forgetting is where we came from. we came from good stock. we have to keep that stock in place. >> how do we get people to read the documents? >> what i do -- i was there last weekend. i was talk to go a large group of church people. when i talk to young students, they will get a copy of the institution. they will get a copy of the declaration independence. it will at least entice them to open the first page. once they start reading, when i go back and say, hey, did you actually read this, they say they did. the verbage is unlike any we have seen. the breauxs they use, the wording, the way they put the words together, just phenomenal. so people still recognize and

appreciate that. so once they start reading the constitution, especially the declaration of independence, which is a wonderful document, we're pretty well hooked. >> ralph abraham, louisiana fifth district. thanks for being with us on c-span. >> thanks very much. this weekend on the c-span networks, politics, books, and american history. on c-span saturday at a 6:00 p.m. eastern. hurricane katrina's 10th anniversary. speakers include bill clinton and mitch landreau. and on our road to the white house coverage, speeches from democratic candidates hillary clinton and bernie sanders at the democratic national committee summer meeting in minneapolis. on c-span2, book tv on saturday at 10:00 eastern on afterwards author peralta talks to immigration recorder liz robins about his book "undocumented." it traces his adjourn from an

undocumented immigrant to the top of his class at princeton university. several programs about the storm and its aftermath featuring haley barbour and ronny green, investigative reporter. on american history tv saturday afternoon, a few minutes past 2:00 p.m., former nasa astronaut don thomas talks about the history of space stations. looking at the future of space station efforts. sunday at 4:00 p.m. on real america, appointment in tokyo is a 1945 u.s. army signal core film documenting the course of world war ii in the pacific theater from japanese invasion of the philippines through the surrender ceremony october 2nd, 1945. get our complete schedule at c-span.org. next, university of minnesota professor erika lee

talks about asian immigration to 1830 to 1930, including the role of san francisco bay's angel island in the 20th century. she compares the angel island and ellis island experiences describing how asian immigrants had more extensive background checks than european immigrants in new york. her lecture is an hour and a half. >> hello, guys. welcome back. i'm really excited to talk to you today for our session this afternoon because so many of us as americans, we grow up learning about the history of immigration through ellis island. this is what we talked about last week. it is the history of european immigrants coming to the new world under the shadow of the statue of liberty is told as a very uplifting and romantic story where immigrants become americans. but not many of us know the history of immigration through

angel island. this is the immigration station in san francisco and it is an important site not only for what happened back then in the early were 20th century but also because it is so timely today. it is is timely because when we pick up any newspaper we see headlines like this. this is just from last week. republicans slam obama's immigration town howell. obama, i'll fight any attempt to reverse immigration action. moving toward to fix our broken immigration system. house conservative boehner, don't cave on immigration. u.s. immigration dispute threatens security agency shutdown. does anyone know what some of these headlines are referring to last week? what was the big debate in congress? what was the proposed shutdown?

>> shut down hs funding because of obama's executive action referring to families. >> right. obama's executive action that would protect millions of undocumented immigrants, undocumented immigrants's parents who are parents of u.s. citizens is or legal residents. this would halt their deportation. but we know that this is quite a controversial action right now. governors of 26 states have sued the white house because they believe this exceeds the president's authority. this has created grid lock in congress. obama says he will continue to fight. it was sponsored by univision where he was talk building his commitment to reforming immigration laws.

we know, because we have been setting immigration history for the past be several days, that this is the latest in our nation's immigration debates. but it does seem like it is a contracted one. and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. and how do we consider this immigration debate with what we have been talk building most recently? immigration through ellis island. the story of european immigrants coming to new york, passing through ellis island. there were examinations, physicals, there was some detention. but it was primarily short lived. and most were admitted pretty easily into the country. not only that, but this story has taken on a myth of its own. it is is the bedrock of this idea that the united states is a

nation of immigrants, right? so how do we reconcile this great immigration debate that's going on today and this idea that we are a nation of immigrants. i think one of the ways that we can think about this complicated history is looking at immigration through angel island. we know not all immigrants are welcomed into the country. not all immigrants are able to achieve their american dream. we chose which immigrants to let in and which immigrants to let out -- sorry, to keep out. and many times this was dependent upon an immigrant's race, ethnicity, gender, class, this idea who is fit to become a citizen and who is not. this is the history that is best

exemplified through immigration through angel island. this is in the san francisco bay. it's that other island. not alcatraz but the other island that is now california state park. so the immigration station was open from 1910 to 1940. we primarily think of it as an entry point from immigrants from china and japan. two-thirds of the euimmigrants from angel island were from those two countries. according to our search, it ranged from places like denmark and luxembourg, vietnam, cambodia and laos, spain,

switzerland. people also came south from canada and north from south america. when immigrants would dock, they would land on a pier. this is the first sight they would see. there are three entrances here. racial segregation was the order of the day. there was an entrance for employees, there was an entrance for whites, and then an entrance for asians. the different groups were segregated from each other through this administration buildsing. ellis island is enforcing laws in europe. it is in new york. most of them are coming across

the atlantic. it is primarily enforcing laws that are targeting asian americans. the laws are very different. while it is mostly a processing center, angel island is a place of interrogation, health examinations, and detention. this history is not as well-known. but it is important. it helps shape our modern immigration system. so let's take a look at who the asian immigrants were. when we think about this great era of immigration, there are two great eras of immigration. one is the one we're living in today. the other is the turn of the century from 1830 to 1930. there are 35 million immigrants who come in this century of migration. the vast majority, $32 million,

are from europe. this is about a million immigrants from asia and another million from latin america. in the big picture, this is a drop in the bucket. 1 million out of 35 million who are coming. and it's pretty diverse. 450,000 chinese. they are the largest group. there is also 380,000 japanese, 150,000 filipinos. and 7,000 to 8,000 each koreans and south asia. india, pakistan, and bangladesh. so a great diversity not only ethnicity but also in terms of numbers. and remember there's only a million of them. but asian immigration helps to

ignite most of our immigration debates. so who were these immigrants? the chinese are like the european immigrants we have studied. they are mostly young male laborers. they want to come to the united states. they think their stay is temporary, that they will make money, return home. that's why they come come alone. they tend to leave their wives and children behind. but over the years they decide eventually they would like to stay in the united states. so they start calling for their family members. similarly, the japanese are also male laborers. this is a time when immigrants are needed for their labor, right? and it's more railroad building, agricultural work, light industry, mining.

so they want unskilled laborers to do that work. they are generally more educated than some of the other asian immigrants because of compulsary education in japan. they also come thinking they are going to stay only temporarily. again, like the chinese, they decide that the united states is worth settle issing down in. and they start calling for their wives and fiancees as well. so by world war ii, the japanese american population is such there is a really great proportion of u.s.-born children. this is very different than the other groups. the immigrants are extremely diverse. there's hindus, muslims but

primarily the siks. there are a lot of students coming over too. one of the things that makes this group pretty unique is that this is a period of intense indian nationalism. the immigrants are very much a part of that nationalist movement. koreans are a small group because japan has colonized korea by this time. is and japan is very much controlling who goes in and who leaves the country. and so only a small number are coming to the united states, primarily to the west coast to hawaii and they are also coming for work. more so than other groups. they really see themselves as refugees. similar isly to the russian jews last week.

they are fleeing japanese colonialism. korean language and newspapers were banned. lots of surveillance. they see themselves as refugees fleeing their homeland. and potentially staying away for a long time. so they come -- a higher proportion on come as families. one of the other things that makes them unique or different from other asian immigrant groups is is they are often christian because of the role of u.s. missionaries, american missionaries in korea at this time. so it is really a broad, diverse group of people who are coming. the last group are filipinos. they are male laborers. what makes them unique is they are coming as a totally different immigrant status. and not even immigrant status. the philippines has been colonize said by the united states.

so filipinos, when they migrate they migrate as u.s. nationals. they are not subjected to immigration laws, which is really important. as every other one is restricted, filipinos can come without interrogations and inspections. they also see themselves as americans. they have grown up with american teachers, with american culture. they have grown up believing about the glory and riches of america. and so they believe they are coming to just another part of the country. that they are already americans. but they are unequal in status. u.s. nationals allows them to migrate. but they are not citizens. they cannot vote. when they come they often face a lot of surprising to them anti-asian sent isment. so this is the broad diversity

of asian immigrants coming to this country early 20th century. and when they come, they set in motion the reaction americans have to them. sets the most decisive debates we have had in this country. this may be surprising to many people. today when we talk about asian-americans, we talk about the popular understanding that they are on the rise -- what's the stereotype of asian-americans? >> they're smart. >> what else? >> they're a particularly type of minority. do you guys remember the term? >> they're the model minority. >> what does that mean? >> it means out of all marginalized groups they are exemplary and they constitute a a narrative that the rest of marginalized people should

ascribe to. >> they can succeed. they can achieve academic success. and they do so on their own without deposit programs. asian-americans are the model minority. so it may be surprising that in early 20th century they were krdz not only undesirable immigrants but also to such a degree that the united states wanted to not only reduce their numbers but exclude them altogether. so it describes this power of anti-asian sentiment with this quote. she says the presence of asians on american soil highlighted fundamental cleavages in american society. meaning that they were the first noneuropean immigrant group to come in such great numbers. they came at a time when there was class tensions, changing

race relations. this is post civil war, post reconstruction. these ideas what does it mean to be american, what does it mean to be free. what rights do we have? what does it mean to be a worker. and what is the role in the u.s. of the world? all these early 20th century are just rife with all these massive changes in american society. some of the ways it plays out is through prejudice, bias, prejudgments, economic discrimination. barred from certain occupations. political disenfranchisement. remember the naturalization that only free white persons can become citizens and can vote. already asian immigrants are barred from becoming naturalized

citizens. physical violence. social segregation. you can't join certain clubs, live in certain areas. during world war ii, incarceration. so what did this look like in person? what did this look like in reality and on the ground? >> this is a cartoon from 1881 in san francisco. it's from the magazine called the wasp. and i'm going to tell me what you see. what is this cartoon telling us about what americans think about chinese immigration at this time. >> it appears to be sort of a reaction to what is perceived as

overwhelming number of chinese immigrants. it is is this image of conquest because it is standing on a skull. it is clearly a chinese man with the long braid, a chinese caricature. it is this mirror image of new york. >> good. and what is the title of the cartoon? >> statue for our harbor. >> in san francisco as opposed to new york. so in new york, they have the statue of liberty. if we with allow it to come without restriction. a couple of things jeremy just mentioned, we can recognize this as a chinese male. he has this long cue.

this was a hair style that was mandated by the ching empire. in the united states it became seen as a sign of femininity, subhumanness he is wearing robes but they are tat erred. it has no dignity. he is standing on a school, meaning he is bringing ruin. does anyone see what he is holding in his left hand? >> it's an ohm yum pipe. >> another vice is bringing drugs and immorality. so there is writing emanating from the rays around his head. can anyone see what that is is?

it is hard to see from the middle cartoon. >> the bottom right is filth. >> right. what else? >> eupl morality. >> good. >> disease. we're reading right to left as the chinese would, right? this one says ruin to. can anyone point out the last two? >> ruin to white labor. >> chinese immigration is bringing filth, immorality, ruin to white labor. it is catastrophic to san francisco, to california. the foundation of the statue is crumbling. the ships coming are capsizing. and then the sun or the moon in

the background has slanted eyes. so this is the future of california. this is the future of chinese immigration. this is not an outlier. not a far right or far left or extreme example of this anti-immigrant sentiment. it is one of the most well respected, well read, illustrated magazines in the late 19th century. there are countless episodes of the chinese being driven out, mobs driving them out of mall towns like eureka, california, as well as big cities like tacoma, seattle. this is an illustration of one of the well-known incidents, the

massacre of chinese at rock springs, wyoming in september of 1885. it happened about around the mining incident. some of the white workers and chinese workers were debating whether they wanted to go on strike. the white workers went on strike. the chinese decided not to. and the white workers drove them out after inflicting massive violence. 28 killed, 15 wound said, and hundreds are driving out into the outlying areas. this is some of the sentiment shaping chinese immigration. one of the fascinating aspects of this history is remember how diverse all the asian immigrant groups were. nevertheless, when this idea of

chinese immigrants is a threat, a class threat, racial threat, economic threat, it became attached to other asian immigrant groups as well. so is that the newspapers would say chinese excluded. but now we have a japanese problems. or japanese excluded but now we have the hindus. it kind of got a little ridiculous. there was the second asiatic invasion that was framing the threat of asian immigration. it had very real consequences. on the left is a newspaper clippingrom the "new york times" in 1907 talk building the driving out or expulsion of south asian immigrants from a

little town in marysville. this is more troubling i think. this is a letter that was sent to a townsman in california. the town sheriff or town mayor. and it was collected and archived at the uc berkeley archives. this is from the 1930s. a threat to expel the filipinos or they would inflict violence on the town. japanese immigration perhaps invoked a more broad scale and even international concern. this was called the yellow peril. one was the familiar refrain that japanese immigrants were racially inferior. they were taking away jobs. they were mixing with whites.

but then the second aspect was more unique to japan. and japan's rising empire in the world. they defeated china. colonized korea. so there is an idea of japan's asian empire that is infusing that anti-japanese sentiment with even greater force. and they're even more of a danger because who knows, those japanese immigrant farmers picking your strawberries may be the first advanced scarred from a colonizing japan. this was the rhetoric by the 1920s is and 30s. that japanese immigrants in california, hawaii, oregon, and washington were actually soldiers in disguise ready to do

this. anyone recognize the artist? dr. seuss. okay. what does this say? what does this mean to you? 1942. so that date is significant. >> there's an element of malfeasance and premeditation with the coming of the japanese. it implies they have some sort of with their country of origin and they are willing to act on that should they be called to do so. >> and how so? what are they going to do? >> blow up something. the little boxes that they are carrying say tnt. it is is assuming they are going to do some sort of damage. >> and what about the ways in which they're drawn, a them.

>> there are a number of them in ava right of different clothes. they have different clothing, but all the faces are the same. that perpetuates the stereotype that all asians look the same. and also i think speaks to the stereotype that the japanese act as a unit. they are university. and that only contributes to the military. >> what was the chinese guy wearing in the harbor? was he wearing like typical western dress? >> he was wearing tat erred robes. >> yeah. he was wearing robes. so either you could be seen. it could be read as classical robes that got tattered or chinese robes.

here they are wearing western suits. they are westernized to a degree, which makes them even more of a threat because you can't tell they are the enemy within. you can't tell they're not loyal. but in fact, deep down inside they're "waiting for the signal from home." so they are all up and down the pacific coast. and the single -- it's almost like a holding beacon, right? a signal from home is is coming. this one guy is waiting for it. it's come. pearl harbor has come. now it's time to wreck even more damage from within. there's various different types of anti-asian sentiment. but all of them at its root describe asian immigrants as not american. always asian. immigrants that are dangerous

cannot be assimilated. by the 1930s for japanese it's about national security. and then we know by 1942, february of 1942 that japanese americans all were up and down the west coast are forcibly remove. there are exclusion orders that have posted at every street corner in the cities ordering anyone with japanese ancestry to remove themselves. so they are barred from living in those areas. and so assemble at various different assembly centers where they will be incarcerated for the duration of the war at several camps throughout the united states. so this is one of the ways in which asian immigration story

ends. before we get to that we want to consider the other aspect, the other path. and that path was barring new immigrants from coming over. so you have been reading a lot about chinese exclusion. the first act being passed in 1882. what are some of the things this act does? the name kind of says it all, right? but not everything. not every chinese is excluded. so who is is excluded? >> immigrants inside from anyone who is a march chant or the children of a native born citizen. >> so is the main group are chinese laborers. have he very beginning, the

exclusion act says for 10 years. so it is an in decremental step. there are exempt classes. teachers, students, travelers, merchants and diplomats. it is not only racially based. it's class based. it is those who want to learn about the united states. it's those who want to visit the united states and make money here. those engaged in international trade. u.s./china relationships and of course diplomats. but those who are the bulk, the vast majority of chinese at this time, laborers are barred. it is important because this is the very first time in u.s. history we bar a group wholesale

based on race. remember when we were talking about irish immigration, anti-catholic movement. and even how the no nothing party that had a national platform, they never went so far as to advocate. they wanted longer times for naturalization. they never said we're going to close the gates. but this time the united states does do that. and it doesn't just last for 10 years. it gets renewed in 1892, and made permanent in 1904. and it is really not until 50 years ago that we banned discrimination in immigration law. so it lasts a long time. and it has lots of repercussions. so the chinese exclusion act is just that first step. towards closing the gates to asian immigration.

but it would not be the last. so after, this is the iron. chinese laborers are barred. this is a time period when 32 million europeans are still coming over. and labor is still needed. so as soon as chinese exclusion is passed, japanese immigration increases because they are still needed in the farms, and the plantations of hawaii. but that kicks into gear. by 1908 we do not dare call this a japanese exclusion act. we do not want to bother japan. we pressure through our

democratic channels to have a diplomatic agreement be reached. we call it a gentlemen's agreement, as if it was aoufpmuy agreed upon. by 1908, again, you bar japanese laborers. the immigration from south asia starts to increase the united states feels like it has another immigration crisis on hand. so the 1917 immigration act decides to take a little bit more of a drastic approach and basically draws an entire red line throughout all of asia and calls it the asiatic zone.

the 1924 immigration act also has a blanket exclusion. the one group that is not covered is is japan. even though laborers were barred, others were not. so students were coming over but especially women informing the japanese-american communities. so 1924 immigration act is two primary aims is to close the loopholes on japanese immigration but also to restrict southern and eastern european immigration as well. so then the last group left are filipinos. the only way to bar them from coming is by granting philippines independence. it is a colony. you cannot ban a colonial subject from going from one part of the empire to another.

so we have this odd coalition of bedfellows. they are eager for independence for the philippines. and anti-asian exclusionists. they come together and decide this is how we can achieve our goals. we will grant nominal independence to the philippines. by doing that they are no longer going to be u.s. nationals. but instead they are will aliens, foreigners, immigrants. so you go from large scale immigration from the philippines, 150,000, to a quota that only gives 50 slots a year. so these are the laws. so the united states has a problem. as soon as we pass these immigration laws. again, these are transform active. we have never done this before. we're not really sure how to

enforce immigration laws. so, for example, with the 1882 chinese exclusion act, we passed this law in may. ships of chinese immigrants are coming to san francisco. immigration officials, who are really customs officials who have been told, oh, by the way, in addition to counting the barrels of cotton coming on that ship, you are also supposed to enforce these new laws. so the custom officials are throwing their hands up and kind of saying, what? customs officials goes out to the ship. which one of you are laborers. and which are merchants in how are they going to determine who is a laborer and who is a merchant? this is the beginning of

immigration documents. the immigration interrogation. what happens if the case is is really complicated. they need two white witnesses to verify their flames. well, they are probably not waiting at the pier. this takes time. so very soon after these laws are passed, the u.s. government realizes we don't really know what we are doing just yet. we have these examinations are taking longer than we thought. we have nowhere to put them. at the very beginning they just kept them on the ship. and the ship captain would say, it's all well and good that you are using my ship as a detention center, but i have to go back. i'm on schedule to go back across the pacific to pick up more passengers. so they would move the detainees to another ship.

so they talked about san francisco bay having, you know, these ships out in the bay that are basically immigrant detention centers. so to solve this problem, there is a small retention shed that gets built in the 1890s. it is crowded. it is is a firetrap. it is also not escape proof. the u.s. governmental indicates money to build the immigration station on an eye hrapbt, escape proof, hard to get to, hard to leave. and calls it the ellis island of the west. some of the newspapers from that time are talking about how is this beautiful resort. and they will be lucky to spend balmy days under the palm trees. that didn't necessarily turn out to be the case. so here is another irony of this

time period. we passed immigration laws. but immigrants still keep coming. this is not what explains our contemporary immigration patterns. this is why we have an undocumented immigration situation. even though the laws and the fences and the gates have been built, immigrants still want to come to the united states. so there's several different reasons. we have to understand that during this time period there is a lot of stuff going on in china. the push factors we often talk about in immigration. there is civil unrest. there's famine. there's growing numbers of people. european and american powers are in china at this time.

they are instituting unequal economic treaties. they are trying to gain more power. especially in this region that's just north of hong kong. by this time -- so by the time angel island opens up in 1910, the chinese have been coming since the 1850s, the gold rush. so chinese families have become dependent on immigration as a form of survival. they are still dependent on migration to the united states. how do they get around the laws is is the question for them? they are faster, bigger, and fares are cheaper. at the same time they are being passed, they are going into the countryside saying i can get you

there for this much. and business is still being drummed up. you have laws restricting one group but the united states still needs immigrant labor. millions of europeans are still coming in unrestricted. there are some chinese immigrant groups that can still come. merchants, u.s. citizens. so the gate is not totally close said. but all of this leads up to the fact that the chinese either try to come in through restricted openings or they try to find other ways of coming in. and this is why we call chinese immigrants the first undocumented eupl tpwrapbts. immigrants.

and about 100,000 then still come during the excuse is era during the time angel island is open. 130,000 come through angel island. >> so this is an excerpt from one of the interviews that you have in your book. and he says that the chinese didn't want to come in illegally. but they were kind of forced. jared, would you mind reading this for us? >> sure. we didn't want to come in illegally. but we were forced to because of the immigration laws. they particularly picked on the chinese. 23 we told the truth, it didn't work. so we had to take the crooked path. >> thanks. >> so what's the crooked path? >> was it sons and daughters. >> explain that a little bit for

us. >> they would have a family, friend, or somebody they knew that would basically just tell immigration they were family members. and they just had to provide a piece of paper. >> so they were sons or daughters only by paper. >> yes. >> and they were getting in under those exempt classes that still allowed the sons or children of say a merchant or u.s. citizen to come. okay. does anyone recognize this photo or can imagine. yes. what is it? >> i really like this one. this was the coaching notes. because in order to pass interrogation immigration would have to study their notes. because they would go through extensive questioning with really, really difficult questions. so in order to get notes to the immigrants, it would be smuggled into food like bananas. or they told about putting it in

a capsule in a bowl of soup. or how the kitchen staff would help to pass notes. they would go into the city of san francisco to get food. then when they would come back, they would hand notes out to whoever it belonged to. >> and they would provide answers to some of the interrogations. i have also seen notes crumpled up into peanuts, peanut shells and oranges. think about your best efforts at passing a test and these strategies here. so this is a government exhibit. immigration officials found this banana and found these notes. and then took a picture of it. you can see it all laid out kind of in a scrapbook and sent it back to d.c. as proof of the conditions of chinese immigration at this time. and the typewritten text below

says, the admissibility of some chinese persons to the united states is dependent upon the relationship to other chinese already in the country. one of the tests of the relationship claims is a comparison of the statements of the applicant and is allowed relative separately on matters which would be common knowledge between them if the relationship existed. so the two interrogations of the applicant and the applicant's relative. then they compare questions and answers. the exhibits here illustrate one of the methods by alleged relatives to send applicants held in detention on angel island coaching immigration. contemplated to make their testimony agree with that given by the allege said relatives. the chinese letter and the village diagram were transmitted in a banana. so here's letter on the left. and then on the right is a

letter of the village with every resident and details of their alleged shared village so they can answer the question. these were transmitted in the banana as shown. but the discovered before the f was given to the applicant. so this is some of the consequences of chinese immigration exclusion era. things like this. this is a page taken out of an immigration officer's log, in downiville, california. pages and pages of photographs and details of every immigrant in the city, things like long,by ig, he's a cook. changed to home bing by interpreter. the interpreter changed his name. he's 50 years, 5'3".

no facial marks. so you can kind of imagine the immigration officer going up and down the street with his little log and keeping track of all the chinese immigrants in his town, and they would mark left for china or returned, and so forth. so we've got the beginning of surveillance on immigrant groups. new government crack downs on undocumented immigration. new investigations of fraudulent immigration documents. we have stricter and lengthier interrogations and examinations. we have, for the very first time, we're requiring immigrants to have on their persons at all times what we know today as green cards but certificates of identity f. for the very first time, we institute these for chinese immigrants, and if you

were found without these, you could be arrested and deported for not being in the country legally. longer detentions. immigration raids, arrests and deportations. there are numerous raids in san francisco and boston, around the country, of people, immigration officers and local police looking for undocumented immigrants. i remember, specifically, looking through immigration files in the national archives and coming across this poor guy's record. he may or may not have come in with fraudulent papers, but the immigration officials were convinced that he was hiding something, so they had an immigration raid. they descended upon this chinese restaurant where he was working, and the text of the record describes the immigration officers coming in through one door and watching him run out

the back. he left behind his wallet which the immigration officers confiscate and put in his file. you can open it up. there's no money in there anymore, but you can open it up and it had his business cards and notes and photographs. so you can imagine that he left in a hurry, and the fear that he had at that time. so immigration raids, arrests and deportations. and what chinese called living under the shadow of exclusion. always fearing deportation, always fearing that they would be found out. even if they -- being tainted with illegality even if they were not. so consequences of the paper system. it might have allowed them to enter the country, but it had lots of different consequences. their fates were held in the

hands of immigration officials at angel island. this is a photograph of them in the 1930s. you can pick out that there is one asian female employee. she was probably a matron in the women's barracks and then three asian interpreters. by the 1930s, interpreters could be asian. when the immigration bureau first began, it was against the law to hire anyone who was nonwhite, even if the job was interpreter, because it was believed that the asians would naturally collude with each other or be easily bribed, and so you had the situation in the 1980s and 1990s with the interpreters who were nonasian, who were white, trying to

interpret very difficult languages and dialects, not -- and some of them didn't know all of them very well. so we have immigration officials on angel island and interviews in the book that you've been reading that detail that some were very fair-minded. they felt it was a difficult situation. they tried to give the benefit of the doubt, but we also know that many officials were hardened. some were veterans of the anti-chinese movement, had helped to pass some of the laws and felt that it was their duty to keep the gates closed as tightly as possible. one of the first things that chinese immigrants had to face was the medical exam. what do you remember from the family histories, the interviews, the poems? what are some of the things that

former detainees talk about in terms of the medical exam? yes. >> they said it was very humiliating y. that they had to undress in front of everybody and they felt they were being pointed out, especially with the hook worms, it was a specific made disease for chinese immigrants. >> humiliation, that this was not something that was usual in china to strip down. not only naked in front of the doctor but in various forms of undress in a group, that there are certain diseases that were deemed excludable. there are par sittiasitic disea. the diseases that all immigration officials were looking for were contagious diseases, dangerous, contagious diseases that one could pass to another, right? but these diseases that were being tested for here on angel island were not only diseases

but these parasitic diseases. like when you travel somewhere or drink water or food poisoning or other things. these parasitic diseases that could be easily cured. they were not contagious but were used specifically to exclude immigrants, particularly from asia, because these certain parasitic diseases were known to be especially prevalent in asia. you've got the medical exams, and then you have these interrogations. these interrogations that could last a couple hours. they could last two to three days. they could last even longer. the typical length was just a few days. but there are some immigration files where if you count the number of questions, it numbers up to 1,000 questions. so this is a scan of one of

these, just one page of one interrogation, and you can just see that it goes boom, boom, boom, boom yoorks boom, what's your name, have you been married, how old are you? when and where were you born, and this particular file, these single-spaced questions and answers are about six pages, total about six pages long. i want to do a little exercise with you. i'm going to put these questions up. and i want you to raise your hands if you think that you can answer these questions. and then i want you to keep your hands up if you can keep on answering this question but then put them down as soon as you think that you have reached a question that you probably cannot answer, that you don't have the true and detailed answer. okay. you guys ready? all right. >> what is your name?

good. how old are you? what is your parents' names and ages? easily so far, right? when were they married? do you have any brothers or sisters? you can raise it up again if you think you can answer this one. what are their names and ages? good. okay. what's the name of your village? okay, so in this case, how about the name of your hometown. how many houses are on your street? okay. who lives, just pretend n in the third house on the left-hand side side of your street and list all names and ages. >> okay. jeremy is getting into the country. >> i knew my neighbors.

>> who's the oldest man in your village? or home city? and, it doesn't go. how many steps lead up to your house? you're all out. no one is coming into the country. how many windows does your house have? not only this, you would have to know the answer, but then your sister or father would also have to say the exact same thing, right? how many windows does your house have? how many clocks are in your house? how many chickens does your neighbor own? what happens if one of them dies between when you got on the boat and then arrived in the u.s.? how far is it from your village to the nearest hill? when were the windows put into your house? okay. so i need two volunteers. i want someone to be the harsh immigration official.

and someone to be fong hoi kung who was applying for citizenship. who wants to be my harsh immigration official? okay. tyler is the immigration official. who is going to be fong hoi kung? i need someone sitting close by to tyler. great. okay, so you go first. you're the immigration official. >> which direction does the front of your house face? >> face west. >> your alleged father has indicated that his house is in how chung vil lalage faces east. how do you explain it? >> i know the sun rises in the front and sets in the back. my mother told us and also the how tong villages face west. >> cannot you figure this matter out for yourself? >> i really don't know

directions. >> how many rooms in all are there on the ground floor of your house? >> three. i mean, there is a parlor, two bedrooms and a kitchen. there are five rooms in all downstairs. the two bedrooms are together side by side and are between the parlor and the kitchen. >> do you wish us to understand you would forget how many bedrooms are in a house where you claim to have lived 17 years? >> yes. i forgot about it. >> do you visit thor is car ra market with your father when he was last in china? >> no. >> why not? if you really are his son? >> good job. [ applause ] >> so fong hoi kung is under pressure, and maybe he miss remembers. maybe he trips up, but he

changes, and this is the exact record from the stenographer's note. the stenographer is noting changes or coughs or something like that, so this kind of -- this is kind of a typical back and forth, but if i was fong hoi kung, i'd be nervous, scared, and perhaps by the end of this a little angry. so we know from oral histories and others that these interrogations were terrifying, and this is a quote. some of you have read the story. this is a picture of her on her wedding. she was detained on angel island in 1922. and she told interviewers that one woman was questioned all day, and then deported. she told me they asked her about life in china, that chickens, and the neighbors and the

direction the house faced. how would i know all that? i was scared. so what this translated to, these long interrogations, calling back and forth of witnesses, waiting for people to come from san francisco or o oakland or sometimes from the interior, idaho coming to san francisco to give testimony was that the detentions were quite long. this is the only photograph that we have of what the barracks looked like inside around 1910. extremely crowded conditions between 200 and 300 men were housed at any time in the barracks. women were detained elsewhere on the second floor of the administration building. and on average, their stay was two to three weeks. they are let out for one hour a day, and this is what they have.

so that's why there's, your cot is your living space. this is another quote from lee puey, yo. they were very active in challenging their denials. they hired lawyers and they would take their cases up through court and repute the case all the way up to the supreme court, and she talks about how she must have cried a bowl full of tiers on angel island. how does this compare, ellis island to angel island? we know there's around 12 million who come through ellis island during its period of operation from 1891 to 1952. that 20% of all immigrant arrivals are detained. so those are the women and

children who are arriving to join their husbands. they need to wait until their husbands and fathers come and retrieve them. or those who are being tested for those contagious diseases. so 20% are detained. but it's not for long. detention time is one to two days on arcverage. in the end, 90% are more admitted. we think of ellis island as more of a processing center going through. the numbers are much different. just half a million come through angel island. so the scale is quite different. but we see the differences right away, too, with the detention. 20 % on ellis island, 60% of all immigrant arrivals are detained on angel island. instead of counting detention times in one to two days, they

count them in weeks, months, and years y. the longest detention time is 756 days. 93% of chinese are admitted. so that's much higher than one would expect, but it's only after these long detentions and after really lengthy legal battles that are, of course, expensive as well. we know so much about the island experience because of these poems that have been preserved, and this one is the best-preserved poem. the author must have carved it over and over again, and this one fits with many of the things that you all have written about already. from now on, i'm departing far from this building, all of my fellow villagers are rejoicing

with me. don't say that everything within is western-styled. even if it is built of jade, it has turned into a cage. immigration officials thought that the detain knees were just writing things on the wall. but these two men put hundreds of poems in their notebooks when they were detained. it's because of those poems that we've been able to preserve so many. i've chosen three, and i'd like three volunteers to help me -- help us read them and also help us think about what they mean. so who would like to be the first one to read this poem? yes. thank you.

>> there are tens of thousands of poems composed on these walls. they are all cries of complaint and sadness. the day i am rid of this prison and attain success, i must remember that this chapter once existed. in my daily needs i must be frugal. all my come pay tronlts shub mindful. once you have small gains, return home early. >> thank you. what are some of the messages here? there's a couple, at least. >> i concentrated on this poem within my response and compared it to another experience. something that i thought was interesting is that within this poem, it reflects i must remember that this chapter once existed. i think this is contradicting to most of the experiences at angel island because it was to

detriment tall. i'm sure it's something you would want to forget, where here they had a humility where it's something that she came out of it strong and was like this is a chapter i need to remember because it's going to help me be a strong woman and provide for me and myself and my family in such a difficult era in the united states. i thought that was interesting. >> good. even though it might be an experience that they would like to forget, that the multitude of these expressions on these walls, the tens of thousands of poems, the complaints and sadness that i must, that we must remember that this chapter once existed. what about the second half? in my daily needs, i must be frugal. once you have some small gains, return home early. what is this immigrant's plan?

yes, tyler. >> i see a link to maybe referencing the extravagance of american lifestyle and in contrast to this person's homeland back in asia, and his plan may be to probably return once they can establish themselves and make some money. >> yeah. so not to stay. but to return. and probably that this experience on angel island has helped them convince themselves that the united states is not a welcoming place. so once you earn enough, return home early. okay. who would like to read this one? thank you. >> imprisoned in the woodened building day after day, my freedom withheld. how can i bear to talk about knit. i look to see who's happy. they only sit quietly. the days are long and the bowel

empty. my sad mood is not dispelled. the nights are long in the pill of cold. who can pity my loneliness. why not just return home and learn to plow the fields? >> thank you. what are some of the messages here in that first part? >> the detention and center of angel island, just the environment was bleak, and the long detentions and environment caused a lot of the detainees to become emotionally depressed and probably chronically depressed judges by the counts of suicides and many questioned why they came in the first place. >> that goes into the second half. after experiencing such loneliness and sorrow, why not just give up and learn to plow

the fields. coming with lots of hope to the united states, this experience changing them, and causing this loneliness, despair, so much so that he cannot bear to talk about it. and really questioning why they came to the united states in the first place. okay. last poem. last volunteer. >> parting with my brothers and classmates because of the mount, i hate to cross the american ocean. how was i to know the western barbarians had lost their hearts. they mistreat us chinese. it is not enough after being interrogated and investigated several times. we also have to have our chest examined while naked. our countrymen suffer this treatment all because our country's power cannot yet expand. if there comes a day chen china

been united, i will surely cut out the heart and bowls of the western barbarian. >> a little more complicated than the other ones and a little bit more passionate. what are some out messages here? >> it illustrates immigration as a necessary process. it definitely gives testament to the notion that immigrants come out of necessity, that they don't choose to come simply for fun, and he references political instability in his country as to why they're here. and -- yeah. >> political instability and global inequalities, right? our countrymen suffer this treatment all because our country's power cannot yet expand. so one of the things that i think is interesting about this one, first of all, is it is more

pointedly angry, resentful, and threatening of violence than many of the others. and it explicitly pits, at least in this case, the chinese against the so-called western barbarians. it's important that he, and these are all poems that have been recovered from the men's barracks. we know they're male. he's using the term barbarian, because that is what they had been called themselves. that is what the americans were calling the chinese. uncivilized barbarians. by putting this back on the americans, it's even more pointed. and then this last line, if there comes a day when china will be united, i will surely cut out the heart and bowels of the western barbarian. so quite a strong statement there. the history of immigration on

angel island, one chapter ends in 1940. there's a fire. this is the barracks of the women, where they would be, and for the next 30 years, the place is abandoned, and it's actually scheduled to be demolished, and this is what the men's barracks looks like in the 1970s. so in many ways, it was history that was lost. it was lost because detainees themselves did not want to remember it. they were -- they identified this era, this period of immigration in their lives as being under the shadow of exclusion. they didn't talk about their experiences even to their own families, so there are many family histories that you've read where the children are saying we were told never to use our real name, or i didn't even

know that yon was not my real name until x, y, and z. and one of the leaders who helped to preserve the angel island immigration station talked about how whenever he brought up the words angel island to his family, he would hear don't talk about it. also, in the 1960s, immigration history was not yet a recognizable field. the immigrant was not yet studied. and this history was not well-preserved. but through the efforts of many community activists and discoveries, we first were able to discovery, preserve the poems because a california state park ranger found these poems when he was going through the barracks.

he told his professor about it, a biology professor whose mother just happened to have been a detainee on angel island, and that professor told other faculty and students in at sc state's newly created asian american studies department, and they were inspired to study the poems, preserve them, do the oral histories. so this t three authors of the book you're reading were not professional historians. one was an engineer. one was a poet. one was a librarian at the san francisco china town branch. they took it upon themselves to translate the poems, and this is what the book looked like when it was first published in 1980. publishers, publishing houses did not want to publish it, so they self-published it 35 years ago.

and what they found was that this history that preserving and recovering this history served as a type of catharsis for the chinese american community. it openly aired these dark secrets. it allowed people to understand that they didn't experience this on their own, that there were others who experienced this history of racial exclusion and undocumented immigration. it helped to feel like they could let this go, that it wasn't all their fault, that it was part of a larger history, a larger pattern of discrimination. it helped to la legitimize the abe je angel island experience. it allows detainees to feel like they didn't have to be ashamed anymore. they talked about in the 1970s, they would find people to interview and then they would

politely say no, i don't want to talk about it. now there are so many people who want to tell her their stories that she can't keep up with them. it's become a whole new type of experience. and it's not just for the chinese american community, but it's been recognized as important for all americans. in 1998, the angel island immigration station became a national landmark, and the rationale behind that comes from the community organization that helped to put this movement forward, and they said in their proposal, angel island, the angel island immigration station presents the first, the only, and the best opportunity to fully interpret the history of asian immigration to the united states. this is our plymouth rock, our statue of rock, all rolled into

one. in the same way that ellis island has been enshrined as a national monument to commemorate things. angel island should be declared a historic national landmark. this is the photograph of that signing and at that ceremony in 1998. there was a massive effort since then to raise money, to restore the buildings. so this is the men's detention barracks that's been fully restored and was turned into a museum. on the footprint of where the administration sat is now an open space, but exhibits like an interrogation table with photographs, they've restored the interior of the men's barracks as well. this is what it looked like at its reopening in 2009.

and there are now documentaries that help to explain the preservation of poems, the preservation process, and the new discoveries that have been found. in the years since the efforts, there have been 200 poems that have been rediscovered. there's been hundreds of inscriptions in many different languages, including german, english, spanish, japanese, and there's also been carvings, illustrations, carvings that have been restored. there's also been new research. in a new addition of island with new family histories and new poems, and another book on angel island that looks at a broad range of immigration through the immigration station as well. so all of this has led to what

some could interpret as a closing of the chapter on this history of angel island immigration. in 2012, a group of community activists lobbied for the passage of a statement of regret in 2012. a statement of regret that congress regretted the chinese exclusion laws. and specifically, the statement of regret acknowledged, that's important that it's not on apology. it's a statement of regret. it acknowledges that the chinese exclusion acts, quote, resulted in the persecution and political alienation of persons of chinese dissent, unfairly limited their civil rights, legitimized discrimination and induced trauma that is in the chinese community today.

this has been an important landmark event type of reconciliation. this public acknowledgment that chinese exclusion happened, that it was detriment tall, thal. that it did not coincide with our believes, and that this was an important transformation in the history. i'd also want us to question whether it's really time to close that chapter. does a simple statement of regret help us put it into the dust bin of history, let us forget about what happened? move on? think about other immigrant histories, happier stories? what are the lessons of angel island today in there are diverse groups of immigrants who came through the immigration station. not all of them were detained. not all of them might have had this experience of wanting to

cut out the bowels of the western barbarian, but many of them did. and while we often point to, say, ellis island and the celebratory history of immigration and our making of a nation of immigrants, i would argue that this other history, this darker history of immigration through angel island perhaps has even more resonance with our contemporary world today. the poems describe frustration, disappointment, anger, resentment of the immigrant experience. and it helps us to confront america's history of discrimination in restriction and immigration laws. and as we know, this is not a story that we can just safely leave to the early 20th century. these are two photos and

headlines that were taken from the news just this past summer when central american refugees, many of them, most of them children or mothers, were coming across the border to the united states for asylum. and for many weeks, we did not know what conditions these young immigrant detainees were being housed in but a few weeks into it, we were able to find and get some sneak peeks, some pictures. this is just one photograph of the processing facility in brownsville, texas. it can be argued that we're in a current state of immigration detention crisis. so let me just read off a couple of numbers for you. in 2011, the department of homeland security held a