“The old man’s body contorted before her, assuming every painful position he had been subject to during his torture by the Japanese. Jimiliz Valiente-Neighbours, a Ph.D. student, was visiting Filipino veterans of World War II, hoping to answer a question: What did it mean to have served under the American flag? And now she was getting her answer, carefully reenacted before her, right down to the screams.”

In 1946, Congress passed a law declaring that Filipino World War II veterans — then U.S. nationals, under the overseas territory system — no longer had the right to be considered active members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Their benefits would be stripped, their recognition withdrawn. Now, over 70 years later, these vets are still fighting to regain their rights.

Read about their struggle in this article for Narratively.