Angel Island Immigrant Gateway to America

by Lee, Erika; Yung, Judy

• ISBN13: 9780199896158
• ISBN10: 0199896151
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

From 1910 to 1940, over half a million people sailed through the Golden Gate, hoping to start a new life in America. But they did not all disembark in San Francisco; instead, most were ferried across the bay to the Angel Island Immigration Station. For many, this was the real gateway to the United States. For others, it was a prison and their final destination, before being sent home. In this landmark book, historians Erika Lee and Judy Yung (both descendants of immigrants detained on the island) provide the first comprehensive history of the Angel Island Immigration Station. Drawing on extensive new research, including immigration records, oral histories, and inscriptions on the barrack walls, the authors produce a sweeping yet intensely personal history of Chinese "paper sons," Japanese picture brides, Korean students, South Asian political activists, Russian and Jewish refugees, Mexican families, Filipino repatriates, and many others from around the world. Their experiences on Angel Island reveal how America's discriminatory immigration policies changed the lives of immigrants and transformed the nation. A place of heartrending history and breathtaking beauty, the Angel Island Immigration Station is a National Historic Landmark, and like Ellis Island, it is recognized as one of the most important sites where America's immigration history was made. This fascinating history is ultimately about America itself and its complicated relationship to immigration, a story that continues today. Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Award for Adult Non-Fiction Winner of the Western History Association Caughey Prize

Author Biography

Erika Lee is Professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota and the author of At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. Judy Yung is Professor Emerita of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the author of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 and Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Preface	p. xv
A Note on Language and Terminology	p. xxi
Abbreviations	p. xxv
Introduction	p. 1
Guarding the Golden Gate
The Life and Business of the Immigration Station	p. 29
"One Hundred Kinds of Oppressive Laws"
Chinese Immigrants in the Shadow of Exclusion	p. 69
"Agony, Anguish, and Anxiety"
Japanese Immigrants on Angel Island	p. 111
"Obstacles this Way, Blockades that Way"
South Asian Immigrants, U.S. Exclusion, and the Gadar Movement	p. 145
"A People Without A Country"
Korean Refugee Students and Picture Brides	p. 177
In Search of Freedom and Opportunity
Russians and Jews in the Promised Land	p. 211
El Norte
Mexican Immigrants on Angel Island	p. 247
From "U.S. Nationals" To "Aliens"
Filipino Migration and Repatriation through Angel Island	p. 273
Saving Angel Island	p. 299
Epilogue The Legacy of Angel Island	p. 315
Appendix	p. 327
Notes	p. 333
Bibliography	p. 373
Index	p. 389
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