Angel Island
Angel Island
Browsing history channel, I got to view a documentary about Angel Island. First I had no idea where or what this place was, but I found out that this place has so much history. I felt like we need to know about this place as an Asian American. Angel Island is in San Francisco, today it has a great state park and it’s a beautiful place to live in. It has not always been a beautiful place, between 1910 and 1940 this Island was once an Immigration Station. ‘It processed approximately 250,000 Chinese, 150,000 Japanese and smaller number of Korean, Filipino, Asian Indian, Spanish, and Portuguese entering into the United States’ (Hoskins, 2, 2005). Due to the restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, many immigrants spent years on the island, waiting for entry. Asian immigrants went through many troubles. They had a dream when they came to United States, such as helping the family back at home with money and having a better life. Angel Island was a disgusting and harsh place. They unequally treated and processed the Asian immigrants. The Angel Island was not an Immigration Center, It had no authority, Angel Island was a jail that was created and ruled by government who were against immigrants. ‘Angel Island served more as a detention and deportation center than an immigration center’(Lim, 1, 1991). The rejection was very high ‘50,000 came in while perhaps 9,000 were barred, rejection rate of 1 out of 6 which was higher than other immigration stations’ (Yung, the detention barracks, administration buildings, hospital, and powerhouse and a wharf. It had twelve cottages, a laundry, a stable, a carpenter shop, water tank, and a ferry boat’ (Roger, 5, 1997). My source is the poetries that were written by Chinese who has gone through immigration process in Angel Island during early 1900s. ‘There are calligraphy scratched on the wooden walls of Immigration Station, it describes the feelings, experiences and situation of the detainees’
Browsing history channel, I got to view a documentary about Angel Island. First I had no idea where or what this place was, but I found out that this place has so much history. I felt like we need to know about this place as an Asian American. Angel Island is in San Francisco, today it has a great state park and it’s a beautiful place to live in. It has not always been a beautiful place, between 1910 and 1940 this Island was once an Immigration Station. ‘It processed approximately 250,000 Chinese, 150,000 Japanese and smaller number of Korean, Filipino, Asian Indian, Spanish, and Portuguese entering into the United States’ (Hoskins, 2, 2005). Due to the restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, many immigrants spent years on the island, waiting for entry. Asian immigrants went through many troubles. They had a dream when they came to United States, such as helping the family back at home with money and having a better life. Angel Island was a disgusting and harsh place. They unequally treated and processed the Asian immigrants. The Angel Island was not an Immigration Center, It had no authority, Angel Island was a jail that was created and ruled by government who were against immigrants. ‘Angel Island served more as a detention and deportation center than an immigration center’(Lim, 1, 1991). The rejection was very high ‘50,000 came in while perhaps 9,000 were barred, rejection rate of 1 out of 6 which was higher than other immigration stations’ (Yung, the detention barracks, administration buildings, hospital, and powerhouse and a wharf. It had twelve cottages, a laundry, a stable, a carpenter shop, water tank, and a ferry boat’ (Roger, 5, 1997). My source is the poetries that were written by Chinese who has gone through immigration process in Angel Island during early 1900s. ‘There are calligraphy scratched on the wooden walls of Immigration Station, it describes the feelings, experiences and situation of the detainees’