2006 Asian Heritage Month 

Tracing the Footsteps of Our Ancestors is this year’s theme as we celebrate

the 15^th annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

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Art Exhibit & Lecture:
 

"Wood Blocks"

by Henry Sugimoto

An accomplished Japanese American artist, Henry Sugimoto’s work was exhibited internationally before the attack on Pearl Harbor.  At the age of 42, he and his family were taken to the internment camp in Arkansas.  His life and paintings were profoundly influenced by the unjust incarceration experience from 1941-1945.  This exhibit features the thirty wood blocks that depicted his family’s experience in the Jerome and Rohwer concentration camp.

"The Years of Internment 1941-1945:  My Father and His Artwork"

by Madeleine Sugimoto

Madeleine Sugimoto, Henry Sugimoto’s daughter who was 6 years old when her family was taken to the internment camp, will speak to the campus and Dayton communities about the Japanese immigrant experience and the concentration camp, as she shows slides and discusses her father’s artwork.

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Lectures:
 

"Race and American Immigration Law:  Modern Lessons from the Asian Exclusion Acts"

by Bill Ong Hing
 

The immigration history of the United States is the history of the United States since most Americans trace their family history from abroad.  Immigration laws not only determined who could come to the United States but also who could become citizens.  Bill Ong Hing, Professor of Law and Asian American Studies, University of California, Davis, will discuss the evolution of U.S. immigration policy and how shifting visions of America have shaped policies governing exclusion, amnesty, asylum, and border policies.  He will connect the Asian Exclusion Acts, in particular the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to contemporary discourses on the nation, immigration law, and race which continue to be relevant to all Americans today.

"Chinese Exclusion, Angel Island, and Me"

by Judy Yung

Judy Yung, Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will connect the historical context and impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 upon the establishment and operation of the Angel Island Immigration Station from 1910 to 1940, and her racial/identity as a second-generation Chinese America. 

"A Bowlful of Tears:  The Immigration Experience of Chinese Women"

by Judy Yung
 

Drawing upon twenty-five years of research on Chinese American women, Judy Yung will share the personal stories, struggles, and triumphs of six women who immigrated to the U.S. during the 60-year period when Chinese immigration was not allowed.  Judy Yung is Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz; co-author of Island:  Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island; and author of Chinese Women of America:  A Pictorial History; Unbound Feet:  A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco; and Unbound Voices:  A Documentary History of Chinese Women in San Francisco.

For more information, contact the Asian/Hispanic/Native American Center, (937) 775-2798.