Two new medals honor World War II veterans: Chinese Americans and Merchant Marines

The history of Americans who served in World War II has been told many times by many different people. One ethnic group that has often been overlooked is that of the Asian Americans who fought for their country – even when that country did not grant them full citizenship. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prevented Asian immigrants from becoming naturalized and otherwise discriminated against them and their families, was still in effect during World War II. In 1943 the Magnuson Act repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Long-overdue recognition has come gradually to Asian American WWII veterans. Japanese American Nisei soldiers collectively received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011. Filipino vets were awarded the medal in 2017. Bipartisan legislation to create a Congressional Gold Medal for Chinese American veterans was introduced in 2017 and signed into law in December 2018. This medal was to be awarded collectively this spring at an April ceremony at Emancipation Hall in Washington, D. C., with a regional ceremony to follow in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has delayed those plans.

The front of the 3-inch medal depicts six men and one woman in various uniforms highlighting the fact they served in every branch of service and in every theater. Whether or not they were citizens during the war, the medal proclaims that each was "Proud to serve as an American."

Design for the Chinese American Veterans of WWII Congressional Gold Medal*

There is also a new Congressional medal recognizing those who served in the Merchant Marine, previously unrecognized because they were not part of the military, although they served and supported the U. S. Navy during the war.

CGS member Justine Wong is the daughter of Leland Wong, who served in the Merchant Marine during WWII. “Growing up I heard my dad talk about his time as a Merchant Marine,” she remembers. “He did not talk much in detail but I do remember hearing about the booming of cannons and something about my dad standing up to an officer about turning a ship around because of a sick seaman.” She learned about the Congressional Gold Medal last year, but didn't consider making an application for her late father until encouraged to do so by a friend. Her mother had lots of documents that included slips of paper with names of ships and their departure and arrival dates. The application process turned up some happy surprises: although the family's copy of her father's record stated "no medals," Justine learned from the U. S. Maritime Administration Department that her father was due a Victory Medal and an Honorable Service Medal as well as several others. Her next research project is to try to confirm stories that Leland was at Iwo Jima as well as in China and the Phillippines during the war.

Leland Wong on Catalina Island during WWII

The Bay Area Chinese Genealogy Group is trying to raise awareness about the Chinese American Congressional medal so that surviving veterans or their family members may apply to be recognized. Those who served in the Merchant Marine during WWII are also encouraged to apply for that medal. Tributes to Chinese American WW2 veterans are at baccg.org and caww2.org.

BACGG also is hosting several events commemorating the service of Chinese Americans. This year is the 75^th anniversary of the end of WWII. This coming Saturday, August 29, at 1:15 p.m., a webinar featuring a virtual panel discussion with filmmaker Montgomery Hom, Ret. Major General William Chen, and historian Connie Young Yu is open to all.

On September 26, an online Chinese Genealogy Workshop will help participants with tips on how to research their Chinese ancestry.  That same day, a one-hour virtual celebration will feature presentations from the State of California and from several U.S. military and Veterans organizations. A special short film by Montgomery Hom, co-produced with Chinese American Citizens Alliance, highlights Chinese Americans in military service from the Civil War to WWII. More events are planned for November. See the BACGG website at https://bacgg.org/.

 

Any WWII veteran may be honored with an online profile at the Friends of the WWII Memorial. Fill out the application here:

https://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/veteran-profile/

To apply for a Congressional Gold Medal, the veteran or next of kin should visit one of the following websites:

1.  Chinese American WWII Congressional Gold Medal Recipient. 

    Additional resources are listed at www.caww2.org.

2.  U. S. Merchant Marine WWII Congressional Gold Medal Recipient

    Additional resources are at http://usmm.org/contact.html.

Leland Wong and fellow Merchant Marines on Catalina Island

*Chinese American Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Images © United States Mint 2019. Non-journalism use requires U.S. Mint permission notwithstanding any terms of use.

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Chinese Couplets: A daughter's long search for her immigrant mother's past

On Mother's Day, we are pleased to share this story by guest contributor Felicia Lowe.

I didn’t really know my mother.
She spent most of her life hiding who she was.
Lying about where she came from, how she got here.
What secrets were so dark that the truth had to be concealed?

These are the opening lines to my documentary “Chinese Couplets,” which explores the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943) on four generations of women—my maternal grandmother, my mother, Lettie Kam, my daughter, Alana, and me. The story is shaped by my quest to unravel the mystery surrounding my mother’s origins, the revelation of her illegal immigration to America during the period of Chinese exclusion, and the resulting web of secrecy and shame underlying her assimilation and achievement of the American Dream. The journey takes us from contemporary San Francisco to 1930s rural China, across the world to pre-revolutionary Cuba, post-Mao rural China and again to California, a place on the cusp of its own revolution in multiculturalism.

Felicia Lowe's mother (center) as a baby,
with her mother and older sister.

The research was complicated and messy.  There was not a single source to gather the information I needed to formulate a picture of my mother’s journey to America. For one, she was a “paper daughter,” meaning she had assumed the identity of a child of a citizen, one of the few exempt classes allowed to enter the United States in 1937. For me, the intrigue began when I was three years old and my mom instructed, “If anyone asks where I come from, say Hawaii.”  I knew from my aunt, her older sister, that they were born in China so it was very confusing.

My mother maintained her “born in Hawaii” persona most of her life and refused to offer any explanation as to why her maiden surname was Kam (Kam Sau Quon) while her sister’s last name was Louie.  At the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Kam Sau Quon’s files revealed the story of a family with three young children who left Hawaii for China in 1924, then chose to return in 1937 as war was escalating in China. To learn of my mother’s early life, I read my aunt’s immigration transcripts.  She left China in 1931 in an arranged marriage so there was no subterfuge in her interrogation answers.

An ally in my investigation was my daughter, Alana.  She was able to break through her grandmother’s shell of secrecy by interviewing her for a school assignment. Out of it emerged a huge revelation.  My mother did not meet her father until he returned from Cuba when she was 15.  He’d left his pregnant wife and five-year-old daughter to find work there.  Chinese in Cuba?  That was new news to us.

Trips to Cuba and China followed in search of answers.  The most precious was a visit with my mother to Dutou, the village she’d left six decades earlier.  Like the Chinese couplet, a traditional poem consisting of two lines of verse held in contradictory and complementary balance, my family’s cross-generational tale encompasses a series of interlocked pairings: my mother’s secretive relationship to the past and the mother she left behind when she emigrated to America… my own fraught relationship with my mother… and my daughter Alana’s less-burdened curiosity about her Chinese ancestry and the bright hope it offers for healing the immigrant cycle of rupture, abandonment, denial and shame.

The turbulent times in which my mother came of age, the powerful challenges that all immigrants face, and the strength of the women, both my grandmother and mother, define my daughter and me.  It is their gift and our legacy–secrets and all.

Felicia Lowe is an award winning television producer, director, and writer with 40 years of production experience.  Her films “Chinese Couplets,” “Carved in Silence,” “Chinatown,” and “China: Land of My Father” have been broadcast on PBS and are used in classrooms across the country.  She’s long been associated with the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation through her films and activism. www.lowedownproductions.com

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Celebrating the Past and the Future: 2018 Genealogy Events and Education Plans

by Maureen Hanlon

Our 120^th Anniversary in 2018 is a great milestone --- we’ve planned a number of events and classes to both delve into our heritage and leverage the science that allows us to understand that past even better.  

Currently,  we are scheduling our five part Records Series and four part Skills Series. Your suggestions are most welcome for ideas on classes and events as we continue planning for 2018 continues. Come to our January 13th Annual Member Meeting and Birthday Party to hear more details and enjoy a talk about ancestors.

    

NOTE:  Our free Introduction to Genealogy on the first Saturday and the popular San Francisco Special Interest Group and Family Tree Special Interest Group will continue meeting on the third Saturdays. 

DNA

DNA will be a major focus as we have engaged Blaine Bettinger, The Genetic Genealogist, to come for an amazing event on March 3rd.  Get ready for Blaine's event by attending Pam Miller's previously held three foundation lectures on the major DNA tests, Ancestry, FamilyTree and 23 and Me on January 27th, February 3rd and 10th, respectively.  

Then check our schedule for a talk by Eva Goodwin from Ancestry to be held later in the year on DNA, Adoptions and Unknown Parents. We will also continue the monthly first Saturday meetings of an ongoing DNA study group for those who have completed the foundation series. 

Heritage

Our fortune and that of our ancestors lies in California’s rich geography. We’ve scheduled the popular Melinda Kashuba, author of Walking with Your Ancestors: a Genealogist’s Guide to Using Maps and Geography for April 14th. 

We’re also celebrating the diversity of our state and its early settlers with a Chinese Ancestry Day in May, which is Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month. Grant Din, Marisa Louie Lee and others will talk, plus we are exploring a tour of Angel Island. Look for Stewart Traiman's class that will share insights and strategies for Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender (LGBT) genealogy on June 23rd.

 

The online CGS Irish Ancestry Network will hold its second anniversary get-together on March 24th with an informal meet-up and an afternoon lecture by Cath Trindle on Irish Townlands. 

Trips and Tours

In addition to our annual Salt Lake City Research trip being held April 22nd-29th, Jane Lindsey will lead a trip for intermediate genealogists in August to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne Indiana, home of the most extensive genealogy periodical collection.  We also have plans in the works to visit Sutro Library and events with The California Historical Society.  

Updates, more information and registration links will be published on our EventBrite page at least two months prior to the events.

It's going to be a wonderful year of genealogy and celebration at The California Genealogical Society.  We hope you'll be a part of the magic!

Copyright © 2017 by California Genealogical Society

1 million Angel Island immigrants: what genealogical clues were left behind?

Do you have Japanese, Chinese, Jewish, or South Asian ancestors that came through Angel Island? 

Join member Grant Din and learn about the more than one million people from over eighty different countries who were processed by officials on the island.  You might be familiar with Angel Island’s Chinese poetry-carved walls, but did you know that quite a lot of genealogical resources are now available to researchers?

Angel Island, photo courtesy of Linda Okazaki

Linda Okazaki, our current President says, “Grant is incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Angel Island, as well as the federal records generated when the immigration station operated there from 1910-1940. I've heard Grant speak several times while ‘on’ the island. Now I'm excited to have him present here at the California Genealogical Society’s Library.”

What’s the format?

Learn from case studies of Chinese, Jewish, South Asian and Japanese immigrants.  Find out about the National Archives and other resources that might be available for your own research.

Topics covered

• Gain an understanding of the different groups who passed through Angel Island.
• Resources for Angel Island and West Coast immigrant research that available online and at the National Archives in San Bruno.
• Interpret documents such as ship manifests to find valuable information.
• How to obtain government files such as "A-files" (A for "Alien") via online requests.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Member Grant Din has been working in Bay Area non-profit organizations for more than thirty years and has conducted genealogical research for even longer.

He works as the community relations director at the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, where his work includes managing the Immigrant Voices website.  It currently houses 200 stories of Pacific Coast U.S. immigrants from throughout the world, including many who passed through Angel Island.

Grant's interest in genealogy started at a wedding reception in his youth, where a relative showed him to be the 36th generation of the Gong family on a family tree.  Later he learned that he’s a member of the 24th generation of Owyangs on his mother's side.

He recently received a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University and has traveled throughout the U.S. and China for his research.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

Pre-registration is required. Class size is limited so please register early. CGS members enjoy free admission. 

Not a member? Not a problem. 

Non-member admission fee is $30.00 and can be applied towards a new one year CGS membership (starting at $40) the day of the class.

Copyright © 2016 by California Genealogical Society