History
I am Bruce Lee Documentary Trailer & Why We Should Remember His Legacy
Bruce Lee. Do I really have to write anymore? Those two words are worth more than anything I will write, mainly because there’s just some many different takes and angles on this incredible person who influenced the world in more ways than one. But too many people don’t realise, he was far more than the punchs and kicks, he was someone who was fully in tandem with how life incorporates both the body and the [...] Continue »
NPR Interviews Fred Korematsu’s Daughter On His Civil Rights Work & Celebrating Fred Korematsu Day
NPR recently interviewed Karen Korematsu, the daughter of civil rights leader Fred Korematsu, on her father’s legacy and how she discovered his role in Japanese American history: “I didn’t find out about my father’s Supreme Court case until I was a junior in high school. And it was in a social studies class when my friend Maya(ph) got up in front of all of us to give a book report, an oral book report, about [...] Continue »
Top Five Japanese American Women Civil Rights Pioneers You Should Know
In California, January 30 was officially Fred Korematsu Day. It is important to honor and remember Korematsu but I believe it is also a time to look back at some of the other Japanese Americans (JAs) who also fought for the rights of not just JAs but all Americans. Unfortunately, Japanese American women don’t get enough credit for their contributions to the civil rights movement. I want to change that. So I created a list [...] Continue »
The Top Non-Asian Civil Rights Heroes For Japanese Americans
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, there was only one national organization that was willing to stand up for the rights of Japanese Americans (JAs). They were the Quakers. Not only did they speak out against the unconstitutional incarceration of JAs they helped many of the Nisei (second generation) kids go to college. Even though the Quakers were the only national group, there were some brave individuals who spoke out for the rights of Japanese Americans. [...] Continue »
The Ruins of Calico’s Chinatown
In my research of Chinese Americans in the Old American West for my Cowboy Ninja book series, I’m digging up a lot of really interesting stuff, and here’s my latest find: the ruins of Calico’s Chinatown. Calico is a Californian silver mine ghost town, and it’s situated out between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, almost exactly at the halfway point between the two major cities, just north of where the city of Barstow is located. [...] Continue »
Bonnie Tsui & “The Changing Face of America’s Chinatowns”
Bonnie Tsui’s book The Changing Face of America’s Chinatowns is an analysis of the dynamics of Chinatown’s shifting population of immigrants of various Asian heritage origins, including the ones who are economically enticed to go back to their heritage countries. This book was covered on NPR. In the audio of Chinatown recorded in the NPR covereage, I even heard some Taiwanese/Fujianese spoken, and the book’s topic of study made me reflect on the role of [...] Continue »
“The Brady’s and the Dumb Chinaman” Dime Novel Review
In my research on Chinese Americans in the American Old West for a book series I’m writing, I came across a wonderful resource at Stanford University — digital collection of popular dime novels available online. [Editors Note: The book is also available to download for free as a Google eBook and for sale on Amazon.] Dime novels were basically the cheap pulp fiction popular mini-novels that were widespread in the Old West; they ranged from [...] Continue »
Papa John’s “Lady Chinky Eyes” Incident: What Does “Chink” Even Mean?
Minhee Cho made headlines after ordering pizza from Papa John’s and had her name misspelled as “Lady Chinky Eyes”. While I’m sure American Law gives the benefit of the doubt to the employee to defend herself as a mentally challenged and defective wart who ingested too much over-due pizza and had a cerebrovascular accident, myocardial infarction and carotid stenosis when typing it in, I’m more inclined to think it was somewhat slightly malicious in nature [...] Continue »
Internment Camp Musical “Allegiance” To Premiere Next Fall
Next September, San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre will host Allegiance, a New American Musical with Asian American all-stars Lea Salonga and George Takei. “Allegiance” is about a Japanese American family forced into internment during World War II. The writers, Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Throne were inspired to write the musical by Takei himself, who related his own family’s experiences with internment.
Civil Rights Hero Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi Passes Away
Most people think that all the Japanese Americans went meekly into the concentration camps during World War II. But that’s far from the truth. In reality, there were some brave individuals that put themselves out there to test the constitutionality of the exclusion order. One of those people is Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, who unfortunately passed away yesterday. Mr. Hirabayashi is my hero. I don’t use that term lightly. While most people are familiar with the [...] Continue »
70th Anniversary of the Signing of Executive Order 9066
2012 marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066. For those of you who don’t know, 9066 was the order that eventually led to the unconstitutional incarceration of the Japanese American during World War II. It was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. Here’s a quote from the order: “…from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person [...] Continue »
Missing Chapters in Iris Chang’s “The Chinese in America”
Iris Chang’s book The Chinese in America is one of the very few books that chronicles a major Asian American community, the Chinese Americans. Of course, no one book could fully capture the incredible diversity of the Chinese American category and all the people who populate (or are made to populate) it, but this book definitely does a great job of covering most of that diversity as well as filling a gaping hole in American [...] Continue »
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