FREE ESSAY ON STRANGER FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE

STRANGER FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE

Struggling Strangers
Strangers From A Different Shore by author/professor Ronald Takaki has brought a new
perspective of my growing knowledge of the hardships and endless obstacles that
Asian-Americans have struggled with through their immigration experience. Immigrants of
Asia represent many countries and many different situations that have brought them to
this better country with hopes for more opportunities to succeed. Asian-Americans are
those whose roots are from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, China, Cambodia,
Korea, and Hmong to name the most common. Asian-Americans have overcome drastic
situations to carry the status that they do today. Currently Asian-Americans represent
the fastest growing minority group in the United States. Half of all immigrants that
enter the U.S. annually are Asian. Asian-Americans come from the same part of the world,
the same continent, yet their struggles have left them in different situations. Although
the commonalities of hardships that exist between the Asian ethnic groups are greatly the
same that can also be separated from likeness just as easy. A common ground brings these
people together but their separate countries and even within a country different regions
will strive and be defeated or surpass the others in their separate historical ways. 
Takaki, a professor at U.C. Berkeley in Ethnic Studies and the grandson of immigrant
plantation laborers from Japan has both the knowledge and personal passion of
Asian-Americans that allows him to go into great details of the history and diversity of
this ethnic groups struggle to become recognized in America for who they are and why they
are here instead of what they did for this country. Takaki goes in depth on nearly many
occurrences that each Asian country has overcome and currently deals with. 
Longing for gold wasn't just an American issue. The topic of gold affected many people
including the Chinese. About the same time gold was discovered in California, famine hit
the Guangdong Province in southeast China. Hearing about California's gold, many Chinese
men left for America hoping to make a fortune and return home a few years later to their
loved ones. Few struck it rich and the rest fought to survive. The Gold Rush in
California and the Pacific Northwest increased the demand for railroads to connect these
remote parts of America. Building railroads required lots of low-paid labor, which hungry
immigrant Chinese provided. By 1880, there were about 300,000 Chinese in America, but
American accepted few once the railroads were completed. In 1882, Congress passed the
Chinese Exclusion Act, the first time in American history that immigration restrictions
were aimed at one ethnic group. 
Some Chinese were forced onto boats returning to China and some left on their own.
Discriminatory practices by real estate agents and homeowners prompted Chinatowns to
develop, which were basically the Chinese ghetto. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed
in 1943 and immigration laws were changed. Now, the Chinese could bring their women from
home because the population was mainly males. Today, strong Chinese communities exist in
the West, especially in Los Angeles, which has become a contemporary Ellis Island for the
Pacific Rim. Descendants of the first wave of Chinese immigrants now excel in engineering
and the sciences instead of the fields from which their fathers were barred.
When America's Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred the Chinese from providing America
with cheap labor, the Japanese arrived to fill the void. Japanese immigration to America
began in 1882 with Meiji Restoration. Many rice farmers in southwestern Japan were
heavily taxed and hoped to make their fortunes in America. More than 30,000 Japanese went
to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations between 1885 and 1894. In the 1890's until 1924
there was many Japanese immigrating to America. These were what the Japanese called
Issei, or first generation immigrants. Unlike the Chinese who first went to California to
do railroad work, many Japanese went to the Pacific Northwest where they could work in
the fishing and timber industries that needs their labor. Unlike the Chinese, Japanese
immigrants included more women, so families could be started. Some women came with their
husbands; others arrived as picture brides, met by unknown future husbands in America.
Their children, the second generation, are called Nisei.
The 1924 Immigration Act cut the flow of Japanese immigration. Eventually Japantowns
emerged, otherwise known as the Japanese ghettos. In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii and introducing war, which led to the signing of Executive Order 9066. This gave
the Issei and Nisei 10 days to sell everything they had. None of their rights were
protected because although the 2/3 of the 120,000 people who were thrown in the
internment camps was U.S. citizens by birth it did not matter. Today Japanese-American
communities exist, especially in Pacific Coast cities like Seattle and Los Angeles, where
Nisei Week celebrations continue and so does strong economic power that
Japanese-Americans withhold.
Many Filipinos replaced the Japanese as laborers in Hawaii and on the mainland,
especially after the 1924 Immigration Act. They worked in fields doing seasonal work and
migrated throughout the west following the crops. When Japanese-Americans were evacuated
during World War II, Filipinos were among those who farmed the abandoned lands. As with
the Chinese, World War II improved the condition of Filipino-Americans. After America
liberated the Philippines in 1944, Americans attitudes toward Filipinos improved.
Immigration restrictions eased as G.I.'s brought home brides and professionals arrived.
Their communities thrive in America. While a small number of Koreans cam to Hawaii in
1903, the real flow came after the Korean War. G.I.'s once again brought home war brides
and students came to American universities. Unlike other Asian immigrants, many Koreans
didn't leave home because of economic hardships. Koreans economy did well after the war.
The lure of American education, threat of fighting communist North Korea, and political
actions by South Korean government prompted many to start new lives in America. Koreans
had many of the same hard lives as the other Asian groups.
When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, hard times did not end for the people of Southeast
Asia. While they no longer feared the war, they now faced great hardships and terror at
the hands of victorious Communists: the Viet Cong in Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia, and the Pathet Lao in Laos. While many supported new rulers, many fled, fearing
for their lives. Together they formed the largest short-term immigration of people ever
to the United States. Between 1975 and 1985, 100,000 immigrants a year came to America.
This is what affects me the most of all immigration. This is where my mother, my
grandmother, and me fall. My mom came here in 1975 and I was born in 1977, then we fought
to bring my grandmother here in 1985. Unlike other Asian immigrants who came looking to
make their fortunes, most of these immigrants came from refugee camps. Many escaped
through jungles and drifted at sea in tiny boats. Those lucky enough to survive and
arrive in America had to deal with emotional scars from their ordeal. Many Cambodian and
Laos immigrants were farmers from small villages with no knowledge of Western culture.
Some Laos hill tribes such as the Hmong, came from cultures that were untouched by the
Industrial Revolution. The adaptation process for these people has been nearly an unreal
experience.
On Sunday, April 30 there was a landmark date for the remembrance of 25 years since the
Vietnam War ended. This was a sad time to remember. It marks a time of lost family and
friends and the fall of a nation. With the power of communism on the up rise lives were
endangered and worlds overturned. Not to mention all the other people who were affected
by the war. The Americans who lost their lives and the surrounding Southeast Asians
countries and their immigrants who are still left with unfulfilled promises struggle
everyday to let a terrible image pass them. 
Takaki has shown me that Asian-Americans have the same racial discrimination problems
that African-Americans have had to endure. Whereas African-Americans were forced here and
Asians chose to flee their countries they in turn dealt with the same treatment by
Americans and the government. The same harsh discrimination and the same treatment that
they were less than an Anglo have resurfaced. It is a shame that we don't teach our
population how history really happened, instead we cover it up to make it look less than
it really was.