So the fact that we came from Hawaii, we were interesting people to the New Englanders. So I spent three years there. And then I went, then went home and I taught, my first teaching was fifth grade in Waipao and Hawaii, Waimea Elementary School. That was my first teaching. And after that, I taught high school, coaching basketball, baseball, football. So that's where I started my teaching career. Then after a while, I became a principal. And I was a- Principal player. I was a principal. My first principal was of Anahola School upon a sea coast of Kauai. And I taught grades four, five and six. And my five, six, seven, eight, besides being a principal, that was my beginning. Then from there, I came to Honolulu and was principal of Linkona School, which is a medallary school for the medallary target. I was there and then went to a, went to a workshop in San Francisco, art workshop. And there I met my wife. My face was her model to make paper machine masks. Because she was a special ed teacher and I was a special ed principal. So that's how we got together. And then, frankly enough, when I was in Springfield College, there was a Mr. and Mrs. Miyake. Mr. Miyake's, Jimmy's wife, Martha, was my classmate in kindergarten in Waihawah. And so we met in college. Now she and Jim were in Bangkok, Thailand, here of the Fulbright program. And they called a bunch of university professors, one in Oceanography, one in Sociology, and they wanted a sports guy. So Jim asked me, Jim, you want to come? I said, I have, yeah. So my wife wanted a company. We asked, okay, get your degree. We're rendezvous in Kyoto and we're go to Thailand. And that's what we did. We got married in Kyoto. So she and I are together, went to Thailand. And in Thailand, low and behold, I was scheduled to be, for two years, the teacher in the Royal Palace, for the children in the palace. And there I, the king of Thailand now, he was my forthcoming student. So, and then in the evening, I would coach the Thailand basketball team. And so the first Southeast Asian Peninsula game in 1959, I coached the Thailand basketball team, we won the gold medal. And because we won the gold medal, they invited me to go to the Olympics in Italy, 1960. Olympics. And there we played England, we beat them by two points. We played Australia, we beat them by two points. And we had a game with China, we beat them by two points. So we had a good time and we were part of the 60 Olympics. Wonderful. So after that, I came home and I made me a principal of Waipahu Elementary School. And then from there, I went back to Kapa as a principal of Kapa High School. And then from there, I worked in the central office of the Department of Education. And they made me a district superintendent of the Leeward schools. So I ran the schools for about 11 years. I built Campbell High School, Palseri High School, Nanakuli High School. So that was my belly way. So this is where I got in touch with many of the early Filipino educators. And we went here to a project to keep these young Filipinos getting a college education. And we need to take a break and we will be back in one minute. And then you tell us all about the Filipino boys. Okay. I'm Marsha. And today we are talking to Domingo Laspanias. And he was telling us all about teaching and he would just be getting to tell us about what you did with the Filipinos locally. We made it a point and really, this really ties in with our battle cry. It plays a part. The battle cry, we had this battle cry during the occupation of the Philippines to keep focus on our mission. And the battle cry of the first regiment was lugging owner in Filipino, which really means be the best, be number one. So we got to talk to our Filipino people and said, look, be proud you're a Filipino. Be proud. If you're an army, you're American army, be the best. So that's lugging una. The battle cry of the second regiment was so long, means forward. Follow your leaders, be the best. Know that you're gonna survive, but develop a serving heart. Go to college, get your skill, share your heart with your others. And then finally, the special unit that were especially important to MacArthur, the first reconnaissance unit, their motto was bahalana, which is go with God. Knowing that God's love is inclusive, which means it means love your enemies also, that God's love is sacrificial, that God gave his only son to die on the cross that we might live. And God's love is transforming. He gives to you the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will help you think through to deal with your problems. And that was bahalana, go with God. Bahalana. Bahalana. Na. Na. That's the three, and those three Mac cries, we shared with Filipino students in college, and they've developed a unit called Surinigawa, do your own thing, where we encourage our young Filipino boys and girls to stay in college, get that skill and share that skill. And they've been getting together as a unit, the Surinigawa for about 40 years, meeting every year at Camp Erdman, urging the Filipino kids, repair yourself, repair yourself, get a serving heart. And that I think has been the mission that I think God gave me when he saved me. And so that has always been our push and courage to young folks, go to college, get a skill, but open your heart to others. And that has served us when we were three years when Mac Arthur was missing from the Philippines, that kept us together. And we felt that we made an impact because Mac Arthur, we helped him keep his promise to the people of the Philippines and America, so I shall return. Now, when did you start this campaign to have all of the Filipinos recognized by the Americans had fallen down on their promise to bring them reparations that Americans had dropped the ball? So when did you start this too? Well, we started that early on. See, early on, I knew that America had rescinded that the promise to these Filipino soldiers they rescinded that. And for then I and my associates created the movie Untold Triumph which gives the exploits of our outfit. And I sent that to the chairman of the committee in Washington. They did nothing about it. So it was almost 8,000 Filipinos from Turin coming to Hawaii, living here for 75 years and finally they come out with something thanks to the goodness of Senator Inouye and Senator Akaka. They were always there trying to get something for the fellows. So these soldiers from the Philippines in the, they've been in Hawaii for that many years waiting for some, some recourse. And I thank the Filipino clubs that helped these Filipino fellows, soldiers, and their wives while for the 75 years they spent in Hawaii we were always helpful to them. So I'm pleased now that after 75 years Congress has said, okay, this is, we say thank you to you. And I'm especially pleased that the legislature feeling uncomfortable about taking 75 years to recognize these Filipino veterans from Philippines and America, they gave us $200,000 for a war memorial. And I want that war memorial. Where will that be? In the year. Now where? Where I want a commission that will try to place that in the right place. I hope that we can put them at Pearl Harbor because- It needs to be at Pearl Harbor. Yes, because the story when MacArthur was kicked out, it was our boys that helped him keep his promise of I shall return. Yes. So I think it would- It's probably a place- It should be there because that is part of the story- That's right. Of the war. Early on. Yes. Early on. And in it, it will show how early on we were MacArthur's are using it. So I'm thankful to the legislatures to Senator Rono and Gabbard and Direct and our state legislature for providing that funds. Hopefully we can get it by the end of the year. And I'm on that commission to give the message of that memorial. And if I could, what I have in mind is that it should be a message of peace on earth. That's what I want that message to say. A watch for that. Yeah. Because it has to be that it is a part of the American story. Correct. And when I- To be there because more people go to the Arizona than any place else. And- Correct. And that they need to see this story. They need to know that this is a part of America also. That these young men are part of America also. I had the opportunity to thank Senator President Obama for signing that acclamation for the branding of the award. And I then turned to the Japanese Premier and I thanked him that Japan was the first country to ever stand up to the world and say no more war. So I hope that we can get a message through our memorial that says stop all war. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Absolutely, absolutely. Do you have any image in mind of what you would like? Well, we saw, we already picked the architect. And the architect showed us a soldier lifting up a fellow and helping him walk. Well, that has the spirit of the button on death march. Yes. So we picked that. And then we see the, at least five boys with flat nose, Filipino nose, with steel helmets. And I think we need a woman there because the women were gorillas also. So she can have a straw hat. That should emanate from that memorial. I also want to see a word like live aloha, do unto others as you would have others do unto you, but that would have the spirit of Hawaii and peace. And I hope Hawaii can be brave enough to come out strong with that message. Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. There are so many Filipino descendants. Yes, we're growing. Yes, of those boys that sacrificed so much in the legislature. They're in the legislature now, too. They're everywhere in all parts of the government of Hawaii. So that should not be a problem. So you boys, families of the Valentines, of the Santa Ana's, of the Lapines, get next of kin, register, go to where your people, your loved one was buried. They have their discharge papers there. You can begin signing up to get what is due to your family. You'd be so proud when you see that medal of honor. Thank you. Well, thank you. And it's been a pleasure spending this time with you as always. Oliver, I am sure that you enjoyed our visitation with Domingo Los Baños. Please feel free to come back and visit with him at any time. The memorial, the visitation for Los Baños will be May 1 at 6 p.m., the visitation at Mililani Park and Cemetery. The mass will be at May 2, 10 a.m., our Lady of Good Council in Pearl City. And then that same day, the burial will be at Mililani Memorial Park and Cemetery. Thank you for staying with us, and we'll see you next time.