Key Points
- Lorenzo Gamboa, a Filipino-US Army soldier, and Joyce Cain, a biscuit factory worker, met in Melbourne, Australia, wed in 1943 and had 2 children.
- Lorenzo was given three months to leave Australia and his family and was refused entry to the country, citing his race as reason under the White Australia Policy period.
- The Gamboas were reunited in 1952 and lived in a happy and peaceful life in Gold Coast, Queensland.
A father’s love can move mountains and that’s what exactly Lorenzo did.
Lorenzo Abrogar Gamboa, born in Pangasinan, Philippines, joined the US army in 1942. He was stationed in Melbourne, where he met and married Joyce Cain, an Australian white woman.
Lorenzo and Joyce’s love story was like many others: a man meets a woman, falls in love, gets married and have children.
However, their story made international headlines when the Australian Government gave Lorenzo three months to leave Australia and was refused entry to the country, citing his race as the reason.
Forced to leave the country, Lorenzo left behind his pregnant wife and son Raymond and travelled to the United States, where he took up citizenship on the basis of his military service and rejoined the army, to strengthen his case for re-entry in Australia.
When Lorenzo first laid eyes on Joyce
One Sunday afternoon in Melbourne, Lorenzo got into a train at Flinders Street Station and sat down in a compartment opposite a group of Australian girls.
They got talking, names were swapped, dates were made but he remembered, particularly, one slim, dark-haired girl whose name was Joyce Cain.
The feeling was mutual, as on Joyce’s part, the quiet-spoken young solider with a shy grin made a strong impression on her.
Lorenzo took Joyce out a few times and it was a quietly happy courtship.
The question of race was only raised once in the Cain’s household. Joyce’s father approved of Lorenzo and liked him very much.
Filipino-American Sergeant Lorenzo Gamboa and Joyce Cain on their wedding day in 1943. Credit: Photographer unknown, from the National Library of Australia
He went back to Australia and took a job with the Victorian Railways as a labourer. Confident that he will be soon granted permanent residency, the family lived a normal life like any other couple married in wartime.
Until his application for permission to stay in Australia in 1949 was refused.
Australia the white man’s land
In 1945, the Australian Government established the Department of Immigration as the country increased its migration intake. Many Europeans, mainly from the UK, were moving to Australia in droves and settled permanently – in fact they were wooed to stay.
The same can’t be told for migrants from Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands (except New Zealand) where they can’t apply for naturalisation or citizenship in Australia.
Flow of population poster. Credit: Exhibited at the National Library of Australia, “Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories”
Those who opposed the policy, notably Robert Menzies and Harold Holt, were in support of Lorenzo’s case and were lobbying the government to reverse the decision. But Chifley and Calwell were tough as nails and upheld their stand.
Not losing hope, Lorenzo fought the system with his wife and children always in his thoughts.
A father’s plea
When Lorenzo’s application to permanently stay in Australia was refused, he rejoined the US Army and applied for American citizenship under the special dispensation offered to non-Americans who served in the US forces for a specified wartime period.
He thought acquiring US citizenship would solve his problem and the journey back to Australia would be straightforward.
In June 1946, he was naturalised a citizen of the United States. But he still had to serve his army time and was posted in Japan until the remainder of his duty.
With the future with his family in sights, while in Army school, Lorenzo enrolled in a motor mechanic course so he could be a qualified tradesman when he returns to Australia, to help him earn more than a labourer’s wage and provide a better future for his wife and children.
In February 1949, Lorenzo, now a US citizen, applied for permission to enter Australia for permanent residence on his discharge from service in August the same year, through Australian Mission Chief Patrick Shaw in Tokyo.
However, at the end of February, Lorenzo received a communication from the Australian Immigration Department saying that his application was refused.
After acquiring US citizenship and serving in the land down under, Lorenzo was perplexed by the decision. Already running out of options, Lorenzo questioned the Australian Government’s verdict on his appeal.
Why did they let me marry an Australian girl if they wouldn’t let me into the country to see her.Lorenzo Gamboa
The Gamboa family reunited in Australia in 1952. Credit: Photographer unknown, from the National Library of Australia
The expulsion of Lorenzo from Australia reached the Philippines and government officials, particularly President Elpidio Quirino, were lambasting the decision.
It was also causing an uproar internationally, that even General Douglas MacArthur of the US Army, whom Lorenzo worked with, intervened and eventually the issue was raised in the United Nations.
Gamboa family reunited at last
The change of government in Australia in December 1949 was a pivotal moment for the Gamboa case.
A new government was elected, with Robert Menzies becoming the new prime minister and Holt as the immigration minister.
After years of not being with his family, Lorenzo was finally readmitted to Australia.
Joyce, who had borne two children without the comfort of having her husband near her, was elated by the news.
Their daughter Julie born in January 1947 had never seen her father while their eldest child Raymond was growing up without Lorenzo around – but now had the opportunity to make up for those lost time together.
At last, the weekly exchanges of letters and photographs between Lorenzo and Joyce were no longer required as the two were back in each other’s arms.
The family of four settled in Gold Coast, Queensland and lived a happy and quiet life.
Lorenzo, who passed away in September 2012 at 93, showed the world how a father’s immense love can trump adversities.
News articles and photos of the Gamboa family Credit: Exhibited at the National Library of Australia, “Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories”
