DAVAO CITY - A group of Filipinos of Japanese descent are defying old age and earlier rejections in their quest to acquire the citizenship of their Japanese fathers who died, went home or went missing before or during World War II.

Pacita Torres from the southern Philippine province of Davao Occidental on Mindanao island is now 84 years old, and more than two decades have passed since she and her two siblings first sought to establish official links with their father, whom they identify only from memory as "Mashimura Maramoto."

Together with seven other Japanese descendants, with ages ranging from 70 to 79, the Maramotos recently recounted their memories of their father before officials of the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center, the Nippon Foundation, and, for the first time, the Japanese Embassy in Manila, after their petitions before Japanese courts to acquire Japanese citizenship were denied.

Norihiro Inomata of the legal support center said the interview of the 10 descendants was meant to collect new pieces of information as they prepare to facilitate the filing of an appeal against the Japanese courts' earlier decision.

"For them, gaining Japanese nationality is evidence that their father actually lived. Identity matters a lot to them," Inomata told Kyodo News.

Inomata's center was established in 2003 "as a direct outcome of the centennial anniversary of the Japanese migration to the Philippines." Recognizing the necessity to support the children of prewar Japanese migrants to the Philippines, whose lives and identity were disrupted because of the war, the center started filing petitions before family courts in Japan in 2004.

It estimates there were around 3,000 second generation Filipino-Japanese descendants, of whom nearly 900 were not officially registered with the Japanese government due to the difficult situation during the war. Most of their fathers arrived in the Philippines before WWII and married local women.

Inomata said 235 petitions have been filed by the center, of which 172 earned approval and 29 were rejected, including those of the 10 that the center intends to appeal.

Nine other cases are still being heard, while the remaining 25 have been withdrawn, mainly because the petitioners have already died.

Speaking to Kyodo News after being interviewed by the panel, Torres said she will endure the long and hard process of acquiring her father's nationality just to see her relatives in Japan.

"I have not lost hope. I would be very happy to see my father's home place and meet our relatives there. My father must have some siblings there," said Torres, whose petition was formally filed in October last year, but denied in February this year.

Joining her in her petition are her younger siblings Roque Go, 80, and Estodi Go, 77.

The "Maramotos" can only rely on their testimonies and a family portrait taken in 1936 to prove their claim of having a Japanese father.

Torres, who is the second of a total of five siblings (the two others are already dead), said their father arrived in Davao at a time unknown to them, and married their mother, a member of the local B'laan tribe. He worked as a carpenter and also had a few Japanese friends in their province.

With few memories of her father, as she was only eight years old when he died in 1940 from an accident, Torres recalled that her father would speak the B'laan language at home, the Cebuano language when he was with some of their neighbors, and the Japanese language when with his Japanese friends.

She said her "Papa" did not teach them the Japanese language, nor did he introduce Japanese mannerisms at home.

As their interview wrapped up, the youngest sibling Estodi, who was holding the "Maramoto" family picture which does not include him, became emotional in stating his plea. "I am appealing for help because I did not see my father myself. I am crying now because I only have this photo of him, and this was the only place where I could see him. So, I want to know where my father came from in Japan, and I am also asking for help so I can see our relatives there."

"I want to be recognized as a Japanese citizen because my father was Japanese, and his blood flows through me," he said.

Inocencia Aglang, 71, from Davao del Sur province, who identified her father as a man named Arakaki, shares the fighting spirit of the "Maramoto" siblings, even though she thought that the dismissal of her petition was the end of the road for her.

"I have long applied as a Japanese descendant. So, while I am still physically strong, I want to go see my father's homeland," said Aglang, who started tracing her father's roots in 1985. Aglang's petition has already been rejected twice -- first in February 2014, and again in June 2015.

The other petitioners include siblings Adela Miones, 79, Rosendo Abe, 76, and Dolina Benito, 71, from Davao City; Oligario Nagata, 70, also from Davao City; Melanio Austerio, 74, from Compostela Valley province; and Lemuel Yoshimura, 73, from South Cotabato province, all in Mindanao.

Almost all second-generation Filipino-Japanese descendants documented by Inomata's center revealed that they lived difficult lives after being left behind by their Japanese fathers, many of them failing to complete their studies and having to endure discrimination because of the high anti-Japanese sentiment among Filipinos after the war.

The postwar animosity against anyone associated with the Japanese prompted many descendants to hide their Japanese identities while growing up. Many of them turned out later to be stateless nationals.

The restoration of their Japanese citizenship would not only complete their identity, but also offer them and their families better economic opportunities as their children and grandchildren could then work in Japan.

Inomata said that, with the official backing of a representative of the Japanese government through an embassy official, the recent interview could prove to be more credible when submitted to the court.

He also said the encounter of the descendants with Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko last January in Manila gave a boost to the pride of the descendants in having Japanese roots.