The Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is a commemoration of the cultures, struggles, and history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Asian or Pacific Islander is a broad term used to describe a person with origins in any of the original peoples of the Asian continent and the Pacific Islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.The term “Asian American” was formally introduced by historian Yuji Ichioka in the 1970s.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month came to exist when House Representatives Frank Horton and Norman Mineta introduced a resolution that called for the first ten days of May as Asian Pacific Heritage Week in 1977, and when Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga pushed for a similar congressional bill the same year. In 1992, the designation of May as a month-long celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States was signed into law. In 2009, President Barack Obama officially proclaimed May as the “Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.” This month was chosen because of two anniversaries in May—the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants and the completion of the transcontinental railroad, which was built by Chinese laborers. By acknowledging and celebrating APA Heritage Month, we are also remembering our shared history.

Events in Asian American History

Gold Rush

While Filipinos, Japanese and other Asians had established settlements in America as early as the 1700s, the discovery of gold in California in 1848 attracted the first wave of immigrants from Asia. Due to famine and political instability in China, thousands of Chinese miners and contract laborers arrived in the States in search of the “Gold Mountain.” By 1850, most of the 37,000 Asian immigrants who had entered the U.S. were Chinese.  During this time, U.S. diplomatic relations with Japan also prompted Japanese to move to Hawaii and California to work in agriculture.

Yellow Peril

In 1865, the Central Pacific Railroad recruited Chinese to work on the transcontinental railroad due to its need for cheap labor, but as the number of Chinese immigrants increased, anti-Chinese sentiment and legislation began to form. The belief was that the mass immigrant of Asians threatened white wages and standard of living. Some cities passed laws against Chinese and other Asians, referred to as “Mongolians”, and numerous anti-Chinese riots erupted between 1870s and 1880s.

As a result of ant-Chinese sentiment, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress in 1882. It is important to note that the Exclusion prompted the first great wave of commercial human smuggling, which later spread to include other ethnic groups.

Angel Island

The Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay served as the processing center for approximately 1 million Asian immigrants entering into the U.S. from 1910 to 1940. Due to the restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Act, many immigrants were kept on the island for years, waiting for entry. Out of the 56,113 Chinese immigrants who were recorded, more than 30% were returned to China. Known as “The Ellis Island of the West”, the center is a sight worth visiting because tourists are able to experience the longing and desperation of the Chinese immigrants through the poems that were carved out on the walls. For more information, please visit the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation website: http://www.aiisf.org/.

Japanese Internment

More than 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were placed in internment camps during World War II. Despite not being able to speak Japanese or having ties to Japan because many of them were second, or third generation Japanese Americans, they were regarded as wartime threats based on the color of their skin. U.S. was also at war with Italy and Germany, but Italian and German Americans did not face internment.

Forty-six years later, Congress passed a measure giving compensation to Japanese Americans who were interned during the war. For more information, please visit the National Asian American Telecommunications Associations website for more on the internment experience: http://caamedia.org/jainternment/.

Filipino Veterans
 
With a population of over 3 million, Filipino Americans are the largest group of Overseas Filipinos and the second largest Asian American group in the United States. During World War II, more than 400,000 Filipinos served in the U.S. Miliary. The U.S. government promised benefits to those who enlisted, however, in 1946, Congress passed the Rescission Act of 1946 which stripped them of such rights. It is estimated that the U.S. government owes more than one billion dollars in back pay and benefits to the Filipino veterans. The government has also received criticism from veteran and ethnic communities in regards to the lack of payment to the brave individuals who fought and risked their lives for the country. As of 2009, only about 150,000 of the troops were still alive. Assembly Bill 199, also known as the Filipinos in World War II Social Studies Curriculum Act, was introduced by Assemblymembers Fiona Ma and Paul Cook. It passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly. For more information on Filipino Americans, please visit the Filipino American Library: http://filipinoamericanlibrary.org/

Asian American Movement

In the 1960s and 70s, Asian Americans began to mobilize politically for many causes: the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, development of ethnic studies programs in high education, and the Vietnam War, which led to more than 130,000 refugees fleeting from Communist governments of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to the U.S. The movement was largely inspired by the Civil Rights Movement that was led by African Americans. For many Asian Americans at the time, it was the birth their political and social consciousness. Many of the programs in Bay Area universities today, such as the Asian American Studies Program at San Francisco State University, and the Ethnic Studies Program at UC Berkeley, are the result of the activists’ efforts.

Present Day

Since 1979, the U.S. and China have resumed diplomatic relations. The Immigration Act of 1990 increased the numbers of Asians allowed in the United States. There has been more diversity in the Asian communities as well. From India to Pakistan and China to Korea, in comparison to the past, many of the newer immigrants have highly specialized skills, especially in technology and medicine. Prejudice and discrimination still exist, as demonstrated by Vincent Chin’s hate crime case in 1982 and other racially-charged incidents. Experiences as such demonstrate the importance for people to be conscious of issues regarding class, race, and gender, and to appreciate what it truly means to be an American.

Timeline

Celebrated Asian Pacific Americans