Tens and thousands of abandoned Filipino Amerasians have grown up in poverty and under a cloud of shame. Now that the United States is pivoting towards Asia once again, the fear is that history will repeat itself.

They call them “Amerasians” – a throwback to a time when America had soldiers in the Philippines, and some of those soldiers had local girlfriends.

Most of their mothers worked as “bar girls” near the sprawling American naval and air force bases. When the troops returned to the United States 20 years ago, they left behind the product of their liaisons with these women; thousands of infants who would grow up never knowing their fathers. Many were also abandoned by their mothers, who were financially unable or too ashamed to keep them.

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