Thread: Angel Island reopens with sad saga of detained immigrants

Angel Island reopens with sad saga of detained immigrants

By Terence Chea, Associated Press Writer

ANGEL ISLAND STATE PARK, Calif. — The Angel Island Immigration Station, once known as the "Ellis Island of the West," is reopening after a multimillion-dollar restoration of the historical landmark aimed at showing visitors a chapter of American history that many would rather forget.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mostly from Asia, were detained on the largest island in San Francisco Bay for days, weeks and sometimes months in the three decades before World War II.

They were housed in crowded, dingy barracks while undergoing humiliating medical exams and grueling interrogations administered by officials intent on upholding federal laws restricting immigration from China and elsewhere.

"Angel Island is a commentary on the kind of racist thinking that really impacted how people from Asia were treated," said Eddie Wong, executive director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation. "To correct those errors for other people, not just Asians, it's important to know that history."

Nearly seven decades after it closed, the station is set to reopen in mid-February following completion of the first phase of a $60 million restoration project that was started in 2005. The initial work has focused on restoring the barracks, where many immigrants carved poems into the wooden walls.

The station was built on Angel Island, a short boat ride from San Francisco, to help enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and other laws aimed at curbing immigration at a time when Americans were worried about immigrants stealing jobs and depressing wages.

From 1910 to 1940, about 1 million immigrants from some 90 countries — including an estimated 175,000 from China — were processed at Angel Island.

Some passed through fairly quickly, but many Chinese immigrants were detained for up to two years while immigration officials questioned their legal status.

Don Lee was 11 years old when he left his rural village in China's Guangdong Province to join his father in America in 1939. After three weeks crossing the Pacific in the steerage deck of a steamship, he was held for a month on Angel Island.

"The whole place is really congested and full of strangers, so I was more scared than anything else," Lee, 81, said during a recent visit to the renovated barracks.

The retired civil engineer remembers long interrogation sessions in which inspectors asked him detailed questions about his family, home, village and neighbors in China.

"They're not there to welcome you. They're really there to discourage you. It's up to them to bounce you," said Lee, who now lives in Concord, about 30 miles east of San Francisco.

The station was closed in 1940 after fire destroyed the main administration building. Then it was used to process German and Japanese war prisoners during World War II, when the U.S. repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act because China and the U.S. had become allies.

The island became a state park in 1954, and until the restoration project began in 2005 about 200,000 people visited the station each year even though they could only see a small section of the barracks.

Now visitors can tour the entire two-story facility, including several rooms furnished with suitcases, clothes, books, games and other items from the period.

"We're trying to create as accurate of an experience for the visitor so they can see what it was actually like to be detained here," said Katherine Metraux, a museum curator with the state Department of Parks and Recreation.

The abandoned barracks had been scheduled to be torn down in 1970, when a park ranger rediscovered the Chinese poems — many covered by paint — that conveyed the sadness, anger and loneliness of being held captive on the island.

One poem reads: "Imprisoned in the wooden building day after day, My freedom is withheld; how can I bear to talk about it?

"I look to see who is happy but they only sit quietly, I am anxious and depressed and cannot fall asleep.
----------------------------------
You can post a comment to this article at the USA TODAY Online site at this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinat ... pens_N.htm

These people came here LEGALLY, and we are glad that they did.

To bad that people can't respect our country today and obey our federal immigration laws

Use it for the Gitmo terrorists!
Then Pelosi can visit them and take cookies!

Does this mean we now have to pay reparations for detainment to the families of these immigrants?
My close relative was "detained" in Germany during WWII, living in baracks without insulation or interior walls, sleeping in bunk beds with strangers on the top and bottom bunks. But the most wonderful lesson I have learned from her stories is that, no matter how good or how bad, nothing will last forever. And she was determined to be allowed in through Ellis Island.
It is absolutely disgusting that so many have circumvented examination by slithering across the border, and it is even more disgusting that those demand a voice in this country. For so many administrations, it has been look the other way, ignore enforcing laws and throw their hands up, alledgedly not knowing how to solve the problem since employers of cheap illegal labor cry that their businesses will not survive without illegals.

Duplicate post:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-144305-angel.html+island

Angel Island State Park

Angel Island State Park, California. The entire park has re-opened including trails and camping. We encourage vistors to stay out of the burned area due to possible unknown hazards. Additional information about the Park can be obtained by calling 415-435-5390.Location - Directions

Access to the Island is by private boat or public ferry from San Francisco, Tiburon and seasonal service from Oakland and Alameda. There is limited weekday ferry service to Angel Island during the winter. (check with ferry provider)
Latitude/Longitude: 37.8642 / -122.4308

Bicycles can be brought to the island on the ferry and used on the island's main roads. Bikes can also be rented seasonally.
Dogs are not allowed on the island, service animals excepted.
Roller skates, roller blades, skateboards, and scooters are prohibited.
Bring camp stove or charcoal, no wood fires allowed.
Night travel after sunset on the island is prohibited in some areas for park security and public safety.

In the middle of San Francisco Bay sits Angel Island State Park, offering spectacular views of the San Francisco skyline, the Marin Headlands and Mount Tamalpais.

The island is also alive with history. Three thousand years ago the island was a fishing and hunting site for Coastal Miwok Indians. It was later a haven for Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala, a cattle ranch, and a U.S. Army post.

From 1910 to 1940, the island processed hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the majority from China. During World War II, Japanese, and German POWs were held on the island, which was also used as a jumping-off point for American soldiers returning from the Pacific. In the '50s and '60s, the island was home to a Nike missile base.

Today, there are two active Coast Guard stations - at Point Blunt and Point Stuart - on the island (these area are off limits). Angel Island became a State Park in 1954.

Facilities - Opportunities
A cafe, tram tours, and bike rentals are available seasonally (visit http://www.angelisland.com/ for schedule).

The Angel Island Company (a park concessionaire) will be operating Segway tours this year on the island. Tour prices are $65.00 person and limited to people 16 years or older. The café will also host a barbequed oyster bar and outdoor cantina at the Cove Café, a new and tasty treat to the visitors of Angel Island.

NOTE: Personal Segways are NOT PERMITTED on the island, unless it is being used as an assistance device for a disabled person. Segway rentals are available for guided tours only.

The trams run regularly scheduled one-hour tours with an audio program including information on the history of the island.

Private boats can use the boat slips or mooring buoys at Ayala Cove; day and overnight fees are collected. Mooring buoys can be used overnight. Paid overnight boaters may use the island with their dingy only until 10:00 PM.

Dock area and finger piers are closed at sunset. After sunset private boats must anchor offshore or on mooring buoys in Ayala Cove.

Groups can reserve the picnic areas and other camping facilities on the island by calling 1-800-444-7275.

State Park Volunteers provide programs at the islands historic sites on most Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from May through October. The volunteers also conduct special tours for schools, clubs and other groups. For tour schedules and reservations, call the park.

Umm, but how did American citizens at the time feel about Angel Island? Seems to me they welcomed the security from foreign disease and excessive labor competition it offered.