National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

National Center for Cutural Resources

1849 C Street, NW (2251)

Washington, DC 20240

www.cr.nps.gov/crdi

WASO_CRDP_INFO@nps.gov

E X P E R I E N C E Y O U R A M E R I C AT M
National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

National Center for Cutural Resources

1849 C Street, NW (2251)

Washington, DC 20240

www.cr.nps.gov/crdi

WASO_CRDP_INFO@nps.gov

E X P E R I E N C E Y O U R A M E R I C AT M
 Table of Contents

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i 

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii 

Asia in America: An Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Who are “Asians?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 

The AAPI Population in the United States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Asian Presence in America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Asian Influence on the Cultural Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The “Invisibility” of Asian Cultural Heritage in America. . . . . . . . . . . 16

Scholarship on Asians in America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Is There a Pan-Asian Culture?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Identifying and Documenting 

Asian Heritage on the American Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

National Register of Historic Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Jun Fujita Cabin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

 Wakamiya Inari Shrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Stedman-Thomas Historic District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

 Leluh Ruins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

National Historic Landmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

 Japanese-American World War II Theme Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

 The Presidio of San Francisco, Buildings 35 and 640. . . . . . . . . 32 

 Racial Desegregation in Public Education in the 

United States Theme Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

 Rosedale Consolidated High School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Historic American Buildings Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

 Chinese Community Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

 Town of Locke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Historic American Engineering Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 

 Hanalei Pier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Interpreting Asianisms at Historic Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 

Lowell Historic Preservation District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Chinese Sites in the Warren Mining District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Haraguchi Rice Mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

San Francisco Bay Maritime National Historic Park 

Junk Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Teaching with Historic Places, “The War Relocation Camps of 

World War II: When Fear Was Stronger than Justice” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 

United States Immigration Station, Angel Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 

Asian Heritage in the National Park Service 

Cultural Resources Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Selected Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

List of Federal Legislation Related to Asian Groups 

in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Executive Summary

Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: 

Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage

highlights the cultural imprint of Asian groups on the 

built environment of the United States. It is part of an 

effort by the National Park Service and its partners 

to increase the awareness of the historic places 

associated with the nation’s cultural and ethnic groups 

that have been identified, documented, recognized, 

and interpreted and to lay the groundwork for the 

identification of additional historic places. Many 

of the examples in this publication are drawn from 

National Park Service cultural resources programs 

that are carried out in partnership with other 

government agencies and private organizations. 

Documented Asian contact with the North American continent 

dates back to at least to the middle of the 16th century. Asian ethnic 

groups participated in the early settlement of the United States, 

contributed to the economic development of the American West, 

and played a role in the desegregation of public schools in the 

United States in the 20th century. Aspects of Asian cultures 

influence our language, our palette, and our landscape. Studies of 

Asian American culture began in earnest during the middle of the 

20th century. Scholars are increasingly documenting the role of 

Asians in American cultural life and the impact of discriminatory 

legislation on Asian communities in the United States. 

This examination of Asian cultures in the United States occurs as 

the number of people of Asian descent is rapidly increasing. 

Census data indicates the Asian population has grown 48 percent 

since the 1990 census, as compared to 13 percent for the general 

population. However, Asian groups have a heterogeneity that 

makes the all-inclusive administrative construct of “Asian 

American” deceiving. Older established communities such as 

Chinese and Japanese Americans are making way for newer 

communities of Vietnamese and Cambodian Americans. The 

Executive Summary i
Pacific Islander population is considered part of this group. This 

constantly evolving demographic is making its influence felt in all 

aspects of American life. 

The publication is intended to support the efforts of historic 

preservation and cultural resource stewardship professionals and 

organizations within their communities. It is intended for the 

general reader, one without specific knowledge of Asian or Asian 

American cultural heritage. This document includes:

 An introductory essay that summarizes Asian cultural heritage in 

the United States

 An annotated list of historic properties related to Asian cultural 

heritage that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places 

listings, designated as National Historic Landmarks, and 

documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic 

American Engineering Record, all programs of the National 

Park Service

 Examples of historic places that interpret aspects of Asian 

heritage for the public benefit

 A list of historic properties documented and/or recognized by 

National Park Service cultural resources programs, arranged 

by program and state

 A bibliography containing well-known and accessible 

publications on the topic

Asian Reflection on the American Landscape: Identifying and 

Interpreting Asian Heritage is the second publication by the 

National Park Service using this methodology to highlight the 

imprint of diverse groups on the built environment of the United 

States. The first volume, African Reflection on the American 

Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Africanisms, was published 

in 2003. 

ii National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Acknowledgments

This publication is the second volume in a series of 

publications that highlights the impact of the nation’s 

cultural and ethnic groups on the American built 

environment. The first volume in this series was 

African Reflections on the American Landscape: 

Identifying and Interpreting Africanisms, which 

was published in 2003. The African Reflections 

publication provided a successful model for examining 

diverse cultural groups and their impact upon the 

built environment. It was produced to encourage 

preservation professionals to seek additional examples 

in their own communities. This volume similarly 

provides examples of Asian heritage and lays the 

groundwork for additional exploration of this topic. 

Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage was produced under the 

direction of Antoinette J. Lee, special projects manager, National 

Center for Cultural Resources. Michèle Gates Moresi, historian, 

National Center for Cultural Resources, provided critical input on 

bibliographic sources and methodology, as well as editorial support 

throughout the numerous drafts. This publication benefited greatly 

from research undertaken by interns Daphne Dador and Janet Paz. 

We appreciate the cooperation of Eloisa Borah, Lucy Cohen, Kevin 

Foster, Laura Feller, Marilyn Harper, John Muir, Franklin Odo, 

Martin Perschler, Mark Pfeifer, Carol Shull, Erika Martin Seibert, 

John Sprinkle, Dan Vivian, Priscilla Wegars, and Frank Wu—all 

of whom reviewed and offered crucial editorial comment on the 

manuscript. In addition, Lawrence Kingsbury and Dwight 

Pitcaithley suggested bibliographic resources that contributed to 

the final document.

Acknowledgements iii
Asia in America: An Introduction 1

Asia in America:

AN INTRODUCTION

America has always been a place of ethnic diversity. 

However, since the 1950s and especially after 

changes in immigration laws in 1965, the range of 

people joining the cultural mosaic has grown at an 

astounding rate. The United States boasts significant 

numbers of people from well over 100 countries. The 

census rolls and demographic makeup of school 

districts reflect this increase in diverse people, with 

the percentage of the diverse population climbing 

toward 50 percent of the total population and literally 

dozens of languages being spoken at some schools 

in urban areas. 

One region of the world that contributes heavily to the nation’s 

increasing diversity is Asia. As long as there has been a “new world,” 

Asia and its people have been involved in its development. Among 

the earliest travelers to the Americas were people of Asian descent. 

While Europe and Africa provided the larger percentage of the 

nation’s early immigrants, Asia and the Pacific Islands have 

contributed to the North American experience since the late 1500s. 

The Asian and North American continents are linked through their 

people and their roles in the Age of Exploration. When European 

explorers searching for quicker routes to India and other Asian 

markets found themselves in North America, they encountered 

descendants of earlier migrations from the Asian continent.1

 As the 

Western world was seeking new ways to reach Asia, Asia was 

already exploring the West.2

The desire for wealth, trade, and land starting in the 15th century 

led several European nations to the seas in search of new 

opportunities. Regions of Asia and Africa were the focus of early 

imperial endeavors. India was an area of commercial interest for 

centuries, providing much of the impetus for transoceanic voyages. 

The technological innovations of the Chinese (medicinal herbs and 

building material, such as “rammed earth”) and the various textile 
2 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage

and mineral resources of the Asian continent and the surrounding 

island nations were chronicled in the tales of Marco Polo and by 

travelers along the trade routes that stretched from Venice to Xian. 

Eventually, attempts to find shorter routes to Asian trading depots 

and new markets brought ships to the Western Hemisphere and the 

New World. Spain saw the strategic importance of the Pacific 

Islands upon landing in the Philippines in 1521 and establishing a 

permanent settlement in 1565.3

 Beginning in the 16th century, 

European explorers and settlers embarked on expeditions to the 

nascent shores of the North American continent to develop 

colonies for economic exploitation. 

Sailors from the Philippines and China are reported to have sailed 

with Spanish galleons along the routes between Manila and Spanish 

ports in Louisiana, California, Mexico, and Panama. Filipinos were 

among the landing party at Morro Bay, California, with Pedro de 

Unamumo in 1587.4

 Chinese sailors were employed in the shipping 

trades in New England and the Pacific Northwest in the 1800s. 

Asian immigrants participated in the development of the western 

United States. Chinese workers helped to create the transcontinental 

railroad and were instrumental in linking the western spur of the 

Central Pacific railroad across extremely treacherous terrain. Asian 

Indians, Japanese, and Chinese immigrants labored in lumber 

camps in the West during the mid-to-late 19th century. Koreans, 

Japanese, Filipinos, and Chinese worked in the agricultural 

industries in Hawaii and California. 

 The story of Chinese labor 

in the completion of the 

transcontinental railroad is a 

critical one in our understanding 

of westward expansion. The 

North Pacific Coast Railroad 

employed Chinese laborers, 

pictured in 1898, as section 

hands in Corte Madera. 

Courtesy of the California Historical Society
Asia in America: An Introduction 3

The history of Asians in America is not limited to labor history. 

Chinese students arrived on American shores as early as 1847. 

Filipino students or pensionados, and Japanese students attended 

American schools, colleges, and universities in the late 19th-to-early 

20th centuries. Filipino soldiers participated in the Battle of New 

Orleans. During the Civil War, Chinese soldiers fought for the 

Union Army. Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Filipino soldiers and 

seamen served with distinction in the American Armed Forces 

in both World Wars. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a 

segregated Japanese American unit, was the most highly decorated 

unit of its size in World War II. Cambodians, Laotians, and 

Vietnamese arrived in Massachusetts, Texas, and Minnesota during 

and following the Vietnam War. In the latter part of the 20th 

century, a new generation of Asian Indian immigrants arrived with 

technological and managerial expertise in medicine and in the 

information services field. Asian communities are found in diverse 

locales in the United States, from New York to Mississippi and 

Washington State.

 Filipino and Chinese laborers 

worked side-by-side with Mexican 

and European American migrant 

laborers to build the agricultural 

wealth of the Central Valley area 

of California. These laborers 

harvested bell peppers, lettuce, 

celery, artichoke, and asparagus 

crops, ca. 1950s. 

Courtesy of the Alvarado Project

 The Filipino Varsity Four was 

a musical group comprised of 

Filipino college students, known 

as pensionados, sponsored by 

the Federal Government to study 

in the United States.

Courtesy of Records of the Redpath 

Chautauqua Collection, Special Collections 

Department, University of Iowa
The term, “Asian American” emerged in the 1960s, fueled by the 

same civil rights issues driving other minority groups to seek equal 

representation within American society. Asian American students 

no longer wanted to be called Asiatic or Oriental, but wanted a 

phrase that represented their ethnic heritage and their American 

roots. People of Asian descent engaged the political and educational 

establishment in the same manner as young African Americans and 

Hispanic Americans. In 1968, San Francisco State College, now 

San Francisco State University, and the University of California at 

Berkeley were the first institutions of higher education to offer 

Asian American Studies programs. This period also coincides with 

the lifting of numerical quotas for ethnic immigrants with the 1965 

amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. 

American culture is filled with Asian cultural legacies. To cite a few, 

Japanese horticultural techniques influence our diets and physical 

landscape. Chinese life-saving practices, developed in the 18th 

century, have become universalized and are common practice for 

shipping and sailing. Practices regarding our physical and spiritual 

well-being are infused with pan-Asian cultural aspects, from 

Buddhism to martial arts and yoga. Japanese architectural aesthetics 

influenced Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style. A Filipino immigrant, 

Pedro Flores, brought a standard bearer of popular culture, the yo-yo 

and its subsequent popularity, to the United States. Words of Asian 

origin color our language. The term boondocks, for instance, is 

derived from the Tagalog term “bundok” meaning mountain, but in 

American usage it describes a hinterland or remote backcountry. It 

entered the English language during the Philippine-American War.

This document provides an overview of the influence of Asian 

heritage on the cultural landscape of the United States. Using 

National Park Service resources, it offers a summary of scholarship 

on Asian heritage in America, provides examples of Asian heritage 

that have been identified in National Park Service programs, 

presents examples of interpretation of Asian cultures at historic 

sites, includes a select listing of bibliographic references, and lists 

Asian sites and properties that the National Park Service cultural 

resources programs have recognized and interpreted. This study by 

no means represents an exhaustive exploration of the topic. It serves 

as an introduction to the topic of Asian ethnicity in the United 

States and how it manifests itself in the nation’s cultural resources.

4 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 5

Who are “Asians?”

“Asians” come from the areas of southern, central, and eastern 

Asia, and from islands that lie within the Pacific Rim. This region is 

bordered by Russia to the north, and by Afghanistan, Tajikistan, 

Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to the west. To the southwest, it is 

bordered by the Indian Ocean and to the east, the Pacific Ocean. 

People from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, India, Cambodia, 

Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, 

and Brunei fall under the category of “Asian.”5

 Groups from the 

Pacific Islands—such as Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, Guam, 

American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands—represent a related 

group. Some institutions link Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. 

Others, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, treat them as separate entities. 
Through the Asian diaspora, their communities can be found 

throughout the world. Asian communities extend across the Pacific 

Ocean; through the Pacific Islands and Australia; into Canada, 

Mexico, and the United States; through Central America and the 

Caribbean Islands, in places such as Trinidad and Tobago; and into 

South America, in Peru and Brazil. Korean communities exist in 

Japan, Chinese communities exist in Taiwan, and Asian Indian 

communities are located in South Africa and Fiji. Vietnamese 

communities exist in Australia; roughly one million Japanese 

immigrated to Brazil during the 1920s; Chinese communities 

have been long established in Jamaica, Cuba, and Peru.

The Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Asian Indians 

were among the earliest to immigrate in significant numbers and 

constitute the largest Asian groups that settled in the United States. 

These five Asian immigrant groups shaped the cultural landscape in 

California, Washington, Hawaii, and in major metropolitan areas 

like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In particular, Hawaii is a 

key site of diaspora for Asian groups. As late as 1970, 50 percent of 

the Asian American population was in Hawaii. According to census 

data, 25 percent of the counties in the nation with Asian Americans 

as the majority are in Hawaii and 68 percent of the population of 

Honolulu is of Asian descent.6

 A detail of the Chee Kong 

Tong House’s porch in 1966 

displays the Chinese influence 

on its construction.

Photograph by Jack E. Boucher, courtesy of 

the Historic American Buildings Survey

 The Chee Kong Tong House, 

pictured in 1966, was a meeting 

place for Chinese from the same 

district living in Maui. 

Photograph by Jack E. Boucher, courtesy of 

the Historic American Buildings Survey

6 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 7

Since 1975 and the fall of Saigon, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and 

Laotians have arrived in increasing numbers. The Vietnamese, in 

particular, have raised the number of Asian-descended people and 

altered the landscape of where Asian Americans settle. Whereas 

California is still the primary place of settlement for all Asian 

groups in America; Texas, not Hawaii, is the second choice for 

Vietnamese and Laotians. Cambodians carved out an identity 

in Massachusetts, and the Hmong community gathered in 

Minnesota.7

 Smaller Asian immigrant groups, such as Thais and 

Indonesians, are becoming better recognized. These developments 

changed the dynamic in Asian American communities, where the 

older communities formerly dominated much of the debate about 

people of Asian descent in America.

The AAPI Population in the United States

As of the 2000 Census, the Asian American/Pacific Islander 

population (AAPI) in the United States numbered 12 million 

people, or 4.3% of the total population. The Asian population has 

grown at a faster rate than the total population—up 48% since the 

last census as compared with 13% for the general population.8

Recent immigration patterns have altered the picture of Asian 

peoples in the United States. The largest groups are Chinese at 2.3 

million, Filipinos at 2.1 million, Asian Indians at 1.9 million, Koreans 

at 1.3 million, and Vietnamese at 1.2 million. The Japanese, formerly 

one of the five most populous ethnicities, are now sixth at 1.1 

million.9

 Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders number 874,000 

people. The six largest Asian ethnic groups make up 83% of the 

total Asian-American/Pacific Islander population.10

The place of Pacific Islanders in the Asian American mosaic has 

been debated. As past and present American territories, the Pacific 

Islands fall into an ambiguous category that is neither foreign nor 

American. The state of Hawaii represents the dichotomy of Pacific 

Islanders. Its status as a state allows it a voice beyond that of the 

territories. Hawaii presents very much a different view of 

“America,” one where the syncretic pan-Asian culture is a visible 

part of the cultural landscape and contributes to its sense of place. 

Asian Presence in America

According to William S. Bernard, professor emeritus of sociology at 

Brooklyn College, immigration to the Americas is divided into five 

periods: the Colonial Period (1607-1775), with Asian settlements 

reported as early as 1765 11; the Open Door Period (1776-1881), 

 Located in Falls Church, VA,

the Eden Center, shown in 2003, 

with its restaurants and specialty 

shops serves as a hub of activity 

for the local Vietnamese 

community. 

Courtesy of Marcia Axtmann Smith
when Asians arrived in the new nation, eager to stake a claim to the 

country’s wealth and prosperity; the Regulation Period (1882-1916), 

where concerns over Asian assimilation to American culture led to 

legislated discrimination against Asians; the Restriction Period 

(1917-1964), which saw housing covenants and other restrictions 

against Asian groups become prevalent; and the Liberalization 

Period (1965-present), with the removal of quotas and legal 

impediments to Asian immigration and the beginning of the 

process of greater assimilation of Asians into American culture.12

As with many immigrant groups, the initial wave of Asian 

immigrants arrived in the United States to fulfill the need for labor. 

Sugar masters were brought to Hawaii in the 1830s and Chinese 

sailors and peddlers are reported in New York around the same 

time.13 Later, Chinese were brought to Hawaii to work on the sugar 

and pineapple plantations. Thus began a pattern of United States 

importation of Asians to fulfill labor needs throughout the 19th and 

early 20th centuries. Workers were recruited, primarily from 

districts in the Guangdong province of southern China, to Hawaii 

and later California. Districts like Sam Yup and Sze Yap have sizable 

populations in North America and formed associations to support 

fellow migrants. 

The discovery of gold in California attracted the majority of early 

Chinese immigrants to the United States. Chinese miners spread 

throughout California, Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho, and 

planned to earn money and return to their home province.14 Most 

never became rich or returned home. Laws and taxes making 

mining for Chinese cost-prohibitive, combined with physical 

coercion, ensured that most would never achieve the promise of 

gum saan or “Gold Mountain.”15 As mining became less lucrative, 

Chinese immigrants explored other opportunities. Thousands 

worked on the Central Pacific portion of the transcontinental 

railroad, along with thousands more recruited from China. Others 

became merchants, catering to the tastes of the growing Chinese 

communities. 

Migrant farm labor, lumber mills, and logging camps offered other 

opportunities. Chinese sailors contributed to the shipping trade in 

New England and Chinese junks harvested shrimp out of San 

Francisco Bay. However, western states viewed the immigrants as 

competitors for jobs and for land, and began legislating Chinese to 

the margins of society. More and more laws designed to curtail the 

 Prohibitions on immigration 

forced Chinese and other Asians 

to resort to smuggling themselves 

across the Mexican border into 

the U.S. This ca. 1921 photograph 

of a smuggling buggy was used 

as evidence in a federal case 

against individuals illegally 

assisting Chinese migrants. 

Courtesy of the National Archives 

Records Administration

8 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 9

influx of Chinese eventually led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 

1882.16 But the need for labor to build the country only increased 

and other groups were sought. 

Japanese immigrants first arrived in America between 1868 and 1869 

when a group of businessmen spirited out 100 Japanese to perform 

agricultural labor in Hawaii, Guam, and California.17 Subsequent 

waves of Japanese migrated from a small number of prefectures 

in the southwest of Japan. Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Okayama, 

Wakayama prefectures on Honshu Island, and Fukuoka, 

Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Saga, and Kagoshima prefectures on Kyushu 

Island provided the overwhelming majority of Japanese migrants to 

the Asian diaspora.18 Arriving as contract workers in the wake of the 

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Japanese worked the sugar 

industry until the Organic Act of 1900 made the immigration of 

foreign nationals as contract labor illegal. Railroads, lumber mills, 

and farms in California and Washington formed the next stage of 

settlement for Japanese immigrants. However, the Gentlemen’s 

Agreement of 1907 further curtailed their immigration. 

Many Japanese immigrants carved out a niche in agriculture and 

horticulture. Early Japanese immigrants to California arrived with 

mulberry trees, silkworm cocoons, tea plants, bamboo roots, and 

other products, and became heavily involved with the burgeoning 

agricultural labor movement during the 1920s and 1930s. 

World War II changed the dynamic of relationships between 

Japanese Americans and the rest of the nation. Executive Order 

9066 paved the way for the removal of all persons of Japanese 

descent from western coastal areas to internment camps in the 

interior of the country. This policy effectively eliminated many of 

the Japantowns and other Japanese enclaves that sustained 

Japanese and Japanese American culture. These areas would never 

fully recover. Later, postwar urban renewal and highway act 

projects would finish what internment had begun by putting roads 

and highways through Japanese American neighborhoods (and 

other minority neighborhoods), further disintegrating the cultural 

essence of those places.19 Many Japanese chose either to relocate to 

the Midwest or move to the East Coast. 

Korean immigration to the United States began in 1903, with the 

arrival of a group of Korean men to Honolulu, Hawaii, to perform 

agricultural work on the plantations.20 Similar to the Chinese and 

 Chinese benevolent societies, 

made up of people from the 

same province or speaking the 

same dialect, attended to matters 

when family was not present, 

such as the burial service of High 

Lee,1891, in Deadwood, SD. 

Courtesy of John C. H. Grabill Collection, 

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of 

Congress
Japanese before them, early Korean communities were primarily 

bachelor enclaves, whose members were intent on earning enough 

money to return home as wealthy men. Unlike their predecessors, 

Koreans came from no particular region in Korea. Those present in 

the country continued agricultural work on sugar plantations in 

Hawaii and rice cultivation in California. Others found work as 

laborers in lumber yards in Washington state and in canneries in 

Alaska. Several became merchants and opened stores. Christian 

Korean congregations were the earliest of institutions to be formed, 

along with language schools.21

The attempts at exploitation of Korean immigrants in the American 

labor markets were curtailed due to Japanese opposition.22 Combined 

with the restrictive quota on the immigrants of Asian origin due to 

the Immigration Act of 1924, it would be 40 years before Korean 

immigration would begin in earnest. Korean immigration increased 

after World War II, when some 6,000 women entered the country 

as brides of United States military men.23 The 1965 amendment to 

the Immigration and Nationality Act encouraged further growth. 

Enclaves developed throughout the nation, primarily in New York, 

Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Although small groups of Asian Indians first arrived on the shores 

of the United States in the 1790s, Asian Indian immigration to 

North America began in the 1890s.24 Asian Indians emigrated 

initially to British Columbia. This was curtailed by a series of antiAsian legislation in Canada beginning in 1900. They began entering 

the United States through Bellingham, Washington. Asian Indians 

briefly filled the void left by the Japanese in 1907 with the signing of 

the Gentleman’s Agreement until passage of the Barred Zone Act of 

1917. Although some arrived illegally through Mexico, their 

numbers did not increase substantially until the 1970s.

Early Asian Indian migrants were primarily from the Punjab region 

and of Sikh faith, but many were Muslim and Hindu as well. As with 

other Asian groups, the first waves of Asian Indians fulfilled unskilled 

labor needs, settling in California, Washington, and Oregon. However, 

since 1965, Asian Indian immigration increased and included a 

sizable percentage of highly skilled professionals, particularly in 

the information technology and medical fields.25 Asian Indian 

communities are found in Maryland, Louisiana, New Jersey, and 

Massachusetts. 

10 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 11

Already a presence the United States, the immigration of Filipinos 

increased sharply to fulfill the need for workers in Hawaii starting 

in 1906. The unique status of the Philippines as an American 

territory allowed Filipinos to travel on American passports, making 

them attractive to the Hawaiian agricultural industry after the 

passing of the Organic Act of 1900. Filipino agricultural workers 

were heavily involved with the growing labor union movement, and 

cooperated with Japanese and Hispanic workers on strikes in 

Hawaii and California. In 1930, the Agricultural Workers League 

was formed in California to provide Pinoy—the name for Filipinos 

in the United States—workers with the same bargaining power as 

European American workers.26 During the 1960s, Filipino workers 

and unions supported César Chávez, the celebrated labor organizer, 

and participated in the United Farm Workers of America 

demonstrations in Delano, California. 

A former colony of Spain and United States, the Philippines has a 

culture more hybridized than other Asian cultures. Although 

Philippine independence from United States control occurred on 

July 4, 1946, American cultural influence still exists. Because of their 

hybrid culture, Filipinos find themselves considered neither 

American nor Asian.27 Today, Filipinos are one of the fastest 

growing Asian groups in America.

Pacific Islanders are indigenous peoples from the island chains that 

spread from Australia to Hawaii. The Pacific Islands (as related to 

the United States) include the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, 

American Samoa, Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated 

States of Micronesia. Each group of islands existed as independent 

 Over 1 million people of 

Asian descent entered the United 

States through the Angel Island 

Immigration Center in San 

Francisco Bay. Asian Indians, 

such as these pictured ca. 1916, 

were among them. 

Courtesy of California State Department 

of Parks and Recreation
states or loose federations of culturally connected peoples prior to 

the arrival of Europeans, starting with Ferdinand Magellan in 

1521.28 These encounters, which eventually led Asians to the North 

American continent, spread multiple Asian peoples throughout the 

Pacific Islands. Hawaii, in particular, has been a site of diaspora for 

Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and other Pacific Islanders. 

While immigration to and among the Pacific Islands dates back 

millennia, emigration to the mainland is of a shorter duration.29

Three hundred Hawaiian contract workers were employed by the 

Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver in Washington State 

during the mid-19th century. A village of diverse peoples within the 

trading post walls became known as Kanaka Village, a Hawaiian 

term for “person”.30 Beyond this, however, there is little research 

on Pacific Islander migration, although American Samoan and 

Chamorro people have immigrated to the mainland in traceable 

numbers since the mid-20th century.31 Aspects of Hawaiian culture 

are recognizable within American cultural heritage, but it too, 

suffers from the distance between the islands and the mainland. 

How to define the place of Pacific Islanders within Asian American 

culture is a subject of ongoing discussion among scholars and 

preservation professionals.

 The Vedanta Society provided 

a place of worship for followers 

of Vedantism, a branch of 

Hinduism, in San Francisco, CA. 

It is a rare example of Hindu 

architectural style in the 

United States. 

[No photographer or date in file] Courtesy 

of the Historic American Buildings Survey

12 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 13

Asian Influence on the Cultural Landscape

Throughout the United States, Asian groups have made an impact 

on the cultural landscape. Many buildings, landscapes, archeological resources, and much material culture found in the United 

States today reflect cultural connections to Asia. The multiple Asian 

groups in the Hawaiian Islands developed agricultural practices 

that influenced the growth of sugar, pineapple, and rice. Ethnic 

enclaves in many areas bore marks of the groups through 

businesses and organizations, aesthetic choices, signage, and 

cultural arts. 

Houses of worship are prime examples of Asian-influenced 

buildings. The institutions associated with the faiths offer insights 

into cultural practices that connect back to the respective places of 

origin. Buddhism, for example, reportedly arrived with Japanese 

immigrants in the 1870s. Buddhist temples, such as the Kawailoa 

Temple in Hawaii, served not only their community’s spiritual 

needs, but they functioned equally well as schools and places of 

social gathering. Shinto shrines, with their unique building 

techniques, and Hindu gudwaras served as boarding houses as well 

as houses of worship for Asian Indian travelers. Christian churches 

offered spiritual support for Asian communities. The Chinese 

Community Church in Washington, DC, served as a spiritual guide 

 The Friendship Archway is a 

gift to the Chinese American 

community in Washington, DC, 

from the People’s Republic of 

China. The archway, shown in 

2003, was assembled using an 

architectural technique called 

dou gong, which uses carved 

wood fitting together like a 

jigsaw puzzle without nails 

or screws.

Courtesy of Marcia Axtmann Smith
for nearly 40 years, and still serves the Chinatown community as a 

place of gathering. Other churches and places of worship around 

the country may possess cultural heritage associations. For 

example, Korean community churches, particularly in places 

such as Hawaii, serve a spiritual and secular role in Korean 

communities, providing a social framework as well as being a 

receptacle for cultural traditions.32

For much of the 20th century, ethnic enclaves offered tangible 

evidence of the legal and economic impediments to broader 

housing choices for Asians. Brightly colored buildings, adorned 

with Chinese calligraphic signage, animalized columns, and statues 

are immediately recognizable as features of a Chinatown. The spirit 

of Chinese heritage is evident, whether the buildings are Queen 

Anne row houses or warehouses. Little Tokyos, Koreatowns, 

Chinatowns, and Little Manilas represent a visual affirmation of 

place for the Asian immigrant communities. Within many of the 

enclaves are language schools and community centers. 

 The Southeast Asian Water 

Festival draws thousands of 

spectators each year to the 

Merrimack River. The flyer from 

the 2002 festival is an example of 

how Cambodian community has 

interwoven itself into the fabric 

of the city of Lowell, MA.

Courtesy of Lowell National Historic Park

14 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 15

Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts is known for its 

connection to the rise of the industrial age in the United States. 

However, an emerging Cambodian community has become one of 

the park’s primary users. The park management has encouraged a 

partnership between the community and the park, giving the park 

signifi cance beyond its original association with the 19th-century 

Industrial Revolution. Lowell provides an example of a new 

community attaching its own cultural and historic signifi cance to 

an established historic site.

The Presidio of San Francisco has a diff erent and more diffi cult 

historic attachment for Japanese Americans. When the United 

States entered World War II, its government ordered the removal 

of people of Japanese ancestry from western coastal regions. At 

the same time, the Army recruited second-generation Japanese 

Americans, or nisei, to teach Japanese to military personnel and 

provide support in deciphering documents and interrogating 

captives. The resulting Military Intelligence Service Language 

School was housed at the Presidio in Building 640. Through its 

association with the Presidio’s military history, this bittersweet 

chapter of America’s recent past is highlighted and examined. 

 The map shows the various 

internment camps and assembly 

centers throughout the country 

associated with the internment 

of people of Japanese descent 

during World War II. These camps 

housed Japanese Americans who 

were forcibly removed from the 

West Coast of the United States. 

Courtesy of the National Park Service
The “Invisibility” of Asian Cultural Heritage in America

The remarkable length of duration of Asian ethnicities in the 

United States has not translated into visibility in American culture 

comparable to European groups. Members of the community 

and publications have underscored this lack of presence.33 This 

“invisibility” is not limited to Asian ethnicities, but is particularly 

relevant to any discussion of the impact of Asian cultural heritage 

on the built environment.

While Asian influences permeate American culture, they have often 

been overlooked by the nation at large. The nation’s historically 

acknowledged practices of exclusion, segregation, and 

discrimination kept the population small and segregated relative 

to the rest of the population. Immigration quotas and legal 

impediments to citizenship prevented a critical mass of Asian 

people from gaining a greater foothold. Successive Asian groups 

were prevented from owning property due to local and state 

legislation. Law against intermarriage and the prohibition of most 

Asian female immigration during the early part of the 20th century 

ensured bachelor communities with a low rate of population 

increase.34 These barriers curtailed the intercultural melding of 

heritage that occurred with European communities.

The experiences of people within an environment are what define 

space for individuals or groups. Ethnic enclaves, while obscuring 

the groups from the larger public sphere, reinforce an intracultural 

experience distinct to those locations and individuals.35 Locations 

of former ethnic enclaves are equally important for the residents. 

Looking at places of cultural memory among Asian Americans 

requires a careful interpretation of space, defined as much by what 

is gone as by what exists, and by who claims it rather than by who 

controls it. Asian American sites of cultural memory frequently bear 

no markers or may represent contested space within rural and 

urban landscapes.36 As more of these places disappear and their 

residents pass away, those memories fade from the public 

consciousness and this part of American culture remains invisible. 

Other factors, such as cultural differences, contribute to the lack 

of a physical presence of Asian heritage in the American built 

environment. For example, some Asian cultures do not place the 

same importance on older structures as Western preservationists. 

In Japan, Shinto shrines are ritualistically and periodically rebuilt 

to receive blessings from the gods. No one would question the 

significance of the religious site in Japan, but it is difficult to make 

Looking at places of 

cultural memory among 

Asian Americans requires 

a careful interpretation 

of space, defined as much 

by what is gone as by what 

exists, and by who claims 

it rather than by who 

controls it.

16 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 17

a case for integrity in considering their eligibility for local, state, 

or federal historic registers in the United States. These cultural 

differences have created difficulties in documenting and preserving 

some places of Asian heritage because they do not meet official 

designation criteria.37 National Register-eligible archeological sites 

related to Asian heritage do exist such as the Chinese sites in the 

Warren Mining District near McCall, Idaho, or the Takahashi Farm 

outside of Sacramento, California. These sites contain material and 

structural remnants of Asian heritage on the built environment of 

the nation.38 

Recent studies of ethnic minorities in the United States suggest that 

Asian groups possess a strong sense of place.39 Diverse people such 

as Asian Americans are often deemed to be “foreign” no matter 

how many generations lived in America.40 This belief affects how 

preservation professionals view and interpret historic places that 

may have multiple histories to present. An examination of the 

historic record, notably South Asians in port cities throughout the 

East Coast during the 18th century, the roles of Chinese and 

Japanese settlers in the development of the American West, and the 

presence of Filipinos in Louisiana challenges these notions.41

Scholarship on Asians in America

Much of the scholarly writing on Asian Americans addresses the 

individual groups. Early studies included detailed histories on the 

Chinese and Japanese in chronicling the development of their 

communities. Immigration and assimilation studies dominated the 

early discussions, frequently led by scholars outside of the Asian 

American community. Moreover, there were few, if any, specialists 

in the field of Asian American cultural studies. The first publication 

on an Asian American ethnic group written by a native-born 

member of the community was The Chinese in the United States of 

America, by sociologist Rose Hum Lee in 1960.42 She was 

concerned with the loss of Chinese culture among Americanborn Chinese.

Examinations of the significance of place focus on enclaves: 

Chinatowns, Little Saigons, and Japantowns or nihonmachi. 

Architect and historian Christopher Yip examined Chinatowns 

in his studies of the town of Locke, a farming community in the 

Sacramento Valley,43 and viewed the enclaves as expressions of 

traditional culture on the landscape. Gail Dubrow documented 

Japanese immigrants throughout Washington State. Her most 

recent work, Sento at Sixth and Main (with Donna Graves), 
highlights important sites of West Coast Japanese American 

heritage.44

Another important thread in contemporary scholarship on Asian 

Americans is the role that legal and de facto discrimination played. 

Laws dating from 1790 served to legislate Asian minorities out of 

the mainstream by limiting their access to American institutions 

and excluding them from citizenship. Asian communities opposed 

these laws, leaving a written record of their struggle for equality. 

Documentary evidence that includes court records, newspapers, 

and local, state, and federal legislation, provides rich resources for 

scholars. Franklin Odo’s The Columbia Documentary History of the 

Asian American Experience contains transcripts of discriminatory 

legislation and the judicial battles waged against it.45

Viewing Asian American culture through the lens of social justice 

and systematic disenfranchisement became a focus of academic 

study starting in the early 20th century. Mary Roberts Coolidge’s 

Chinese Immigration, published in 1909, addressed the issues 

underlying labor and discrimination against Chinese, culminating 

with her “California thesis,” which points to volatile contentions 

over wealth and power in California as the root of the government’s 

discriminatory legislation.46 Hers is one of the earliest examinations 

of the matter and is considered to be a seminal text on labor and 

immigration history. 

Historian Sucheng Chan wrote about Chinese communities in 

California as well as the larger Asian American population. Her 

Asian Americans: An Interpretative History is a cornerstone in Asian 

American scholarship, and This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in 

California Agriculture, 1860-1910, published in 1991, looks at the 

impact of Chinese immigrants on California’s rapidly developing 

agribusiness sector at the turn of the 20th century.47 Public 

historian Him Mark Lai extensively researched the history of the 

Chinese in America. Based on his research of Chinese language 

newspapers and communities around the country, A History 

Reclaimed: An Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Language 

Materials on the Chinese of America was published in 1986.48

Historian Gary Okihiro looked at various Asian American histories, 

most recently in The Columbia Guide to Asian American History

published in 2001.49 The text summarizes the range of historical 

topics and areas of scholarship affecting the on-going interpretation 

of the history Asians in America. A professor of Asian American 

18 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 19

studies, Hyung-Chan Kim compiled the Dictionary of Asian 

American History in 1986 as a research resource on Asians in 

America.50 An anthropologist, Priscilla Wegars, studied and 

collected early Asian immigrant material culture throughout the 

western United States in publications such as the 1993 Hidden 

Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese.

51 All of 

these underscore the body of scholarship on Asian American culture. 

Is There a Pan-Asian Culture?

The presence of a pan-Asian culture in the United States is a topic 

of debate. According to some scholars, Asian American panethnicity began with the administrative lumping of Asian ethnicities 

into one category. The rationale was based on an administrative 

convenience rather than a cultural or linguistic connection. 

However, the groups saw the political benefit of working together, 

culminating in the coining of the term “Asian American” in the 1960s.

Organizations and institutions have used the rubric of panAsianism as a political and economic rallying point in America, but 

Asian ethnic groups outside of the United States may not view 

themselves as a single bloc. The continued influx of new Asian 

groups tests the ability of the category to contain all those it claims 

to represent. 

The distinction of “Asian” has been defined by the Federal 

Government for administrative purposes, such as census and other 

governmental records, and follows no particular pattern or known 

socio-political grouping.52 The presumed commonalities among the 

various groups lie in physical characteristics and a rough geographic 

relation, not cultural bonds. There is no consistency even in this 

methodology. For example, although part of Asia, someone from 

Iran would have been considered white, rather than Asian, 

according to older census data. Now, the Middle East has its own 

category. Unlike Hispanic/Latino/Chicano Americans, who share 

many common cultural antecedents and may share a language or 

African Americans, many of whom share a common experience 

influenced by slavery and Jim Crow, the diversity of the Asian 

cultural experience in the United States creates difficulties in 

addressing these multiple ethnicities as a single entity. 

The similarities within groups lie in the systematic estrangement of 

Asian ethnicities within American society. For decades, the battles 

for social justice in the United States have formed a common 

experience. Efforts to embrace the promise of America met with 

The distinction of “Asian” 

has been defined by the 

Federal Government for 

administrative purposes, 

such as census and other 

governmental records, 

and follows no particular 

pattern or known sociopolitical grouping.
the reality of exclusionary governmental policies. Asian Americans 

found themselves striving for rights and equality under the law, as 

individuals and as a group. 

Continued and increased immigration of Asian ethnicities further 

alters the picture of pan-Asianism in America. The older native 

Asian communities have become more static, and more westernized. 

Fifth-generation Pinoy may not have the same concerns as the 

recent immigrant from the Philippines, for example.53 The inherent 

differences between the various cultures become more pronounced, 

creating hybrid cultures that are constantly in flux. New Asian 

groups are incorporated into the greater Asian American 

population. Different Asian groups must develop relationships 

with one another and all of them must find a place of intersection 

with the greater American culture. The addition of each generation 

causes a redefining of Asian American culture.

An Asian American syncretism may be occurring. The latest census 

data indicate a large proportion of people of multiple Asian 

descents. Families blend heritages within the context of the everchanging American culture. The global economy will only serve to 

encourage such melding. Hawaii, with its long-inclusive and 

blended society, represents the best example of pan-Asianism. 

However, its physical and cultural isolation from the contiguous 

United States marks it as an exception.

Conclusion

Asian groups have made and continue to make an impact on the 

landscape of America. The impact of Asian contributions to the 

built environment in America has yet to be appreciated in its fullness, 

for much has been lost and even more has yet to be studied in depth. 

The surface of the topic has only been scratched and more research 

into the resources needs to take place. Documentation of enclaves 

and a greater sensitivity to ephemeral culture is needed, not just for 

Asian ethnicities, but also for all of the nation’s diverse communities. 

The role of early immigrant groups cannot be overstated, but the 

rising demographic figures indicate that Asian American culture is 

on the verge of changing dramatically. This issue of continuous 

enrichment of cultures is being raised as communities continue 

the process of commemorating their histories. New research is 

available, but more attention should be paid to the varieties of Asian 

American cultures, how they can be represented in historic places, 

and how these places can benefit national preservation efforts overall.

20 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
1. There is a wealth of scholarship suggesting that 

people of Asian descent were the earliest 

arrivals in North America. These peoples 

migrated from Asia to North America over a 

prehistoric land bridge across the Bering Strait. 

Anthropological and genetic research indicates 

that three separate migrations from Asia may 

have taken place—the Amerind migration 

(before 10,000 B.C.), the Na-Dene migration 

(ca. 8,000 B.C.), and the Eskimo-Aleut 

migration (ca. 4,000 B.C.). Research also 

suggests that most North American Indians and 

all Indians of Central and South America are 

descendants from the first wave of migrants 

leaving Alaska after the Ice Age. Na-Dene 

migrants make up the coastal tribes of 

northwestern North America, such as the Tlingit 

and Haida. Apache and Navajo also descend 

from this migration. The Eskimo-Aleut 

migration settled the Arctic coastal regions with 

the ancestors of the modern Eskimo and 

Aleutian populations.

 This theory sits in contrast to several Indian 

traditions of a history on the North American 

continent dating back to time immemorial. For 

a sample of the information on the land bridge 

theory and alternate interpretations, see Ronald 

Carlisle, “Americans Before Columbus: Ice Age 

Origins”, Ethnology Monographs 12, 

Department of Anthropology, University of 

Pittsburgh, 1988; A. L. Bryan, “New Evidence 

for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas,” 

Center for the Study of Early Man, University of 

Maine, 1986; M. H. Crawford, The Origins of 

Native Americans: Evidence from 

Anthropological Genetics (Cambridge, UK and 

New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

2. Gavin Menzies postulates that ships of the 

Emperor Zhu Di circumnavigated the world 

from 1421-1423, arriving in the Americas 70 

years before Columbus. During the 15th 

century, Chinese ships were sighted in ports of 

Eastern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, which 

he cites as proof of the Chinese’s technological 

ability. While evidence of this pre-Columbian 

contact needs further study, some scholars 

accept that the possibility exists, due to the 

nautical technology and knowledge of Chinese 

sailors of the era. Gavin Menzies, 1421: The Year 

China Discovered the World (New York: William 

Morrow/HarperCollins, 2003); “The Year 

China Discovered America: A Roundtable 

Discussion,” at the American Historical 

Association 118th Annual Meeting, Washington, 

DC, January 10, 2004; Louise Levathes, When 

China Ruled the Seas (Oxford, UK: Oxford 

University Press, 1996); and Michael L. 

Bosworth, “The Rise and Fall of 15th Century 

Chinese Seapower”, from the Maritime History 

and Navigation Homepage, at http://www.

cronab.demon.co.uk/marit.htm; accessed 

October 14, 2004.

3. Earlier dates can be attributed for Spanish 

contact with the Philippines. Ferdinand 

Magellan made landfall on Cebu island in 1521. 

Lopéz de Villalobos, traveling from New Spain 

(Mexico) named the islands for the infant king, 

Philip, in 1542. See “Philippines” at the 

Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service at 

http://www.britannica.com/eb/

article?tocId=23714; accessed October 11, 2004.

4. Eloisa Gomez Borah, “Filipinos in Unamuno’s 

California Expedition” in AMERASIA Journal 21 

no. 3(Winter 1996): 175-183.

5. See Jessica S. Barnes and Claudette E. Bennett, 

eds., The Asian Population: US Census 2000 

Brief (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of 

Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, 2002), 9, for a 

detailed listing of Asian groups enumerated in 

the United States.

6. See Barnes and Bennett, eds., The Asian 

Population, 8.

7. According to detailed census data found at the 

“Vietnamese Studies Internet Resource Center,” 

at http://site.yahoo.com/vstudies/index.html; 

accessed September 25, 2003.

8. This increase is partially due to the revised 

methodology used by the Census Bureau, 

which allows for more flexible definitions of 

ethnicity. Barnes and Bennett, eds., The Asian 

Population, 3.

9. Barnes and Bennett, The Asian Population, 9.

10. Elizabeth M. Grieco, Native Hawaiian and other 

Pacific Islander Population: US Census 2000 Brief 

(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of 

Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, 2003), 1.

11. The founding of the Manila Colony in St. Malo 

Bayou near New Orleans by Filipino sailors 

(a.k.a. Manila Men) has been a matter of 

academic discussion for some time, but most 

scholars put the date in the 1760s. This would 

make it the first Asian settlement in U.S. See 

ENDNOTES

Asia in America: An Introduction | Endnotes 21
Fred Cordova’s discussion with Marina Espina 

in Filipinos: The Forgotten Asian Americans 

(Seattle: Demonstration Project for Asian 

Americans, 1983), 1-7. Eloisa Gomez Borah 

has developed a website dedicated to Filipino 

history which refers to Espina and her 

discussions on the Manila Men and the colony. 

See further, “Americans of Filipino Descent 

FAQ” at http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/

eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#history, accessed 

November 20, 2003.

12. See William S. Bernard, “Immigration: the 

History of U.S. Policy,” in Harvard Encyclopedia 

of American Ethnic Groups, ed. Stephen 

Thernstrom (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 

1980), 486-495, referenced in Luciano 

Mangiafico, Contemporary American 

Immigrants: Patterns of Filipino, Korean, and 

Chinese Settlement in the United States (New 

York: Praeger, 1988), 4, note 2.

13. Tabarah gives 1798 as the date of the first 

Chinese resident in Hawaii. See Ruth Tabrah, 

Hawaii, A Bicentennial History (New York 

[Nashville, TN]: W.W. Norton and Co. 

[American Association for State and Local 

History], 1980), 26. For the chronology of Asian 

history in Sucheng Chan, Asian Americans: 

An Interpretative History. Twayne’s Immigrant 

History of America Series (New York: Twayne 

Publishers, 1991), 192-199.

14. 50,000 Chinese immigrants arrived in California 

in 1852 compared with 200 in Hawaii. See Chan, 

Asian Americans, 28.

15. The 1850 California Foreign Miners’ Tax and 

other ordinances sought to eliminate the 

economic competition of Chinese miners. It 

also brought in a great deal of revenue to the 

state treasury. See Franklin Odo, ed., The 

Columbia Documentary History of the Asian 

American Experience (New York: Columbia 

University Press, 2002), 15.

16. For this and all other federal legislation 

referenced, see the “List of Federal Legislation 

Related to Asian Groups in the United States” in 

the appendix of the publication.

17. See Hilary F. Conroy, The Japanese Frontier in 

Hawaii, 1868-1898 (Los Angeles and Berkeley: 

University Press of California, 1953), 15-43. 

18. Japanese from certain prefectures were selected 

for their supposed agricultural acumen. See 

Isami Arifuku Waugh, Alex Yamato, and 

Raymond Y. Okamura, “The Japanese in 

California,” in Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site 

Survey of California, California Department 

of Parks and Recreation, Office of Historic 

Preservation, at http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/

online_books/5views/5views.htm, accessed 

January 14, 2004.

19. Areas where the pre-World War II Japanese 

American population lived in San Francisco’s 

Western Addition were destroyed to make way 

for the Geary Street Expressway. By 1960, 50 

percent of the core of Japantown had been 

demolished. See Nikkei Heritage “San Francisco 

Japantown: the Prewar Era” 12, no. 3(Summer 

2000); Nikkei Heritage “Redevelopment and 

Urban Japantowns” 13, no. 1(Fall/Winter 2000); 

and “Japantown Historic Context Statement, 

Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board, 

October 2003,” 8. 

20. Several sources for this date. See In-Jin Yoon, 

“Koreans” in Asian American Encyclopedia, 

Volume 3, ed. Franklin Ng (New York: Marshall 

Cavendish, 1995); Hyung-chan Kim, “Koreans” 

in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic 

Groups, ed. Stephen Thernstrom (Cambridge, 

MA: Belknap Press, 1980), 601; Yo-Jun Yun, 

“Early History of Korean Immigration to 

America” in The Korean Diaspora, ed. Hyungchan Kim (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, Inc., 

1977), 33-45.

21. See Kim, “Koreans” in Harvard Encyclopedia, 

604; Chan, Asian Americans, 15.

22. Several nations had imperial designs on Korea 

during the latter part of the 19th century. Japan 

began pressing Korea, which followed an 

isolationist policy similar to that of China, to 

develop a more advantageous political and 

economic relationship around 1868, as a part of 

Japan’s more aggressive policy in the region. 

Japan’s formal hegemony over Korea did not 

come to fruition until 1906, however by the 

early part of the 1900s, Japanese control was 

evident. Negotiations with the United States 

that led to the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, 

which prevented Japanese laborers from 

immigrating to the U.S., consequently applied to 

Korea. See Yun, “Early History,” in Korean 

Diaspora, 37-38.

23. The War Brides Act of 1945 allowed Korean 

women to join their American military 

husbands in the United States. This began a 

trend of female-dominated Korean immigration 

to America. Between 1959 and 1971, 70 percent 

of Korean immigrants were female. See Odo, 

Columbia Documentary, 312-313; Kim, 

“Koreans,” 606.

22 National Park Service | Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape
Asia in America: An Introduction 23

24. Reports dating to 1790 of a “Man from Madras” 

who stayed in Salem, Massachusetts, for roughly 

one year set the timeframe for an Asian Indian 

presence. The first Asian Indians were likely 

indentured servants of the British ship captains 

and traders prior to the 1790s. See Sucheta 

Mazumdar, “Asian Indians” in Asian American 

Encyclopedia, Volume 1, ed. Franklin Ng (New 

York: Marshall Cavendish, 1995), 93-94; and 

Vishnu Sharma, “A History of Indian 

Americans” at the Indian Community Center 

website, http://www.indiacc.org/site/Resources/

Documents/article_ihd2004_sharma.pdf; 

accessed July 27, 2004.

25. The Asian Indian population grew from 491 in 

1899 to 1.9 million as of the 2000 census. The 

highly skilled nature of much of the Asian 

Indian group in the U.S. is partially attributed 

to the “brain drain” phenomenon—the 

exportation of intellectual manpower from 

developing nations to the United States that 

coincided with 1965 amendment to the 

Immigration and Nationality Act. See Barnes 

and Bennett, The Asian Population, p. 9; Sharma, 

“A History of Indian Americans”; Parmatma 

Saran, The Asian Indian Experience in the United 

States (New Dehli, India: Vikas Press, 1985), 23.

26. Larry Salomon, “Movement History: Filipinos 

Build a Movement for Justice in the Asparagus 

Fields,” in Third Force 2, no. 4(Oct. 31, 1994): 30. 

For more detailed discussion on Filipino labor 

unions, see Craig Scharlin and Linia V. 

Villanueva, Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History 

of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers 

Movement (Los Angeles: UCLA Labor Center 

and the UCLA Asian American Studies 

Center, 1992).

27. “Often, other Asians don’t even consider 

Filipinos to be Asian,” noted journalist Victor 

Merina. See “Aspects of Americanization: Victor 

Merina” in Joann Faung Jean Lee, Asian 

American Experiences in the United States: Oral 

Histories of First to Fourth Generation Americans 

from China, the Philippines, Japan, India, the 

Pacific Islands, Viet Nam, and Cambodia

(Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 1991), 131.

28. The maritime trade related to Chinese 

hegemony, to include Japan, Korea and 

Malaysia, in the region predated European 

contact by hundreds of years. Yet, the story of 

the “discovery” of Pacific Islands begins with 

Magellan and ends with James Cook’s arrival in 

Hawaii between 1772 and 1775. See Ron Adams, 

“European Discovery or Multiple Discoveries” 

in Max Quanchi and Ron Adams, eds. Culture 

Contact in the Pacific: Essays on Contact, 

Encounter, and Response (Cambridge, UK, and 

New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 

31-37; Malama Meleisea and Penelope Schoffel, 

“Discovering Outsiders” in Donald Denoon, 

with Stewart Firth, Jocelyn Linnekin, Malama 

Meleisea, and Karen Nero, ed. The Cambridge 

History of the Pacific Islands (Cambridge, UK 

and New York: Cambridge University Press, 

1997), 148-150.

29. Archeologically speaking, contact with the 

larger Pacific Islands began some 3,500 years 

ago, with travelers from Southeast Asia, more 

than likely from modern Taiwan, Malaysia, and 

Indonesia, to the Solomon Islands. Micronesia 

was settled between 2,000 and 2,500 years 

ago, and Hawaii, over 1,600 years ago. The 

Hawaiian and Samoan people are ancestors of 

Polynesian migrants to the islands. The Mariana 

Islands, which includes Guam and Saipan, is 

home to Chamorro culture, ancestors of those 

immigrants that settled the Solomon Islands. 

See Max Quanchi and Ron Adams, 

“Introduction” in Culture Contact in the 

Pacific, 8-10.

30. See “The Company Village,” pamphlet 

(Vancouver, WA: Fort Vancouver National 

Historic Site, National Park Service, 2002); 

“The Village,” brochure (Vancouver, WA: Fort 

Vancouver National Historic Site, National Park 

Service, 2002).

31. Statistics on Pacific Islander migration have only 

been kept since the 1980 census. See Bradd 

Shore, “Pacific Islanders” in Harvard 

Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups, ed. Stephen 

Therstrom (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 

1980), 763-765.

32. See the discussion on the role of Christianity 

and Korean immigrants in Yun, “Early History”; 

Steven L. Austin, “The Role of Christianity in 

the Korean Migration to Hawaii, 1901-1913” 

(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii, 

2000), 13-23.

33. The lack of documented presence of Asians in 

American culture reflects the “racialization” of 

Asian ethnicities within a binary racial system of 

white and black. In the racialization model, this 

binary opposition served to define who was 

“white” as much as who was not. Scholarship 

suggests that the existing paradigm did not deal 

as well with other people of color. Just as laws 
were being amended to allow for the legal 

inclusion of African Americans, whose cultural 

impact by 1870 in the United States has been 

documented, if not agreed upon, Asian 

ethnicities found themselves further excluded 

from American culture. Asians were defined as 

“inassimilable,” in addition to not being white or 

free, and could not become citizens. This idea 

and the subsequent actions taken against Asians 

and Asian Americans persisted until the middle 

of the 20th century, marginalizing Asian 

Americans and their culture, pushing them 

“out of sight” of the general public. 

 For discussions on racialization, see Michael 

Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in 

the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s

(New York: Routledge Press, 1986). For more 

discussions on Asian Americans, race, and 

culture see Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American 

Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities

(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), 

especially 172-173; Lisa Lowe, Immigrant Acts: 

On Asian American Cultural Politics (Durham, 

NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 1-59; Frank 

Wu, Yellow: Race Beyond Black and White (New 

York: Basic Books, 2001).

34. The various legislative actions against Asian 

groups are well documented. Asian immigrants 

were not allowed to become naturalized citizens 

of the United States. Since 1790, the criteria for 

admittance of Asian natives to the United States 

were much more restrictive than that for AngloEuropean immigrants. Laws such as the 1924 

National Origins Act, “set the parameters for 

desirable, less desirable, and undesirable ethnic 

and nationality groups,” according to Franklin 

Odo in Columbia Documentary History. Asian 

nationalities fell into the undesirable category, as 

evinced by the 100 Asians per year allowed to 

immigrate into the United States. These quotas 

persisted until 1965. Only a small percentage of 

those persons allowed to immigrate were 

women, due to the 1875 Page Law, reportedly 

intended to curtail prostitution. Some states had 

laws against the ownership of property by 

Asians, prohibiting marriage with European 

Americans, and limiting where they could live.

 Elaborate means, such as the creation of 

fictitious relatives or “paper families” were 

necessary to gain entrance. Prohibitions on 

owning property were circumvented by placing 

property in the names of American-born 

children when possible, or by secret 

arrangements with European Americans or 

other individuals. Odo, Columbia Documentary 

History, 128; see 12, 38 for reference to the Page 

Law; Chan, Asian Americans, 192-199.

35. See Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective 

of Experience (Minneapolis and London: 

University of Minnesota Press, 2001), 8-18; and 

Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban 

Landscapes in Public History (Cambridge, MA 

and London: MIT Press, 1995).

36. In examining place in Los Angeles, Dolores 

Hayden addresses the Japantown on First 

Street, noting the attachment of the greater 

Japanese community to the area despite 

demographic changes. It was transformed 

from Japanese American to African American 

(Bronzeville) back to Japanese American due 

to relocation to internment camps. See Hayden, 

The Power of Place, 210-225, 240-247.

37. The National Register criteria for listing are 

intended to be broad and inclusive, but as the 

types of properties and cultural attributes 

expand, the flexibility is being tested. See 

National Register Bulletin, “Guidelines for 

Evaluating and Documenting Traditional 

Cultural Properties” and “How to Apply the 

National Register Criteria for Evaluation;” 

see also Antoinette J. Lee, “Discovering Old 

Cultures in the New World: The Role of 

Ethnicity,” in The American Mosaic: Preserving 

A Nation’s Heritage, eds. Robert E. Stipe and 

Antoinette J. Lee (Washington, DC: 

Preservation Press, 1987), 180-205.

38. The Chinese sites at the Warren Historic Mining 

District in Idaho provide a physical record of 

Chinese immigrants and cultural practices in 

the American West. See National Register of 

Historic Places, Chinese Sites in the Warren 

Mining District Multiple Property Survey, Idaho 

County, Idaho, National Register #1696100. The 

Takahasi Farm represents the only archeological 

site associated with Japanese family farms 

studied in the state of California. See John 

Kelley, Judith Marvin, Christian Gerike, and 

Neal Kaptain, “Historic Property Survey Report 

(Positive) for the Sierra College Boulevard/

Interstate 80 Interchange Improvements, City 

of Rocklin Placer County, California,” LSA 

Associates, Inc., Point Richmond, California, 

October 2002.

24 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Asia in America: An Introduction 25

39. See Ned Kaufman, “Cultural Heritage Needs 

Assessment: Phase 1,” draft, April 8, 2004, U.S. 

Department of the Interior, National Park 

Service; Hayden, Power of Place, 82-96.

40. Lisa Lowe argues that European Americans 

make a self-evident claim of citizenship, which 

had to be legally bestowed on the diverse 

peoples in the country. Prior to the 

Naturalization Act of 1790, citizenship was 

determined by the states. These laws evolved 

from British Colonial codes, specifically those of 

1740 and 1761. See Lowe, Immigrant Acts, 11-14; 

Reed Ueda, “ Naturalization and Citizenship,” 

in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic 

Groups, ed. Stephen Thernstrom (Cambridge, 

MA: Belknap Press, 1980), 734-748.

41. See Sharma, “A History of Indian Americans”; 

Espina’s study of Filipinos in the U.S., Filipinos.

42. Rose Hum Lee, The Chinese in the United States 

of America (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University 

Press, 1960).

43. Christopher Yip, “A Chinatown of Gold 

Mountain,” in Images of an American Land: 

Vernacular Architecture in the Western United 

States, ed. Thomas Carter (Albuquerque: 

University of New Mexico Press, 1997), 153-172; 

“Chinese,” in America’s Architectural Roots: 

Ethnic Groups that Built America, ed. Dell Upton 

(Washington, DC: Preservation Press, 1986), 

106-112.

44. Gail Dubrow with Donna Graves, Sento at Sixth 

and Main: Preserving Landmarks of Japanese 

American Heritage (Seattle: University of 

Washington Press, 2002).

45. Odo, Columbia Documentary History.

46. Mary Roberts Coolidge, Chinese Immigration

(New York: Holt and Company, 1909).

47. Chan, Asian Americans; Sucheng Chan, This 

Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in California 

Agriculture, 1860-1910 (Los Angeles and 

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).

48. Him Mark Lai, A History Reclaimed: An 

Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Language 

Materials on the Chinese of America (Los Angeles: 

UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1986).

49. Gary Okihiro, The Columbia Guide to Asian 

American History (New York: Columbia 

University Press, 2001).

50. Hyung-chan Kim, Dictionary of Asian American 

History (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 

1986). See also his Asian American Studies: An 

Annotated Bibliography and Research Guide 

(Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1989).

51. Priscilla Wegars, ed., Hidden Heritage: Historical 

Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese (Amityville, 

NY: Baywood Publishing Company, 1993). 

Wegars is curator of the Asian American 

Comparative Collection, housed in the 

Laboratory of Anthropology at University of 

Idaho, Moscow. See Priscilla Wegars, “Chinese 

Artifact Illustrations, Terminology, and Selected 

Bibliography,” prepared for the Chinese and 

Japanese Workshop, Society for Historical 

Archaeology, Salt Lake City, UT, January 1999; 

“Japanese Artifact Illustrations, Terminology, 

and Selected Bibliography,” prepared for the 

Chinese and Japanese Workshop, Society for 

Historical Archaeology, Salt Lake City, UT, 

January 1999.

52. This approach is consistent with similar 

attempts to homogenize other multiple 

ethnicities into large, single racial groups, such 

as sub-Saharan Africans and various Hispanics/

Latinos. The Office of Management and 

Budget’s Directive Number 15 on Race and 

Ethnic Standards spells out the federal process. 

A report on the usage of the directive has since 

been undertaken and the results led to the 

recent revamping of census data collection 

methods to allow for multiple listings under the 

“race” and “ethnicity” categories. See Espiritu, 

Asian American Panethnicity, 13; Office of 

Management and Budget “Race and Ethnic 

Standards for Federal Statistics and 

Administrative Reporting,”(May 12, 1977); and 

Interagency Committee for the Review of Racial 

and Ethnic Standards, “Report to the Office of 

Management and Budget on Statistical Policy 

Directive Number 15,” memorandum (May 28, 

1997). 

53. See discussion of heterogeneity of Asian 

American culture and the need to recognize it 

in “Heterogeneity, Hybridity and Multiplicity: 

Asian American Differences,” in Lowe, 

Immigrant Acts, 60-83. Yen Le Espiritu discusses 

the dominance of older communities in the 

formation of a pan-Asian identity; see Espiritu, 

Asian American Panethnicity, 50-52.
Identifying and Documenting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape 27

Identifying and 

Documenting Asian 

Heritage on the 

American Landscape

Through its cultural resources programs, the National 

Park Service has identified and formally recognized 

historic places associated with Asian cultural heritage. 

Historic places having a connection with Asian 

heritage have been listed in the National Register 

of Historic Places, designated as National Historic 

Landmarks, documented through the Historic 

American Buildings Survey/Historic American 

Engineering Record, and identified through theme 

studies, such as “Racial Desegregation in Public 

Education in the United States.” This chapter 

highlights several examples of such historic places 

and summarizes their connection to Asian cultures.

The properties that have been recognized by National Park Service 

cultural resources programs include:

 those that are representative of ethnic heritage, as in the case 

of the Stedman-Thomas Historic District in Ketchikan, Alaska

 embody distinctive physical characteristics, such as Wakamiya 

Inari Shrine in Honolulu, Hawaii

 those that are associated with events and persons that have made 

significant contributions to the broad patterns of our history, 

such as the Presidio of San Francisco, California

 those that may yield or are likely to yield information important 

in early history or history, such as Leluh Ruins in Kosrae, 

Micronesia.

The discussion suggests the types of historic places that 

communities might consider for formal documentation and 

recognition.
National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s inventory of 

historic districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant 

in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and 

culture at the national, state, and local levels. The National Register 

contains nearly 78,000 properties and with over 1 million historic 

resources within those properties.

Jun Fujita Cabin

International Falls, Minnesota

Located in Voyageurs National Park, on an island at Rainy Lake, the 

Jun Fujita Cabin illuminates several aspects of the Asian experience 

in America. Fujita was a photographer, artist, and poet, who 

immigrated from Japan to Canada during his late teens. The young 

Fujita found work as a photographer with the Chicago Evening Post 

(which later was absorbed into the Chicago Evening News in the 

1930s) in 1915. He photographed celebrated figures, such as 

presidents Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, and Theodore 

Roosevelt; Al Capone; and Clarence Darrow. He covered famous 

events such as the sinking of the USS Eastland in the Chicago River 

in 1915. Later, he devoted himself to artistic endeavors as a 

photographer and painter. Fujita gained fame in the 1920s as a 

poet, writing in haiku and tanka forms.1

During the late 1920s, he either commissioned or constructed the 

cabin in International Falls. From 1928 to 1941, Fujita used the cabin 

as a place of relaxation and reflection, which may have been an 

influence on his art. At the time, less than five percent of the 

Asian population in the country lived outside of Hawaii and the 

West Coast.

The National Register documentation describes the Fujita Cabin as 

a frame cabin of unfinished cedar, with two log additions—a log 

room with a hipped roof and a shed porch. While the construction 

of the original cabin in 1928 comports with typical recreational 

cabin design, the additions exhibit Japanese influences. The log 

room is narrow, and the floor is elevated.2

 The setting of the cabin, 

natural materials, simple lines, and light construction reflect 

Japanese country house design. This organic architectural form 

blends the cabin into the surrounding landscape. Descriptions of 

Japanese architecture contemporaneous with Fujita’s arrival in 

North America describe a similar aesthetic.3

 The Jun Fujita cabin combines 

the aesthetics of Japanese country 

house design with western log 

cabin construction to create a 

naturalistic structure with minimal 

impact on its environment.

Courtesy of John Hurley 

28 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Identifying and Documenting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape 29

Although Japanese immigration was restricted by 1908, working as 

a photographer allowed Fujita to enter the United States. Despite 

his success, the nation’s discriminatory laws and practices haunted 

Fujita. His wife, Florence Carr, bought the four-acre island in 

Minnesota in her name, it is believed, because of fears it might 

be confiscated due to laws restricting land ownership by aliens.4

Although he avoided internment because of his residence in 

Chicago, Fujita abandoned the property after the United States 

entered World War II in 1941 and anti-Japanese sentiments 

increased, preferring to use another vacation property in Indiana 

from 1941 onward.5

 By a special act of Congress in 1954, Fujita was 

granted United States citizenship. His cabin reflects Japanese 

influence on the built environment.

Wakamiya Inari Shrine

Honolulu, Hawaii

One of the few examples of authentic Shinto architecture on Oahu, 

the shrine represents Japanese cultural practices. Shinto is a native 

Japanese religion, which venerates natural objects and ancestors. 

Polytheistic in nature, the faith has a pantheon of figures, but four 

are predominant: Hachimangu, Tenjin, Jinju, and Inari. The 

Wakamiya Shrine is devoted to Inari, the god of the harvest, and 

is especially related to fields of production, such as agriculture. 

It is called the fox deity, because foxes are thought to be 

messengers for Inari.

 The Wakamiya Shrine is the 

only extant temple dedicated to 

Inari on the island of Oahu, HI. 

The shrine exhibits the major 

components of Inari temple 

design, including an archway to 

demarcate sacred space and 

protective animistic statuary. 

Courtesy of Nancy Bannick
According to the National Register documentation, the shrine is 

representative of Shinto architecture because it exhibits the 

traditional statuary (protective lions in the courtyard and foxes in 

front of the shrine) and the torii, an archway used to demarcate the 

sacred place being entered. Built in 1914 by Japanese architect 

Haschun, under the direction of Reverend Yoshio Akizaki, for the 

community of agricultural workers, it is the only example of an 

Inari shrine on the island. The shrine has been moved twice, most 

recently to Waipahu Cultural Garden in 1979-1980.6

 It was one of 

the last places of worship for members of the Inari sect in Oahu.

Stedman-Thomas Historic District 

Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska

Economically significant as a supplier and processor of salmon 

and halibut, the Stedman-Thomas Historic District was home to 

Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Filipino communities involved in 

the city’s fishing industry from the 1900s to the 1940s. Located in 

the southern section known as Indian Town, Stedman-Thomas 

represents a place of diaspora for Asian groups during the early 20th

century. The vast majority of Ketchikan’s diverse communities lived 

in the historic district. Asian and other minority laborers migrated 

north to Alaska to work in the canneries and fisheries. Many of the 

first businesses, including restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores, 

were owned and operated by Asian families, such as [George] 

Ohashi’s Grocery, the Japanese school, and Jimmy’s [Tanino] 

Noodles. Despite the segregated nature of the community, the 

Asian community of Stedman-Thomas found a degree of freedom 

in commercial and organizational endeavors.7

When Federal laws restricted the immigration of the Chinese and 

Japanese during the 1920s, Filipinos were recruited to work in 

Ketchikan canneries. As a result, Ketchikan had one of the earliest 

permanent Filipino communities in Alaska, as well as the state’s first 

Filipino social organization, the Filipino Social Club.8

 During the 

1940s, the ethnic composition of Stedman-Thomas changed and its 

business backbone was broken when 42 people of Japanese descent 

were forced into internment camps. Many of them did not return. 

The dissolution of the Japanese community coincided with the 

decline of the Alaskan fishing industry. Many of the businesses that 

depended on the patronage of fishermen fell upon hard times. 

Eventually, lumbering replaced fishing as the primary industry.

The district maintains a 

high degree of integrity 

and includes two-story, 

flat front buildings, with 

some false fronts, many 

of which date to the 

early 1900s.

30 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Identifying and Documenting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape 31

The district maintains a high degree of integrity and includes twostory, flat front buildings, with some false fronts, many of which 

date to the early 1900s. The neighborhood is still diverse and shared 

by Asian groups. Named for one of the Japanese families that 

owned a grocery, Tatsuda Way runs through the district. The 

Stedman-Thomas Historic District is a significant historic place 

that represents Asian ethnic heritage in North America during the 

early 20th century.

Leluh Ruins

Kosrae County, Federated States of Micronesia

The Leluh Ruins are significant as a site associated with the Kosraen 

society, an early society that developed into a “state” system around 

A.D. 1400. Made up of tall basalt and coral walls and several types 

of structures, the site represents the center of Kosrae power until 

European contact in 1824.

Leluh Ruins is identified as the capital of the prehistoric Kosrae 

society.9

 It was an independent nation of 42 square miles and 6,000 

people located on Korsae Island and the three nearby islets of Pisin, 

Yensar, and Yenyen. The site is noteworthy for the massive walls of 

basalt prisms and blocks that surround the compounds. At least 100 

structures of 3 different types—dwellings, royal mortuary, and 

sacred—are present. Because of the distinctive architecture and the 

canal system, the site is referred to as a “Wonder of the Pacific.” The 

Leluh Ruins may hold significant information about the religious 

practices and the social structure of the Kosrae population prior to 

European contact.

National Historic Landmarks

Designated by the Secretary of the Interior, National Historic 

Landmarks are nationally significant historic places because they 

possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting 

the heritage of the United States. Approximately 2,500 historic 

places bear this distinction.

Because of the distinctive 

architecture and the canal 

system, the site is referred 

to as a “Wonder of the 

Pacific.” The Leluh Ruins 

may hold significant 

information about the 

religious practices and the 

social structure of the 

Kosrae population prior 

to European contact.
Japanese American World War II Theme Study

In 1991, Congress authorized the National Park Service to prepare 

a National Historic Landmark Theme Study on 37 sites associated 

with the Japanese American experience during the period from 

1941 to 1946. In response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 

and the subsequent United States involvement in World War II, 

Japanese aliens and Japanese American citizens were ordered 

detained, relocated, or excluded. The purpose of the study is to 

identify historic places that exemplify and illustrate the period. The 

following discussion presents examples of properties associated 

with the theme study.

The Presidio of San Francisco, Buildings 35 and 640

San Francisco, California

Established in 1776 as a Spanish colonial military post, the Presidio 

of San Francisco is the oldest Army installation in the western 

United States and one of the longest-garrisoned posts in the 

country. Its development is tied to the Spanish colonial rule in 

northern Mexico (the present-day American Southwest and West 

Coast) and to every major conflict since the Mexican-American 

War. Two of the more than 660 contributing resources hold 

particular significance to Asian Americans, Buildings 35 and 640. 

Building 35 was the site where President Franklin D. Roosevelt 

issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which placed 

the West Coast under military authority. An enlisted men’s barracks 

and mess hall, the building also served as the headquarters for the 

Western Defense Command (WDC), the United States Fourth 

Army command responsible for the removal of over 100,000 

persons of Japanese descent from the restricted areas of the West 

Coast.10 From this location, General John L. DeWitt directed the 

evacuation of Japanese and Japanese Americans to relocation and 

detention centers far removed from the coast, in places ranging 

from Idaho to Arkansas.

The executive order and subsequent actions were a continuation of 

federal policy towards Asians in America and indicative of public 

sentiment, particularly in the West.11 The actions of the Federal 

Government caused irreparable damage to Japanese American 

culture. Gail Dubrow noted, “The closure of community 

institutions such as dojo, temples, and language schools, and the 

wholesale evacuation of Japanese American communities, 

disassembled Japanese American heritage and unjustly deprived 

innocent people of their freedom.”12

“The closure of 

community institutions 

such as dojo, temples, 

and language schools, 

and the wholesale 

evacuation of Japanese 

American communities, 

disassembled Japanese 

American heritage and 

unjustly deprived innocent 

people of their freedom.”

32 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Identifying and Documenting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape 33

A former airplane hangar at Crissy Field, Building 640 served as the 

classrooms for the Military Intelligence Service Language School 

(MISLS) or Fourth Army Intelligence School, where military 

intelligence service and civilian Japanese American personnel 

taught the Japanese language to selected soldiers, primarily those of 

Japanese descent born in America (also known as nisei). Prior to the 

outbreak of hostilities with Japan, the Army began secretly 

recruiting and assembling some 60 soldiers or linguists. By early 

1942, 35 MISLS graduates were trained and ready for deployment. 

Some 2,000 MISLS linguists served with distinction throughout the 

Pacific theater.13

According to the theme study, Building 640 housed classrooms and 

barracks for the initial MISLS participants. The program began in 

November 1941 at the Presidio, but was moved to Fort Savage and 

eventually to Fort Snelling in Minnesota. Ostensibly, the move was 

made to provide larger, better facilities. However, the anti-Japanese 

sentiment prevalent in California played a part. Eventually the 

program returned to California, to the Presidio of Monterey, and 

the program was renamed the Defense Language Institute.

Buildings 35 and 640 of the Presidio of San Francisco exemplify the 

duality of the Asian experience—the discriminatory treatment of an 

Asian ethnicity juxtaposed against the group’s service to the 

nation’s defense. 

 During World War II, a high 

premium was placed on the 

ability to read and speak 

Japanese. The Presidio Language 

School, or Building 640 as it was 

officially known, trained military 

intelligence officers in Japanese. 

Some of the instructors, shown 

in 1944, were second-generation 

Japanese Americans or nisei.

Courtesy of the Golden Gate National 

Recreation Area
Racial Desegregation in Public Education in the United States 

Theme Study

In 1998, Congress authorized the National Park Service to prepare a 

National Historic Landmark Theme Study on racial desegregation 

in public education. As defined by the legislation authorizing the 

theme, it addresses the events that surround public school 

segregation and the eventual desegregation. Properties identified in 

the theme study are associated with these events. The following is 

an example of a property associated with the theme study

Rosedale Consolidated High School

Rosedale, Mississippi

Gong Lum, a Chinese grocer in Bolivar County, Mississippi, 

enrolled his oldest daughter Martha, at the local white Rosedale 

Consolidated High School. In 1924, the superintendent informed 

Lum that his daughter could no longer attend the school because 

she was not white. The school system was segregated under the 

“separate but equal” ruling handed down in the 1896 landmark case 

Plessy v. Ferguson, which allowed for the constitutionality of state 

segregation laws during the Jim Crow era.14 The “colored” schools 

had inferior equipment, teachers, and dramatically shorter school 

years. Lum sued the school in the United States Circuit Court, First 

Judicial District, on behalf of his daughter and a school friend, 

Chew How. Lum’s lawyers argued successfully that his daughter 

was not a “member of the colored race” and since there were no 

schools for Chinese, she was being denied an equal education and 

therefore entitled to attend the Rosedale School. 

After being overturned by the Mississippi State Supreme Court, 

Gong Lum, et al v. Rice, et al eventually made it to the United States 

Supreme Court in 1927, where it was determined that the state 

intended to preserve white schools for white students alone, 

upholding the state’s high court verdict. However, recognizing that 

such a practice violated the Fourteenth Amendment, also ruled that 

Chinese who were domestically-born, and therefore citizens, were 

granted the same privileges as African American citizens, tying 

Chinese Americans to Jim Crow segregation in Mississippi.15 The 

Supreme Court directed Martha Lum to attend the colored school 

in the county or any private school of her choice. The first school 

for Chinese students in Rosedale was a Baptist Mission school that 

opened in 1934. White schools would not legally become available 

to Chinese students until 1950.16

The first school for 

Chinese students in 

Rosedale was a Baptist 

Mission school that 

opened in 1934. White 

schools would not legally 

become available to 

Chinese students 

until 1950.

34 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Identifying and Documenting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape 35

The issue of education was one of the obstacles Chinese 

immigrants encountered as a third element in a biracial world. 

Chinese immigrants arrived in Mississippi during Reconstruction 

(1865-1877), recruited to fill the role of cheap agricultural laborers 

left by the emancipation of African Americans. Like their fellow 

countrymen in California, many hoped to earn a fortune and return 

home. Some quickly recognized that the sharecropping system in 

the South, tied to racial inequality, would not produce the desired 

effect of their labors and began opening grocery stores throughout 

the state. The earliest stores may have appeared as early as the 

1870s, and Chinese are listed as landowners in Bolivar County in 

1880s tax records.17 Chinese merchants wanted the same 

opportunities as European Americans, while fiscally tied to the 

fortunes of the economically downtrodden, who where 

overwhelmingly black. By the time of the lawsuit, there were a few 

hundred Chinese students like Lum’s daughter in all of the state. 

Their position in the South left them on the edges of the segregated 

society, but Chinese Americans “carved out a distinctive spot as a 

third element in a predominantly biracial society.”18

Historic American Buildings Survey

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documents 

important architectural sites throughout the United States and its 

territories. The program is an integral component of the Federal 

Government’s commitment to historic preservation. HABS 

documentation, consisting of measured drawings, large-format 

photographs, and written history, plays a key role in accomplishing 

the mission of creating an archive of American architecture and 

engineering, and in better understanding what historic resources 

tell us about America’s diverse ethnic and cultural heritage.

Chinese Community Church

Washington, District of Columbia

The Chinese community in the District of Columbia dates back to 

the beginning of the 20th century. The Chinatown community was 

displaced from its original location on Pennsylvania Avenue near 

4th Street, NW, by the construction of what became known as 

Federal Triangle in the 1920s and 1930s. The community resettled 

north to H Street, NW, and established new organizations and 

institutions in extant commercial buildings and residential housing. 

By the 1930s, several churches had organized Chinese Sunday 

 The Chinese Community 

Church of Washington, DC, 

employed Chinese design motifs 

in its architecture to connect the 

building to the community’s 

cultural antecedents. This 1974 

photograph shows the building’s 

ornate parapet and entranceway. 

Photograph by Jack E. Boucher, courtesy 

of the Historic American Building Survey
School classes. Dr. Pak-Chue Chan, a medical director at George 

Washington University, envisioned a Chinese church in the 

District, and cooperated with the DC Federation of Churches 

and others to establish one. In 1935, the Chinese Community 

Church of Washington, DC, was incorporated and constructed on 

the lot at 1011 L Street, NW in 1939. In 1957, the first service was 

held at the church.19

A brick structure with a recessed entranceway and limestone trim, 

the building served as a church from 1957 until 1994. According to 

the Historic American Building Survey documentation, Chinese 

design motifs are incorporated into the ecclesiastical detailing, 

and the entranceway mullions are arranged in a Chinese 

openwork pattern.20

The Chinese Community Church has been a touchstone of the 

Chinatown community. The building housed the first all-Chinese 

Boy Scout troop and a Chinese language school, and was home to 

various clubs. Through the Chinatown Service Center, it provided a 

place for new immigrants to gain an introduction to the community 

and American culture. The church sponsored other outreach 

programs, helping hundreds of Asian immigrants each year.21

After 1994, the congregation outgrew the space, and currently 

shares a ministry with nearby Mount Vernon Episcopal. The church 

building serves as administrative offices for the congregation. The 

Chinese Community Church remains a place of cultural 

significance for Chinese Americans and the larger Asian American 

community in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

 The Chinese Community 

Church served many functions 

in Washington, DC’s Chinese 

community. Among them was 

as headquarters for the city’s 

all-Chinese American Boy Scout 

troop, pictured in 1942. 

Courtesy of the Chinese Community 

Church of Washington, DC

36 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Identifying and Documenting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape 37

Town of Locke 

Locke, California

The town of Locke is the largest and most complete example of a 

rural Chinese American community in the United States. In 1915, 

merchants and laborers from the Chungshan and Sze Yap districts 

in Guangdong province founded the small town of Locke after a 

fire destroyed their homes in nearby Walnut Grove. A committee 

of six men secured a verbal lease from the landowner, the George 

Locke family, because anti-Asian legislation prevented the 

community from buying land. Nine acres of peach orchard were 

cleared and within a year, Locke was built. 

Locke’s original population was made up of agricultural laborers 

working the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Valley delta. Chinese 

workers made up 90 percent of all agricultural labor in California at 

the beginning of the 20th century.22 Initially, Chinese laborers 

worked in the pear, apple, peach, and cherry orchards, in addition 

to potato and onion patches in the valley, until the asparagus boom 

around 1900. Afterwards, most of the land in the area was planted 

with asparagus. This boom, and the subsequent development of an 

asparagus canning industry, coincided with the rise of Locke.23

While most Chinese communities are urban enclaves, Locke is 

unique within the United States as the only surviving rural Chinese 

community still occupied by Chinese people. The town is made up 

of simple, wooden frame structures, built on concrete foundations 

and covered with clapboard or board-and-batten siding. The 

buildings are one- to two-stories high with gable roofs covered in 

corrugated metal or false fronts, housed stores, schools, and 

residences. Some of the facades bear Chinese motifs and signage 

with Chinese calligraphy. The Historic American Buildings Survey 

documented 191 structures in Locke.

 Locke still contains many of 

the original buildings from its 

founding in 1915. Some of the 

wood-frame structures bear 

Chinese calligraphic symbols and 

signage from the businesses that 

lined the streets. Other places 

such as the Joe Shoong Chinese 

School have been rehabilitated, 

while retaining their historic 

character.

Drawing by the Historic American Buildings 

Survey; photograph by Jet Lowe, courtesy 

of the Historic American Buildings Survey
Historic American Engineering Record

The Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documents 

important engineering and industrial sites throughout the United 

States and its territories. The program is an integral component of 

the Federal Government’s commitment to historic preservation. 

HAER documentation, consisting of measured drawings, largeformat photographs, and written history, plays a key role in 

accomplishing the mission of creating an archive of American 

architecture and engineering, and in better understanding what 

historic resources tell us about America’s diverse ethnic and 

cultural heritage.

Hanalei Pier

Kauai, Hawaii

By 1900, Hawaii was the third-leading producer of rice in the 

United States. Rice was Hawaii’s second leading crop, behind sugar 

cane. Hanalei and Waioli were the largest rice-producing areas in 

Hawaii. Due to the location of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific 

Ocean, transportation played an important role in all agricultural 

production. The Hanalei Pier was used to transport rice grown and 

processed in the Hanalei Valley to Honolulu and to the mainland. It 

is one of the few remaining vestiges of the once-thriving rice 

industry in Hanalei.

Chinese, and later Japanese, farmers found ready markets for rice in 

Honolulu and on the mainland, and helped make it Hawaii’s second 

largest crop by 1892.24 Hanalei Pier connects Asians and their 

influence on the built environment in Hawaii to the greater 

development of the United States’ agricultural economy. The 

Hanalei Pier is an example of a typical finger pier in Hawaii 

during the 1920s. Originally built in 1892 as a short pier, it was 

reconstructed and extended in 1912, and a concrete deck was added 

in 1922. It served as a center for interisland transportation until 

1933, when it was abandoned in favor of Nawiliwili harbor, on the 

southeast side of the island. Subsequently, Hanalei Pier became a 

recreational resource for locals for fishing and picnicking. Because 

of its scenic location in the Hanalei Bay, the pier has been featured 

in several movies, most notably South Pacific.

Because of its scenic 

location in the Hanalei 

Bay, the pier has been 

featured in several movies, 

most notably South Pacific.

38 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Identifying and Documenting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape 39

Conclusion 

The historic preservation field has taken initial steps to recognize 

and record the influence of Asian groups on the American cultural 

landscape. Recent research highlights the variety of locations where 

Asian heritage have contributed to the American cultural landscape. 

The range of properties can be expanded to include places where 

other historic events took place. The role of Asians in the history 

of the South, for example, is an important theme that warrants 

further study.

A site or building does not need to bear the outward markings of an 

ethnic group to be significantly influenced by a group. The impact 

upon the local culture is important and can leave an impression 

beyond that of a building’s form. The Stedman-Thomas Historic 

District receives over 500,000 visitors each year, due in part to the 

impact of the Asian immigrants who developed the city into an 

urban center in the wilderness. Similarly, the effects of Executive 

Order 9066 and the Language School at the Presidio cannot be 

discerned from the styles of the buildings. Applying the same 

approach to sites of legal battles over citizenship, labor activism, 

and desegregation of public education, a myriad of new places are 

open to identification. 

A site or building does 

not need to bear the 

outward markings of 

an ethnic group to be 

significantly influenced 

by a group. The impact 

upon the local culture 

is important and can 

leave an impression 

beyond that of a 

building’s form.
1. Haiku is an unrhymed verse form of three lines 

containing 17 syllables (5, 7, 5), while tanka, a 

similar form with five lines, contains 31 syllables 

(5, 7, 5, 7, 7) Fujita had poems published in 

several magazines, and published a collection 

of poems in 1923. See Jun Fujita, Tanka: Poems 

in Exile (Chicago: Covici-McGee, 1923).

2. One informant’s description states the room 

contained two sleeping mats. The current 

occupant believes it was used as a shrine. See 

National Register of Historic Places, Jun Fujita 

Cabin, St. Louis County, Minnesota. National 

Register #96001351.

3. The National Register nomination cites the 

book by Edward S. Morse, Japanese Homes 

and Their Surroundings (New York: Dover 

Publications, 1961) for its evaluation of Japanese 

housing. Clay Lancaster surveyed the Japanese 

cultural impact in The Japanese Influence in 

America (New York: Walton H. Rawls, 1963) 

and examined the application of Japanese 

design in material culture as well as the built 

environment and drew similar conclusions 

about the design aesthetic.

4. Carr and Fujita owned property in several 

different states, including a vacation property 

in Indiana. See Fujita Cabin, #96001315.

5. Once the war commenced, the long trip from 

Chicago and the animosity toward Japanese 

Americans outweighed Fujita’s desire for 

solitude. For example, Fujita’s presence caused 

the locals to name the island, pejoratively, Jap 

Island. See Fujita Cabin, #96001315.

6. The issue of moving buildings and the 

maintenance of its integrity was considered and 

it was decided that the shrine maintained its 

integrity in the relocation. See National Register 

of Historic Places, Wakamiya Inari Shrine, 

Honolulu County, Hawaii. National Register 

#80001285.

7. See National Register of Historic Places, 

Stedman-Thomas Historic District, Ketchikan 

Gateway, Alaska. National Register #96000062; 

and “A Multicultural Melting Pot in Ketchikan, 

Alaska,” in CRM: Diversity and Cultural 

Resources 22, no. 8(1999): 27.

8. Stedman-Thomas Historic District, #96000062.

9. The National Register nomination notes the 

significance of the political development of the 

Kosrae to the Pacific Islands. National Register 

of Historic Places, Leluh Ruins, Kosrae Freely 

Associated State, Federated States of Micronesia. 

National Register #83004524.

10. See Japanese Americans in World War II: 

National Historic Landmark Theme Study

(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the 

Interior, National Park Service, 2002), 1, 42; and 

National Historic Landmark Survey, Presidio of 

San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco 

County, California.

11. For a summary of the historiography of the 

Japanese American internment and the reasons 

for it, see Gary Y. Okihiro, The Columbia Guide 

to Asian American History (New York: Columbia 

University Press, 2001), 100-127. The book’s 

discussion, “America’s Concentration Camps,” 

summarizes scholarship on the topic and books 

of interest.

12. Gail Dubrow, with Donna Graves, Sento at Sixth 

and Main: Preserving Landmarks of Japanese 

American Heritage (Seattle: University of 

Washington Press, 2002), 4.

13. James C. McNaughton, “Nisei Linguists 

and New Perspectives on the Pacific War: 

Intelligence, Race, and Continuity,” paper 

presented at the Conference of Army 

Historians, 1994; National Japanese Historical 

Society, “Japanese Americans in the Military 

Intelligence Service” website at, http://www.

njahs.org/misnorcal/index.htm; accessed 

January 5, 2004.

14. Plessy v. Ferguson and its effect is discussed at 

length in the theme study, Racial Desegregation 

in Public Education in the US: National Historic 

Landmark Theme Study (Washington, DC: U.S. 

Department of the Interior, National Park 

Service, 2002), 31, 33-40.

15. Sucheng Chan, Asian Americans: An Interpretive 

History, Twayne’s Immigrant History of America 

Series (New York: Twayne Publishing, 1991), 58; 

and Franklin Odo, ed., The Columbia 

Documentary History of the Asian American 

Experience (New York: Columbia University 

Press, 2002), 211-214.

ENDNOTES

40 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Identifying and Documenting Asian Heritage on the American Landscape 41

16. Sieglinde Lim de Sanchez, “Crafting a Delta 

Chinese Community: Education and 

Acculturation in Twentieth-Century Southern 

Baptist Mission Schools,” History of Education 

Quarterly (Spring 2003), at http://www.

historycooperative.org/journals/heq/43.1/

sanchez.html; accessed March 25, 2004.

17. The majority of Chinese in the United States 

at the time were from Sze Yap, a district in 

southern China, which was a commercial 

center. See Charles Reagan Wilson, “Mississippi 

Chinese: An Ethnic People in a Biracial Society,” 

Mississippi History Now: An Online Publication, 

at the Mississippi Historical Society website, 

posted November 2002 at http://mshistory.k12.

ms.us/features/feature33/chinese.html; accessed 

on December 16, 2002 and January 5, 2004.

18. Wilson, “Mississippi Chinese.”

19. See S.Y. Lueng, ed., The Chinese Community 

Church 50th Anniversary Yearbook, 1935-1985

(Washington, DC: n.p., 1985), 103-104, 110.

20. See Historic American Buildings Survey, Chinese 

Community Church, Washington, District of 

Columbia. HABS No. DC-281.

21. See Lueng, The Chinese Community Church 

50th Anniversary Yearbook, 119-121; The City 

Museum of Washington, DC, Chinatown: 

People or Place? exhibition manuscript, 

September 17, 2003.

22. The contribution of the Chinese to the 

development of the Sacramento-San Joaquin 

River delta cannot be overstated. In addition to 

agricultural production, Chinese labor dredged 

the swamps by building levees to create arable 

land. See Historic American Buildings Survey, 

Town of Locke, Sacramento County, California. 

HABS No. CA-2071; Dean E. Murphy, “This 

Land is Made, Finally, for Chinese Settlers,” in 

New York Times, June 29, 2003, 17-20.

23. Historic American Buildings Survey, Town 

of Locke, CA-2071.

24. Chinese immigrants began growing rice in 

Hawaii around the mid-1800s. After the end of 

their contracts on sugar plantations, Chinese 

workers acquired taro patches and converted 

them into rice paddies. Japanese laborers who 

replaced the Chinese eventually took over the 

rice industry. However, rice production 

diminished due to the annexation of Hawaii by 

the United States in 1898, which extended the 

Federal exclusion policy of Chinese to the 

islands area and reduced the number of 

consumers. Another factor was the subsequent 

lifting of all tariffs that created a boom in the 

sugar market, encouraging farmers to convert 

rice fields more to the profitable sugar cane. 

Finally, an increase in rice production in 

California signaled the end of rice’s heyday in 

Hawaii. See John Wesley Coulter and Chee 

Kwon Chen, “Chinese Rice Farmers in Hawaii,” 

in University of Hawaii Bulletin 16, no. 5(1937): 

18-22; and Historic American Engineering 

Record, Hanalei Pier. HAER No. HI-17; National 

Register of Historic Places, Hanalei Pier, Kauai 

County, Hawaii. National Register #79000757.
Interpreting Asianisms at Historic Sites 43

Interpreting Asian Heritage 

at Historic Sites

Interpretive programs that focus on Asian heritage 

present the many images of the Asian experience in 

the United States. While the western United States 

provides the most likely places for interpretative 

opportunities, places like Massachusetts are areas 

of interest because of recent immigration patterns. 

Historic sites of difficult histories and the struggle for social justice 

provide opportunities to include Asian ethnic heritage as part of the 

interpretation. Newer Asian communities, such as the Vietnamese, 

Thai, Hmong, and Cambodian, are imprinting their cultures on 

communities and places. Many are using historic sites as cultural 

resources and are presenting interpretation opportunities for 

historic preservation managers. By addressing these recent issues 

within the interpretative framework of existing historic sites, Asian 

American heritage gains visibility and connects Asian Americans to 

the larger American story.

Lowell Historic Preservation District 

Lowell, Massachusetts

The town of Lowell, Massachusetts, is associated with the 

Industrial Revolution in the United States. The spinning mills and 

mill buildings embody the rapid industrialization and urbanization 

of the country during the 1800s. By housing all of the facets of cloth 

production under one roof, from recruitment to production, the 

Waltham-Lowell system revolutionized textile manufacturing. 

Lowell was not only a textile giant, but it also produced tools for 

the textile mills, housed textile manufacturing shops, and built 

steam locomotives for the emerging New England rail system. 

Lowell, and its surrounding neighborhoods, has been home to 

many different ethnic communities—Irish, French-Canadians, 

Portuguese, Poles, Russian Jews, Greeks, and more recently 

Latinos. In addition to these groups is an emerging Cambodian 

American community. After the passage of the Indochina Migration 

and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975, Cambodian refugees 

immigrated to the Boston area and to Lowell.1

 As of the 2000 
census, the Cambodian American community accounted for over 

17,000 people, or 20 percent of the population of Lowell. The 

community is concentrated around two areas known respectively as 

the Acre and the Highlands, both of which fall within the Lowell 

Historic District. 

The Cambodian community has become an active part of the 

community-at-large, with the development of several civic 

institutions and participation in the annual Lowell Folk Festival.2

 

In addition, the annual Southeast Asian Water Festival offers 

Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Laotian residents an opportunity to 

celebrate water as the source of life, with dragon boat races on the 

Merrimack River.3

 Lowell National Historic Park employees have 

taken a particular interest in the community, becoming involved 

with Cambodian American organizations, creating programs for the 

community at the park, and even visiting Cambodia to develop a 

better understanding of that culture. Cambodian Americans strive 

to keep their cultural heritage alive through the Angkor Dance 

Troupe housed in the Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center at Lowell 

National Park. The troupe teaches folk and classical dance to local 

youth and enhances the appreciation of their heritage. Thus, the 

historic district incorporates Cambodian culture into its 

multicultural heritage.

 One of the feature events of 

the Southeast Asian Water 

Festival in Lowell, MA, is the 

dragon boat race. Cambodian 

American youth restored a boat in 

preparation for the 2002 festival.

Courtesy of Joshua Reynolds

 The Angkor Dance Troupe 

serves as a keeper of Cambodian 

culture for Khmer youth growing 

up in the United States. They 

learn traditional dances and wear 

traditional clothes, as the younger 

members of the troupe did at the 

Lowell Folk Festival in July 2001. 

Courtesy of Kevin Harkins

44 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Interpreting Asianisms at Historic Sites 45

Chinese Sites in the Warren Mining District

Warren, Idaho

The desire for gold led many people to the American West and 

to Idaho. Chinese immigrants came by the thousands, hoping to 

become rich through mining. Sources indicate that Chinese made 

up the largest ethnic group in the state during Idaho’s early 

settlement period.4

 The early mines were placer mines—loose 

mineral deposits near the surface found through panning in water. 

Some fortunes were made, but by the time the Warren miners voted 

to allow the Chinese to have mining rights in 1869, most of the 

easily obtained gold was gone. Despite this difficulty, a sizable 

Chinese community developed in Warren between 1870 and the 

1890s. These laborers sought to maintain their traditional diet and 

lifeways as much as possible while in America. In addition to 

mining, they cultivated terraced gardens and opened shops that 

catered to the tastes of the community and provided services for 

the bachelor society in Warren. 

Several National Register properties on China Mountain associated 

with Chinese heritage in the United States make up the Chinese 

Sites in the Warren Mining District Multiple Property Submission 

(MPS). These interrelated sites, Ah Toy Garden, Celadon Slope 

Garden, and Chi-Sandra Garden; Old China Trail; the Chinese 

Cemetery; and the Chinese Mining Camp Archeological Site, 

located in the Payette National Forest, tell the story of the Chinese 

experience in the West within the larger historic context of 

American westward expansion.

Because of the isolated nature of the region, much of the area has 

remained largely undisturbed. Foliage and grass coverage preserved 

the terraces and protected the archeological sites. This environment 

provided the U. S. Forest Service an opportunity to conduct surveys 

of the resources and offer interpretation programs for this unique 

group of resources. According to Lawrence Kingsbury, heritage 

program manager, the Payette National Forest used the multiple 

property nomination and interpretive materials to highlight the 

historic resources, as well as to gain a measure of protection for 

them. Kingsbury noted that “[t]he 19th-century gold rush resources 

were threatened.... In order to create a preservation awareness 

[sic], we invited university interests to investigate the Chinese 

sites. We created interpretive signage and historic monographs to 

educate the public. We provided tours.... After each archeological 

excavation, we produced reports (gray literature) for the interested 

archeological community.”5
The Payette National Forest developed a self-guided interpretive 

tour for visitors, using a brochure and signs on the Old China Trail 

and at the gardens. The China Mountain Interpretive Site highlights 

the development of the gardens and their connection with the 

Chinese and the larger mining community. Signage highlights the 

Chinese settlers’ use of terracing in garden design, an agricultural 

practice common in Guangdong province.6

 Additional interpretive 

signage at the Chinese Cemetery addresses burial practices. Site 

interpretation is provided in monographs and an artifact exhibit 

area available at the Warren Guard Station.7

 The Payette Heritage 

Program is working with the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle, 

Washington, to increase the biographical information on the 

individuals who resided in the Warren area.

The discovery of gold was a major impetus to developing the 

American West. Towns literally materialized overnight to support 

the mining communities. The legacy of the Gold Rush is evident in 

Warren and other places in Idaho, Nevada, and California. Mining 

structures and material culture associated with mining contribute 

to the heritage of the western states. The interpretive program at 

Warren Mining District presents a view of this historic period 

through the prism of the Chinese experience. 

Haraguchi Rice Mill

Hanalei, Hawaii

Located on the island of Kauai, Hanalei Valley was the major center 

of rice production in Hawaii. At its height, Hawaii was the third 

leading rice producer in the United States, behind Louisiana and 

South Carolina.8

 Rice was initially cultivated and produced by 

Chinese laborers, who started their own farms at the end of their 

contracts with the various agricultural plantations. Chinese workers 

made up the bulk of the plantation work force, but as their numbers 

declined because of the United States annexation of Hawaii and the 

Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese laborers replaced them. Like their 

predecessors, Japanese laborers eventually left the plantations and 

bought farms, frequently from the exiting Chinese farmers.

Located within the Hanalei National Wildlife Reserve and 

administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the 

Haraguchi Rice Mill and farm were purchased by the Haraguchi 

family from a Chinese farmer named Man Sing in 1924. The 

diesel-powered mill was constructed in 1929, on the site of an older, 

water-powered wooden mill built by Chinese farmers in the 1880s. 

46 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Interpreting Asianisms at Historic Sites 47

The milling area contains a strainer; two huskers; a polisher, which 

used cowhide belts; a grader that sorted the rice into three separate 

grades; and a bagging platform. Whereas the Japanese and Chinese 

practiced a similar method of rice cultivation, Japanese taste 

preferred a shorter grain of rice. In addition to the short grain staple 

rice, the Haraguchi Mill processed “mochi” rice, used in traditional 

sticky rice cakes made for the New Year’s observance and other 

special occasions. The mill has been inoperative since 1961, and the 

remaining acreage of the Haraguchi farm has been converted to 

taro patches.

The history of rice and its cultivation in Hawaii is of increasing 

interest to visitors to the Hanalei National Wildlife Reserve. The 

mill (also known as the Ho’opulapula Haraguchi Rice Mill) offers 

tours for school groups and others and is developing a brochure 

about the site in collaboration with the Fish and Wildlife Service.9

The mill provides a school curriculum package covering the 

agrarian, cultural, and economic contributions of the Chinese and 

Japanese immigrants. Additional interpretation is available at its 

website, http://www.haraguchiricemill.org. The Haraguchi Rice 

Mill is the only surviving rice mill in Hawaii, a remnant of an era of 

agricultural diversification on Kauai and a demographic shift in the 

Asian diaspora.

 Rice holds a prominent place 

in the agricultural history of 

Hawaii. This drawing of the area 

surrounding the Haraguchi Rice 

Mill illustrates the setting for the 

mill within the agriculturally rich 

Hanalei Valley on Kauai in 1929. 

Drawing by the Historic American 

Engineering Record
San Francisco Bay Maritime National Historic Park 

Shrimp Junk Project

San Francisco, California

Many Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States to work 

in the gold mines or railroad construction. Many also found work 

in the fishing industry. The Chinese were one of several ethnic 

minorities working the fishing trade in San Francisco Bay. For 

much of the second half of the 19th century, Chinese companies 

dominated the shrimping industry in San Francisco, catching and 

processing shrimp for Hawaiian and Asian markets. From the late 

1850s to 1910, Chinese junks, single mast ships ranging from 30 to 

50 feet in length and made almost entirely of redwood, were a 

common sight in the San Francisco Bay. In his Tales of the Fish 

Patrol, Jack London describes junk and shrimp trawling, offering 

insight into fishing industry in the San Francisco Bay during the 

early years of the 20th century.10

Chinese fishing villages, or camps, rimmed San Francisco Bay, and 

in coves at San Rafael, Richmond, as well as at Point San Pedro and 

around San Pablo Bay. The fishing villages are repositories of 

immigrant culture, and through archeological and historical surveys 

have provided information about these communities. 

One of the largest of these fishing villages was the site of a shrimp 

junk reconstruction project by San Francisco Maritime National 

Historic Park, in conjunction with the China Camp State Park. 

Working from historical photographs, oral histories, and the 

archeological remains of two junks found in the mudflats at China 

Camp, the Junk Project crew, under the direction of John C. Muir 

of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, replicated 

the design of these now extinct vessels. 

 Fishing junks, such as the one 

pictured pulling in nets ca. 1890s 

were a common sight in the San 

Francisco Bay. Chinese shrimp 

fishermen would cast upwards 

of 60 nets each day to fulfill the 

demand for shrimp in Hawaii and 

in Asian markets throughout the 

Pacific region.

Courtesy of San Francisco Maritime 

National Historic Park

48 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Interpreting Asianisms at Historic Sites 49

Traditional Chinese boat construction methods and materials were 

used throughout the project. Muir traveled twice to modern-day 

traditional boatyards in southern China to learn the arts of 

firebending and edgenailing. In firebending, the planking wood is 

suspended over an open fire, with weights on the end. The wood 

is then carefully heated enough to let gravity create a bend. In 

edgenailing, the strength of the vessel is increased by nailing the 

planks to each other as well as to the interior structure. Triangular 

notches are carved along the bottom of a plank, and headless nails 

are driven down into the notch, essentially pinning the planks 

together. A special putty mixture, made from linseed or t’ung oil 

and crushed clam shells, is spread into the triangular notches to 

keep the nails from rusting.11

The 43-foot shrimp junk was built over the course of 6 months. 

The junk provides interpretation and research opportunities in 

illustrating the role of the Chinese as innovators in the fishing 

industry in northern California. The junk was constructed of 

redwood, with Douglas fir and white oak used in key structural 

areas. Hand-forged nails, pounded out on a coal forge, were used in 

edgenailing notches. Traditional oakum, or hemp-fiber caulking, 

was used to keep the boat watertight, and the rigging and sail were 

built using manila and cotton.

The completed junk was christened the Grace Quan, after the 

mother of the last remaining Chinese shrimp fisherman, Frank 

Quan, and launched on October 25, 2003. The junk was then towed 

to the Hyde Street Pier at the San Francisco Maritime National 

Historical Park, where she was outfitted for sail. The maiden voyage 

celebration occurred April 10, 2004, when the ship sailed along the 

San Francisco Bay waterfront.

The crews of the original shrimp junks were primarily from 

southern China’s Pearl River Delta region.12 Using large triangular 

nets staked into the mud flats, this technique took advantage of the 

incoming tide that brought shrimp into the nets, requiring the nets 

to be hauled in prior to ebb tide later that day. Shrimp junks set as 

many as 60 nets along the saltwater flats to the edge of deep fresh 

water and back. The day’s catch was stored, sorted by size, and 

brought ashore, where the shrimp were boiled, then dried on 

wooden drying platforms on the hillside. The San Francisco 

Maritime staff plans to recreate the fishing techniques used by the 

crews as part of its interpretative program. 

 The Grace Quan sails San 

Francisco Bay in one of its last sea 

trials prior to the official maiden 

voyage in April 2004. The ship 

helps the San Francisco Maritime 

National Historic Park staff 

interpret shrimp trawling and 

the lifeways of Chinese fishermen 

on the bay.

Courtesy of John C. Muir, San Francisco 

Maritime National Historic Park
Teaching with Historic Places, “The War Relocation Camps 

of World War II: When Fear Was Stronger than Justice”

National Register of Historic Places [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/

wwwlps/lessons/89manzanar/89manzanar.htm]

The National Register of Historic Places has developed over 100 

classroom-ready lesson plans through its Teaching with Historic 

Places program. These plans use National Register-listed properties 

to instruct readers on the significant themes, people, and events 

that shape American history and offer another way to experience 

historic places.

“The War Relocation Camps” lesson plan uses National Register 

and National Historic Landmark documentation to convey how 

the civil liberties of American citizens were violated by the forced 

removal and internment over 100,000 Japanese and Japanese 

Americans during World War II to relocation camps in Arkansas, 

Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. The 

lesson plan’s interpretation is supported by photographs, copies of 

flyers, and contemporary newspaper accounts.13 “The War 

Relocation Camps” lesson plan recounts the story through the 

Manazanar Relocation Camp in California and Rowher Relocation 

Camp in Arkansas. Both sites retain a high degree of integrity, with 

Manzanar being the most highly restored relocation center and 

Rowher possessing the most original buildings and historic fabric.

“The War Relocation Camps” lesson plan discusses how Japanese 

families, forced to abandon their possessions and property, were 

crowded onto trains, and sent first to assembly centers, then to 

isolated relocation centers in seven states.14 The lesson plan 

provides images of what the camps and their conditions were 

like and encourages students to relate to the internees.

 Despite their internment, 

some aspects of life continued as 

normal for Japanese Americans 

at Manzanar, with school-aged 

children and teens attending 

classes in 1943. The Teaching 

with Historic Places lesson plan 

encourages students to put 

themselves in the internees’ place 

while learning about the events 

surrounding Japanese American 

internment.

Courtesy of Ansel Adams Manzanar War 

Relocation Camp Photograph Collection, 

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of 

Congress

 I Rei To, or the soul-consoling 

tower, commemorates the 86 

people interred at Manzanar. It is 

a site of reflection for visitors and 

is used for the inter-faith prayer 

service held during the annual 

pilgrimages. 

Courtesy of Tom Walker

50 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Interpreting Asianisms at Historic Sites 51

“The War Relocation Camps” lesson plan also highlights the 

patriotism of the nisei, or American-born children of Japanese 

immigrants, exemplified by the military accomplishments of the 

U.S. Army 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Battalion, a 

segregated Japanese American volunteer unit that was highly 

decorated in World War II. Women volunteered for the Women’s 

Army Corps and the Red Cross. Many of the volunteers came from 

the relocation camps. Using the memorial to their military exploits 

at the Rohwer Relocation Center Cemetery, the lesson plan 

addresses the contributions of Japanese Americans to the war effort.15

Nisei patriotism clashed with resentment to internment, which led 

to altercations with military police and attempts by internees to 

regain their civil rights through lawsuits against the Federal 

Government. Despite these efforts, “The War Relocation Camps” 

notes that most internees never left the camps until the war’s end.

Both of the camps featured in “The War Relocation Camps” lesson 

plan continue to convey the stories of their inhabitants long after 

their intended use. Former internees return to Manzanar and 

Rohwer to remember and to memorialize the internment period. 

An organized annual pilgrimage to Manzanar over the past 35 

years prompted the inclusion of Manzanar National Historic Site 

in the National Park System, while Rohwer is a subject of study of 

internment in Arkansas for the Life Interrupted project, sponsored 

by the University of Arkansas Little Rock and the Japanese 

American National Museum.16 “The War Relocation Camps” lesson 

plan offers an interpretation of the war homefront experience while 

providing the necessary historic context for understanding how an 

event such as the Japanese internment could take place and its 

impact not only on Japanese Americans, but all Americans.

United States Immigration Station, Angel Island

Tiburon Vicinity, California

Established in 1850 by President Millard Fillmore as a military 

reserve, the United States Immigration Station, Angel Island, is 

often known as the “Ellis Island” of the West Coast. From 1910 

through 1940, approximately one million people were processed 

through the station. Most were of Asian descent—Chinese, 

Japanese, Korean, Filipinos, and Asian Indians—and included 

Australians, Russians, Mexicans, and Portuguese. During that 

period, approximately 250,000 Chinese and 150,000 Japanese 

immigrants were detained at Angel Island as a result of the laws 

prohibiting Chinese, and later, Japanese immigration to the 

 The Rohwer Veterans 

Memorial in Arkansas is a 

testament to the valor of the 

men of the 100th Battalion, 

442nd Regimental Combat team. 

This all-Japanese American unit, 

filled with volunteers from 

relocation camps, was the most 

highly decorated unit of its 

size during World War II. 

Courtesy of Kenneth Story
United States. Unlike the inviting image of the Statue of Liberty, 

the immigration station at Angel Island loomed as the “Guardian 

of the Western Gate.”

Situated in San Francisco Bay, Angel Island’s use as a de facto 

detention center reflects the government’s attitude towards Asian 

immigration. Political and commercial interests in California 

viewed Chinese immigration as a threat to American society. State 

and federal legislators created laws such as the Exclusion Act of 

1882 to stem the tide of Chinese arrivals. Constructed between 1905 

and 1910, the immigration station held Chinese immigrants until 

their paperwork was approved, a process that could take weeks or 

even months. After passage of the National Origins Act of 1924, 

the Japanese were similarly detained. The immigration station 

was closed in 1940. During World War II, it was used as a 

prisoner-of-war camp.17

The immigration station and associated buildings were turned over 

to the California State Park System in 1963. While exploring the 

barracks scheduled for demolition, a ranger, Alexander Weiss, 

discovered the now-famous Chinese calligraphic poems carved into 

the barracks walls.18 Efforts by the Angel Island Immigration Station 

Historic Committee (now the Angel Island Immigration Station 

Foundation), Weiss, and Paul Choy led to the conversion of the 

barracks into a museum, with exhibits that relate to the 

immigrants’ experience. 

Much of the focus of the museum’s interpretation is on the 

attitudes, hopes, and fears of the immigrants played out against the 

larger context of the governmental immigration policy. Additional 

interpretation is offered through a traveling exhibit sponsored by 

the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, Gateway to Gold 

Mountain: The Angel Island Experience and the foundation’s 

 Hundreds of passengers, 

such as those pictured ca. 1920, 

disembarked regularly at the 

Angel Island Immigration Station 

during the early 20th century. 

Called the Guardian of the 

Western Gate, one million 

people entered the United States 

through the station, with the 

majority being of Asian descent. 

Courtesy of the California Department of 

State Parks & Recreation

52 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Interpreting Asianisms at Historic Sites 53

website, http://www.asiif.org. The foundation conducted oral 

histories of former detainees that formed the basis for the book, 

Island: Poetry and History of Immigrants on Angel Island.

19

Conclusion

Asian heritage has shaped the development of the United States 

and is increasingly interpreted at historic sites throughout the 

nation—from the Manzanar Relocation Camp to the banks of the 

Merrimack River during the dragon boat races in Lowell. Asian 

influence extends beyond the Chinatowns and Japantowns to 

places associated with other national historical themes, such as 

mining, maritime trade, and agricultural technology. 

More than ever, historic preservation must convey American 

stories—great and small—associated with the growth of a 

nation. The multiplicity of views and opinions that emerge 

require new approaches through which to examine the nation’s 

cultural heritage.

 Delays in processing new 

arrivals at the Angel Island 

Immigration Station could take 

anywhere from days to months. 

Some Chinese detainees carved 

poems into the barracks walls to 

express their sadness while 

waiting to leave. These poems 

have become part of the historic 

record of the immigration station. 

Courtesy of Surrey Blackburn
1. To avoid creating ethnic enclaves, the Indochina 

Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 

sought to disperse the Cambodian and 

Vietnamese refugees throughout the country. 

The Boston area became a primary area of 

resettlement. The Refugee Act of 1980 provided 

funds to towns such as Lowell to accommodate 

the influx of Cambodians, Vietnamese, and 

Laotians. See Franklin Odo, ed., The Columbia 

Documentary History of the Asian American 

Experience (New York: Columbia University 

Press, 2002), 407-408.

 2. Martha Norkunas discusses the Cambodian 

community’s presence in the ethnically diverse 

and monument-filled city of Lowell in 

Monuments and Memories: History and 

Representation in Lowell, Massachusetts

(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution 

Press, 2002), 34-35, 59-60, 167.

3. In Cambodia, the Water Festival, or Bon Om 

Puk, takes place on the Mekong River during 

the full moon of the eleventh month at the end 

of the rainy season. National Park Service 

employees helped construct long boats for 

the 2001 Southeast Asian Water Festival. See 

“Singing Hope Along the Mekong River,” in 

Tzu Chi Quarterly 8, no. 1(Spring 2001); 

“Cambodian Odyssey: Executive Summary, 

Lowell Delegation to Cambodia June 24-July 2, 

2001” (Lowell, MA: Lowell National Historic 

Park, 2001).

4. Federal Writers’ Projects of the Works Progress 

Administration, American Guide Series, Idaho: 

A Guide in Words and Pictures, 3rd Printing (New 

York and Oxford, UK: Oxford Press, 1968), 122. 

While the names China Mountain and China 

Trail are toponyms, place-names that serve a 

specific function, it is safe to assume that the 

names were not given by the Chinese 

immigrants.

5. Concerns over looting, flea market treasure 

seekers, authorized gold mining, and rock 

harvesting for resurfacing roads fueled the need 

for preservation of the resources. Lawrence 

Kingsbury, electronic correspondence with 

the author, December 18, 2003.

6. Guangdong province is the place from which 

the majority of immigrants hailed. Earlier 

settlers to Warren claimed much of the better 

farmland, but Chinese familiar with terracing 

techniques were able to take advantage of the 

fertile land of the available steep mountainsides. 

The terraces are cut into the slope, and planted 

with crops and other plant life. The technique 

requires a close proximity to water, which China 

Mountain has in abundance from China Creek 

and the Salmon River.

7. Exhumation was an important burial practice 

for overseas Chinese. When a male immigrant 

died, his body would be prepared and sent back 

home to China by his family. Huiguan, 

associations of people from the same districts, 

would have paid for deceased members without 

family to cover the expense. They provided a 

support system for migratory laborers with 

strong ties to districts, occupations, and dialects. 

Twenty-nine of the 35 individuals interred in the 

cemetery were returned home. For the 

authoritative text on the associations, see Him 

Mark Lai, “Historical Development of the 

Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association/

Huiguan System,” in Chinese America: History 

and Perspectives, Journal of the Chinese Historical 

Society of America 1(1987): 13-52. For 

discussions on the practice of exhumation, see 

National Register of Historic Places, Chinese 

Cemetery, Idaho County, Idaho. National 

Register #9400270; Sucheng Chan, Twayne’s 

Immigrant History of America Series, Asian 

Americans: An Interpretative History (New 

York: Twayne Publishers, 1991), 64-65; and 

Payette National Forest, Heritage Program, 

“The Chinese Cemetery at Warren,” (U.S. 

Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, 

July 2002, monograph).

 The monographs offer the interested visitor 

more in-depth information on individuals and 

practices of the Chinese in and around Warren. 

See Sheila D. Reddy, “Mountain Garden, 

Mountain Stew” (McCall, ID: U.S. Department 

of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, February 

1994); Lawrence A. Kingsbury, “Celadon Slope 

ENDNOTES

54 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Garden, Circa 1870-1902: A Chinese Sojourner 

Occupation on the Payette National Forest” 

(U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 

December 1990); Lawrence A. Kingsbury, 

“Chinese Properties Listed in the National 

Register,” in CRM 17, no. 2 (1994): 23-24; 

National Register of Historic Places, Chinese 

Sites in the Warren Mining District Multiple 

Property Survey, Idaho County, Idaho. National 

Register #1696100.

8. Rice cultivation in North America dates back to 

the late 1600s, coming through western Africa, 

but the Chinese and Japanese have a rice 

tradition dating back 4,000 to 8,000 years. The 

types of grains (Oryza sativa) and techniques 

(transplanting rice seedlings after 30-50 days 

into paddies) used in Hawaii equate with Asian 

rice traditions. See Rice Almanac: Source Book 

for the Most Important Economic Activity on 

Earth. Third Edition (Oxon, UK: CABI 

Publishing, 2002), 1-4; and John Wesley Coulter 

and Chee Kwon Chen, “Chinese Rice Farmers 

in Hawaii,” University of Hawaii Bulletin 16, 

no. 5(1937): 18.

9. Currently, the mill is closed to the public while 

undergoing restoration. However Ho’opulapula 

Haraguchi Rice Mill is working with the U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a guided 

tour to meet the requests for visitation. 

10. London’s description of his time as an officer 

for the California Fish Commission also 

provides examples of negative stereotypes 

accorded ethnic minorities, Asians in particular. 

See Jack London, Tales of the Fish Patrol

(Cleveland, OH and New York: International 

Fiction Library, 1905).

11. John Muir provided the descriptions of the 

various construction techniques used to build 

the Grace Quan. John C. Muir, electronic 

correspondence with the author, January 5, 

2004. 

12. For a fuller description of the shrimp harvesting 

technique, see “All in a Day’s Work: San 

Francisco Shrimp Junks,” by John C. Muir at 

Native Sons of the Golden West website, http://

www.nsgw.org/projects/shrimpboat/dayswork.

html; accessed December 8, 2003.

13. Some of the most famous photographs of 

Manzanar came from a photographic essay by 

Ansel Adams of the Manzanar relocation camp 

and offer visual documentation of the isolated 

locations and harsh conditions provided for 

these incarcerated citizens. His interest 

stemmed from his relationship with Harry Oye, 

a long-time issei employee of Adams. Adams 

commented in his 1965 letter to the Library of 

Congress donating the collection, “The purpose 

of my work was to show how these people, 

suffering under a great injustice, and loss of 

property, businesses and professions, had 

overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by 

building for themselves a vital community in an 

arid (but magnificent) environment... All in all, I 

think this Manzanar Collection is an important 

historical document, and I trust it can be put to 

good use.” The collection is available in print, 

Born Free and Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese 

Americans (Bishop, CA: Spotted Dog Press, 

2001) and through the Library of Congress, 

Prints and Photographs Collection in 

Washington, DC and online at “Prints and 

Photographs Online Catalog-Ansel Adams’ 

Photographs of Japanese American 

Internment,” at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/

manzhtml/manzabt.html; maintained by the 

Library of Congress, accessed April 10, 2004.

14. For example, at Manzanar, 10,000 people lived 

in pine framed, tar-paper covered barracks, with 

communal messes (cafeterias) and bathrooms. 

The internees were expected to help support 

their internment—with industrial and 

agricultural complexes. See National Register of 

Historic Places, Manazanar Relocation Center, 

Inyo County, California. National Register 

#76000484; Jeffery F. Burton, Mary M. Farrell, 

Florence B. Lord, and Richard W. Lord, 

Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of 

World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites, 

Publications in Anthropology 74 (Tucson, AZ: 

Western Archeological and Conservation 

Center, U.S. Department of the Interior, 

National Park Service, 1999).

15. See National Historic Landmarks Survey, 

Rohwer Relocation Center Cemetery, Desha 

County, Arkansas; and Burton, et al., 

Confinement and Ethnicity, 254-257.

Interpreting Asianisms at Historic Sites 55
16. The Manzanar Committee sponsors trips for 

surviving detainess each year, one of several 

pilgrimages made to the site. Other relocation 

centers host similar pilgrimages. Rohwer hosted 

a homecoming in September 2004 as a part of 

the “Life Interrupted: The Japanese American 

Experience in WWII Arkansas” project, which 

features exhibits at three locations near Little 

Rock and a conference to accompany the 

homecoming. See “The Manzanar Committee 

Online” at http://www.manzanarcommittee.org; 

maintained by the Japanese American Network, 

accessed April 14, 2004; and “Life Interrupted: 

The Japanese American Experience in WWII 

Arkansas” at http://www.lifeinterrupted.org/; 

maintained by the University of Arkansas Little 

Rock, accessed April 14, 2004.

17. See National Register of Historic Places, Angel 

Island, Marin County, California. National 

Register #71000164; National Historic Landmark 

Survey, U.S. Immigration Station Angel Island, 

Tiburon, California; See Atim Oton’s review of 

“Gateway to Golden Mountain: the Angel Island 

Experience, part of the exhibit Tin See Do: the 

Angel Island Experience, at the Ellis Island 

Immigration Museum, Ellis Island, New York; 

March 8-May 31, 2003,” in CRM: The Journal of 

Heritage Stewardship 1, no. 1(Fall 2003): 135-137. 

18. The isolation of being neither home nor able 

to leave the immigration center produced 

profound sorrow for many detainees. Time at 

Angel Island was spent being examined at the 

hospital, being interrogated, and being housed 

in barracks. Some carved poetry into the 

barracks walls that reflect the hardship and 

indignity. See National Historic Landmarks 

Survey, Angel Island; and “The Angel Island 

Immigration Foundation” at http://www.asiif.

org; accessed February 6, 2004.

19. Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung, 

Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants 

on Angel Island, 1910-1940 (Seattle: University of 

Washington Press, 1991).

56 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Appendix | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 57

This list represents a compilation of the 

properties associated with Asian heritage 

documented in the National Park Service’s 

cultural resources programs (National 

Register of Historic Places, National Historic 

Landmarks, and Historic American Buildings 

Survey/Historic American Engineering 

Record/Historic American Landscapes 

Survey). It is not exhaustive, but illustrates 

examples of Asian properties that have 

already been documented and/or recognized. 

Further investigation of the files may yield 

additional entries. 

National Register of Historic Places

The following National Register properties are 

associated with Asian heritage. Each entry is 

listed by state, followed by a brief statement of 

what makes it significant to Asian heritage.

Alaska

Stedman-Thomas Historic District (Ketchikan, 

Ketchikan Gateway County) is a community of 

multiple Asian groups that was developed 

during the fishing industry in the region from 

the 1900s to the 1940s. Chinese, Filipino, 

Korean, and Japanese families opened many 

of the earliest businesses and established this 

commercial center in the city.

American Samoa

Faga Village Site (T’au, Manu’a County) is 

an archeological site associated with the title 

of Tui Manu’a (the highest title in Samoan 

culture) and as the oldest Samoan village. 

Faga Village is still used for agricultural and 

funerary purposes.

California

Castroville Japanese Language School 

(Castroville, Monterey County) illustrates 

Japanese American cultural and educational 

development in the early 20th century. It 

served as a language school, meeting hall, 

and Buddhist temple.

Oroville Chinese Temple (Oroville, Butte 

County) served as a community center for 

many early Chinese immigrants who arrived 

during the Gold Rush era. In 1959, the Temple 

Complex became a public museum dedicated 

to Chinese culture and tradition. 

Point Reyes National Seashore (Point Reyes, 

Marin County) was where the Spanish ship, the 

San Agustin, shipwrecked in 1595 with Filipino 

sailors aboard. The surviving crew eventually 

traveled by land to Mexico. 

Federated States of Micronesia

Leluh Ruins (Leluh, Kosrae County) are 

associated with the rise of the Kosraen society, 

an early Pacific culture. The archeological site 

may yield information on Kosraen, 

Micronesian, and Pacific societies. 

Rull Men’s Meeting House (Rull Municipality, 

Yap District) was where men gathered to plan 

war strategy, perform rites of passage for 

young men, and address other important 

aspects of social life. This meetinghouse, or 

faluw, is significant to the ethnic heritage of 

Micronesians and may yield information 

about this culture’s early history. 

Asian Heritage in the National Park 

Service Cultural Resources Programs

APPENDIX
Guam

Fafai Beach Site (Tumon Bay, Guam County)

contains the ruins of six-to-eight housing 

structures of the Chamorro people. Fafai 

Beach Site is significant for its potential for 

archeological research on cultural change and 

settlement patterns of people of Guam.

Gadao’s Cave (Inarajan Bay, Guam County) is 

an archeological site containing pictographs 

and petroglyphs and is likely to yield 

important information about the early history 

of Guam.

Umatac Outdoor Library (Umatac, Guam 

County) is the first public library built in 

Southern Guam under the direction of 

Francisco Quinta Sanchez (1898-1954), an 

early 20th-century pioneer of education and a 

politician from Umatac. The Umatac Outdoor 

Library is significant to Chamorro people and 

reflects their resolve to improve their lives.

Hawaii

Chee Ying Society (Honokaa, Hawaii County)

or “Chinese Clubhouse,” was a community 

center for members of the Hung Men Society, 

a secret society created in China in 1631. It is 

one of the few remaining society clubhouses 

in Hawaii.

Chinatown Historic District (Honolulu, 

Honolulu County) was a commercial and 

residential center for Chinese immigrants and 

other Asian groups. In its buildings, 

institutions, and people, the Chinatown 

Historic District reflects the city’s role as a 

center for many diverse cultures. 

Chinese Tong Houses of Maui Island 

(Lahaina, Maui County) were constructed for 

members of the Chinese Hoong Moon secret 

societies in the first decade of the 20th century. 

Tongs provided aid to individuals from the 

same district or province. Only three of the 

original six houses remain.

 The Chee Kung Tong Society Building is 

the home to the mother society of tongs in 

the United States. The building may provide 

information about an important aspect of 

the Chinese immigrant experience in 

Hawaii at the turn of the 20th century.

 The Ket Hing Society Building is one of 

three remaining houses associated with the 

Hoong Moon Tong in Maui. The building 

represents Chinese immigration heritage in 

Hawaii.

The Wo Hing Society Building is affiliated 

with the Chee Kung Tong that provided aid 

to Chinese immigrants in Hawaii. The 

building is considered to be the finest of the 

remaining tong buildings and houses a 

museum about tongs and the lives of overseas 

Chinese at the turn of the 20th century.

Daifukuji Soto Zen Mission (Kona, Hawaii 

County) is significant as an example of 

Buddhist temple architecture constructed in 

the early 20th century in Hawaii. The building 

blends construction techniques from Hawaii’s 

plantation tradition with Japanese temple 

design. 

Haraguchi Rice Mill (Hanalei, Kauai County) 

is the last remaining rice mill in Hawaii and 

reflects the combined cultural imprint of the 

Chinese and Japanese in Hawaii.

58 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Appendix | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 59

Hawaii Shingon Mission (Honolulu, Honolulu 

County) is the mother church for the Shingon 

sect in Hawaii and one of the few remaining 

Japanese Buddhist missions of its type in Hawaii. 

Kawailoa Temple (Haleiwa, Honolulu County)

is one of the few remaining structures that 

incorporates indoor/outdoor concepts of 

Japanese architecture by the use of moveable 

shoji doors. The Kawailoa Temple served as 

the cultural and social focal point for Japanese 

plantation workers because it incorporated a 

language school and clubs, and hosted 

community celebrations. 

Kyoto Gardens of Honolulu Memorial Park 

(Honolulu, Honolulu County) contains the 

finest examples of Japanese traditional-style 

structures and gardens built outside of Japan.

Lihue Hongwanji Mission (Lihue, Kauai 

County) is the oldest Japanese Buddhist 

mission still extant on Kauai. Also serving as a 

language school, the mission helped maintain 

the heritage of 20th-century Japanese 

immigrants.

Seto Building (Kapaa, Kauai County) 

combines the Chinese aesthetic and 

commercial building forms and symbolizes the 

commercial and cultural development of the 

Hawaiian Islands.

Toyo Theatre (Honolulu, Honolulu County) 

is a Japanese language movie theater. An 

example of Edo period architectural design, 

it was modeled after the famous Ieyasu Shrine 

in Nikko, Japan. 

Wakamiya Inari Shrine (Oahu, Honolulu 

County) is dedicated to the Inari Shinto sect 

that is associated with the working class 

Japanese, including agricultural laborers, in 

Hawaii in the early 20th century. It is the only 

example of Inari traditional shrine 

architecture in the region.

Idaho

The Chinese Sites in the Warren Mining 

District Multiple Property Survey (Warren 

vicinity, Idaho County) provides an example 

of identifying and interpreting a range of 

resources to tell the story of Chinese heritage 

in the United States. The following interrelated 

sites located in Payette National Forest tell the 

story of the Chinese miners in the West.

 Ah Toy Garden (Warren vicinity, Idaho 

County) is a terraced garden created by the 

Chinese community to grow vegetables and 

fruits so that traditional diets could be 

maintained while community members 

worked the mines around the Warren 

Mining District. One of three such gardens 

in the area, Ah Toy Garden also produced 

vegetables, strawberries, grapes, and 

rhubarb for commercial sale. 

 Celadon Slope Garden (Warren vicinity, 

Idaho County) is the second of three 

terraced gardens on China Mountain in the 

Warren Mining District. It was used by the 

Chinese community until 1902.

 Chi-Sandra Garden (Warren vicinity, Idaho 

County) Chi-Sandra is the third terraced 

garden in the Warren Mining District 

associated with the Chinese miners who 

lived and worked there.

 China Trail (Warren vicinity, Idaho County) 

is a pack trail that connects the three 

terraced gardens on China Mountain. 

Chinese farmers used the trail to move 

produce from the gardens to the mining 

camps and local markets.

 
 Chinese Cemetery (Warren vicinity, Idaho 

County) holds the remains of Chinese 

miners who worked placer claims in the 

Warren Mining District. Although many of 

the bodies have been exhumed and 

returned to China, the Chinese Cemetery 

may hold information about funerary 

practices of Chinese immigrants in Idaho.

 Chinese Mining Camp Archeological Site 

(Warren vicinity, Idaho County) may hold 

information about daily life among the 

Chinese miners. The site contains a the 

remains of a blacksmith forge, a building 

with a kitchen and dining area, a small 

garden, and remnants of placer mines.

Polly Bemis House (Warren, Idaho County)

belonged to a local Chinese woman who lived 

in the area from 1894 to 1933. Built during 

1923 and 1924, her home is an example of a 

whipsawn lumber log cabin. The property 

provides insight into the struggles immigrant 

women faced in the rural Northwest in the 

early 20th century.

Moore Gulch Chinese Mining Site (Pierce, 

Clearwater County) may yield important 

information about the mining techniques of 

Chinese immigrants. The site contains living 

quarters, mine tailings, ditches, and other 

features associated with a mining community 

in the second half of the 19th century. 

Massachusetts

Lowell National Historic Park (Lowell, 

Middlesex County) is known for its 

connections to the rise of the industrial age in 

the United States. It is also a significant site for 

the more recent Cambodian community, 

which is the largest Asian group in the city. 

Cambodian residents and organizations 

cooperate with the park on festivals and the 

park has provided a place for cultural 

organizations to meet and perform.

Minnesota

Jun Fujita Cabin (International Falls, St. Louis 

County) contains architectural elements 

consistent with Japanese country house 

design. The cabin was a retreat and a source 

of inspiration for the owner’s artistic work.

Utah

Golden Spike National Historic Site 

(Promontory Summit, Box Elder County) 

commemorates the completion of the first 

transcontinental railroad and the role of 

Chinese immigrants in its construction. The 

Central Pacific Railroad Company employed 

an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 Chinese 

laborers who built the western portion of 

the transcontinental railroad system. 

Washington

Bainbridge Island Filipino Community Hall 

(Bainbridge Island, Kitsap County) is the first 

Filipino community hall in Washington State. 

Its construction by the Bainbridge Island 

Filipino Farmers’ Association in 1943 

coincided with a rise in the Filipino 

population, who were important contributors 

to the region’s agricultural production.

Chinese Baptist Church (Seattle, King 

County) is linked to the growth of the Chinese 

community in Seattle in the early 20th century. 

The church provided services for the 

community and is a repository of information 

about Chinese immigrants in Seattle. 

Mukai Cold Process Plant (Vashon Island, 

King County) represents the role of Japanese 

immigrants in the development of the 

agricultural industry in early 20th-century 

Washington State. It was a successful plant, 

using new technologies to preserve and 

transport berries to market. 

60 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Appendix | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 61

Nihon Go Gakko (Tacoma, Pierce County) 

also known as the Tacoma Japanese Language 

School, was constructed in 1922 and is one 

of the few remaining buildings associated 

with the Japanese community in Tacoma. It 

served as a center for the Japanese American 

community prior to the outbreak of 

World War II. 

Nihon Go Gakko (Seattle, King County) was 

the oldest functioning Japanese language 

school in the continental United States. 

Established in 1902, the language school 

served the Japanese community until 1942, 

when it was confiscated by the U.S. 

government and turned into an Army training 

center. Twenty-seven Japanese Americans 

families lived temporarily in the building’s 

classrooms after their return from World 

War II internment. 

Nippon Kan Hall (Seattle, King County) was a 

social and cultural center for Japanese 

Americans and served as a hotel for Japanese 

visitors and immigrants and as a theater.

Seattle Chinatown Historic District (Seattle, 

King County), also known as the International 

District, was home to the most extensive Asian 

community in Washington state. It contains 

examples of Asian design aesthetics combined 

with Western architecture, which give the 

district its distinctive character. 

National Historic Landmarks

The following National Historic Landmark 

properties are associated with Asian heritage. 

Each entry is listed by state and includes a 

brief statement of what makes it significant to 

Asian heritage.

Arkansas

Rohwer Relocation Center and Memorial 

Cemetery (Rohwer, Desha County) is one 

of two World War II relocation camps in the 

state. The camp held 8,475 people of Japanese 

ancestry and was occupied for 43 months. The 

site contains two monuments and one of three 

surviving relocation cemeteries. 

California

Gakuen Hall (Walnut Grove, Sacramento 

County) is a surviving example of a Japanese 

culture and language school designed and 

built by the Japanese in response to the 1921 

California public school segregation laws. 

Today it serves as a community center for the 

Japanese American community, including 

residents who originally planned and created 

Gakuen Hall.

Harada House (Riverside, Riverside County) 

was home to the Harada family, who tested the 

constitutionality of anti-alien land laws in the 

United States. In California v. Harada (1916-

1918), the state upheld the right of native-born 

citizens of the United States to own land, 

regardless of ethnicity.

Isleton Chinese and Japanese Commercial 

Districts (Isleton, Sacramento County) was a 

busy multi-ethnic commercial district from the 

late 1890s until the 1940s. The district 

represents a secondary stage of migration for 

Asian immigrants in California. 

Little Tokyo Historic District (Los Angeles, 

Los Angeles County) was the largest Japanese 

community in the United States prior to World 

War II. Vestiges of Japanese ethnic heritage 

still exist at its commercial core, including 

buildings and signage associated with Japanese 

American businesses.
Locke Historic District (Locke, Sacramento 

County) is the most important example of a 

rural Chinese American community in the 

United States. Today’s inhabitants are the 

descendants of Chinese laborers who 

developed the Sacramento-San Joaquin 

River Delta. (Also documented by Historic 

American Buildings Survey.)

Manzanar War Relocation Center 

(Independence vicinity, Inyo County) was the 

first Japanese American internment camp 

created during World War II. The camp 

housed over 10,000 persons of Japanese 

descent, the vast majority of whom were 

American citizens. (Also documented by 

Historic American Buildings Survey.)

Presidio of San Francisco (San Francisco, 

Marin County) includes two buildings 

significant to Japanese American history. 

Building 35 was the site where Executive 

Order 9066 was issued. It served as the 

headquarters for the Western Defense 

Command (WDC), the U.S. Army command 

responsible for implementation and 

enforcement of the order. Building 640 

contained the classrooms for the Military 

Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) 

where MIS and Japanese civilians taught the 

Japanese language to military personnel and 

translated captured documents.

Walnut Grove Chinese American Historic 

District (Walnut Grove, Sacramento County) 

was constructed as a commercial district for 

Chinese agricultural workers in the 

Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region. 

Walnut Grove Japanese American Historic 

District (Walnut Grove, Sacramento County) 

was built and designed by Japanese Americans 

and is associated with the community’s 

agricultural labor in the Sacramento-San 

Joaquin River Delta region.

District of Columbia

United States Supreme Court Building 

(Washington, DC) is significant for its 

association with four cases defending the civil 

rights of Japanese Americans during World 

War II: Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), 

Yasui v. United States (1943), Korematsu v. 

United States (1944), and Endo v. United States 

(1944). Only one of the four cases resulted in a 

successful verdict for its plaintiff.

Federated States of Micronesia

Nan Madol (Madolenihmw, Pohnpei County)

is a 321-acre complex of man-made basalt 

islands and architectural remains built atop an 

atoll. This site may yield information about 

Pohnpeian early history. 

Hawaii

Hokukano-Ualapue Complex (Ualapue 

vicinity, Maui County) contains six temple 

platforms and two fishponds constructed 

between A.D. 1500 and contact with the West 

in 1778. 

Huilua Fishpond (Oahu, Honolulu County) is 

one of the few surviving fishponds out of an 

estimated 97 ponds that once existed along the 

coast of Oahu. These fishponds represent an 

important Hawaiian form of aquaculture—fish 

farms that hatched and raised fish for local 

consumption.

Iolani Palace (Honolulu, Honolulu County) 

was the official residence of the last two rulers 

of Hawaii, King Kalakaua and Queen 

Lili’uokalani, before the transfer of sovereignty 

to the United States in 1898. It is the only 

official royal palace in the United States.

62 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Appendix | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 63

Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement (Kalaupapa, 

Kalawao County) was the site of a leper 

colony, established in 1866, to curb an 

epidemic among native Hawaiians. (Also 

documented by Historic American 

Buildings Survey.)

Kamakahonu (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii County) 

was the home of King Kamehameha I, who 

unified the Hawaiian Islands, from 1812 until 

his death in 1819. This was also the site where 

the first missionaries landed in Hawaii in 1818. 

Keauhou Holua Slide (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 

County) is one of the best-preserved and 

largest holuas, or sled runs, in Hawaii. 

Mookini Heiau (Kohala, Hawaii County) is 

an important religious site for Polynesians in 

Hawaii. It is associated with and located near 

the birthplace of King Kamehameha I, the 

founder of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Puukohola Heiau (Kawaihae, Hawaii County) 

is the site where Kamehameha ascended to 

the kingship of the Hawaiian Islands in 1791. 

The event took place in a temple built by 

Kamehameha to honor the war god, 

Kukailimoku. 

Wailua Complex of Heiaus (Wailua, Kauai 

County) contains important archeological 

remains associated with Hawaiian cultural 

history. The complex includes a petroglyph 

site, four heiaus or shrines, and a bell stone. 

Minnesota

Fort Snelling (Minneapolis, Hennepin County)

was the location for the Military Intelligence 

Service Language School (MISLS). Secondgeneration Japanese Americans, or nisei, as 

well as enlisted European American soldiers, 

served as linguists during the war and trained 

with the MISLS. During 1944-1945, the school 

housed 3,000 students and 160 instructors in 

more than 125 classrooms.

Missouri

Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, St. 

Louis County) houses a Japanese Tea House 

and the largest authentic Japanese garden in 

North America. For the past 27 years, during 

each Labor Day weekend, the site hosts the 

Japanese Festival that celebrates Japanese 

people and culture. (Also documented by 

Historic American Buildings Survey.)

Oklahoma

Fort Sill (Fort Sill, Comanche County) is 

associated with Japanese Americans through 

its use as an internment camp. From March 

1942 until Spring 1943, it held 700 “enemy 

aliens.”

Texas

Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio, Bexar 

County) held 40 Japanese Hawaiians and 300 

Alaskan Eskimos in the camp for nine days 

before they were transferred to Camp 

Lordsburg in New Mexico County during 

World War II.

Historic American Buildings Survey

The following Historic American Buildings 

Survey properties are associated with Asian 

heritage. Each entry is listed by state and 

includes a brief statement of what makes it 

significant to Asian heritage.

California

Auburn-Chinese Section (Auburn, Placer 

County) was home to Chinese laborers 

working on the transcontinental railroad in 

the 1850s and contains buildings associated 

with the Chinese community.
Chinese Joss House (Weaverville, Trinity 

County) is the oldest continuously used 

Chinese temple in California. Built in 1874, 

the “Temple of the Forest beneath the Clouds” 

exhibits traditional Taoist architectural detailing 

and contains artifacts associated with the 

Chinese community in 19th-century California.

Vedanta Society (San Francisco, San 

Francisco County) also known as the Hindu 

Society, was the headquarters and a place of 

worship for followers of Vedantism, a branch 

of Hinduism. Built between 1905 and 1906, 

the building reflects an Asian Indian temple 

design aesthetic. 

District of Columbia

Chinese Community Church (Washington, 

DC) was constructed in 1956 for the 

Chinatown community and made use of 

Chinese design motifs. Today, the church 

serves as a Chinese community center.

Idaho

Chinese Roasting Pit (Salmon vicinity, Lemhi 

County) was used by Chinese miners who 

wintered in and around Salmon during the 

Gold Rush era in Idaho.

New York

Kykuit, Japanese Gardens and Teahouse 

(Pocantico Hills, New York) follows the style of 

a ryoan-ji temple garden, typical of western 

Kyoto. Japanese carpenters and gardeners 

Takahashi and Uyeda designed the gardens 

and the original teahouse, which was 

redesigned by architect Junzo Yoshimura, after 

the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto.

Washington

Kosai Farm (Auburn, King County) is 

important in the political history of Japanese 

Americans because it served as the basis for 

a legal case that challenged the state’s AntiAlien Land Law.

Historic American Engineering Record

The following Historic American Engineering 

Record properties are associated with Asian 

heritage. Each entry is listed by state and 

includes a brief statement of what makes it 

significant to Asian heritage.

Hawaii

Hanalei Pier (Hanalei, Kauai County) is one of 

the last vestiges of rice production in Hawaii 

and is significant for its role in agricultural and 

transportation history. Chinese and Japanese 

rice producers used the pier to transport their 

crop to markets on other islands and on the 

United States mainland.

Washington

Chinese Workers House (Port Gamble, 

Kitsap County) provided segregated housing 

accommodations for Chinese workers of the 

logging industries at Port Gamble, who were 

part of a larger workforce that included 

Hawaiians. Many of the Chinese served as 

cooks for the other laborers.

64 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Burton, Jeffery F., Mary M. Farrell, Florence 

 B. Lord, and Richard W. Lord. Confinement 

and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II 

Japanese American Relocation Sites, 

Publications in Anthropology 74. Tucson, AZ: 

U.S. Department of the Interior, National 

Park Service, Western Archeological and 

Conservation Center, 1999.

Chan, Sucheng. Asian Americans: An 

 Interpretive History. Twayne’s Immigrant 

History of America Series, New York: 

Twayne Publishing, 1991.

—. This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in 

California Agriculture, 1860-1910. Los 

Angeles and Berkeley: University of 

California Press, 1991.

Chinese Historical Society of America. 

Chinese America: History and Perspectives. 

The Journal of the Chinese Historical 

Society of America. Multiple volumes.

Cohen, Lucy M. Chinese in the Post-Civil 

 War South: A People Without a History. 

Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University 

Press, 1984.

Coolidge, Mary Roberts. Chinese Immigration. 

 New York: Holt and Company, 1909.

Conroy, Hilary. The Japanese Frontier in 

 Hawaii, 1868-1898. Los Angeles and 

Berkeley: University of California 

Press, 1953.

Daniels, Roger. Asian America: Chinese and 

 Japanese in the United States Since 1850. 

Seattle: University of Washington 

Press, 1988.

Dubrow, Gail, with Donna Graves. Sento 

 at Sixth and Main: Preserving Landmarks of 

Japanese American Heritage. Seattle: Seattle 

Arts Commission [University of 

Washington Press], 2002.

Espina, Marina. Filipinos in Louisiana. New 

 Orleans, LA: A.F. Laborde and Sons, 1988.

Espiritu, Yen Le. Filipino American Lives. 

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.

—. Asian American Panethnicity: Bridging 

Institutions and Identities. Philadelphia: 

Temple University Press, 1992.

Kim, Hyung-chan. Asian American Studies: An 

 Annotated Bibliography and Research Guide. 

Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 

1989.

—. Dictionary of Asian American History. 

Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1986.

Kitano, Harry. Japanese Americans: The 

 Evolution of a Subculture. Englewood Cliffs, 

NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976.

Kitano, Harry H. L. and Roger Daniels. 

Asian Americans: Emerging Minorities. 

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1988.

Lancaster, Clay. The Japanese Influence in 

 America. New York: W. H. Rawls [Twayne 

Publishers], 1963.

Lai, Him Mark. Becoming Chinese American: 

 A History of Communities and Institutions. 

Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira, 2004.

Selected Bibliography

Appendix | Selected Bibliography 65
—. From Overseas Chinese to Chinese 

America: A History of the Development 

of Chinese Society During the Twentieth 

Century. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing 

Company, 1992.

—. A History Reclaimed: An Annotated 

Bibliography of Chinese Language Materials 

on the Chinese in America. Los Angeles: 

Asian American Studies Center, University 

of California Los Angeles, 1986.

 —. “Chinese.” In Stephan Thernstrom, editor, 

Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic 

Groups. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 

1980, 217-234.

Lazzerini, Edward J. The Asian Peoples of 

 Southern Louisiana: An Ethnohistory. 

New Orleans: University of New Orleans, 

Center for the Pacific Rim, 1990.

Lee, Joann Faung Jean. Asian American 

 Experiences in the United States: Oral 

Histories of First to Fourth Generation 

Americans From China, the Philippines, 

Japan, India, the Pacific Islands, Vietnam, 

and Cambodia. Jefferson, NC: McFarland 

and Company, 1991.

Lee, Rose Hum. The Chinese in the United 

 States of America. Hong Kong: Hong Kong 

University Press, 1960.

Lowe, Lisa. Immigrant Acts: On Asian 

 American Cultural Politics. Durham, NC: 

Duke University Press, 1996.

Mangiafico, Luciano. Contemporary American 

 Immigrants: Patterns of Filipino, Korean, 

and Chinese Settlement in the United States. 

New York: Praeger Publishing, 1998.

Odo, Franklin, editor. The Columbia 

 Documentary History of the Asian American 

Experience. New York: Columbia University 

Press, 2002.

Okihiro, Gary Y. The Columbia Guide to Asian 

 American History. New York: Columbia 

University Press, 2001.

Okihiro, Gary Y., editor. Privileging Positions: 

 The Sites of Asian American Studies. 

Pullman: Washington State University 

Press, 1995.

Okihiro, Gary Y., Shirley Hune, Arthur A. 

 Hansen, and John M. Liu, editors. 

Reflections on Shattered Windows: Promise 

and Prospects for Asian American Studies. 

Pullman: Washington State University 

Press, 1988.

Takaki, Ronald. Strangers From a Different 

 Shore: A History of Asian Americans. 

Boston: Little, Brown, 1989. 

Tchen, John Kuo Wei. New York Before 

 Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of 

American Culture, 1776-1882. Baltimore: 

Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Upton, Dell, editor. America’s Architectural 

 Roots: Ethnic Groups That Built America. 

New York: Preservation Press, 1986.

Wegars, Priscilla, editor. Hidden Heritage: 

 Historical Archaeology of the Overseas 

Chinese. Amityville, NY: Baywood 

Publishing Company, 1993.

66 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Since 1790, federal legislation has been 

enacted to prevent people of Asian descent 

from being fully active participants in 

American society. This listing of federal 

legislation against Asian and other nonwhite 

persons does not include the numerous state 

and local laws designed to discriminate 

against Asian groups in those jurisdictions.

Naturalization Act, 1790: The law established 

two years of residence and that the individual 

must be a “free white person” as requirements 

for citizenship.

An Act to Prohibit the “Coolie Trade” by 

American Citizens in American Vessels, 1862: 

The act intended to curtail the “coolie” trade, 

indentured Chinese labor used by the British, 

as a source of cheap labor. It coincides with 

the Civil War and the issue of slave labor in 

the United States.

Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. 

Constitution, 1868: Intended to protect the 

rights of African Americans against legislation 

from individual states, Section 1 of the 

Fourteenth Amendment was invoked to 

overturn many West Coast discriminatory 

laws targeted at Asian Americans. It protected 

the rights of “any persons” to due process and 

equal protection, clarifying the boundaries of 

constitutional safeguards for everyone in the 

United States.

Burlingame-Seward Treaty, 1868: The treaty 

allowed for free migration and emigration 

between China and the United States but upheld 

the decision not to allow naturalization of 

Chinese as United States citizens, and vice versa.

An Act Supplementary to the Acts in Relation 

to Immigration, a.k.a. the Page Law, 1875: 

Purported to deter the importation of 

women for prostitution, it effectively deterred 

female Asian immigrants and hindered the 

development of Asian communities in the 

United States for decades.

An Act to Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations 

with Relation to Chinese, a.k.a. the Chinese 

Exclusion Act, 1882: The Exclusion Act 

established a precedent for excluding or 

limiting immigration from Asian countries 

over the first decades of the 20th century. The 

first legislation to exclude immigrants on the 

basis of nationality, ethnicity, or race, it was 

directed at the Chinese. It prohibited Chinese 

laborers from entering the country for 10 years 

and reversed important sections of the 

Burlingame-Seward Treaty. 

Foran Act Prohibiting Contract Labor, 1885: 

This act outlawed the payment of 

transportation costs for contract laborers 

prior to immigration. It was intended to 

limit Asian immigration beyond the Chinese 

Exclusion Act of 1882. 

Hawaii Constitution, a.k.a the Bayonet 

Constitution, 1887: In addition to shifting 

economic and political power from the native 

monarchy to the U.S. government, it officially 

disenfranchised the Asian populations already 

present on the island and particularly the 

incoming Japanese émigrés. The constitution 

limited voting rights to native Hawaiians, 

Americans and Europeans, had a tax 

requirement, and required a reading test 

for men under the age of 47.

List of Federal Legislation related to 

Asian Groups in the United States

Appendix | List of Federal Legislation related to Asian Groups in the United States 67
An Act to Prohibit the Coming of Chinese 

Laborers to the United States, a.k.a. the 

Scott Act, 1888: Intended to prevent 

reentry of those Chinese laborers who had 

temporarily returned to their homeland, the 

Scott Act was the next step toward ending all 

Chinese immigration. It rendered null and 

void the certificates secured by the laborers 

to ensure their lawful return.

An Act to Prohibit the Coming of Chinese 

Persons into the United States, a.k.a. the 

Geary Act, 1892: The act extended all 

appropriate legislation, including the 

Exclusion Act of 1882, for another 10 years, 

and required all Chinese to acquire certificates 

of eligibility within one year.

Treaty of Peace between the United States 

and Spain, a.k.a. the Treaty of Paris, 1898: 

The treaty gave the United States possession 

of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Mariana 

Islands, and the Philippines in exchange for 

$20 million. This put the Filipinos under 

United States rule, after fighting side-by-side 

to remove Spanish control.

The Annexation of Hawaii, 1898: Despite 

not having the necessary two-thirds majority 

in the Senate to approve annexation, the 

Hawaiian territory was annexed all the 

same because of its strategic location and 

vulnerability to imperialists’ powers. In the 

legislation, reference is made to the growing 

competition with Japan that would later affect 

Japanese Americans after the turn of the 

century. 

An Act to Provide a Government for the 

Territory of Hawaii, a.k.a. the Organic Act 

of 1900: The act formally made Hawaii a 

territory of the United States and all citizens 

subject to U.S. laws. It provided U.S. 

citizenship for all recognized residents of 

Hawaii as of the annexation of 1898 and those 

born on the Islands after annexation. 

Executive Order No. 589, a.k.a the 

Gentlemen’s Agreement, 1907: Through 

a series of notes exchanged between the 

United States and Japanese governments, 

Japan agreed to stop issuing passports for 

laborers seeking to go to America. Parents, 

spouses, and children of Japanese already in 

the country were allowed to emigrate. The 

Executive Order was intended to quell 

anti-Japanese sentiment in California, while 

maintaining good relations with Japan. The 

order stopped short of passing legislation 

barring immigration, mollifying the Japanese 

government, a growing power in Asia and 

the Pacific.

The Immigration Act of 1917, a.k.a. the 

Barred Zone Act: Using circumlocution—

avoiding direct reference to the excluded 

nations and nationalities—the act bars the 

immigration of peoples between specific 

longitudes and latitudes. The established 

“zone” included all of South Asia, parts of 

Russia and the Middle East, Afghanistan, 

and the Polynesian islands. Because it was a 

United States territory, the Philippines was 

exempt from the act.

The Emergency Quota Act, a.k.a. the 

Immigration Act of 1921: In response to 

increased immigration to the United States 

as a result of World War I, this act limited 

immigration to the U.S. to 3 percent of the 

number of persons from that country present 

as of the 1910 census. This act laid the 

groundwork for the National Origins Act 

of 1924.

68 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
An Act Relative to the Naturalization and 

Citizenship of Married Women, a.k.a. the 

Cable Act, 1922: The act decreed that 

United States female citizens would have 

their citizenship stripped if they married 

aliens ineligible for citizenship. The legislators 

and this legislation reflected the concerns 

about not only who entered the country, but 

how the aliens would alter the complexion 

of American society.

National Origins Act: An Act to Limit the 

Immigration of Aliens Into the United States, 

and for Other Purposes, a.k.a. the 

Immigration Act of 1924: This federal law 

set numeric quotas on foreign immigrants, 

defining the nation’s immigration policy 

for much of the 20th century. The act 

discriminated against Asians and Pacific 

Islanders, excluding them as “aliens ineligible 

to citizenship.”(Minimum quota of any 

nationality was 100.) In favoring northern 

and western Europeans, the act humiliated 

the expanding Japanese empire and may be 

viewed as an important link in a chain of 

events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Tydings-McDuffie Act, a.k.a. the 

Philippines Independence Act, 1934: This 

legislation provided independence for the 

Philippines and moved them from “American 

nationals” into the category of “aliens 

ineligible for citizenship.” The act ensured the 

continued privilege of United States business 

interests in the Philippines and limited Filipino 

immigration to the United States. The TydingsMcDuffie Act set an immigration quota of 50 

Filipinos per year and was the end result of 

nearly 20 years of legislative maneuvering to 

end Filipino immigration while maintaining 

the United States’ position in the Philippines.

Filipino Repatriation Act, 1935: As an attempt 

to encourage the emigration of the 45,000 

remaining Filipinos throughout the United 

States, the act offered free transportation to 

any Filipino, except those in Hawaii, willing to 

return to Manila. Fewer than 2,200 accepted 

the offer.

Executive Order Authorizing the Secretary of 

War to Prescribe Military Areas, No. 9066, 

1942: In response to the United States 

entrance into World War II, President 

Roosevelt authorized the Secretary of War to 

put areas under military authority. The effect 

of the order was that people of Japanese 

descent were removed from the coastal areas 

of the western United States. Executive Order 

9066 is connected to several other laws that 

provided legal cover to forcibly relocate 

Japanese Americans to centers through the 

country.

Public Law 77-503, 1942: Enacted to support 

Executive Order 9066, the law made the 

violation of military orders a federal offense 

punishable with a $5,000 fine and one-year 

imprisonment.

An Act to Repeal the Chinese Exclusion Acts, 

to Establish Quotas, and Other Purposes, 

a.k.a. the Magnuson Act, 1943: President 

Roosevelt repealed the original 1882 Exclusion 

Act and all subsequent acts preventing the 

immigration of Chinese to the United States 

and naturalization of Chinese residents. This 

act was passed during World War II, marking a 

change in federal policy regarding Chinese in 

particular and Asians in general.

Appendix | List of Federal Legislation related to Asian Groups in the United States 69
Public Law 79-271, a.k.a. the War Brides Act, 

1945: This legislation provided for non quota 

admission of foreign women who married 

American servicemen overseas during and 

after World War II. This law affected Chinese 

American communities, where servicemen 

married Chinese women after World War II 

and during the Korean War. 

Philippines Veterans Rescission Act, 1946: 

Over 400,000 Filipino veterans served in the 

U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. 

Congress passed an act that singled out 

Filipinos to be denied a variety of benefits 

received by other foreign troops who served. 

It is estimated that the monies due to Filipino 

servicemen for back pay under Missing 

Persons Act, mustering-out pay, and disability 

support may be in excess of $1 billion today.1

Filipino and Indian Immigration and 

Naturalization Act, a.k.a. the Luce-Cellar Act, 

1946: The Filipino and Indian Immigration 

and Naturalization Act extended American 

citizenship to Filipino and Asian Indian 

residents in the United States who arrived 

prior to March 24, 1943. The immigration 

quota for each was increased to 100 people 

a year.

McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality 

Act, 1952: The act eliminated all restriction 

on naturalization of Japanese immigrants and 

equalized policies dealing with gender. It 

eliminated the “barred zone,” but created the 

“Asia-Pacific Triangle,” which kept quotas at 

2,000 people total for the nineteen countries 

within the triangle.

An Act to Amend the Immigration and 

Nationality Act, and for Other Purposes, a.k.a. 

the Immigration and Nationality Act, 1965: 

The most far-reaching and important revision 

of American immigration policy since the 

Immigration Act of 1924, the act removed the 

discriminatory elements of the previous acts 

directed at people of color. Immigration was 

increased to a total of 170,000 per year, with 

20,000 immigrants from each of the nations 

in the eastern hemisphere previously 

excluded. The act provided immigration and 

naturalization to relatives of United States 

citizens without quotas or limitations and was 

responsible for the rapid increase in the Asian 

American population in the United States 

since 1970. 

Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance 

Act, 1975: In response to the United States’ 

retreat from Vietnam and the need to assist 

those in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos who 

supported the nation’s effort, the Indochina 

Migration and Refugee Assistance Act sought 

to provide for resettlement of the refugees in 

receiving or staging centers throughout the 

United States. In the 10 years following the act, 

750,000 refugees entered the country.

Public Law 100-204, sections 904, 905, and 

906, a.k.a. Southeast Asian Refugee Acts, 

1987: These acts expanded upon the 

Indochina Refugee Act of 1975 by addressing 

Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees 

in the asylum camps throughout Thailand and 

other Southeast Asian countries and the 

relocation of the refugees to the United States. 

The acts acknowledged the need to provide 

entry to children born to American fathers 

and Vietnamese mothers.

70 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Public Law 1000-383, a.k.a. the Civil Liberties 

Act, 1988: Twenty years of agitation on behalf 

of those Japanese Americans interned in 

World War II led to passage of the Civil 

Liberties Act. The act provided for an official 

apology from the Federal Government and a 

redress payment of $20,000 for each internee 

alive at the time of signing. Aleut Indians, who 

were also removed from their homelands for 

military purposes, received $12,000 for each 

survivor. Surviving Japanese Latin Americans 

interned in the United States later sued 

successfully for redress as well, and received 

$5,000 payments.

Executive Order Increasing Participation of 

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in 

Federal Programs, No. 13125, 1999: 

Representing the first executive order focusing 

on Asian Americans since Executive Order 

9066, the directive established an interagency 

team and a Presidential Advisory Committee 

on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. It 

also solicited data on ways federal agencies 

might assist underserved Asian Pacific 

American communities.

Endnote

1. The figure of $1 billion comes from Franklin 

Odo, ed. The Columbia Documentary History 

of the Asian American Experience (New York: 

Columbia University Press, 2002), 320.

Bibliography

Chan, Sucheng. Asian Americans: An Interpretative 

 History. Twayne’s Immigrant History of America 

Series, New York: Twayne Publishing, 1991.

Odo, Franklin, ed. The Columbia Documentary 

 History of the Asian American Experience. 

New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Thernstrom, Stephen, ed. Harvard Encyclopedia 

 of American Ethnic Groups. Cambridge, MA: 

Belknap Press, 1980.

Appendix | List of Federal Legislation related to Asian Groups in the United States 71
Index

A

AAPI (Asian American/Pacific Islander), population 

statistics, 7

An Act Relative to the Naturalization and Citizenship 

of Married Women (a.k.a. Cable Act, 1922), 69

An Act Supplementary to the Acts in Relation to 

 Immigration (a.k.a. the Page Law, 1875), 24n34, 

67

An Act to Amend the Immigration and Nationality 

 Act (a.k.a. Immigration and Nationality Act, 

1965), 70

An Act to Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations with 

 Relation to Chinese (a.k.a. Chinese Exclusion 

Act, 1882), 9, 67

An Act to Prohibit the Coming of Chinese Laborers 

to the United States (a.k.a. Scott Act, 1888), 68

An Act to Prohibit the Coming of Chinese Persons 

 into the United States (a.k.a. Geary Act, 1892), 

68

An Act to Prohibit the “Coolie Trade” (1862), 67

An Act to Provide a Government for the Territory of 

Hawaii (a.k.a. Organic Act of 1900), 9, 11, 68

An Act to Repeal the Chinese Exclusion Acts (a.k.a. 

Magnuson Act, 1943), 69

Adams, Ansel, 55n13

Agricultural Workers League, 11

Ah Toy Garden, 45, 59

Akizaki, Rev. Yoshio, 30

Alaska, 10, 27, 30–31, 40, 57

American Samoa, 5, 11, 12, 57

Amerind migration, 21n1

Angel Island Immigration Center, 11, 51–53, 56n17, 

56n18

Angkor Dance Troupe, 44

Annexation of Hawaii (1898), 68

Anti-Alien Land Law (Washington), 61

archeological sites, 17, 23n29, 24n38, 31, 48, 57, 58, 

60, 62, 63

architectural influences

 Chinese, 6, 13, 14, 35–36, 37, 59, 64

 Japanese, 4, 13, 28–30, 40n3, 58-61

Arizona, 50–51

Arkansas, 50–51, 61

Asian American, defined, 4, 19, 56n16

Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI), population 

statistics, 7

Asian American Studies, 4, 17-19

Asian Indians, 3, 7, 10-11, 13, 23n24, 23n25, 64

assembly centers (map), 15

assimilation, 8, 17, 24n33

Auburn-Chinese Section, 63

B

Bainbridge Island Filipino Community Hall, 60

Barred Zone Act of 1917, 10, 68

Battle of New Orleans, 3

Bayonet Constitution (1887), 67

Bemis, Polly, House, 60

benevolent societies, 9

Bon Om Puk (Water Festival), 54n3

“Brain drain” phenomenon, 23n25

Brunei, 5

Buddhism, 4, 13, 57, 58, 59

Building 35 (Western Defense Command), 32, 62

Building 640 (Presidio Language School), 15, 32, 33, 

62

Burlingame-Seward Treaty (1868), 67

Burton, Jeffrey F., 65

C

Cable Act (1922), 69

California 

 agriculture, 2, 3, 8-11, 18, 41n22, 41n24

 fishing, 8, 48-49, 55n11, 55n12

 historic sites, 12, 15, 17, 24n26, 24n38, 37, 57, 61-64

 internment/relocation, 15, 27, 32-33, 50-51, 

55n13, 55n14, 56n16

mining, 8, 22n14, 22n15

 railroads, 2, 9

 settlement in, 6-7

 see also Angel Island, Asian American 

Studies, Presidio

California Foreign Miners’ Tax (1850), 22n15

“California thesis”, 18

California v. Harada (1916-1918), 61

calligraphy (Chinese), 37, 52–53

Cambodia, 5

Cambodians, 3, 7, 14, 15, 43-44, 54n1, 60, 70

72 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Canada, 6, 10

canning industry, 10, 30, 37

Carr, Florence, 29, 40n4

Castroville Japanese Language School, 57

Celadon Slope Garden, 45, 59

cemeteries, 45-46, 54-55, 61

Central Pacific Railroad, 2, 8, 60

census, U.S., 6-7, 21n8

Chamorro people, 12, 23n29, 58

Chan, Dr. Pak-Chue, 36

Chan, Sucheng, 18, 22n13, 25n47, 40n15, 65, 71

Chee Kung Tong House, 6, 58

Chee Ying Society, 58

Chi-Sandra Garden, 45, 59

China, 5

China Camp State Park, 48

China Mountain, 45–46, 54n6, 59

China Trail (Old), 45-46, 54, 59

Chinatown Historic District, 58

Chinatowns, 14, 17, 35–36, 58, 61

Chinese

 agriculture and, 2, 3, 8, 35, 37, 38, 41n22, 41n24, 

46–47, 54n6, 55n8, 59,64

 architecture, 6, 13, 14, 35–36, 37, 59, 64

 benevolent societies, 9

 Boy Scouts, 36

 burial practices, 54n7, 60

 census, U.S. (2000), 7

 districts of origin, 8, 37, 41n17, 49, 54n6

 fishing, 30-31, 48-49, 57

 hegemony, 23n28

 in lumber camps and mills, 2, 8, 64

 miners, 8, 22n15, 24n28, 45-46, 59-60, 64

 poems (at Angel Island), 52-53

 railroad labor, 2, 8, 60, 63

 religious practices, 13-14, 35-36, 60, 64

 sailors, 2, 8, 21n2

 soldiers, 3

 students, 3

 see also diaspora, individual historic sites

Chinese Baptist Church, 60

Chinese Cemetery, 45–46, 54n7, 60

Chinese Community Church, 13, 35–36, 64

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, 9, 67

Chinese Historical Society of America, 66

Chinese Joss House, 64

Chinese Mining Camp Archeological Site, 45, 60

Chinese Roasting Pit, 64

Chinese Tong Houses of Maui Island, 6, 58

Chinese Workers House, 64

Choy, Paul, 52

Christian churches, 13–14, 23n32

citizenship, 24n34, 25n40, 29, 34, 61, 67-70

Civil Liberties Act (1988), 71

Civil War, 3, 65, 67

Cohen, Lucy M., 65

Colorado, 50–51

community centers, 13-14, 57-61, 64

Conroy, Hilary F., 22n17, 65

Coolidge, Mary Roberts, 18, 25n46, 65

countries, Asian (map), 5

cultural differences, 16–17

cultural landscape, 13–20, 39

D

Daifukuji Soto Zen Mission, 58

Daniels, Roger, 65

De Unamumo, Pedro, 2

Defense Language Institute, 33

desegration, 34–35

detention centers, see Angel Island

diaspora, Asian, 6, 9, 12, 30, 58

discrimination, 7, 16, 18, 20, 23n33, 25n52, 67-71

District of Columbia, 13-14, 35-26, 62, 64

dou gong, 13

dragon boats, 44

Dubrow, Gail, 17–18, 25n44, 32, 40n12, 65

E

Eden Center, 7

edgenailing, 49

education, 34–35, 58

Emergency Quota Act (a.k.a Immigration Act of 

1921), 68

enclaves, ethnic, 9-10, 14, 16, 17; see also Chinatowns, 

Japantowns

Endo v. United States (1944), 62

Index | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 73
Eskimo-Aleut migration, 21n1

Espina, Marina, 65

Espiritu, Yen Le, 24n33, 25n52, 25n53, 65

ethnicity, definitions, 21

Exclusion Act of 1882, 46, 52

Executive Order 589 (a.k.a. Gentlemen’s Agreement, 

1907), 9, 10, 22n22, 68

Executive Order 9066 (1942), 9, 32, 62, 69

Executive Order 13125 (1999), 70

exhumation, 54n7, 60

F

Fafai Beach Site, 58

Faga Village Site, 57

faluw, 57

Farrell, Mary M., 66

Federal Writers’ Projects (WPA), 54n4

Filipino and Indian Immigration and Naturalization 

Act (a.k.a. Luce-Cellar Act, 1946), 70

Filipino Repatriation Act (1935), 69

Filipino Social Club, 30

Filipino Varsity Four, 3

Filipinos

 agriculture and, 2, 3, 11, 60

 Bainbridge Island Filipino Community Hall, 60

 census, U.S. (2000), 7, 11

 fishing industry, 30-31, 57

 immigration patterns, 11

 labor unions, 23

 sailors, 2, 21n11, 57

 soldiers, 3

 students (pensionados), 3

firebending, 49

fishing industry, 8, 30–31, 48–49, 55n12, 57, 62

Flores, Pedro, 4

Foran Act Prohibiting Contract Labor (1885), 67

Fort Sam Houston (Texas), 63

Fort Sill (Oklahoma), 63

Fort Snelling (Minnesota), 63

Fourteenth Amendment, U.S. Constitution, 34, 67

Fourth Army Intelligence School, 33

Friendship Archway, 13

Fujita, Jun, 28–29, 40n2, 60

funerary practices, 54n7, 57, 60

G

Gadao’s Cave, 58

Gakuen Hall, 61

gardens

 Chinese, 45-46, 54n6, 59

 Japanese, 59, 63, 64

Guam, 5

Geary Act (1892), 68

Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, 9, 10, 22n22, 68

gold rush, 8, 46, 57, 64

Golden Spike National Historic Site, 60

Gong Lum, et al v. Rice, et al, 34

Grace Quan, 49, 55n1

Graves, Donna, 18, 25n44, 40n12, 65

Guam, 9, 11, 23, 58

“Guardian of the West Gate”, 52

gum saan (“Gold Mountain”), 8

H

haiku, 28, 40n1

Hanalei National Wildlife Reserve, 46–47

Hanalei Pier, 38, 64

Harada House, 61

Haraguchi Rice Mill, 46–47, 55n9, 58

Hawaii/Hawaiians, 

 agriculture, 2, 8-11, 13, 38, 41n24, 46-47, 

 58, 64

 census, U.S. (2000), 6, 7

 fishing, 62

 historic sites, 6, 13, 27, 29-30, 38, 46-47, 

58-59, 62-63, 64

 laws and legislation, 67, 68, 69

 religious sites, 13-14, 29-30, 58-59, 63

 secret societies – 6, 58

 settlement in, 6, 12, 22n13, 22n14, 23n29

Hawaii Constitution (a.k.a. Bayonet Constitution, 

1887), 67

Hawaii Shingon Mission, 58

Hegemony, 22n22, 23n28

heiaus, 63

highway projects, 9, 22n19, 24n38

Hinduism, 12, 64

74 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Appendix | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 75

Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), 62

Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), 27, 

35–37, 41n20, 41n23, 63–64

Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), 

27, 38, 47, 64

Hmong, 7

Hokukano-Ualapue Complex, 62

holuas, 63

homogenization, 19–20, 25

Hoong Moon Society, 58

horticulture, 4, 9, 59

housing, 14, 28, 40n3, 64

Hudson’s Bay Company, 12

huiguan, 54n7

Huilua Fishpond, 62

Hung Men Society, 58

hybrid cultures, 11, 20; see also pan-Asian culture

I

I Rei To, 50

Idaho, 8, 17, 24, 45–46, 50–51, 54n4, 59–60, 64

immigration

 illegal, 8, 10, 16

 periods of, 7–8

 quotas, 8, 16, 24n34, 68-70

 see also Angel Island, diaspora, laws and 

legislation

Immigration Act of 1917 (a.k.a. Barred Zone Act), 

10, 68

Immigration Act of 1921 (Emergency Quota Act), 68

Immigration Act of 1924 (a.k.a. National Origins 

Act), 4, 10, 23n25, 24n34, 52, 69

Immigration and Nationality Act (1965), 70

Inari (Shinto), 27, 29-30, 40n6, 59

India, 5

Indiana, 40n4

Indians, American, 21n1

Indians, Asian, see Asian Indians

Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 

1975, 43, 54n1, 70

Indonesia, 5

Indonesians, 7, 23n29

intermarriage laws, 16

International District (Seattle), 61

internment, 9, 15, 24n36, 30, 32, 40n11, 50–51, 55n13, 

55n14, 61-63, 69, 71

invisibility, 16–17, 23n27, 23-24n33, 25n52

Iolani Palace, 62

Isleton Chinese and Japanese Commercial 

Districts, 61

isolation centers (map), 15

J

Jap Island, 40n5

Japan, 5

Japanese

 agriculture and, 9, 22n18, 38, 41n24, 46–47, 

55n8, 59-60, 64

architecture, 4, 13, 28-30, 40n3, 58-61

 census, U.S. (2000), 7

 fishing industry, 30-31, 57

 hegemony, 22n22

 horticulture, 9, 59

 issei, 55

 in lumber camps and mills, 2, 9

 nisei, 15, 33, 51, 63

 prefectures, 9, 22n18

 religion, 13, 16, 29–30, 58-59

 soldiers, 3, 63

 students, 3

 see also internment, diaspora, individual 

historic sites

Japanese American National Museum, 51

Japanese American World War II Theme Study, 

32–33

Japanese Americans, 9, 18, 50–51

Japantowns, 9, 17, 22n19, 24n36

Jun Fijita Cabin, 28–29, 40n2, 60

K

Kaifukuji Soto Zen Mission, 58

Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement, 63

Kamakahonu, 63

Kanaka Village, 12

Kawailoa Temple, 13, 59

Keauhou Holua Slide, 63

Ket Hing Society Building, 58

Khmer, 44

Index | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 75
Kim, Hyung-Chan, 19, 22n20, 25n50, 65

Kingsbury, Lawrence, 45, 54–55

Kitano, Harry H.L., 65

Korea, 5

Koreans 

 agriculture and, 2, 9-10

 census, U.S. (2000), 7

 fishing industry, 10, 30-31, 57

 in lumber camps and mills, 10

 religion,10, 14, 23n32

 soldiers, 3

 see also diaspora, individual historic sites

Koreatowns, 14

Korematsu v. United States (1944), 62

Kosai Farm, 64

Kosrae (Micronesia), 27, 31, 40, 57

Kykuit, Japanese Gardens and Teahouse, 64

Kyoto Gardens of Honolulu Memorial Park, 59C

L

labor union movement, 11, 23

Lai, Him Mark, 18, 25n48, 54, 65

Lancaster, Clay, 65

land bridge theory, 21n1

language schools, 10, 14, 32-33, 36, 57, 59, 61

Laos, 5

Laotians, 3, 7, 44, 54, 70

laws and legislation, 8-11, 18, 22n115, 22n22, 22n23, 

23n25, 24n34, 25n40, 54n1, 64, 67–71

Lazzerini, Edward J., 66

Lee, High, 9

Lee, Joann Faung Jean, 66

Lee, Rose Hum, 17, 25nn42, 66

Leluh Ruins, 27, 31, 57

Life Interrupted project, 51, 56

Lihue Hongwanji Mission, 59

Little Tokyo Historic District, 61

Locke (California) Historic District, 17, 37, 41, 62

London, Jack, 48, 55n10

Lord, Florence B., 66

Lord, Richard W., 66

Louisiana, 10, 21-22n11

Lowe, Lisa, 25n40, 66

Lowell Folk Festival, 44

Lowell Historic Preservation District, 43–44

Lowell National Historical Park, 15, 44, 60

Luce-Cellar Act (1946), 70

Lum, Gong, 34

lumber camps and mills, 2, 8-10, 64

M

Magnuson Act (1943), 69

Malaysia, 5, 23n29

Mangiafico, Luciano, 66

Manila Men, 21–22n11

Manzanar Relocation Camp, 50–51, 55n13, 56n16, 62

Mariana Islands, 5, 11, 23n29

marriage prohibitions, 22, 24, 70

Marshall Islands, 5, 11

martial arts, 4

Maryland, 10

Massachusetts, 3, 7, 10, 14, 15, 43–44, 54n2, 60

McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality 

Act (1952), 70

medicine, 3, 10

Mexico, 6, 10

Micronesia, Federated States of, 11, 23n29, 27, 31, 

40n9, 57, 62

migration, periods of, 21n1

Military Intelligence Service Language School, 

15, 33, 62, 63

mining, 8, 22n15, 24n28, 45-46, 59-60, 64

Minnesota, 3, 7, 28-29, 33, 60, 63

MISLS (Military Intelligence Service Language 

School), 15, 33, 62, 63

Mississippi, 34–35

Missouri, 63

Missouri Botanical Garden, 63

Montana, 8

Mookini Heiau, 63

Moore Gulch Chinese Mining Site, 60

Muir, John, 48, 55n11

Mukai Cold Process Plant, 60

museums, 46, 58

N

Na-Dene migration, 21n1

76 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Nan Madol, 62

National Historic Landmarks, 27, 31-35, 50, 61–63

National Origins Act (a.k.a. Immigration Act of 

1924), 4, 10, 23n25, 24n34, 52, 69

National Park Service, 4, 27, 54, 57

National Register of Historic Places, 17, 24n37, 

28-31, 45, 50, 57–61

Naturalization Act (1790), 25n40, 67

naturalized citizens, 24n34

Nevada, 8

New Jersey, 10

New York, 10, 64

Nihon Go Gakko, 61

nihonmachi, 17

Nippon Kan Hall, 61

North Pacific Coast Railroad, 2

O

Odo, Franklin, 18, 22n15, 22n23, 24n34, 25n45, 66, 71

Okihiro, Gary, 18, 25n49, 66

Oklahoma, 63

Old China Trail, 45–46, 54, 59

Oregon, 8, 10

Organic Act of 1900, 9, 11, 68

Oroville Chinese Temple, 57

P

Pacific Islands/Islanders, 5, 7, 11-12, 23n29, 23n31, 40n9

Page Law (1875), 24n34, 67

pan-Asian culture, 4, 7, 11,19–20, 25

“Paper families”, 24n34

Payette National Forest, 45–46, 54–55, 59-60

pensionados, 3

petroglyphs, 58, 63

Philippines, 2, 5, 11, 21n2

Philippines Independence Act (1934), 69

Philippines Veterans Rescission Act (1946), 70

pictographs, 58

Pinoy, 11, 20

Plessy v. Ferguson, 34, 40n14

Point Reyes National Seashore, 57

Polynesian migrants, 23n29, 63

population statistics (U.S. Census), 6-7

Presidio, 15, 27, 32–33, 39, 62

prisoner-of-war camp, 52

property ownership prohibition, 24

prostitution, 24, 67

Public Law 77-503 (1942), 69

Public Law 79-271 (a.k.a. War Brides Act, 1945), 

22, 70

Public Law 100-204 (a.k.a. Southeast Asian Refugee 

Acts, 1987), 70

Public Law 1000-383 (a.k.a. Civil Liberties Act, 

1988), 71

Puukohola Heiau, 63

Q

Quan, Frank, 49

R

Racial Desegration in Public Education in the United 

States Theme Study, 34–35, 40n14

“Racialization”, 23–24n33

railroads, 2, 8, 60, 63

Refugee Act of 1980, 54n1

relocation centers, see internment 

rice cultivation and production, 10, 13, 38, 41n24, 

46–47, 55n8, 58, 64

Rohwer Relocation Center, 50-51, 61

Rohwer Veterans Memorial, 51

Rosedale Consolidated High School, 34–35

Rull Men’s Meeting House, 57

S

San Francisco Bay Maritime National Historic 

Park, 48–49

Sanchez, Francisco Quinta, 58

scholarship, on Asians, 17–19

Scott Act (1888), 68

Seattle Chinatown Historic District, 61

secret societies, 58

segregation, 16, 34, 61, 64

Seto Building, 59

settlement patterns, 6, 9, 12, 30, 58

Shingon mission, 58

Shinto, 13, 16, 27, 29–30, 40n6, 59

shoji doors, 59

Shrimp Junk Project, 48–49

shrimping industry, 48–49, 55

Index | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 77
Sikh faith, 10

Singapore, 5

Solomon Islands, 23n23

South Dakota, 9

Southeast Asia Refugee Acts (1987), 70

Southeast Asian Water Festival, 14, 44, 54n3

Stedman-Thomas Historic District, 27, 30–31, 

40n7, 40n8, 57

sugar industry, 8, 9–10, 13, 41n24

syncretism, 20

T

Tacoma Japanese Language School, 61

Taiwan, 5, 23n29

Takahashi Farm, 17, 24n38

Takaki, Ronald, 66

tanka (poetry), 28, 40n1

Taoist architecture, 64

Tchen, John Kuo Wei, 66

tea houses, 63, 64

Teaching with Historic Places, 50–51

Texas, 3, 7, 63

Thailand, 5

Thais, 7

theaters, 59, 61

theme studies, 32–35

Thernstrom, Stephen, 71

tong houses, 6, 58

torii, 30

Toyo Theatre, 59

Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs), 24

transcontinental railroad, 2, 8, 60, 63

Treaty of Peace between the United States and 

Spain (a.k.a. Treaty of Paris,1898), 68

Tydings-McDuffie Act (a.k.a Philippines 

Independence Act, 1934), 69

U

Umatac Outdoor Library, 58

Upton, Dell, 66

U.S. Army 100th Battalion, 51

U.S. Army 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 3, 51

U.S. Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment, 34, 67

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 46–47

U.S. Fourth Army Command, 32-33

U.S. Immigration Station (Angel Island), 51–53

U.S. Supreme Court Building, 62

Utah, 60

V

Vedanta Society, 12, 64

Vietnam, 5

Vietnamese, 3, 7, 44, 54n1, 70

Virginia, 7

Voyagers National Park, 28

W

Wailua Complex of Heiaus, 63

Wakamiya Inari Shrine, 27, 29-30, 59

Walnut Grove Chinese American Historic 

District, 62

Walnut Grove Japanese American Historic 

District, 62

War Brides Act of 1945, 22, 70

“War Relocation Camps” lesson plans, 50-51

Warren Mining District, 17, 24n38, 45–46, 54–55, 

59-60

Washington, 6, 9-10, 12, 17, 57, 60–61, 64

water festival, 14, 44, 54n3,

Wegars, Priscilla, 19, 25n51, 66

Weiss, Alexander, 52

Western Defense Command (WDC), 32, 62

Wing Luke Asian Museum, 46

Wo Hing Society Building, 58

Women’s Army Corps, 51

“Wonder of the Pacific”, 31

Works Progress Administration (WPA), 54n4

World War II, 3, 9, 10, 15, 29, 40, 50-52, 62

worship, buildings and sites, 12-14, 27, 29-30, 35-36, 

57-60, 63-64

WPA Federal Writers’ Projects, 54n4

Wyoming, 50–51

Y

Yasui v. United States (1943), 62

Yip, Christopher, 17, 25n43

yo-yo, 4

yoga, 4

78 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
Index | Asian Heritage in the National Park Service Cultural Resources Program 79

The North Pacifi c Coast Railroad in Corte 

Madera, 2

Migrant laborers in Central Valley area of 

California, 3

The Filipino Varsity Four, 3

Map of Asia, 5

The Chee Kong Tong House, 6

A detail of the Chee Kong Tong House’s 

porch, 6

The Eden Center, located in Falls Church, 

VA, 7 

1921 photograph of a smuggling buggy 

illegally assisting Chinese migrants, 8 

Burial service of High Lee,1891, in 

Deadwood, SD, 9 

Asian Indians, Angel Island Immigration 

Center in San Francisco Bay, 11

The Vedanta Society, San Francisco, CA, 12

The Friendship Archway in Washington, 

DC , 13

Illustrations

The Southeast Asian Water Festival of 

Lowell, MA, 14

Internment camps during World War II, 15 

The Jun Fujita cabin, 28

The Wakamiya Shrine, 29

The Presidio Language School, or Building 

640, 33

The Chinese Community Church of 

Washington, DC, 35

The Chinese Community Church-Chinese 

American Boy Scout troop, 36

Locke, Joe Shoong Chinese School, 37

The Angkor Dance Troupe, Lowell Folk 

Festival in July 2001, 44 

Water Festival in Lowell, MA, dragon boat 

race, 44

Area surrounding the Haraguchi Rice Mill, 

Hanalei Valley on Kauai, 47

Fishing junks, San Francisco Bay, 48
The Grace Quan sails San Francisco Bay, 49

 Japanese Americans at Manzanar, attending 

classes in 1943, 50

I Rei To, or the soul-consoling tower, 50

 The Rohwer Veterans Memorial in 

Arkansas, 51

Angel Island Immigration Station, 52 

Angel Island Immigration Station – Chinese 

carved poems that became part of the historic 

record of the immigration station, 53

80 National Park Service | Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Asian Heritage
A S I A N R E F L E C T I O N S O N 

T H E A M E R I C A N L A N D S C A P E :

IDENTIFYING AND INTERPRETING ASIAN HERITAGE

Brian D. Joyner

Offi ce of Diversity and Special Projects

National Center for Cultural Resources

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

2005