On the early Saturday morning, October 3, 2015, I took the Blue and Gold Ferry from pier 41 of San Francisco to Angel Island to attend a Nikkei Pilgrimage organized by the Nichi Bei Foundation. Since I grew up and got educated in San Francisco, Angel Island is not a strange place for me. Throughout the years, I have taken many school field trips to Angel Island to learn about the tragic history of the island. I have learned about the “Chinese’s Angel Island experience” so I am familiar with the historical perspective of the Chinese immigration’s struggle while they were detained the island. I was anxious to attend this event because I did not have any knowledge on the Japanese that were detained on the Angel Island. I was curious to learn more
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Through professor Kobashigawa’s presentation, I learned the differences between the “Ellis Island of the West” and the “Ellis Island of the East.” Although both islands were used as a processing center for new immigrants from Europe and Asia; but while the original Ellis Island functioned to allow as many European to migrate in the U.S. as possible, the “Ellis of the West” was used to keep out the “unfit” Asian to come in. Angel Island clearly was used to keep Asian out! The 1882 Exclusion Act was to keep out the Chinese, the Gentlemen Agreement of 1908 was meant to bar Japanese Labor to enter. The only way new Asian immigrants could come in the U.S. was by spouse sponsorship. During the time, the Chinese were notorious for bringing relatives through their paper son scheme. As the USIS cracked down on the paper son scheme of the Chinese, they also suspicious of the Japanese using the same “paper son scheme” to get in. Though the USIS did not know that the Japanese government already preventing the “paper son scheme” to materialize with their tough visa process. In 1940 the USIS Administration Building was burned down and in the process destroyed all the documentations and historical proofs of the immigration process. So it was impossible to know the exact record of the Japanese wife and pictures brides that processed through Angel Island. It was estimated of 10,000 Japanese wife and pictures brides got processed from 1910 to 1920. In 1924, the door closed completely for Asian immigration to come in the U.S. Angel Island only reopened in 1937 to process cases of the Kibei Nisei returned to the U.S. after time spent in Japan. In 1940, Angel Island was used mostly as Transit Center for captured Japanese POW (Prisoners Of War). Most Japanese POW were help on Angel Island for a few days before being moved to the holding center in Tracy. Some were retained longer for
Through professor Kobashigawa’s presentation, I learned the differences between the “Ellis Island of the West” and the “Ellis Island of the East.” Although both islands were used as a processing center for new immigrants from Europe and Asia; but while the original Ellis Island functioned to allow as many European to migrate in the U.S. as possible, the “Ellis of the West” was used to keep out the “unfit” Asian to come in. Angel Island clearly was used to keep Asian out! The 1882 Exclusion Act was to keep out the Chinese, the Gentlemen Agreement of 1908 was meant to bar Japanese Labor to enter. The only way new Asian immigrants could come in the U.S. was by spouse sponsorship. During the time, the Chinese were notorious for bringing relatives through their paper son scheme. As the USIS cracked down on the paper son scheme of the Chinese, they also suspicious of the Japanese using the same “paper son scheme” to get in. Though the USIS did not know that the Japanese government already preventing the “paper son scheme” to materialize with their tough visa process. In 1940 the USIS Administration Building was burned down and in the process destroyed all the documentations and historical proofs of the immigration process. So it was impossible to know the exact record of the Japanese wife and pictures brides that processed through Angel Island. It was estimated of 10,000 Japanese wife and pictures brides got processed from 1910 to 1920. In 1924, the door closed completely for Asian immigration to come in the U.S. Angel Island only reopened in 1937 to process cases of the Kibei Nisei returned to the U.S. after time spent in Japan. In 1940, Angel Island was used mostly as Transit Center for captured Japanese POW (Prisoners Of War). Most Japanese POW were help on Angel Island for a few days before being moved to the holding center in Tracy. Some were retained longer for