Books and Articles

During the height of racist anti-Chinese U.S. immigration laws, illegal aliens were able to coime into the united State under false papers identifying them as the sons of those who had returned to China to marry and have children. American Paper Son is the story of one such Chinese immigrant who came to Wichita, Kansas, in 1935 as a thirteen-year-old "paper son" to help in his father;s restaurant there. This vivid first-person account of a hidden chapter in Asian American history addresses multiple themees through the lens of Wong's personal storeis. Wong serverd in an all-Chinese American unit in the U.S. Army 987th Signal Operaction Company (Special) in China during World War II, and he diccussses the impact of race and segregation on his expericence. After the war he found a wife in Taishan, brought her to the United States, and becane involved in the government's infamous Confession program (an amnesty program for immigrants). Wong eventually became a succesful real-estate entrepreneur un Wichita. Rich with poignant insights into the realities of life as a part of a very small Chinese American population in a midwestern town, this memoir provides an important new view of the Asian American experience away from the West Coast. Benson Tong adds a scholary introduyction and useful annotations.

World War II was a watershed event for amny of America's minorities, but its impact on Chinese Amreicans has been largely ignored. Utilizing research as well as oral histories and letters from over one hundred informants, K.Scott Wong explores how Chinese Amrecicans carved a newly respected and secure place for themselves inAmerican socienty during the war years. Long the victims of racial prejudice and idscriminatory immigration practices., Chines eAmericans struggled to transform there image in the nation' eyes. As American s racialized the Japanese enemy abroad and interned Japanese Americans at home. Chinese citizens sought to distinguish themsleves 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. American First pays tribute to the a genration of young men and women who, torn between loyalties to thier parent's traditions and their growing identification with American and tormented by the pervasive racism of wartime America, served their country with pariotism 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 Asain Americans that still resonates today.

The 407th Air Service Squadron Veterans Association was formed in 1946 and is the largest group of Chinese American veterans from any war, to remain in contact as an entire unit. It has long been their goal to publish the unit history, the first ever written by and about Chinese American veterans. The men recognized, even in 1943, that they were a unique group in an extraordinary situation - Chinese Americans, some who had immigrated to the United States less than two years before, sent back to fight a war in China. Therefore, it was decided in the early stages of writing "In the Shadow of the T iger: that the main focus of the book would not be the military aspect of the China theater, but the humanistic side. The men wanted to record their thoughts on being Chinese Americans in the U.S. Armed Forces, their observations and experiences with the people of China, and their return to civilian life in the United States, a country that still had many barriers for Asian Americans. It is with great pleasure that this book will be released in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the 407th's formation. The men hope that it will be a valuable resource for future generations.