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Telling All Americans' Stories





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  Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Theme Studies
 What are National Historic Landmark Theme Studies?
  National Historic Landmarks are often identified through theme studies. Theme studies are an effective way of identifying and nominating properties because they provide a comparative analysis of properties associated with a specific area of American history, such as the fur trade, earliest Americans, women's history, Greek Revival architecture, Man in Space, or labor history. Theme studies provide a national historic context for specific topics in American history or prehistory. In order to make the case for national significance, a theme study must provide that necessary national historic context so that national significance may be judged for a number of related properties.
 front cover of the AAPI theme studyCover, "Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study" *Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study,* visit the series home page    A Brief Glimpse: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study   Front Matter   Table of Contents   Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans Revisited: An Introduction to the National Historic Landmarks Theme Study   Essay 1: Imperialism and Migration   Essay 2: A Sea of Islands: Early Foundations and Mobilities of Pacific Islanders   Essay 3: Archaeological Research on Asian Americans   Essay 4: Immigration, Exclusion, and Resistance, 1800-1940s   Essay 5: Establishing Communities, 1848-1941   Essay 6: Reframe, Recognize, and Retell: Asian Americans and National Historic Sites   Essay 7: Asian American Businesses, 1848 to 2015: Accommodation and Eclectic Innovation   Essay 8: The Architectural Legacy of Japanese America   Essay 9: Sites of Resistance to Imperialism   Essay 10: Asian Americans and World War II   Essay 11: Asian Americans: The Cold War   Essay 12: Pacific Islanders in the US and their Heritage: Making Visible the Visibly Absent   Essay 13: Asian Americans and Cultural Retention/Assimilation   Essay 14: Asian American Activism and Civic Participation: Battling for Political Rights and Citizenship, 1917 to the Present   Essay 15: Asian Immigrants and Refugees: Demographic Transformations in the United States from World War II to the Present   Essay 16: New Asian American Communities: Building and Dismantling   Essay 17: AAPI Political Mobilization and Participation   Appendix 1: Registration Requirements for Designating AAPI Properties National Historic Landmarks   Appendix 2: AAPI National Historic Landmarks Study List   Appendix 3: Sources of Information about AAPI Cultural Resources   Index    Asian American Pacific Islander Theme Study Panel  Milton Chen, Senior Fellow, The George Lucas Educational Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Christine DeLisle, Assistant Professor, American Indian Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Yen Le Espiritu, Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California San Diego
Donna Graves, Historian and Cultural Planner, Berkeley, CA
Robert Hayashi, Associate Professor of American Studies; Chair of American Studies, Amherst College, MA
Michelle G. Magalong, Chair, Asian Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation, Corona, CA
Martin F. Manalansan IV, Associate Professor of Anthropology & Asian American Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Davianna McGregor, Professor, University of Hawai'i
Konrad Ng, Director, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Washington, DC
Franklin Odo, Chair, National Park Service Asian American & Pacific Islander Theme Study, Washington, DC
Karthick Ramakrishnan, Professor and Associate Dean, School of Public Policy, University of California, Riverside
Greg Robinson, Professor of History, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Canada
Khatharya Um, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies Department, University of California Berkeley
Ji-Yeon Yuh, Associate Professor, Department of History, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Helen Zia, author, activist, and journalist, Oakland, CA
Barbara L. Voss, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, CA
Bill Watanabe, Executive Director, Little Tokyo Service Center, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Christopher Yip, Professor, Architecture Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Elaine Jackson-Retondo, National Historic Landmarks Manager, Pacific West Regional Office, National Park Service, San Francisco, CA
Stephanie Toothman, Associate Director, Cultural Resources, Partnerships and Science, National Park Service, Washington, DC
Barbara Wyatt, Historian, National Register/National Historic Landmarks Programs, National Park Service, Washington, DC  Additional theme Studies focusing on Asian American or Pacific Islander heritage:  Civil Rights in America: Racial Voting Rights:The historic context contains separate essays on African American, American Indian, and the Hispanic and Asian American voting rights experience. All three stories begin at a different time period. Registration guidelines then outline how properties may qualify for National Historic Landmark designation under this theme study. Japanese Americans in WWII (.pdf | 9.1MB): This Theme Study identifies, evaluates, and recommends designation as national historic landmarks those sites, buildings, and structures that best illustrate or commemorate the period in American history from 1941 to 1946 when Japanese Americans were ordered to be detained, relocated, or excluded pursuant to Executive Order Number 9066, and other actions. WWII and the American Home Front (.pdf | 7.2MB): This theme study identifies historic places that best represents the wartime mobilization that occurred in the US and its territories between 1939-1945. A section of this four part theme study explores the African American and other minorities' experience during WWII.
 Last updated: June 16, 2023
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