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Spring Semester 2000, Vol. 11, no. 1 Angel Island:
Immigration to America from the West While
Ellis Island is well known in the history of immigration, Angel Island is
often left out of history texts, though it is now a national monument.
Angel Island is an island off the coast of San Francisco used for 30 years
to isolate immigrants at the western point of entry to the United States.
Opening in 1910, the immigrant compound on Angel Island was built
primarily to enforce the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, passed to deny entry
to Chinese people. This denial was based on
fear, ignorance, and the worsening economic conditions of the time.
Unlike Ellis Island, its eastern counterpart, Angel Island served as a
detention compound for many Chinese immigrants. When ships arrived in San Francisco, immigration officials would make an initial inspection of the papers of the people onboard. Those who did not pass inspection were interned on Angel Island for up to twenty-two months. Prospective immigrants were subjected to humiliating medical examinations, the forced separation of males and females, and intolerable living conditions. To verify their status or to prove they were children of U.S. residents, prospective immigrants were subjected to a lengthy and demeaning interrogation process. One interpreter said of his experience "I used to think it was easier to enter the eye of a needle than for a Chinaman to pass through the Golden Gate." Many
of the Chinese detainees at Angel Island expressed their despair at
detention, by writing or carving poems on the walls of their barracks. Not
all were negative, but poem topics included the journey to America, their
hopes and dreams, homesickness, and loneliness. Some walls were so covered
by poems that the original color of the paint cannot be seen: "I
thoroughly hate the barbarians because they do not respect justice. They
continually promulgate harsh laws to show off their prowess. They oppress
the overseas Chinese and also violate treaties, They examine for hookworms
and practice hundreds of despotic acts." The poems at Angel Island are found only in the rooms used by men as the majority of Chinese women could not read or write at the time. These writings would have been lost without their discovery by a U.S. Park Ranger and the efforts of the Asian American community to pressure the government to preserve the site. The inclusion of the story of Angel Island in school curricula will help students learn a broader scope of immigration to the United States. |