The Making of Asian America: A History

Also known as the Immigration Act of 1917, the Barred Zone Act legislation expanded immigration restrictions, targeting the Asia-Pacific region by introducing literacy tests and new categories of inadmissible newcomers.

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banned the immigration of Chinese laborers to the US. Exceptions were made for diplomats and certain professions like merchants and teachers. After the Geary Act's extension, the Act was made permanent in 1904.

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 issued a formal apology to Japanese Americans for their forced removal and imprisonment during World War II, allowing them to obtain reparations.

A “coolie” was an indentured laborer, primarily in or from Asian countries.

Officially called the International Conference of American States in Lima in 1938, the Declaration of Lima set up a Pan-American framework for regional security. Targeting Nazi Germany, it contributed to the subsequent deportation of Japanese Peruvians to the United States.

Named after its Japanese American plaintiff Mitsuye Endo, Ex parte Mitsuye Endo was a Supreme Court decision in December 1944 that argued that the state could no longer detain loyal citizens. The decision did not consider whether the original detention of Japanese American citizens was constitutional.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, authorizing the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the so-called exclusion zones on the Pacific Coast and their placement into “relocation centers” as a “military necessity” during World War II.

The 1892 Geary Act extended legal Chinese Exclusion for another 10 years from the 1882 Exclusion laws.

In 1908, both US and Canada arrived at an informal Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan to restrict Japanese immigration to their respective countries.

“Gunboat diplomacy” was part of American foreign policy, especially in the late 19th to early 20th century. At that time, the United States exercised considerable naval power, and the term refers to the threat of using the military to obtain desirable foreign policy goals, especially in business.

Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) was a legal case in which the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Japanese American Gordon Hirabayashi for breaking the curfews under Executive Order 9066 during World War II.

Also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, the Immigration Act effectively banned immigration from Asia and decreased immigration from Eastern Europe.

Also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act allowed first-generation Japanese and Koreans to naturalize as US citizens.

Also known as the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, the 1965 version of the Immigration and Nationality Act eased immigration requirements for such regions as Asia, making immigration into the United States more diverse.

Korematsu v. United States (1944) was the Supreme Court decision that upheld the conviction of Fred Korematsu for violating the Executive Order 9066 during World War II.

The term “la china poblana” means “the Chinese girl from Puebla”—a symbol of “Mexican womanhood” inspired by the enslaved Asian woman Mirrha-Catarina de San Juan (28). The symbol exalted mixed-race people rather than Asians.

Also known as the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943, the Magnuson Act ended Chinese Exclusion and allowed some Chinese Americans to naturalize as citizens.

The Luce-Celler Act of 1946 allowed South Asians from India and Filipinos to naturalize as US citizens. However, the act had quotas.

Ozawa v. United States of 1922 was a Supreme Court decision that did not allow Takao Ozawa, a first-generation Japanese American, to naturalize as a citizen on racial grounds.

In 1898, the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark ruled that “all persons born in the United States were, regardless of race, native-born citizens” (84). Wong Kim Ark’s case went to the Supreme Court after he was denied reentry to the US even though he was born in San Francisco.

United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind of 1923 was a Supreme Court decision that ruled that Bhagat Singh Thind was not eligible for US citizenship on racial grounds. Thind claimed that he was white because he descended from the Aryans of India. As a result of this ruling, other Southeast Asians were denaturalized.