Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Asian American/Pacific Islander History and Culture in the United States

The Bellingham riots occurred on September 4, 1907, in Bellingham, Washington when a mob of 400-500 white men with intentions to exclude Indian immigrants from the work force of the local lumber mills, attacked the homes of the South Asian Indians.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, most notably Japanese Americans, faced discrimination and forced relocation during World War II. Despite the racial prejudice that led to one of the darkest chapters of American history, many served in the US Armed Forces to fight for their country.

The Asian population in the U.S. grew by 35.5 percent over the past 10 years.

After the fall of Saigon, many South Vietnamese fled fearing reprisal from the new Communist government. While some people traveled overland to Thailand, most refugees escaped by boat.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved on May 6, 1882. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States.

On May 6, 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law, prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years. This guide compiles Library of Congress digital materials, external websites, and a print bibliography.

Angel Island Immigration Station was built in 1910 in the San Francisco Bay mainly to process immigrants from China, Japan, and other countries on the Pacific Rim. Its primary mission was to better enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and other anti-Asian laws enacted in subsequent years.

Descendants of the Chinese railroad workers share their hope for the recognition of their ancestors' labor for the Transcontinental Railroad anniversary.

Hmong Story Cloths are works of textile art and came out of the context of the exodus of thousands of Hmong from Laos following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

More than twenty members of the 442nd, a segregated unit whose members were almost entirely Japanese American, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

There is no single story of Chinatowns across the United States. They each have different beginnings. Chinatowns have been bastions of community resilience for over 160 years. New threats make preservation more important than ever.

From 1910 to 1940, Angel Island served as an immigration station processing immigrants from 84 countries, approximately one million being Chinese immigrants.

The Nisei soldiers of the 442nd became the most highly decorated regiment in U.S. military history for its size and length of service.

The unlikely story behind Japanese Americans' campaign for reparations.

The fall of Saigon in April 1975 marked the close of the war, but also the beginning of one of the largest and longest refugee crises in history.

During WWII, 120,000 Japanese-Americans were forced into camps, a government action that still haunts vicitms and their descendants.

"Picture brides" made up the vast majority of Japanese immigrants to America between 1907 and 1924.

The Transcontinental Railroad was built by many thousands of workers from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. One of the groups that literally took on the brunt of the work, were the Chinese laborers. Most of the Chinese workers, who numbered over 11,000 by the end of the project, were employed by the Central Pacific Railroad building.

Japanese Americans were forcibly imprisoned in camps during World War II. A USC Dornsife scholar has completed the first comprehensive list of Japanese Americans sent to "relocation centers." The list is part of a larger memorial project honoring the victims of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066.

Andrew Lam is a California-based journalist, short story writer, and National Public Radio commentator. In this interview, he shares his thoughts on Vietnam and America.

White supremacists have targeted Sikhs since they came to the U.S. in the late 19th century

Generations of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians have served and distinguished themselves in the U.S. military

As Honolulu and San Francisco faced outbreaks, the cities' responses caused devastation to Asian communities.