World War II was a watershed event for many of America's
minorities, but its impact on Chinese Americans has been largely
ignored. Utilizing extensive archival research as well as oral
histories and letters from over one hundred informants, K. Scott
Wong explores how Chinese Americans carved a newly respected and
secure place for themselves in American society during the war
years.
Long the victims of racial prejudice and discriminatory
immigration practices, Chinese Americans struggled to transform
their image in the nation's eyes. As Americans racialized the
Japanese enemy abroad and interned Japanese Americans at home,
Chinese citizens sought to distinguish themselves by venturing
beyond the confines of Chinatown to join the military and various
defense industries in record numbers. Wong offers the first
in-depth account of Chinese Americans in the American military,
tracing the history of the 14th Air Service Group, a segregated
unit comprising over 1,200 men, and examining how their war service
contributed to their social mobility and the shaping of their
ethnic identity.
"Americans First" pays tribute to a generation of young men and
women who, torn between loyalties to their parents' traditions and
their growing identification with America and tormented by the
pervasive racism of wartime America, served their country with
patriotism and courage. Consciously developing their image as a
"model minority," often at the expense of the Japanese and Japanese
Americans, Chinese Americans created the pervasive image of Asian
Americans that still resonates today.
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