WASHINGTON >> U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, herself an immigrant, knows what it’s like to struggle in life. She sees herself as someone who hears the voices of people who may not otherwise be heard — like the Filipino veterans receiving the Congressional Gold Medal Wednesday in Washington.

“This country has not done right by them,” she said she concluded after coming to understand their fight for benefits. “How our county treats them is a matter of concern for me.”

“To fight along side us, and to have 60,000 or so of them die in that struggle, and then to have what we promised them (equal veteran benefits) taken away, that was hard to accept,” she said in an interview at her office in the Hart Senate Building.

Her interest in Filipino veterans issues goes back to when she was first elected to the U.S. House, introducing a bill to reunify Filipino veterans in the U.S. with their families in the Philippines — an effort that has fallen short along with getting them the benefits afforded to others who fought for and with the U.S.

Hirono introduced the bill to honor Filipino veterans with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2015, pressing for its passage. Along with other members of the Hawaii congressional delegation, a vigorous campaign in both the House and the Senate came to fruition by the end of 2016.

Pushing the bill forward also meant taking it to the people, she said.

A national grassroots effort by the Filipino community was spearheaded by retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio “Tony” Taguba and the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project (FilVetREP). They went to work all over the country forming 11 regions to “help secure a Congressional Gold Medal for the Filipino veterans of World War II.”