Duty to Country: America's Broken Promise

The Duty to Country Education Project tells the history of Filipinos and Americans in the Second World War. Duty to Country is the signature public history project of the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project (FilVetREP), a nonpartisan nonprofit volunteer organization founded in 2014 that seeks to recognize Filipino and American soldiers for their wartime service to the United States and the Philippines.
Duty to Country shares the untold story of two nations—the United States and the Philippines—fighting under one flag. This ongoing project features an online exhibition titled Under One Flag: America’s Broken Promise to the Philippines, hours of oral history testimonies, profiles of key historical figures, and dozens of animations and illustrations. The site has three key aims: first, it documents a history that has been distorted or excluded from textbooks, museums, and public history; second, it seeks to enable veterans, their families, and their advocates to see their history represented in their own words; third, the project brings this history to life for new generations of Americans by meeting them where they are—online. Duty to Country targets three key audiences: the Under One Flag digital exhibition appeals to online museumgoers and is designed to complement a planned physical exhibition; oral histories, photographs and films, and historical documents will enhance scholarly research; animations, biographical trading cards, and motion comics engage learners, particularly in grades 6-12.
Duty to Country represents a major innovation in the presentation of history to online audiences. Recording oral histories of living World War II veterans is urgent work in 2020, but Duty to Country also documents the voices of veterans’ families, advocates, and scholars to create a surrounding context illuminating decades of efforts to win legislative equity for Filipino military service.
Launched in November 2020, Duty to Country is having an immediate and substantial impact. It is being used this semester at a wide range of institutions, from the University of Michigan, to the U.S. Military Academy, to SUNY Adirondack Community College. We anticipate the site’s uptake will only increase in the future, particularly as we share lesson plans aimed at K-12 educators.