Lan Dong - 25 Events that Shaped Asian American History

Advisory Board

Jonathan H. X. Lee (San Francisco State University)

Franklin Ng (California State University, Fresno)

Cathy Schlund-Vials (University of Connecticut)

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (University of California, Irvine)

25 Events That Shaped Asian American History

An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic

Lan Dong, Editor

Copyright 2019 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dong, Lan, 1974- editor.

Title: 25 events that shaped Asian American history: an encyclopedia of the American mosaic / Lan Dong, editor.

Other titles: Twenty five events that shaped Asian American history

Description: First edition. | Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2018046439 (print) | LCCN 2018047012 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440860898 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440860881 (hard copy: alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Asian AmericansHistoryEncyclopedias.

Classification: LCC E184.A75 (ebook) | LCC E184.A75 A125 2019 (print) | DDC 973/.0495dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018046439

ISBN: 978-1-4408-6088-1 (print)

978-1-4408-6089-8 (ebook)

232221201912345

This book is also available as an eBook.

Greenwood

An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

ABC-CLIO, LLC

147 Castilian Drive

Santa Barbara, California 93117

www.abc-clio.com

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Ying Ma

Andrea Kwon

Tena L. Helton

Nathan Jung

Laura Stanfield Prichard

William B. Noseworthy

Yuki Obayashi

Hayley Johnson and Sarah Simms

Harveen Sachdeva Mann

Kaori Mori Want

Philip Deslippe

Michael S. Rodriguez

Ann Matsuuchi

Lan Dong

Kimberly McKee

Katelind Ikuma

Maharaj Desai, Karen Buenavista Hanna, and Teresa Hodges

Khoi Nguyen

Philip Q. Yang

Rosie Kar

Rachel Endo and Verna Wong

William B. Noseworthy

Martin Kich

Nancy Kang

Marie-Therese C. Sulit

Preface

Asian Americans have made significant contributions to American history, society, and culture since the nineteenth century, when they started arriving in the United States in considerable numbers. Asian American history has become an important component of high school social studies curricula that recommend the inclusion and expansion of culturally diverse historical viewpoints. It has also become a common topic at colleges and universities, both in general education classes that aim at broadening students knowledge about the complex history of the United States and raising their awareness of varied perspectives, and in upper-division courses that study specific topics in American history, race relations, and multiculturalism, among others. The essays included in 25 Events That Shaped Asian American History will be valuable to high school students (especially seniors and students in honors and Advanced Placement classes), undergraduate college students (especially those taking classes related to race and ethnicity, multiculturalism, Asian American studies, and American history), and general readers seeking carefully selected information on Asian American history. The book will be a useful addition to school and public libraries, academic libraries at colleges and universities, and research libraries.

This project, as part of a series of reference works on the American mosaic, presents twenty-five key historical events in the Asian American experience through well-developed, accessible essays, detailed chronologies, biographies, sidebars, primary documents, and images that provide narrative and visual information on high-interest topics. It is unique in its scope and structure. While most reference books on Asian American history broadly cover and usually organize events in chronological order, this book seeks to offer greater depth of study, contextualize specific actions and procedures, and highlight connections between historical events and present-day concerns. To this end, each essay not only is anchored by a key event but also ties together a variety of other national and international events to showcase the historical trajectory of Asian American experience in this country and demonstrate its complexity and long-lasting impact. The key events are vetted in consultation with leading scholars in Asian American studies to ensure a balance between coverage and depth. The overlapping among some of the essays not only demonstrate the far-reaching and important influences of key events but also provide multiple perspectives of the same historical past.

Readers will notice the following features of the essays: chronologies that cover significant events, movements, court cases, and other information related to the title events; narratives that detail the key events, their importance and impact, and other related events in Asian American history; biographies of notable figures who have played significant roles in shaping Asian American history; sidebars that highlight political, religious and community organizations and leaders, controversies, landmark legislations, and other historical phenomena; document excerpts that present primary sources closely tied to the topics of the essays and are paired with introductions to help the reader contextualize the documents and connect them with the key events; and a list of sources for further reading.

The essays are organized into five sections. : Heritage and Legacy examines connections between historical and contemporary events and the Asian American experience from the late twentieth century to the new millennium. Within each section, the essays are presented in the chronological order of the title events. This structure allows the reader to identify the key events easily and at the same time connect the essays thematically, thus making the book user-friendly to lay readers who may not have a wealth of prior knowledge of Asian American history, as well as to experts whose specialty is Asian American history.

This book collects the research and writing of professionals from the United States, Canada, and Japan, including leading and emerging scholars in Anthropology, Asian American Studies, Education, English, Ethnic Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, History, Legal Studies, Sociology, and other fields. Their expertise in and dedication to these academic disciplines and interdisciplinary fields ensure the coverage and depth of the essays, ranging from early immigration in the nineteenth century to the Trump Travel Ban in 2017. Together their essays address a variety of topics in Asian American history, from the California gold rush to the Japanese American internment, from the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott to the Vietnam War and refugee migration from Southeast Asia, and from the Los Angeles riots to 9/11 and Islamophobia. The contributors varied training and background help present a balanced representation of key events that are not only crucial in Asian American history but also significant in American history at large.

The Bibliography of Recommended Resources at the end of the book lists selected resources helpful for students, educators, scholars, and general readers who are interested in further studying Asian American history.