CEDAR FALLS - Vince Gotera recently saw his father's dream realized, 20 years after his death.

The University of Northern Iowa English professor, editor of the North American Review literary magazine and U.S. Army veteran was invited by the Library of Congress to read published poetry about his Filipino-born father's and grandfather's hardships during World War II. It was during a Washington, D.C. symposium honoring Asian-Pacific American veterans.

Gotera's father and grandfather, Martin and Felix Gotera, were members of one of the most esteemed units in the history of the U.S. military - the Philippine Scouts, a backbone of the U.S.'s valiant but ill-fated defense of the Philippines in the war's early stages. The island nation was then a U.S. commonwealth.

Both men were captured by Japanese imperial forces after the fall of the Philippines and survived the infamous Bataan Death March in April 1942. Gotera's father and other Filipino prisoners eventually were released by their Japanese captors in their attempt to win the indigenous population's goodwill.

Instead, Martin Gotera and others joined the Filipino underground resistance movement and fought on until the islands finally were liberated. The Philippines were granted full independence in 1946. Martin, a naturalized U.S. citizen, came to America.

For years, Martin had fought for full recognition of all Filipino veterans' service during the war including many who never received veterans benefits. Vince said the symposium invitation, and concurrent reparation legislation recently proposed by President Obama and passed by Congress, represent some vindication for Asian and Filipino veterans in general and personally for Gotera's family's three generations of military service.

"It was such an honor," said Gotera, a native of San Francisco. He served in the Army from 1972 to 1975. His brother Pepito served in Vietnam. "My father really loved the U.S. and he felt, really, that he hadn't been appreciated for his service as much as he should have. Had he been living, this would have been such a vindication. He would have felt vindicated that he had served his country, and served his country well. Particularly because he felt he had sacrificed so much, with the Death March in the war, and his continuing health problems after the war."

At the symposium, Vince Gotera read a poem entitled "Tatay," the Filipino word for "father." It was written and published shortly after his father's death. It is included in Gotera's book, "Fighting Kites." In the poem, he describes how his father and grandfather found each other in a concentration camp near Capas after the Death March. He also describes how his father kept his malaria-stricken grandfather alive, brewing him a drink from wood bark the indigenous peoples used as a cure.

Felix Gotera had been a career Army officer in the Philippine Scouts. Martin received an officer commission, promoted to lieutenant by war's end.

The symposium fell just before Veterans Day, which would have been Martin Gotera's 88th birthday.

"You rock Papa. Happy Birthday," Vince wrote on his blog. "Veterans Day will always be your signature holiday."