Chinese Americans and the Second World War (review)

Americans First presents an insightful analysis of the experience of Chinese Americans during World War II. K. Scott Wong draws on extensive archival sources, memoirs, periodicals and interviews to examine the identity formation, networking and survival strategies of Chinese Americans during the war. According to Wong, the war transformed the American perceptions of the Chinese and Chinese Americans as China and the United States fought as allies against Japan. The second-generation Chinese Americans joined the army, fought against Germany and Japan, and participated in defense-related industries on the home front. This enabled them to assert their Chinese identity and claim American citizenship in the midst of the war.

The book is composed of six chapters. Chapter One examines the Chinese American reactions to Japanese aggression in China during the 1930s and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Chinese Americans raised money and supported China’s war efforts against Japan. They boycotted Japanese goods in Chinese American urban communities, better known as Chinatowns. Some took advantage of the anti-Japanese political climate and called for an end to Japanese American business activity in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Chapter Two looks at the social, economic and political transformation of Chinatowns throughout the war. The American entry into World War II had created new opportunities for Chinese Americans in the war industry. Many Chinese Americans joined the military for the first time; some also took up white-collar professions. They crossed the racial boundaries and assumed new social roles when they interacted with a broader spectrum of American people in new situations. Thus, they contributed to China’s wartime efforts and were able to obtain American citizenship through military service.

The change of American perceptions of the Chinese and Chinese Americans is discussed in Chapter Three. Once China became an ally of the United States, the racial barriers to Chinese migration were abandoned. In 1943, the U.S. government repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This allowed the Chinese to enter the United States and apply for naturalization. By becoming the “good Asians in the good war,” Chinese Americans carved out for themselves a small place in American society. But the drawback is that they internalized the racial discourse of the time and distanced themselves from Japanese Americans throughout the war.

Chapter Four argues that Chinese Hawaiians had a different wartime experience from that of Chinese Americans on the mainland. As a cosmopolitan and multiethnic society, Hawaii was more tolerant of ethnic minorities than the rest of the United States. But during the war, mainland racism affected the race relations in Hawaii. The growing American military presence on the island brought about the intensification of discrimination against black soldiers which the military did nothing to stop. Many Chinese Hawaiians who had joined the military found they had to adjust to this new environment of white antagonism against the blacks and other minorities. At the same time their exposure to mainland racial attitudes made them realize that the whites, or haole (upperclass whites in Hawaii), were not necessarily superior human beings relative to Asians or other ethnic groups. This awareness prepared them for a more active role in postwar Hawaiian society and politics.

The U.S. military provided a safe haven from deportation for illegal migrants during the war. Chapter Five focuses on the Fourteenth Air Service Group, which consisted of nine units with the highest concentration of Chinese American personnel in the military. These were segregated military units created out of convenience to accommodate those Chinese military recruits who were illegal migrants and not fluent in English. But these segregated units established on the basis of race were not effective in turning working-class migrants into professional soldiers; they only provided technical support for the regular army. Nevertheless, the white-collar professional training and skills that Chinese soldiers acquired in the military did help them to integrate into American society after the war. Evidently these changes during the war led...