Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff Lauren Boble Bam here. As anti Asian hate crimes have surged in the United States, Asian American scholars and activists have responded by speaking out about their stories, which have often been overlooked in textbooks. For the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with Gary Okahiro, Professor Emeritus of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, an author of Margins and Mainstreams Asians in
American History and culture. He said, there are so many stereotypes and myths about Asians in America and they really need to be disabused. According to the census results, twenty three million Asian Americans in the United States can trace their ancestry to more than twenty countries, and many of these individuals have roots in the US that span decades and even centuries. But Asian immigrants were denied citizenship for
much of American history. Their American born children were granted citizenship, but they themselves couldn't even apply. This dates back to the seventeen ninety Nationality Act, which limited citizenship to only quote free white persons. But after World War One, many people, including Asian Americans, were seeking citizenship through the courts by
demonstrating that they were white. Two of the most notable were Begot Singh Thinned, a seek immigrant from the Indian subcontinent who served in the U. S. Army, and Tokao Ozawa, an immigrant from Japan who had lived in the US for twenty years. Both appealed to the Supreme Court on racial grounds. Ozawa argued in nineteen twenty two that he was white because he had adopted American culture. Then Thinned argued in nineteen twenty three that he was Caucasian because
he grew up in the Caucus Mountains. The Court denied both Thinned and Ozawa's citizenship based on race, yet their challenges show how Asian Americans resisted laws that limited their naturalization, believing that they were entitled to their full rights as Americans. Thinned, who had served in the army, eventually was granted citizenship in nineteen thirty six when a bill was passed providing
citizenship to anyone who would serve. But it wasn't until the Immigration and Nationality Act of nineteen fifty two that every Asian immigrant finally became eligible for citizenship under the law of the land. Okahira said, Asians were not immigrants like Europeans, and unlike Europeans, were never intended to be citizens of this country by the founders of this nation. But despite all that, they stayed, and they made laws for them, and their children became American. Another battleground for
rights took place during World War Two. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U. S Government began to fear that Japanese Americans were enemy agents of Japan, even though two thirds of Japanese Americans were American citizens. According to Okahiro, there was no evidence to support these claims, and decades later, Ronald Reagan would declare internment a mistake based solely on race, implicitly recognizing that these fears were rooted in racism, but
at the time. As a result, the government ordered a hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans to leave their homes and relocate to internment camps under Executive Order nine zero six six issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and as the war progressed, the government began seeking Japanese Americans from the camps to serve in the U. S. Army. The government presented residents in the camps with a loyalty questionnaire.
Two questions Questions twenty seven and twenty eight were particularly controversial, asking Japanese Americans if they would renounce any loyalty to Japan and serve in the U. S. Military. About six thousand, seven hundred individuals, including a fair number of second generation Japanese American men, who became known as the No No Boys, answered no to both questions, and by answering no, they challenged the U. S. Government for depriving them of their
rights and treating them as enemies. O'cahiro said the No Nos were responding to this illegal confinement of them. There was no reason given for their mass confinement. There was no justification for holding citizens within those camps. For their refusal, the No No Boys were incarcerated in a federal penitentiary at Fort Leavensworth for the duration of the war. According to Oka Hero, who argues that their defiance showed they
were true Americans. He said, but what they were trying to do was to have the US live up to its constitution and the promises afforded to all citizens. If that's not patriotism. I don't know what is beyond both of those examples. Filipino amer Gins played a key role in the labor movement in the US. Filipinos comprised the third largest group of Asian Americans. The Manila Galleon Trade brought indentured Filipino workers to Mexico, from where they eventually
made their way to California, Louisiana and beyond. Additionally, Filipino indentured workers, along with Chinese and Japanese workers, were brought to provide labor to sugar plantations in Hawaii and on the West Coast. Okay Hero said, Now, these workers who came to Hawaii and to the West Coast, over time they began to see that they might want to stay here in the US. And when they did that, they
began to demand rights. That led to the formation of unions, with Filipino farm workers like Larry eat Leon and Philip Vera Cruz. Banding together with Mexican civil rights activists Caesar Chavez and Delora's Worth, the two boycott non union grape growers in the Delano Grape Stripe. Thus the United farm Workers Movement was born. Leaders like it Leong went up and down the coast, from the fields of California to
salmon canning industries in Alaska to organize workers. Okay Hero said, this is an amazing thing because agricultural workers were never organized by unions until Asians and Mexicans got together and formed those agricultural unions. Today's episode is based on the article five things about Asian American history they don't teach in school on how stuff works dot Com, written by Terry Yard Lagata. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and
it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts from My heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.