Detention Barracks Temporarily Closed Angel Island Education

In The News
Detention Barracks
Temporarily Closed
The barracks at the Angel Island Immigration
Station are temporarily closed due to the restoration work going on inside. State Parks is still
providing tours of the Immigration Station site
for school groups and the public.
Future updates on the restoration work and
the reopening of the Barracks will be available
monthly on AIISF’s web site www.aiisf.org and
in AIISF monthly e-bulletin.
For tour information and reservations, call
Casey Lee at (415) 435-3522 x9.
Angel Island Education
Materials Available
In spring 2003, AIISF partnered with the San
Francisco Chronicle’s Newspapers in Education
program to produce a five-part series on Angel
Island immigration. More than 100,000 lessons
were distributed to participating classrooms
throughout Northern California in addition to
the two and a half million which reached the
Chronicle’s regular subscribers. Teachers can
access these lessons online at AIISF’s website:
www.aiisf.org. AIISF’s comprehensive teacher
curriculum guide “Angel Island Immigrant
Journeys” is in its final production stage and will
be available to teachers shortly. For more information, contact the AIISF office.
Gateway Travels
More than 325,000 people visited Ellis Island
between March -May 2003 during the “Tin See
Do” exhibition. “Tin See Do” featured AIISF’s
“Gateway to Gold Mountain” and Kearny Street
Workshop’s exhibition of Flo Oy Wong’s “made
in usa: angel island shh…” Special thanks
to Verizon and the Organization of Chinese
Americans, Inc. (OCA): Long Island, New
Jersey, New York and Westchester-Hudson Valley
Chapters for their sponsorship of the exhibition
and opening reception; and to our friends at the
National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National
Monument and Ellis Island for making the exhibition and related programming possible.
“Gateway to Gold Mountain” traveled to Butte,
Montana July-September 2003 courtesy of the
Mai Wah Society. Butte was once home to
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
P.O. Box 29237
San Francisco, CA 94129-0237
Montana’s largest Chinese population. While
their numbers may seem small in comparison to
other states at the time, according the 1870 census, Chinese made up ten percent of Montana’s
population. Today, the Mai Wah Society is dedicated to public education about the history, culture and social conditions of Asians in the Rocky
Mountain West.
“Gateway” has now been seen by an estimated one
million people nationwide since its 1996 debut.
Superintendent Franco
Bids Farewell
In August, AIISF said a fond farewell to Nicholas
Franco, superintendent of Angel Island State
Park since 1998. Superintendent Franco’s
commitment to the Immigration Station
and to building a strong partnership between
State Parks and AIISF has brought the restoration project to new heights. While he will be
missed, AIISF wishes him well in his new position as District Superintendent of California
State Parks’ San Luis Obispo Coast District.
Franco’s new duties include oversight of 10 park
units, including Hearst Castle.
Volume 6 No. 1
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ANGEL ISLAND IMMIGRATION STATION FOUNDATION
Fall/Winter 2003
PASSAGES
ON-SITE
PRESERVATION
WORK BEGINS
Visitors to the Immigration Station will find
the Detention Barracks closed, yet through
the windows see a flurry of activity inside.
Indeed something exciting is happening within
the old Barracks. After years of careful study
and planning, the on-site preservation of the
ARG Conservation Services
“The cleaning and additional natural light
will make the poems more legible,” says Evan
Koppelson, conservator and project manager for
ARG Conservation Services, the firm handling
the conservation work. “However, because of
their age and other deterioration factors, the
paint coatings covering the poems are cracked
and peeling. This condition, which interferes
with the legibility of the writings, will not be
changed by the cleaning.”
However, other interpretive aids will additionally enhance the poems according to Dan Quan,
former President of AIISF and the project’s
exhibit designer. Quan has been working with
a team of poetry scholars for the past year.
Together, they are determining which poems the
new interpretation will feature.
Conservator Kelly Wong works to preserve the poetry in the
Detention Barracks
Immigration Station has begun. Conservators
are currently working on the most urgent preservation needs: saving the precious poems and
writings left by immigrants detained at the site.
In order to decide which poems to feature, the
project conservators and scholars first had to
determine what is on the walls. The poetry
team, composed of professors Charles Egan of
San Francisco State University and Wan Liu
Conservators are gently cleaning every inch of
the Barracks’ walls, removing soiling and biological growth that can potentially damage the
paint and carvings. Damaged sections of the
a) to lead the effort to preserve, restore
and interpret Angel Island Immigration
Station, a National Historic Landmark, as
the Pacific gateway for U.S. immigration;
and
b) to promote educational activities that
further the understanding of Pacific Rim
immigration in American history.
ARG Conservation Services
Angel Island Immigration
Station Foundation is a non-profit
organization whose primary goals are:
continued on page 2
MAPPING THE
FUTURE RAISES
NEARLY $100,000
Hilary Smith
walls will be repaired and re-adhered. Work is
also being done to seal the building against the
elements and keep the poems safe. In particular,
repairs are being made to the roof and exterior
walls and weather stripping is being installed
around doors and windows to protect from
water intrusion. New UV-coated glass windowpanes will protect the paint from further deterioration while also allowing in much more light
than do the current opaque plexiglass panes
found in many of the windows.
Former detainee and honorary event committee member
Homer Lee enjoys the evening’s success with Sadako
Tajima (left) and Pat Tajima (right)
AIISF supporters helped raise nearly $100,000
at AIISF’s fall event “Mapping the Future”.
The event honored John Burton, President
Pro Tempore of the California Senate, the
Organization of Chinese Americans, the Look
Lowe Family Trust and former Angel Island
State Park Superintendent Nicholas Franco. The
evening was hosted by ABC7 KGO-TV’s David
Louie and featured a special performance of
excerpts from “Held so Close: remembering
the poets of Angel Island” by Facing East
Dance & Music. Proceeds from the evening
go to AIISF’s 2003 Annual Fund Drive which
supports the organization’s operating expenses
and advocacy work. See additional photos from
the event on page 3.
This delicate drawing of a bird was recently removed from
the Immigration Station Hospital. Archival research mentioning
immigrants marking on the hospital walls as early as 1910 led
to the discovery of this and other drawings and inscriptions
last year. Unfortunately there is currently no funding for the
Hospital building and its plaster walls are rapidly crumbling
due to moisture intrusion. The drawings and writings were
recently removed from the walls for fear that they wouldn’t
survive another winter in the building. Conservators will
treat the plaster sections before placing them in archival
storage at Angel Island. To read more about the delicate
This delicate drawing was recently
operation to save them, visit www.aiisf.org.
removed from this crumbling room in
the Immigration Station Hospital.
President’s Message
Features (cont.)
Dear AIISF Friends and Supporters:
continued from page 1
It has been a whirlwind year for the Angel
Island Immigration Station Foundation
(AIISF). We have started on Phase I of our
restoration plans for the Immigration Station
to be “The Ellis Island of the West,” made possible because of the more than $16 million
we have raised towards the over $40 million
needed to do three phases of restoration. We
have completed a Master Plan through the
dedicated efforts of volunteer professionals.
We started a Descendants’ Club composed of
offspring and other family members of Angel
Island detainees. We raised over $100,000
from our September fundraising dinner
towards our $150,000 Annual Fund goal.
of Stanford University, and independent scholars Newton Liu and Xing Chu Wang, built on
the considerable work done by Him Mark Lai,
Genny Lim and Judy Yung for their book Island:
the History and Poetry of Chinese Immigrants
on Angel Island. The current group of scholars
mapped the wall locations of the poems contained in Island. They also identified and transcribed a large number of previously unidentified poems and inscriptions, though the passage
of time and many layers of paint often made this
work difficult.
We are about to embark on a national campaign to raise awareness and support for our
historic project. We hope to expand our board
and advisory committees in the coming year
to reflect the national breadth of support and
interest in AIISF.
Despite these many successes, the depressed
economic climate has affected our ability to
raise dollars to maintain our office and the
daily activities of our organization. Like most
other non-profit organizations, we find ourselves competing for shrinking foundation and
government dollars.
You have been most generous to our organization in these past few years of dramatic growth
from an all-volunteer organization to a small
office with a staff of three and your support
has been sincerely appreciated. As with projects of this size and scope, we will continue
to need public support to augment our foundation grants and efforts to secure government dollars.
As 2003 comes to an end, we wish you peace
and prosperity for the New Year and ask for
your continued faith in and commitment to
this historic and extraordinary endeavor.
Happy Holidays,
Forrest Gok
President, AIISF Board of Directors
The scholars’ work has also brought about a
greater understanding of the poets and their
creations. “One thing that has been particularly
striking to us as we’ve studied the poems, and
viewed where they were placed on the walls, is
how poetry was in many respects a community
effort - a good poem might inspire a response
by another poet, and ideas, allusions, and even
eloquent wording might be shared,” says Charles
Egan. “I think the most important aspect of the
work our poetry research group is now doing is
in finding and explaining these connections.”
Ultimately, the poems and inscriptions featured in the restored Barracks will be a mix,
all chosen to help the visitor gain a clearer
picture of those whose lives were touched by
their island experience.
As to the poems, some will be chosen for their
literary quality, others for what their content
tells us about the immigrants’ experience. Says
Professor Egan, “To me, eloquent and learned
words are not half as important as sincerity and
emotion. Though some of the authors of the
poems in the barracks did clearly have some
education, while others did not, what makes
all their works so compelling is their obvious
anguish over their lot as prisoners, and their
worries about the future.”
When this first phase of preservation work is
complete, both floors of the Detention Barracks
will be open. The second floor has never been
PRO-BONO SERVICES
AIISF thanks the following individuals and firms for their extraordinary generosity in donating their professional services.
Legal Services
Cary Chern: Heller, Ehrman, White, McAuliffe, LLP • Patrick Gunn & Alex Sears: Cooley, Goodward, LLP
Design and Planning Services
Reed Dillingham: Dillingham Associates • Tod Hara: Moore Iacofano Goltsman Inc. • Stephen Farneth:
Architectural Resources Group • Elizabeth Goldstein • Felicia Lowe: Lowedown Productions • Paul Okamoto:
Okamoto-Saijo Architects • Daniel Quan: Daniel Quan Design • Doug Tom: Tom, Eliot, Fisch • Joyce Vollmer:
Moore Iacofano Goltsman Inc.
Accounting Services
Cathy Cheung, CPA
Graphic Design
Stephen Lowe
Website Development & Maintenance
Gene Moy, Asian Community Online Network (ACON)
2
open to the public. For the first time, visitors will
be able to see writings left behind by immigrants
from nations other than China. Among the languages found on the second floor are Russian,
Punjabi, Hindi, Farsi, and German. The second
floor also contains many inscriptions in Japanese
- not only from the immigrants in the 1910s and
1920s, but also from WWII P.O.W.s and from
nationals awaiting repatriation to Japan in 1946.
The current work is the beginning of Phase I
of a five-phase restoration of the Immigration
Station. Phase I includes the preservation of
the poems and restoration of the Detention
Barracks. Interpretation of the Administration
Building footprint where immigrants were registered, examined and interrogated, will also
take place. Site landscaping, disability accessibility and an upgrade of site utilities round out
the work included in Phase I. Phase I funding
comes from $15 million in bond funds approved
by California voters in 2000, as well as from a
$500,000 Save America’s Treasures grant awarded
to AIISF through the Department of the Interior,
National Park Service.
PASSAGES
A newsletter published by the
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
P.O. Box 29237, San Francisco, CA 94129-0237
(415) 561-2160 info@aiisf.org www.aiisf.org
Editor • Katherine Toy Design • Stephen Lowe
To join AIISF’s monthly e-bulletin email
info@aiisf.org
Board of Directors
Forrest Gok, President
Patty Nishimura Dingle, Vice President
Gale Young, Secretary
Kathy Lim Ko, Treasurer
Felicia Lowe, Past President
Cathy Cheung
Elizabeth Goldstein
Vivek Malhotra
Kathy Owyang Turner
Mina Choo
Tod Hara
Irene Yee Riley
Ginny Yamate
Advisory Board
Him Mark Lai
Dale Minami
Brian O’Neil
Judy Yung
Staff
Katherine Toy, Executive Director
Erika Gee, Director of Education
Margaret Whelly, Office Coordinator
AIISF is a non-profit organization fully qualified
under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
All contributions (including Friends payments)
are tax deductible to the maximum extent
permitted by law. For those wishing to make
larger gifts or contributions, please contact
AIISF for more information.
Thank You
MAPPING THE FUTURE
Title Sponsors
Bank of America • UPS Foundation
Corporate Sponsors
Wells Fargo • Remy Martin
Community Table Sponsors
Hop Wo Benevolent Association • Homer Lee
Table Host Sponsors
ABC7 KGO-TV • Architectural Resources Group
& Tom, Eliot, Fisch • California State Automobile
Association • California State University, Hayward
• Catherine Cheung • Mina Choo & Minsik Pak •
Heather Fong • Forrest M. Gok • Kathy Lim Ko &
Maurice Lim Miller • Lee’s Florist • Jeffrey & Susan
Lee • Richard Lee & Tatwina Chinn Lee • Felicia
Lowe • Jadine Chin Nielsen • Peggy K. Saika &
Arthur Chen • The San Francisco Foundation •
United Commercial Bank • UPS San Francisco
Silent Auction Donors
A Body of Work • ACT • Angel Island Association
• Alana Lowe • Amy Gee • Anchor Brewing
Company • Angel Island Association • Angel
Island Immigration Station Foundation • Angel
Island State Park • Anna Chan, Fabric Fun of San
Francisco • Asian Art Museum • Barbara Yee •
Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant • Bear Valley
Mountain Resort • Bill Wong • Budget Rental Car
• Café Riggio • California Academy of Sciences •
California Shakespeare Festival • California State
Parks • Camera Cinemas • Carolyn Gan • Chabot
Space & Science Center • Chardonnay Golf Club
• Chinese Historical Society of America • Colleen
Quen Couture • Disney Worldwide Outreach •
Disneyland • Dorothy Wong • Eileen Tong • Empress
of China Restaurant • Erika Lee • Felicia Lowe •
Forrest M. Gok • Jack Fong • Frances Low • Golden
State Warriors • Coach USA • Great America • Great
American Music Hall • Guenoc Estate Vineyards &
Winery • Harbin Hot Springs • Helen Zia • Hiller
Aviation Museum • Imari Gallery • In-N-Out • J.
Pedroncelli Winery • Jeannie Low • Jennifer Dere •
Jill Leyte-Vidal • Judy Yung • Julie Castelero • Karen
Mah-Hing • Kathy Lim Ko & Maurice Lim Miller •
Kathy Owyang Turner • KGO Radio • La Rochelle
Winery • Lalime’s • Lamplighters’s Theater • Legion
of Honor • Lisa See • Madrona Manor • Malibu
Grand Prix • Museum of Chinese in the Americas
• Nancy’s Specialty Foods • Northstar Ski Area •
Oakland East Bay Symphony • Osmosis Spa • Pacific
Coast Brewing & Pub • Palio d’Asti • Pat Tseng •
Patty Nishimura Dingle • Pier 39 • Presidio Golf
Course • Ritz Carlton • Ruthanne Lum McCunn
• San Francisco 49ers • San Francisco Children’s
Art Center • San Francisco Giants • San Francisco
Musuem of Modern Art • San Francisco Opera • San
Francisco Zoological Society • San Jose Earthquakes
• San Jose Sharks • San Jose Taiko • Scharffen Berger
• Scoma’s of Sausalito • See’s Candies • Senator
Dianne Feinstein • Shanghai 1930 • Sorensen’s
Resort • Southwest Airlines • Stanyan Park Hotel
• Stinking Rose Restaurant • Straits Café • Sugar
Bowl Ski Area • Surrey Blackburn Photography •
Togonon Gallery • Tommy Toy’s Cuisine Chinoise
• Vichy Springs Resort & Spa • Wendell Tong •
Winchester Mystery House
Attendees & Donors
Claudia Aguilar • Stan & Irene Andersen • Maryann
Annunziata • Jack Appleton • Asian Health Services •
Jason Aquino • Lily Au • Steve Ball • • Ralph Benson
• Elmy Bermejo • Gregor & Surrey Blackburn • Ron
Blatman •James Bow • David Bowden • Robert
Brauer • David & Jadyne Buchholz • • Fred &
Pauline Cao • Julie Castelero • Anna Chan • Joseph
& Elizabeth Chan • Lucille Chan • Pauline Chan •
Raymond & Ida Chan • Regina Chan • Amy Chang
• Eleanor Chang • Pat Chang • Randall Chang •
Wileen Chang & Benjamin Mangan • Dorthea
Char • Christine Chen • Miya Saika Chen • Rickson
Cheng • Carey Chern & Juliana Wong • Celia Chew
• Don & Nancy Chew • Chia Chia Chien • James
Chin • Martin Chin • Dale & May Ching • Elaine
Ching • Chinatown OPTI-Mrs. Club • Chinese for
Affirmative Action • Chinese Historical Society of
America • Pearl Chinn • Mabel Chu • Ann Chun •
Katherine Chun • Grace Choi Chung • John Chung
• Ruth Coleman • Nora Dario • Ming Dear • Jennifer
Dere • Henry & Pricilla Der • Reed Dillingham • Pat
Din • Patty Nishimura Dingle • Denny & Mary
Dingman • Serene Dong • Kit Durgin • Charles &
Karen Eng • Thomas Eng • Wai Ling Eng • Bruce
Fairbairn • Stephen & Elizabeth Farneth • Art
Fletcher • Alexander Fong • Alvon & Rose Fong •
Cary Fong & Jennie Lew • Damien Fong • Helen
Jean Fong • Karen Fong • Marilyn Fong • Steuart
Fong • Shirley Foo • Nicholas Franco • Jasmine
Fu • Karen Fung • Carolyn Gan • Delbert & Doris
Gee • Erika Gee • Flora Gee • Stanley & Amy Gee •
Steven & Phyllis Shuck Gee • William Gee • Yuen
Hing Gee • Ross & Trina Glanville • Tong Ginn •
Emily Goldfarb • Elizabeth Goldstein & Steve Rees
• Albert & Edith Gong • Bobbie Greene • Jacqueline
Hackel • Frances Hanks • Scott Harrison • Wendy
Hillis • Audee Holman • Jennie Horn • Tod T.
Hara & Jane Sheftel-Hara • Sophia Hom • Jennie
A. Horn • Roderick Hsiao • Dick Hsu • Elizabeth
Huen • Jeanette Huie • Richard Hum • Hutchins
Hung • Hung On Tong Society • Aaron Hyland •
Marily Ikesawa • Norman Ishimoto • Caryl Ito •
Cody Jang • Annie Jeng • Dick & Andrea Johnson
• Robert & Barbara Fong Jones • Jeffrey Jue • Diane
Jung • Kathy Jung • Beverly Karnatz & Richard Lew
• Lisa Kanemoto • Dr. James Kelly • Wen-Hsiung &
Christina Ko • Ben & Ann Kong • Mimi Kwan •
Phoebe Kwan • Randall & Anna Kwock • Christopher
& Deborah LaPuma • Jeannette LaFors & Matthew
Kelemen • Him Mark & Laura Lai • Peter & Mei
Lam • Y. Mei Lam • Dora & John Lau • Thomas
C. Layton & Gyongy Laky • Obiel Layva • Bennett
Lee • Carrie Lee • Cheryl Lee • Chilton & Nancy Lee
• Christopher Lee • Cinderella Lee • Corbett Lee
• Davis Lee • Debbie Lee • Gerald & Beverly Lee •
7
Glenn Lee • Kathleen Lee • Kimberly Lee • Kristl W.
Lee & David Tu • Larry Lee • Luther Lee • Mildred
Lee • Walter & Nellie Lee • Wilton Lee & Joanne Lee
• Janet Chan Lem • David & Denise Leong • Mollie
Leong • Lorna Lew • Gimmy Park Li & Xing Chu
Wang • Sue Li-Jue • Lim Family Benevolent Society
• Christopher Lim • Tom Lindberg • Forrest Liu •
Georgia Liu • Newton Liu • Hanmin Liu & Jennifer
Mei • Anna Loke • David Louie • Hazel Louie •
Arthur Low • Joyce Low • Rolland & Kathy Lowe
• Thomas & Linda Lowe • William & Phyllis Lowe
• Amy Lu • Rod Lum • Andy Ma • Vivek Malhotra
• Jan Masaoka & Paul Rosenstiel • Maria McIntyre
• Jo McMahon • Joe Mette • Jonas Miller • Leona
Miu • Kimi & Kurt Miyamura • Gilbert Mok • Darci
Moore • Alice & Donald Nakahata • Walter & Ellen
Newman • John N. & Virginia Lou Ng • NORCAL
Waste Systems • Bobby Yang Oh • Fred Ong • Paul
& Genevieve Ong • Han Ong • James Ong • Ong
Ko Met Benevolent Association of San Francisco
• Jeffrey Ow • Walt & Ginny Owyang • Charles
& Melissa Toy Ozeas • Aiko Pandorf • Lester Poon
• George & Edith Piness • Gwen Preston • Daniel
Quan & Joanne Woo • Jack & June Quan • Kelvin
Quan & Karen Lam • Collin P. Quock • Richard
Raab • Sharon Sato • Alana Schwartz • Robert Reed
• Victoria Seid • Dale Shimasaki • Andy & Karen
Shiozaki • Roger & Sandra Skinner • Janis & Jeffrey
Smith • Aileen & Musetta So • Margaret Unyoung
Song • R.C. & Valari Staab • Lawrence H. Stotter
• Susan Sun • Rosina Szeto • Nancy, Pat & Sadie
Tajima • Sherman & Philomena Tang • Thomas
Tang • Douglas Tom • Howard Tom • Sue Tom •
Eileen Tong • Evelyn Tong & David Fong • Allen
& Leslie Toy • Denny & Lucia Tuffanelli • Charles
& Kathy Owyang Turner • Dr. Arthur Towner •
Martin Tracey • Denny Tuffanelli • Anthony Uyan •
Robert & Yvonne Uyeki • Hazel Wallace • Theodore
Hsien Wang • Lai Webster • David & Katherine
Werdegar • Ralph Wolff • Amy Wong • Anna Wong
• Bill Wong & Joyce Mende • Chaney & Bea Wong •
Doris Wong • Dorothy Wong • Ed & Flo Oy Wong
• Germaine Wong • Jack Wong • Kelly Wong • Larry
Wong • Mandrian Wong • Michelle Wong • Michael
& Sue Wong • Penny Wong • Phyllis Wong • Roger
& Li Keng Wong • Ron Wong • Ron & Alice Wong
• William & Roberta Wong • Winston F. & June
W. Wong • Arthur Woo • Joanne Woo • Karen
Woo • Wei Shek Woo • Bobby Wu • Tommy Wu •
Don , Virginia & Jennifer Yamate • Barbara Yee •
Catherine Yee • Damon Yee • Barbara Yee • Irene Yee
• Joe Yee • Emerald Yeh • Donna Young • Gale Young
• Linda Young • Wei Yu • Mona Lisa Yuchengco •
Sandra Yuen & Dr. Lawrence Shore
AIISF strives to make this list accurate and apologizes
for any errors that may have occurred. Please contact
AIISF with any errors or omissions.
Thank You
2003 GRANTS
Friedman Family Foundation • Evelyn & Walter
Haas, Jr. Foundation • Look Lowe Family Trust •
Marin Community Foundation • The San Francisco
Foundation • Verizon
FRIENDS OF AIISF 2003
Cumulative giving January - November 2003
Gold Mountain Friends $1,000 +
Asian Americans for Community Outreach •
Chinese Cultural Education Association • Mina
Choo & Minsik Pak • Thomas & Eva Fong
Foundation • ENRON • Alicia Lowe Grudin • Dan
Riley & Irene Yee Riley • Ronald Joe & Jennie Szeto
• Kathy Lim Ko & Maurice Lim Miller • Randall &
Anna Kwock • Felicia Lowe • Thomas & Linda Lowe
• Deborah Lowe Martinez • Benjamin Wan, Drinks
& Chatter
Landmark Friends $500 +
James Bow • Catherine Cheung • Elizabeth
Goldstein • Forrest M. Gok in honor of the AIISF
staff & in honor of Edna Liang’s 91st birthday &
Dorothy Wong’s 80th birthday • Robert E. Lee in
honor of Thin Lee • Marjorie Lum • Chris & Jadine
Nielsen • John N. & Virginia Lou Ng • Katherine
Toy • Dorothy Wong • Margaret W. Wong • Ena Wu
• Don & Virginia Yamate
Legacy Friends $250 +
Dick & Andrea Johnson • Douglas & Marion
Lee • Ramon & Victoria Lim • Sylvia Yee & Brain
McCaffrey • Charles & Kathy Owyang Turner •
Gale Young
Heritage Friends $100 +
Cliff & Teresa Bowen • Joseph Chan • Kirby K.P. &
May Chu • Elizabeth Colton • Molly Joel Coye • Patty
Nishimura Dingle • Hanley T.D. Fong in memory of
Paul Chow • Delbert & Doris Gee in honor of Stanley
Gee • Emily Goldfarb • Merrie L. Huey in memory of
Sam Herbert Huey • James G. Gong • Tod T. Hara
& Jane Sheftel-Hara • David Hartley • Sophia Hom
• Sylvia Hom • Merrie L. Huey • Pauline Jue • Mabel
Jung • Michael Kurihara • David Lai-Len • Susie Lee
• Robert & Eva Leong • Mark Levin • Gina H. Lim •
Marjorie Lum in memory of William P. Leong • Jerry
& Becky Maa • Vivek Malhotra • Michael & Deborah
Margolis in honor of Katherine Toy • Dale Minami •
Lawrence Mock & Chris Ahn • Donald T. & Alice K.
Nakahata • Kyoko N. Nozaki • R. Matthew & Jill T.
Ohline • Jimmy G.S. & Muriel Ong • Walt & Ginny
Owyang • Sonjia Redmond • William J. Rockett •
Neil & Margaret Thomsen • Howard Ting • David
Tu & Kristl Lee • David & Katherine Werdegar •
Douglas R. Wong • Phil, Carleen & Natalie Wong
• Roger & Li Keng Wong • Rita Yee • Kou Ping &
Connie Young Yu • Judy Yung
Friends up to $99
Berkeley Chinese Community Church • Maureen
Yuen Blakeslee • Richard Boister • David & Dawn
Bowden • Marcia Kopp Capparela • Ravi Chandra
• Kuo-Liu & Annie S.F. Chang • Randall Chang in
honor of Mr. & Mrs. Harry Chang • Chien K. &
Royee Chen • Hubert Chen • Danny & Fiona Cheng
• Barbara Chin • William H. & Mayford Chin •
Chinese Community Center of New Jersey • David
Chiu • Community Thrift Store • Norma DeSalles •
Jennifer Dere • Lovely A. Dhillon • Reed Dillingham •
Patty Nishimura Dingle in honor of Randall Chang’s
birthday • Lester Dun • Alice Eng • Helen F. Eng •
Disney Worldwide Services • Quong W. & Alice J.
Eng • Elva & Henry Fong in memory of Edmund
L. Fong • Elva Fong, Diane Nakagawa & Lorraine
Yepp in memory of Viola Choy • May Hwang • Flora
Gee in memory of Charlie Chew • Melissa K. Gee •
Albert & Edith Gong • James G. Gong & Family in
memory of Sin Hing Owyoung Lee Gong • Pricilla
Himenez • Hua Xia Chinese School • Jacqueline
Huey in memory of Herbert Huey • Gene & May L.
Hwang • Forrest & Eileen Jang in memory of Lum
Fong • Lawrence K. Joe • Mary Jope • M.W. Jung
in honor of Kelly Jung • Robert S. & Natalie R. Juntz
• Barbara E. Kautz • Kathleen D. Keegan • Kary &
Nanette LaFors in honor of Katherine Toy • Madeline
Joe Lee • Susie Lee in honor of Thin Lee’s birthday •
Deborah Lefalle • Russell & Sherlyn Leong • Henry
S. & Lillian G. Lew • Melvin Lan Lew • Gimmy Park
Li & Xing Wang • Donald & Hilary Lim • Gina Hom
Lim in memory of Paul Chow • Kuo Liu & Annie
Chang • The Low Family in memory of Edward Woo
Low • Stephen & Jeannie Low • William Lu • Mary A.
Melzow in honor of Matt Lassiter • Roger & Vivian
Moises • Eugene & Kathleen Mooney • Barbara
Coffin Moore • Morris & Christine Moriuchi
• Dorcas Moyer • Donald Nakahata in memory
of Fuku Terasawa • Jadine Nielsen in memory
of Jock & Beatrice Chin • Emily Nichols • Jimmy
Ong in honor of Sut Nam Woo • Organization of
Chinese Americans Bay Area Chapter • Walt &
Ginny Owyang in honor of Albert & Edith Gong •
Lawrence J. & Bonnie Peterson • George & Edith
Piness • Kenneth H. Quan Family • Daniel Quan &
Joanne Woo in memory of Nicolay Vlaykov • Felix
Racelis in memory of Benjamin Lum • Kathleen
Sheeran • Victor Sloan & Sandra Gong • Barbara
Mendes Tacderan • Lydia Tanji • Neil Thomsen
in honor of Jeannie Low • Claire Thoni • Cynthia
Tom in memory of Richard Tom & Hom Shee Mock
• Jonathan Tom • Sue Tom • Louise Tomayo • Peggy
Toy • University of California, Berkeley • Jonathan
& Jane Weber • Lai Webster • Bruce & Karen Weller
• Heidi Wilson • Alan S. & Rachel S. Wong • Anita
Wong • Anna Wong • Doris Wong • Maxine Lam
Wong • Melissa Wong • Phyllis Wong • Stanton K.
& Nanette A. Wong • Susan Wong • Lawrence Yang
& Jennifer Kuan • Elaine Yee • Frank Yee & Jeanne
Lee • Helen Yee • Jennie Yee • Rita Yee • Kou Ping Yu
& Sandra Yu
MATCHING GIFTS
Bank of America Foundation • California Wellness
Foundation • California State Automobile
Association • Delta Dental Plan of California • Levi
6
Strauss Foundation • Microsoft Giving • Symantec
Giving Program
AIISF EVENT ATTENDEES & DONORS
Not Just For Angels
J. Aquindo • Yusube Asaka • Burgess Bennett • Elmy
Bermejo • Rajesh Bhatia • Richard Bolster • Timothy
Burt • Randall Chang • Stella Chang • Wileen Chang
& Benjamin Mangan • Young-O.K. Chang • Michael
Ching • Mina Choo & Minsik Pak • Gary Chou •
Irene Chun • Katherine Chun • Brannon Clements
• Ginger Cook • Patty Nishimura Dingle • Pasquel
Duke • Carleen Fernandez • Holly Finke • Caroline
Fong • Larry D. Friesen • Michele Gee • L. Gerard
Goeres • Forrest M. Gok • Bunjiro Hara • Yuko
Honda • Junko Hoshi • Alina Hua • Richard &
Susan Li Jue • Robert & Margaret Kadoyama •
David Kao • Jennifer M. Keith • Nadia Khastaagir
• Rebecca Khun • Derek Kim • Hando Kim • Jee Y.
Kim • Mee Young Kim • Sandra Kim • Jhon Kim •
Tomone Kozen • Ayako Kuroda • Uei Lam • Brianne
Lassiter • Terrie Laurie • Rob Lee • Sherry Lee •
Greg & Joanne Lin • Annie Ly • M. Briget Maley
• Vivek Malhotra • Deborah & Michael Margolis •
Kim Nakahara • Tom Nolan • Kunto Nuin • Scott
Ochcch • Adrian Ong • Jeffrey Ow • Katherine
Petrin • Romeo 5 • Lisa Rose • Robert Sakai • Lane
Schwark • Corrine Shea • David Shen • Hilary Smith
• Aileen So • Margaret Unyoung Song • Michael J.
Strait • Shinji Takagi • Janice Tanemena • Kenneth
Tanemurn • Wendy Tinsley • Hiep T. Ton • Steven
Ton • Naomi Torres • Susan Yuen-Shan Tsui &
William Der • Mani Varadarajan • Vachaspati H. &
Vaijayanthy Varadarajan • Kala Venugopal • Sreekala
Venugopal • Lisa Watanabe • Adam Wimbush •
Ralph Wolff • Philip Woo • Don & Virginia Yamate
• Lisa Yokota • Gale Young
Aloha To Summer
Stan & Irene Andersen • Sarah Bennett & Vince
Rodino • James Bow • Angela Cain • Arlene Chan
• Patricia Chang • Randall Chang • John Chandi •
Allan & Lisa Misasi Chang • Helen Chang & Chuck
Goodman • Gloria Cheng • Catherine Cheung •
Patricia Chiang • Chris Choate • Mina Choo & Minsik
Pak • Hans Chung • Brannon Clements • Jennifer Dere
• Patty Nishimura Dingle • Dianne Easton • Carleen
Fernandez • Andy Fong • Joyce Fung • Forrest M.
Gok • Rose Guilbault • John & Alice Harding • May
Hom • Helen Y. H. Hui • Claudia Jasin • Kathy Lim
Ko & Maurice Lim Miller • Mimi Kwan • Janice Lee •
Gimmy Park Li & Xing Chu Wang • Julia Lin • Chia
Ling • Julia Ling • Calvin Louie • Felicia Lowe • Kevin
Ly • Aurora Mock • Jeffrey Ow • Hoi Yung Poon •
Robert Reed • Dan Riley & Irene Yee Riley • Robert
& Joan Saffa • Jeffrey Sead • Wendy Slick • Julie &
Mabel Soo • Ryuma Tanaka • Lydia Tanji • Felicity
Teruya • De Tran • Tapa Tualaulelei • John Turner •
Adam Wimbush • Barry D. & Doris Wong • Michael
& Sue Wong • Ron Wong • Yen Hua Wu & Dennis
Koh • Don & Virginia Yamate • Gale Young •
Maeme Young
Mapping the Future
Title sponsors Bank of America and the UPS Foundation stepped
up to help make “Mapping the Future” a tremendous success.
The Look Lowe Family Trust members accept their award
from AIISF Board Member Felicia Lowe (no relation). (LR: Felicia Lowe, Elizabeth Lowe Huen, emcee David Louie,
William Lowe, Alice Lowe Wong)
Hilary Smith
“The Immigration Station is such important
history for San Francisco and for California,”
says Ms. Riley. “Bank of America is proud to support AIISF and help ensure that a vital part of
our community’s heritage is preserved.”
CIP interns
will spend
four weeks in
San Francisco
with a focus
on the Asian
Jerry Lee of UPS presents a check for
American
$10,000 to AIISF Executive Director
commuKatherine Toy
nity. AIISF
will provide CIP interns with a special field trip
to Angel Island Immigration Station, helping
them to understand the history of the site, the
legacy it has left in the Asian American community, and contemporary questions it raises
concerning immigrants and immigration. “Angel
Island Immigration Station is a powerful symbol America’s immigrant heritage,” said Evern
Cooper, president of The UPS Foundation and
vice president of UPS corporate relations. “We’re
pleased to support the Angel Island Immigration
Station Foundation in its work, and to partner
with them in the UPS Community Internship
Program in San Francisco.”
Former detainee Dale Ching and his wife May congratulate
former Angel Island State Park Superintendent Nicholas
Franco on his new promotion.
Hilary Smith
Addressing the linguistic and cultural needs
of the communities it serves is one example of
Bank of America’s commitment to strengthening
neighborhoods and communities. In 2002, Bank
of America made a $350 billion commitment
over 10 years to transform communities across
the country into vibrant places to live, work and
raise families. Affordable housing financing,
small business loans and investments, and consumer loans and education are some of the ways
that Bank of America is investing in communities. “When you have strong communities, then
business enterprise can flourish,” says Irene Riley.
Hilary Smith
For more than 75 years, Bank of America has
been producing information on its products and
services in Chinese. Today, Bank of America has
4,200 branches across the country and its materials are translated into six languages.
CIP is an intense management training program
designed to immerse senior level executives in
the community, exposing them to a variety of
social and economic challenges facing today’s
workforce. While in the program, managers leave
their jobs and
families to
spend a month
living and
working in a
CIP site run
by local nonprofit agencies.
Hilary Smith
Bank of America Archives
“Bank of America’s commitment to AIISF is
a logical fit,” says Irene Yee Riley, Senior Vice
President of Bank of America’s California
Community Development Bank. “Bank of
America has been a part of San Francisco history, and
the Chinese
community, going
back to the
days the
Immigration
Station was
in operation.” Bank
of America
founder A.P.
Interior of Bank of America’s Chinatown
Giannini,
branch, 1941
the son of
Italian immigrants, built his San Francisco-based
bank by lending to immigrants and the working
class. Many former Angel Island detainees and
their descendants have fond memories of the
San Francisco Chinatown branch office which
opened its doors in 1928.
Throughout its history, UPS
has believed in growth through
investment not only in its business, but also in the communities it serves. UPS has grown
from Seattle, where the company
was founded in 1907, to serving more than
200 countries and territories around the world
today. Valuing community and diversity are central to UPS’ values, and the company has been
named as one of FORTUNE magazine’s “50 Best
Companies for Minorities” for the last five years.
UPS’ commitment to diversity is exemplified in
its Community Internship Program (CIP), and
AIISF is pleased to partner with UPS as it brings
CIP to San Francisco in January 2004.
Frances Hanks and honorary event committee member
Eileen Tong bid on auction items.
3
History Corner
A Descendants’
Journey
by Kathleen Wong
We’ve left the mainland only a few minutes
before, but the hump of the island already looms
dead ahead. The sight of it all sends my already
unstable stomach into fluttery overdrive. For
once I’m not seasick, but nerves have made me
just as ill.
I’ve come to the island today for a once-in-alifetime event: the chance to get back in touch
with my family’s Chinese roots, and to settle a
mystery surrounding their long-ago arrival in
the United States. In case this weren’t exciting
enough, my little journey of discovery will be
filmed by a professional camera crew as part of
a new public television series known as “The
History Detectives”.
I’m about to hyperventilate at the prospect of
having my reactions recorded for national television when the ferry bellies up to the pier. The
engine grumble dies away, and we knock gently
against a line of rubber bumpers. The passengers
swarm downstairs, and tramp eagerly across the
gangplank. I’m not feeling well as I step onto
solid ground, but then remember it could be
worse. My forebears probably felt even edgier
when they landed here almost a century ago.
This fact - that they disembarked on the island
after traveling by ship from China - is nearly all
I know about my family’s connection to Angel
Island. Growing up, my father had told me that
his parents entered the United States through
this “Ellis Island of the West.” They had passed
the stringent interrogation process designed to
keep as many Chinese from entering as possible,
and eventually landed in San Francisco as citizens of the United States.
These were tantalizing legends
indeed for anyone with the faintest interest in history. I had always thought of
myself as in that camp. Yet somehow I had failed
to press either my father or my grandparents for
more details of these events.
tory room where the crew is filming, sunshine
struggles in through the dirty windowpanes,
the room has an air of loneliness and despair.
Peeling yellow wall paint and ragged floorboards
only strengthen the impression.
I search for the poems that I know cover the
walls, but don’t see them. Then a technician
adjusts a light, and I blink in amazement.
Thrown into relief by the peeling paint, thousands of characters suddenly materialize like an
army of ghosts. They stand in neat rows along
every wall, carved higher than I can reach. Their
presence, the expression of a hopeful people’s
dreams and sorrows, is strangely comforting.
True, some
of that ignoBefore I have a
rance could be
chance to meet
chalked up to
the crew, History
bad timing. I
Detective Wes
was only two
Cowan drawls,
years old when
“You’re about to
my grandfather
start the longest
suffered the
day of your life.”
massive stroke
He turns out
that robbed him
to be right. We
of his speech
spend nearly two
and vitality. He
hours filming the
died before I
opening scene,
left elementary
where I ask the
school. His wife,
detectives to find
my grandmoth- Kathleen Wong’s great-grandfather Wong Tsue arrived at Angel
any evidence
er, passed away
they can of my
Island in 1914.
when I was still
grandfather and
in high school. Still, the fact remained that I had
great-grandfather’s presence on the island. Each
been too preoccupied with my own life to interphrase is filmed multiple times, from every posview them when I had the chance.
sible angle. Despite the repetition, the attention
of the camera still makes me uneasy.
In one of life’s strange twists, this ignorance was
what had landed me on “The History Detectives” After a break for lunch and a little fresh air, we
show. The producers planned to film a segment
return to the barracks to film a few more stock
about Chinese immigration into California, and
sequences. Wes Cowan looking at poetry characwanted to work with someone who didn’t know
ters. The camera zooming in on me. The detecmuch about this piece of family history. I fit the
tives conferring over the case.
bill embarrassingly well.
Finally, as the sun begins to set, the scene I have
I had visited the island years before with my
been waiting for arrives. I get to find out what
family. We had gone for hikes, and picnicked
the detectives have turned up, and will hopefully
while looking out onto San Francisco Bay.
say something intelligible in front of the camera.
But I don’t remember ever visiting the
Immigration Station.
This being TV, the producer has completed the
actual research weeks ago. The director is essenNow at the Immigration Station, I walk into the
tially recreating the process for the camera. Yet
men’s barracks, where we will be filming. The
I have no idea what they are going to tell me;
stairs to the second floor are old and creaky,
they want to capture my reactions to the news
and I hurry upstairs in case they decide to colon tape.
lapse beneath my weight. In the narrow dormiCourtesy National Archives
It’s just past 10 a.m. on a sunny Thursday morning, and I’m standing on the deck of the ferry
that motors between Tiburon and Angel Island.
It’s a spectacular day to be outside. A heat wave
sun sparks diamonds on the water, and the distinctive skyline of San Francisco shimmers in
the distance.
But my grandparents weren’t
the first members of our family
to make it to the shores of Gold
Mountain. Years before my MaMa
and YehYeh arrived, Dad said, my
great-grandfather had arrived and
later died on Angel Island.
4
History Corner (cont.)
The scene is set up before I arrive. To my right
and left stand the two History Detectives; in
front of us are studio lights and the cameraman.
They start filming, and the detectives tell me
they’ve succeeded in finding some information
about my family. I know this already, but my
heart starts pounding hard anyway.
I surprised myself by grasping what the shaky
lines of this sketch really meant. The design
resembled that of a traditional Chinese family compound, something I thought I had seen
many times before on, of all things, a movie
screen. Like many Chinese Americans, I had
flocked to see major films from China such as
“Jou Dou” and “Raise the Red Lantern.” Along
the way, I had absorbed details about historical Chinese life that I didn’t
learn from any of the history
classes I had taken.
Courtesy National Archives
Wes Cowan tells me they weren’t able to find
any evidence that my relatives wrote the poetry on the
barracks walls. This doesn’t
bother me; I knew most
weren’t signed and that their
authorship continues to stymie scholars. Then detective
Gwendolyn Wright tells me
they were able to locate the
immigration records of both
my grandfather and greatgrandfather. I start to sweat
beneath my wool sweater
and the hot klieg lights. I’m
astonished that they were
able to find my great-grandfather’s records even though
we didn’t know his name.
The shape of his face, the jut of his jaw is hauntingly familiar. “He looks just like my grandfather,” I manage to croak. Despite the fisheye lens
inches away, I start to weep. Long after the director calls “Cut!” I’m still sniffling. The jumble
of emotions - sadness for his death, the shock
of recognition, elation at finding his name and
picture - is too raw and overwhelming to stifle
at once.
Now, in my mind’s eye, I can
see my family moving about
the bare dirt streets of the
compound. The men wear
queues, and long white shirts
with billowing sleeves. The
walls and building roofs are
topped with tile to shed rain.
Pigs and water buffaloes used
to till rice fields laze about,
sometimes even wandering
within the family quarters.
Inside, the women prepare
yet another meal, while the
breeze whisks smoke from
their cooking fires across a
landscape of shimmering
green rice fields.
She tells me my grandfather
likely didn’t write any of the
poems because he made it
off the island within a couple
of weeks. I’m genuinely glad, Wong Tsue was asked to draw this map of his village during his interrogation.
For the first time, I can
and smile. Then she tells
see a shadowy line across
me my great-grandfather’s
the Pacific connecting me
records indicate he did in fact die on the island
When the filming is all over, I rush outside to
directly to the life and culture of China. I have
as my father had said. His application to enter
read the files. I flip through the pages fast, greedy a history and a heritage in a land I have not yet
the United States was rejected. During his appeal, to know more. In the transcripts of the interrovisited. My inheritance spans two continents
he had succumbed to a heart ailment and died
gation interviews, I read the names of long-dead
and countless lifetimes. On the boat ride home,
at age 42. The news is upsetting, but I’m too
relatives, and the village that had sheltered my
I look west across the water toward China, and
uncomfortable in front of the camera to look
family for generations.
catch myself grinning like a fool.
very unhappy.
Then I come across some rough diagrams of the
Kathleen Wong is editor of California Wild, the
Then they hand me an amazing gift-photocopies
family village in my great-grandfather’s files. The magazine of the California Academy of Sciences,
of my grandfather and great-grandfather’s immi- details it contains take my breath away. In the
and a freelance writer. She is a Bay Area native
gration records. I open one envelope, and look
center of a walled rectangular courtyard were
and the descendant of Angel Island immigrants.
into the eyes of my grandfather at age nineteen.
the three small buildings where the extended
He is the spitting image of my father.
family slept. My great-grandfather and his wife
Note: AIISF thanks Ms. Wong and “The History
lived in one boxlike house, itself attached to
Detectives” for helping to bring the Angel Island
I barely have time to register this before Wes
the house that housed his brother’s family. The
story to a broader audience. Additional appreciaCowan hands me a glossy, black-and-white
buildings on either side included a sitting parlor
tion is extended to scholars Charles Egan, Newton
photo enlargement of my great-grandfather’s
and empty room, and the rooms of his parents
Liu, Wan Liu, Daniel Quan, Xing Chu Wang and
immigration picture.
and another brother. A stream, a bamboo thickJudy Yung and to Bill Greene and Dan Nealand of
et, storage rooms, and toilets completed
the National Archives and Records Administration
His hungry black eyes consume the 90 years
the diagrams
for their considerable assistance in researching this
separating our lives in an instant.
segment of “The History Detectives.”
5