The Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Association began recruiting workers from the Philippines in 1906 when mainland agitation against the flood of “Oriental heathens” cut off their labor sources in Asia. These men, called sakadas, came to work for three years and were entitled to return tickets at the end of their stint. The majority of the sakadas were bachelors, and few Filipino women came with them.

By 1920, Hawaii had become a cultural and racial melting pot. Mixed marriages between the “pure white” stock of residents was discouraged, but there was a large “mixed” population that the sakadas could choose from for companionship and marriage. Successful sakadas who chose not to return to the Philippines brought their families to Hawaii to settle on the sugar plantations. Their children also entered the pool of eligible marriage partners. Although few Filipino women married outside the Filipino circle, some did.

A Vision of America

The first manongs arrived in the mainland to replace the Japanese and Chinese field workers in California around 1910. Unlike the sakadas in Hawaii, the manongs came as independent workers and had to pay their own way to the U.S.

These young Filipino men had a vision of an America where all men and women were equal under the law. Opportunities to succeed were only limited by one’s own ambition. These were the lessons taught in their classrooms by American teachers. They also had seen white American men dating Filipinas in the Philippines, and they, too, looked forward to dating American women in the U.S.

By working hard and saving their money, they planned to return to their barrios to buy a piece of land, marry their sweethearts and raise a family. But because they were forced to compete against other ethnic labor groups, they often had to accept sub-standard wages. It was enough to live on but not enough to buy their dreams of success at home. Their dreams died hard.

The majority of the manongs were bachelors. By the 1940s there were fewer then 3,000 Filipino families in the U.S., and many of these were racially mixed families. In the towns and cities across the U.S., and especially along the Pacific coast, where there were large concentrations of Filipinos, there was always a shortage of Filipina women. The bachelor manongs, however, found fulfillment elsewhere.

One of the most popular groups to choose from were Japanese women, the daughters of Isei immigrant farmers. The manongs must have impressed the Japanese women greatly to cause many of them to reject the strong Japanese dislike of “Gai-jins” (foreigners). C. Sales wrote in the January 29, 1934 issue of the Philippine Mail of a young Romeo-and-Juliet couple. Silvestre, a Filipino, and Alice Taneka were engaged to be married. When her family tried to force her to break off their engagement, they committed double suicide.

In April 1942, Lt. Gen. John L. Dewitt, Western defense commander, ordered the Japanese on the West Coast into concentration camps. Miguel Ignacio, secretary of the Filipino Community of San Francisco, called attention to several American-born Japanese women, citizens of the United States, who had Filipino husbands. But as far as Dewitt was concerned, the women and children would remain in the camps for the duration of the war. Many of these Filipino husbands went on to serve in the 1st & 2nd Filipino U.S. Infantry Regiments, defending the nation whose racist policies held their families hostage.