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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2017)
OPINION Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER February 20, 2017 Volume 27 Number 4 February 20, 2017 ISSN: 1094-9453 The Asian Reporter is published on the first and third Monday each month. Please send all correspondence to: The Asian Reporter 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, OR 97217 Phone: (503) 283-4440, Fax: (503) 283-4445 News Department e-mail: news@asianreporter.com Advertising Department e-mail: ads@asianreporter.com General e-mail: info@asianreporter.com Website: www.asianreporter.com Please send reader feedback, Asian-related press releases, and community interest ideas/stories to the addresses listed above. Please include a contact phone number. Advertising information available upon request. Publisher Jaime Lim Contributing Editors Ronault L.S. Catalani (Polo), Jeff Wenger Correspondents Ian Blazina, Josephine Bridges, Pamela Ellgen, Maileen Hamto, Edward J. Han, A.P. Kryza, Marie Lo, Simeon Mamaril, Julie Stegeman, Toni Tabora-Roberts, Allison Voigts Illustrator Jonathan Hill News Service Associated Press/Newsfinder Copyright 2017. Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication. Member Associated Press/Newsfinder Asian American Journalists Association Better Business Bureau Pacific Northwest Minority Publishers (PNMP) Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon MY TURN n Dmae Roberts A history of exclusion and resistance Correspondence: The Asian Reporter welcomes reader response and participation. Please send all correspondence to: Mail: 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, OR 97217-2220 Phone: (503) 283-4440 ** Fax: (503) 283-4445 News Department e-mail: news@asianreporter.com General e-mail: info@asianreporter.com SUBSCRIPTION RATES (U.S. rates only) Individual subscription (sent bulk rate): q Half year: $14 q Full year: $24 q Two years: $40 Individual subscription (sent first class mail): q Half year: $24 q Full year: $40 q Two years: $72 Office subscription (5 copies to one address): q Half year: $40 q Full year: $75 q Two years: $145 Institutional subscription (25 copies to one address): q Half year: $100 q Full year: $180 q Two years: $280 NEW SUBSCRIBER / ADDRESS CORRECTION INFORMATION FORM: Subscriber’s name: Company name: Address: City, State, ZIP: Phone: Fax: E-mail: Mail with payment or Fax with credit card information to: The Asian Reporter, Attn: Subscription Dept., 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, OR 97217-2220 Phone: (503) 283-4440 * Fax: (503) 283-4445 q q q For VISA, Mastercard, or American Express payment only: Name (as it appears on the card): Type of card (circle): VISA Mastercard Card number: American Express Security code: Expiration date: Address of card: The last four issues of The Asian Reporter are available for pick up free at our office 24 hours a day at 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, Oregon. Back issues of The Asian Reporter may be ordered by mail at the following rates: First copy: $1.50 Additional copies ordered at the same time: $1.00 each Send orders to: Asian Reporter Back Issues, 922 N. Killingsworth St., Portland, OR 97217-2220 The Asian Reporter welcomes reader response and participation. If you have a comment on a story we have printed, or have an Asian-related personal or community focus idea, please contact us. Please include a contact name, address, and phone number on all correspondence. Thank you. or the last year, I’ve been creating an archive website for the Crossing East radio series that aired more than ten years ago. The project gathered 100+ hours of scholar interviews and oral histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). Before the series began, I had a preconception that AAPIs had little history of resistance and protest, but scholars on the project insisted there has been opposition and struggle throughout AAPI history. During the three years of working on Crossing East, I learned how much AAPIs circumvented and resisted a mountain of unfair laws and practices specifically designed to keep them out of this country. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S.; it was the first time a federal law in the U.S. denied entry to a specific nationality. The merchant classes, diplomats, and their servants were allowed entry, but Chinese people who had already settled here found themselves in permanent limbo. They were denied the right to become citizens or bring their wives and families to the U.S. The law created a bachelor society of men, including frontier her- balist Ing “Doc” Hay and his business partner Lung On in the small mining town of John Day in eastern Oregon. The two gained prominence and became relatively wealthy running a medical practice at the Kam Wah Chung & Co. store which is now an Oregon heritage site and national historic land- mark. Chinese in America found ways to resist the Exclusion Act, including the use of “paper sons.” The term “paper sons” referred to the practice of circumventing unfair exclusion laws by selling fake documents claiming to be a child of an American citizen, thus making a person eligible to enter the country. After the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire in San Francisco, which damaged the building where immigration records were stored, Chinese men already in the U.S. could claim they were born here. They could then travel to China and bring back “sons” or other family members. Despite this effort, it still wasn’t easy. In 1910, the Angel Island Immigration Station off the coast of San Francisco was opened to question and detain people trying to enter the U.S. While white European immigrants who landed at Ellis Island were pretty much allowed to immigrate without much difficulty, people from 84 countries (including those from Asian countries, with Chinese being the most prevalent nationality), found themselves in prison barracks surrounded by barbed wire, sometimes for months at a time. They faced daily F interrogations that could last hours. Often people were sent back if they didn’t have their facts straight or struggled with language differences and could not communicate well. Years later, etched onto the walls of the buildings, scholars found protest poetry written in Chinese documenting the unfair living conditions and unwelcome treat- ment. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 wasn’t repealed until 1943, when America was at war with Japan. During the war, Japanese Americans lost their property and businesses and were imprisoned in internment camps in extreme conditions surrounded by barbed wire. Portland attorney Minoru Yasui, along with Gordon Hirabayashi in Seattle and Fred Korematsu in Oakland, were three revered activists who protested and were jailed for challenging the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066 signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, which led to the mass removal and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans without trial. Crossing East also covered plantation history in Hawai‘i. Many plantation laborers had organized strikes and protests against unfair labor practices since the early 1900s. But in 1946, workers staged the largest protest — 76,000 people (including workers, families, and other supporters) — at a 79-day strike that shut down most of the sugar plantations on the islands. U.S. history during the 20th century includes numerous unjust laws preventing Asians from freely immigrating here and owning land or becoming citizens, in contrast to white European immigrants. Much of this changed when U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which abolished the national origins quota system and replaced it with a preference system for skills and family relationships, allowing Asian and African citizens of the U.S. to finally bring their families into the country to join them. During the 1970s and ’80s, Oregon embraced a sudden influx of refugees — Vietnamese, Cambo- dian, Lao, Mien, and Hmong people — fleeing Southeast Asia. Crossing East told the stories of many Portland refugees who came to American in their youth. Oregon was one of the top five states that welcomed people affected by wars in Southeast Asia. Many of the former refugees are now commu- nity leaders and proud citizens. The radio series and the archive of the audio recordings also focus on Korean Americans who Continued on page 7 Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.