Photography Documents Forgotten Century-old Violence Against Chinese Americans

By Tina | Thursday, December 6, 2012 | 23 Comments

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When I first thought of writing my little novel series COWBOY NINJA about a young Chinese American boy growing up in the American Old West, I had no idea that it was going to start me on this journey into Asian Pacific Islander American history, specifically Chinese American history. What has continued to astonish me is how prevalent the API presence was in the Great American West, and it astonishes me because I have unfortunately grown up quite ignorant, learning about American history with the API in it largely left out. The genre of westerns, for example leave out Chinese Americans and other API about 99% of the time, their stories so marginalized that it takes conscious effort on the part of the average American to remember that they were in fact here, and here in great numbers. Forgotten are not just the API people themselves but the horrendous acts of violence that have been committed against them. More after the jump.

Driven by my research and learning about this dark side of American history, in one of the next installments in my COWBOY NINJA series, I plan to integrate massacres of Chinese in America into the plot, so when I was sent this New York Times article about forgotten anti-Chinese violence on the 8Asians internal mailing list, I voraciously devoured it. Photojournalist Tim Greyhavens worked on an online photography exhibit project “No Place for Your Kind” to photograph the locations of the anti-Chinese violence from over 100 years ago. His journey spans the whole of the West Coast, from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and digs deep into the mainland west as well, covering 8 states with sites where Chinese Americans faced violent hate crimes from the burning of their homes, the stealing of their property, to murder and lynchings, such as in the case of the Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre of 1971 where not even innocent young boys were safe from mob torture, mutilations, and lynchings. What is most striking about Greyhaven’s photographs is how mundane and uninteresting the locations of these violent acts are today, picturing unremarkable street corners, old buildings, and alley ways, highlighting just how forgotten these acts of racial hate are.

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DiscriminationHistory

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

LTE2

“highlighting just how forgotten these acts of racial hate are.”
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In the sum total of the settling of the American west, the violence and struggles between groups was common and often bloody. While it might be remarkable to you, what went on was not that unusual and the Asian part of the story is not that unique. In the west, equal opportunity lawlessness was widely practiced.
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As power groups collided, there simply was no good reason to not shoot, hang and run off the Chinese. No reason to exempt them, more so when they stepped on someone else’s “turf” (even if the Chinese owned the turf).
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The moniker The Wild Wild West was well chosen.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

Her point was that it is almost never mentioned. Your counter seems to be that it’s not worth mentioning because everybody suffered. The problem with your counter is that the end result is a (literally) whitewashed version of history.
LTE2

“Your counter seems to be that it’s not worth mentioning”
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My point was the sheer volume of incidents and events in the 1850-1900 period of the American west makes it difficult to go in any detail in the generalized history offered in most schools.
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Theodore Roosevelt was America’s only true cowboy President, You wouldn’t know he was in a bar fight during the time period he owned a ranch in North Dakota.
KAMIKAZIPILOT

I already knew about this history. There were also many chinese women brought over from China and forced to work as prostitutes. This is not surprising at all, given that this is the country that brought us the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, for which it still hasn’t paid any kind of reparations.
LTE2

“given that this is the country that brought us the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, for which it still hasn’t paid any kind of reparations.”

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And your share of it is?
KAMIKAZIPILOT

My share of it is nothing, which should give me more credibility, but I’m just saying how I’m not surprised at this racial violence given the atrocious history of America toward racial minorities.
LTE2

“My share of it is nothing,”

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The cheapskate social justice marcher.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

It’s difficult, therefore don’t bother? I respectfully disagree.
LTE2

I realize race hobbyists have their need to feed their sense of victimization, but a study of positive contributions would be more healthy in American society.
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Since every group and sub group can claim victimization a school year could be chewed up trying to cover everyone.
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This past year the ONLY thing I had seen about Japanese- Americans was they were put into internment camps. Their sum contribution to America has been nothing more than that.
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My experience during the 2012 election is how many young people are completely deficient in areas of history, foreign affairs and general economics. I think schools need to devote much more time and study in those areas.

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KAMIKAZIPILOT

Is that supposed to be some kind of an insult? Because if it is you have a long way to go. I speak the truth, we are all living in this world together so it does concern me.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

What’s a “race hobbyist”? Anyone you disagree with? It’s funny how you fancy yourself “proficient in…history, foreign affairs and general economics” when your whole counter to Tina’s post can be summed up as “I am too lazy to want to learn about this.”
LTE2

“What’s a “race hobbyist”? Anyone you disagree with? ”
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People who obsess over race issues, many times without a historical context, primarily as an act to give themselves value.
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“when your whole counter to Tina’s post can be summed up as “I am too lazy to want to learn about this.”
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I am aware there were times the Chinese got beat up, just as other groups of people got beat up (not race dependent). The West was wide open with little law enforcement and many times corrupt justices if there was justices at all. Through out history you will see this in any land. and what happened in the American west was no different than what occurred elsewhere. Life was still pretty much a dog eat dog affair in 1870.
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My point was in a school year, you have only so much time too cover history. If you have a deep interest in history any decent library will have 1,000′s of books you can avail yourself to.
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A few years ago I saw stacked on the return bin of my local library a book about how Germany financed it’s military operations during WW2. Heavy on accounting and a bit short on excitement, it was a subject that would have been taught by some obscure history class in college if it was taught at all.
LTE2

I was more amused as to how you helicoptered in with some “concern” as long as it doesn’t cost you anything.
KAMIKAZIPILOT

I said my share of it is nothing. Which means my share of any reparations would be nothing. So that means I have nothing to gain from reparations or justice for the slave trade, therefore I contribute a more objective opinion than someone who stands to gain from reparations. Since when did you have to be black to care about justice for this past crime against humanity? I hear Americans gripping about “Free Tibet” all the time.
http://www.facebook.com/tinabot Tina Tsai

“This past year the ONLY thing I had seen about Japanese- Americans was they were put into internment camps. Their sum contribution to America has been nothing more than that.”

Japanese-American contributions to America has been nothing more than internment camps? I hope I read you wrong. If that’s not troll bait, then I don’t know what is ^O^ Wait, that makes me the troll. lol

I’m going to go enjoy my civil liberties by chewing on a california roll while I contemplate your words.
LTE2

I hope I read you wrong. If that’s not troll bait, then I don’t know what is ^O^ Wait, that makes me the troll. lol
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Just make sure dress for the occasion.
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“I’m going to go enjoy my civil liberties by chewing on a california roll while I contemplate your words.”
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You made my point. You had to use a 20+ year old example of an American dish, so, maybe you read me wrong.
http://www.8asians.com/author/ancientone95131/ jeffat8asians

“I realize race hobbyists have their need to feed their sense of
victimization, but a study of positive contributions would be more
healthy in American society…This past year the ONLY thing I had seen about Japanese- Americans was they were put into internment camps.”

Our post on 8questions with Japanese American Koji Sakai (http://www.8asians.com/2012/10/18/8questions-with-koji-steven-sakai/) did not cover the internment at all. Did you not see this?

Our post on Japanese American Frank Tanabe voting (http://www.8asians.com/2012/11/06/vote-if-frank-tanabe-could-do-it-so-can-you/) did mention the internment but in the context of his working for the US war effort as an Army translator during WWII and his concern about the importance of voting. He inspired people world wide. This was not only covered by 8asians and Asian American blogs but also by mainstream media. Aren’t these mention of positive contributions by Japanese Americans? Did you not see this?

The Kimochi crafts fair event on our event page is a Japanese American event that mentions nothing about the internment. I can understand missing that. Consider buying some holiday crafts.

“Their sum contribution to America has been nothing more than that.”

Are you referring to your perception of the media portrayal of Japanese Americans or is that your opinion of Japanese Americans in general?
LTE2

“Are you referring to your perception of the media portrayal of Japanese Americans”
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I had noticed in the past year nothing was said about Japanese-Americans outside of the camps. Your main stream media may not be my main stream media and the Japanese-A’s might get better coverage on the west coast. I am not including events from decades ago, I was just speaking of the past year.
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Some J-A’s might be covered but not separated out in some other news story I have read.
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As for the craft fair, well, I’d go if it were a bit closer.
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I would always take great care in selecting a Christmas card for my mother. One of my favorites was a card that was hand made in Japan using their paper art. The shop I purchased it from carried a small selection of Asian/A-A made items but alas, they’re closed.
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A Viescas

“This past year the ONLY thing I had seen about Japanese- Americans was
they were put into internment camps. Their sum contribution to America
has been nothing more than that.”

aka “My ignorance is your fault.”

Thanks for sharing.
A Viescas

“As for the craft fair, well, I’d go if it were a bit closer.”

“I’d care about other cultures, but I’m lazy.”

Thanks for sharing.
LTE2

“Thanks for sharing.”

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I enjoyed our bonding moment.
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