Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The National Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the Asian and Pacific Islanders experience, and highlights these resources online, in programs, and through traditional and social media.

Prologue Articles

Broken Blossoms (Spring 2016)

Attachments: Faces and Stories from America's Gates (Summer 2012)

“How an eagle feels when his wings are clipped and caged”: Relocation Center Newspapers Describe Japanese American Internment in World War II (Winter 2009)

When the "Enemy" Landed at Angel Island (Summer 2009)

Return to Sender:  U.S. Censorship of Enemy Alien Mail in World War II (Spring 2001)

An Alleged Wife: One Immigrant in the Chinese Exclusion Era (Spring 2004)

Race, Nationality, and Reality: INS Administration of Racial Provisions in U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law Since 1898 (Summer 2002)
—Bill of Complaint in case of U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind

The Past Recaptured? The Photographic Record of the Internment of Japanese-Americans (Summer 1980)

Prologue “Genealogy Notes” on Immigration and Naturalization

Slideshow

The “Broken Blossoms” trials

The “Broken Blossoms” trials of the 1930s revealed the workings of brokers who lured young Chinese women with promises of work in the United States and then sold them into prostitution in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Coaching Books

Immigrants used “coaching books,” like this one from 1923 to learn about their false families in order to pass the intense interrogations awaiting them at their American ports of entry. 

Immigration Station

The Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay.

Chun Jan Yut and father, Chun Duck Chin, 1899

Photograph included with Chun Jan Yut's immigration file.

Angel Island, 1931

Immigrants arriving at Angel Island, 1931

Minidoka Irrigator Cartoon

A political cartoon in the Minidoka Irrigator, one of several newspapers started by Japanese American internees during World War II. (Records of the War Relocation Authority, RG 210)

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Flickr images

Asia Pacific American Heritage month photos and documents from the National Archives.

Events 

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month events and resources from other Washington, DC, museums

Wednesday, May 10, at 2 p.m.
Oh, the Stories They Tell: Chinese Exclusion Acts Case Files. William G. McGowan Theater & YouTube 
Although the search for a Chinese Exclusion Act case file may be difficult and challenging, the rewards can be great as these files may contain a treasure trove of information for the family and social historian. In a live, interactive broadcast shown in the McGowan Theater and on YouTube, National Archives at Seattle Director Susan Karren discusses Chinese Exclusion Act records in recognition of the Chinese Exclusion Act’s 135th anniversary. Presentation materials available here.