It took four decades before Japanese Americans received a formal apology for the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II. The apology was part of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. The Chinese in America are still waiting for an apology from the top, 129 years after...
Today is the 100th anniversary of the Wuchang Uprising in China, which occurred on October 10, 1911. The date is celebrated annually as Double Ten Day in the Republic of China as the event that marked the end of dynastic rule and the close of the Qing Dynasty. That's the Republic of China, not the People's Republic of China, or...
Really? During Monday night's Tea Party debate among the Republican presidential candidates, Michele Bachmann noted that U.S. immigration law was just fine until the mid-1960s when Congress made it possible for Asians to enter the country after decades of being excluded. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 finally opened the door to people like my mom's family for the...
This is disturbing, because in these paranoid and too often hate-filled times, racial profiling is easier than ever to slip into: On Sunday, 9/11, Soshana Hebshi, a self-described "half-Arab, half-Jewish housewife" from Ohio was flying home on a Frontier flight from San Diego that made a stop in Denver. She figured fewer people would be flying on 9/11 and...
Major props to University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Daryl Maeda for calling out the Fox Network for a racist video "report" that has since been pulled from the Fox website. The video shows comedian Bob Oschack, who's identified as a "Investigative Reporter" and holds a Fox Sports microphone, interviewing Asian students on the campus of the University of...
I find this magically powerful. It's a sweet rendition of one of my all-time favorite songs (and one I was just playing last night on the guitar). And it's also an expression of hope, community and rebirth from musicians in the Tohoku region of NE Japan, set amidst the cleaned-up but still devastated area hammered by the March 11 earthquake...
I faced an awkward racial situation a few days ago and let it pass, but then posted about it on Facebook and found it struck a nerve with a lot of my Facebook community. It resulted in a spirited conversation, and not just with Asian Americans. My takeaway is that sometimes, stereotypes and racial assumptions arise from mere ignorance, not...
It's a fact: The 10 concentration camps built during World War II to imprison 120,000 people of Japanese descent -- more than half U.S.-born and therefore American citizens, and most of them mere children -- were all thrown together in godforsaken corners of the country. No offense to people who live near the sites of these former "relocation centers" (a...
Perspectives on Asian-American culture through the lens of identity, history, and experience
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“A must-read book that will delight you with its humor and amuse you with its insights; for non-Asian, a must-read book if you’re curious about what makes Japanese Americans tick.”
— John Tateishi, National Executive Director, Japanese American Citizens League
