WEBVTT - How Have Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Helped Shape Civil and Workers' Rights? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:10.600 Hey brain Stuff Lauren Boble Bam here. As anti Asian 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:13.960 hate crimes have surged in the United States, Asian American 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.840 scholars and activists have responded by speaking out about their stories, 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:22.160 which have often been overlooked in textbooks. For the article 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:24.560 this episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.920 Gary Okahiro, Professor Emeritus of International and Public Affairs at 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.320 Columbia University, an author of Margins and Mainstreams Asians in 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:37.760 American History and culture. He said, there are so many 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.400 stereotypes and myths about Asians in America and they really 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:47.040 need to be disabused. According to the census results, twenty 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.800 three million Asian Americans in the United States can trace 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.879 their ancestry to more than twenty countries, and many of 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.080 these individuals have roots in the US that span decades 0:00:56.240 --> 0:01:01.560 and even centuries. But Asian immigrants were denied citizenship for 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.959 much of American history. Their American born children were granted citizenship, 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:10.360 but they themselves couldn't even apply. This dates back to 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.640 the seventeen ninety Nationality Act, which limited citizenship to only 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:19.959 quote free white persons. But after World War One, many people, 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.640 including Asian Americans, were seeking citizenship through the courts by 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:28.200 demonstrating that they were white. Two of the most notable 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.639 were Begot Singh Thinned, a seek immigrant from the Indian 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.280 subcontinent who served in the U. S. Army, and Tokao Ozawa, 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:37.800 an immigrant from Japan who had lived in the US 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:42.360 for twenty years. Both appealed to the Supreme Court on 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:46.280 racial grounds. Ozawa argued in nineteen twenty two that he 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.120 was white because he had adopted American culture. Then Thinned 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.320 argued in nineteen twenty three that he was Caucasian because 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.240 he grew up in the Caucus Mountains. The Court denied 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:01.680 both Thinned and Ozawa's citizenship based on race, yet their 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:06.480 challenges show how Asian Americans resisted laws that limited their naturalization, 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:11.440 believing that they were entitled to their full rights as Americans. Thinned, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.760 who had served in the army, eventually was granted citizenship 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.600 in nineteen thirty six when a bill was passed providing 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.560 citizenship to anyone who would serve. But it wasn't until 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.960 the Immigration and Nationality Act of nineteen fifty two that 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.600 every Asian immigrant finally became eligible for citizenship under the 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:33.720 law of the land. Okahira said, Asians were not immigrants 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:38.079 like Europeans, and unlike Europeans, were never intended to be 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.880 citizens of this country by the founders of this nation. 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.640 But despite all that, they stayed, and they made laws 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:50.040 for them, and their children became American. Another battleground for 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.480 rights took place during World War Two. Following the bombing 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:56.160 of Pearl Harbor, the U. S Government began to fear 0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:00.000 that Japanese Americans were enemy agents of Japan, even though 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:04.160 two thirds of Japanese Americans were American citizens. According to Okahiro, 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.799 there was no evidence to support these claims, and decades later, 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:13.280 Ronald Reagan would declare internment a mistake based solely on race, 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:19.200 implicitly recognizing that these fears were rooted in racism, but 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.560 at the time. As a result, the government ordered a 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.920 hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans to leave their homes 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:29.640 and relocate to internment camps under Executive Order nine zero 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:34.920 six six issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and as 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.800 the war progressed, the government began seeking Japanese Americans from 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.960 the camps to serve in the U. S. Army. The 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.280 government presented residents in the camps with a loyalty questionnaire. 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:50.240 Two questions Questions twenty seven and twenty eight were particularly controversial, 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.120 asking Japanese Americans if they would renounce any loyalty to 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:59.200 Japan and serve in the U. S. Military. About six thousand, 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.920 seven hundred individuals, including a fair number of second generation 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.680 Japanese American men, who became known as the No No Boys, 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:11.840 answered no to both questions, and by answering no, they 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.680 challenged the U. S. Government for depriving them of their 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:19.160 rights and treating them as enemies. O'cahiro said the No 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:23.320 Nos were responding to this illegal confinement of them. There 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.400 was no reason given for their mass confinement. There was 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:32.479 no justification for holding citizens within those camps. For their refusal, 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.920 the No No Boys were incarcerated in a federal penitentiary 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.920 at Fort Leavensworth for the duration of the war. According 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.440 to Oka Hero, who argues that their defiance showed they 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.719 were true Americans. He said, but what they were trying 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.039 to do was to have the US live up to 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.800 its constitution and the promises afforded to all citizens. If 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:58.000 that's not patriotism. I don't know what is beyond both 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.320 of those examples. Filipino amer Gins played a key role 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:05.279 in the labor movement in the US. Filipinos comprised the 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:09.000 third largest group of Asian Americans. The Manila Galleon Trade 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:13.480 brought indentured Filipino workers to Mexico, from where they eventually 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:18.680 made their way to California, Louisiana and beyond. Additionally, Filipino 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.880 indentured workers, along with Chinese and Japanese workers, were brought 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.040 to provide labor to sugar plantations in Hawaii and on 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:30.839 the West Coast. Okay Hero said, Now, these workers who 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.480 came to Hawaii and to the West Coast, over time 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.239 they began to see that they might want to stay 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.200 here in the US. And when they did that, they 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:44.880 began to demand rights. That led to the formation of unions, 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.400 with Filipino farm workers like Larry eat Leon and Philip 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.400 Vera Cruz. Banding together with Mexican civil rights activists Caesar 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.159 Chavez and Delora's Worth, the two boycott non union grape 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:00.599 growers in the Delano Grape Stripe. Thus the United farm 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.159 Workers Movement was born. Leaders like it Leong went up 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.680 and down the coast, from the fields of California to 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:11.479 salmon canning industries in Alaska to organize workers. Okay Hero said, 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.640 this is an amazing thing because agricultural workers were never 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.840 organized by unions until Asians and Mexicans got together and 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:28.760 formed those agricultural unions. Today's episode is based on the 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.159 article five things about Asian American history they don't teach 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.760 in school on how stuff works dot Com, written by 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.680 Terry Yard Lagata. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.040 Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.960 it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts from My 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.240 heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:47.960 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.