OT: This post responds in a discussion about Asian American issues.

(Mark Houlsby) wrote in message . com...
"Tim Hanke" wrote in message et...
Bugger the Chinese. Next you will be telling us our calendar is all wrong
too, and this is really 4700, the Year of the Ram.

Tim Hanke (born in 4655, the Year of the Dog)

So, it's official, then... you're running on an overtly racist ticket.
The really scary part is that it might actually win you some votes.
Hikaru Nakamura, who is neither Chinese nor Japanese, but a United
Statesian, is *bound* to be impressed.

'Ignorance and folly breed the phantoms by which ignorance and folly
are perplexed and terrified.'
--Charles Brockden Brown (Ormond)

Dear Mr. Houlsby,

Actually, Hikaru Nakamura was born in Japan and is still a citizen of
Japan. But he has lived in the United States for many years, and he
also is (or is expected to become) a citizen of the United States.
As far as I know, in our world of chess, Nakamura always has
represented the United States, not Japan.

You have mentioned an interesting issue of whether or not 'Asian
Americans' (people of East Asian heritage who are citizens or
permanent residents of the United States, usually by virtue of birth
therein) tend to be perceived or accepted as legitimate 'real
Americans' by other Americans. In fact, even Asian Americans who
were born in the United States and who have lived there for their
entire lives and who can speak fluent American English *still* often
are perceived and treated explicitly as non-Americans by other
Americans.

As personally reported to me, here's an excerpt from an unfortunately
all too typical dialogue between an Asian American, who speaks fluent
American English, and another American with a common ignorant
stereotype of Asian Americans:

A: Hi, how are you? Where are you from?
B: Hi, I'm fine, thanks. I'm living here now, over there in that
neighborhood.
A: I mean where are you from?
B: Oh, did you mean where I was born? I was born here in the United
States.
A: But you're Oriental, aren't you? Where are you from? What's your
real country?
B: My real country is the United States. I am an American citizen by
birth.
A: Oh, don't give me that, man. Where are you *really* from?

"The question 'Where are you *really* from' shows that we interact
with others around us with a sense of race even if we are not aware
of it....To be met with it so quickly and so often reminds me, over
and over, that I am being treated differently than I would be if I
were white."
--Frank Wu (Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, p. 83)
(Frank Wu is a professor of law at Howard University)

Also, it should be noted that some African Americans also have been
culturally conditioned in the United States to share that stereotype
of Asian Americans. Once while watching, in the company of an African
American university student, the Americans play a Davis Cup tennis
match, she and I had this conversation:

She: That's Michael Chang playing over there. Is he Chinese, do you
know?
I : He was born in the United States; his parents were Chinese
immigrants.
She: Then what's a Chinese doing there playing for America?
I : Michael Chang *is* an American. He's a citizen of the United
States, which has always been *his* country. So why should he
not play on his national team for his country?
She: I don't get it. He's *not* an American. What are you talking
about?

Although I attempted to explain it to her, she simply refused to
understand or to accept that anyone of Chinese ancestry could be or
become a 'real American'. And unfortunately too many other Americans
continue to share her conviction.

In the landmark 1898 Supreme Court case of "the United States v.
Wong Kim Ark", the United States government did its utmost to deny
the right of citizenship to everyone of Chinese ancestry, including
Wong Kim Ark himself, who had been had been born in the United States:

"For the most persuasive reasons we have refused citizenship to
Chinese subjects...and yet, as to their offspring, who are just as
*obnoxious*, and to whom the same reasons for *exclusion* apply for
equal force, we are told that we must accept them as fellow-citizens,
and that, too, because of the *mere* accident of birth."
--Solicitor General Conrad (on behalf of the United States, 1898)

But by a vote of 6 to 2, the Supreme Court decided in favour of Wong
Kim Ark. The verdict seems to have been quite unpopular in many parts
of the United States.

In the academic field of Asian American studies as well as in the
general Asian American media, the continuing common, if not normal,
perceptions and treatment of Asian Americans as 'perpetual foreigners'
are a major subject of concern. In fact, the Asian American
communities (plural emphasized) are extremely diverse and sometimes
at odds with one another. Unfortunately, many, if not most, other
Americans tend to stereotype Asian Americans unfairly in at least
two major ways: 1) as being all exactly alike; 2) as being
irreconciliably, or perhaps even irredeemably, alien to "American
culture" (singular emphasized), the proclaimed dominant culture
of white Americans.

For further reading:
"Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White" by Frank Wu (2002)

Now here's a story about the life of a Japanese American whom many
other Americans regard as a true national hero, but whom some other
Americans still seem to regard with disdain as not even a 'real
American' at all:

The life of Daniel Inouye, who has represented Hawaii for many years
in the United States Senate, shows some of both the best and the worst
aspects of American society. While fighting for the United States
during the Second World War, Daniel Inouye lost his right arm and won
(eventually) the Medal of Honor, the highest American military
decoration for valor. During that same period, acting in accord with
President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 (19 February 1942), the
United States forcibly relocated nearly 120000 Japanese Americans,
most of whom were U.S. citizens by birth, into internment camps. In
addition to losing their liberty and jobs, almost all of them also
lost their homes, businesses, and other properties, receiving little
or no financial compensation. In the 1980s the United States
government admitted that the wartime internment had been motivated
much more by anti-Japanese racism than by any claimed 'military
necessity'. In 1989 the United States issued an official apology.

Here are some excerpts from Senator Daniel Inouye's memoir, 'Journey
to Washington':

"Daniel K. Inouye, my cherished and admired friend, is one of
America's great egalitarians. His autobiography reflects his
relentless struggle to achieve freedom of opportunity and equality
for Americans of Japanese ancestry, and for all racial and religious
minorities. Born of Japanese parents in the Territory of Hawaii in
1924, he grew up in a climate of racial prejudice and discrimination.
Throughout his youth he was determined to transcend social bias, and
to achieve equal rights for his people....

Dan's heroism in action resulted in the loss of his right arm.
Despite this personal tragedy, his courage never failed him....
In 1962, he became the first American of Japanese ancestry to be
elected to the Senate of the United States.

Dan Inouye has lived by the code of personal courage--on the
battlefield, and in the political arena. He has faced the
aggressor's bullets, and the bigot's contemptuous stare. He has
gained the admiration and respect of his fellow men. Even more
important, he has, by his example and witness, helped to make the
hearts of his fellow men more tolerant, more free of the awful
burden of racism."

--Lyndon Baines Johnson, President of the United States (1963-9)

Now here are some of Daniel Inouye's own words:

(Daniel Inouye prepared to leave his parents and join the United
States Army. Please note the supreme importance attached to
upholding the honour of his family's name, which the Japanese
traditionally have valued more than life itself.)

"'I'm in the army, Mom! I have to report Saturday morning.' ...
'I'm happy if you are, my son. I ask you only to be a good boy.
Bring honor to our name.' 'I will, Mom. I will!...' ...

'...You are my first son and you are very precious to your mother
and to me, but you must do what must be done. If it is necessary,
you must be ready to...to...' Unable to give voice to the dread
words, his voice trailed off. 'I know, Papa. I understand.'
'Do not bring dishonor on our name', he whispered urgently."
(pp. 84-5)

(During the Second World War, the United States Army was racially
segregated. Daniel Inouye joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team,
a (soon to be proven in combat) elite unit of Japanese Americans,
who were commanded mostly by white officers. After his platoon
had liberated an Italian village from German occupation, Inouye
acted with exemplary magnaminity toward the Italian civilians.)

"In the dead of night, oil lamps burning, a delegation of men and
women of the village came to see me. You could see by their clothes
that they were people of consequence in Altanagna, dark, formal
suits and dresses...They spoke through an interpreter and thanked
me with Latin profusion for liberating their village, and they said
it would be their great privilege if I accepted their humble
offering to become the honorary mayor of the village....Then the
interpreter turned back to me. He pointed to three young girls who
had been hanging back in the shadows, and he said, 'They ask me to
tell you that they have brought these three maidens for your comfort,
Lieutenant. They wish you a pleasant evening.'...

'Tell them, please, that I am horrified by their suggestion....We
did not come here to take their women or their food or their lands.
We came to bring peace and to take nothing. We are not conquerors,
we are friends.'...

We were relieved the next day and, having gone into reserve,
marched out as the last platoon in line. The villagers lined the
streets to wave goodbye to us, cheering for each platoon going by.
Except for my platoon. For my platoon they threw flowers."
(pp. 145-6)

(In April 1945, Daniel Inouye was severely wounded in action,
losing his right arm. He was in a hospital when the war ended.)

"The 442nd had run up an awesome record. There were those who
called us the most decorated outfit in the U.S. Army. We won
ten unit citations and 3915 individual decorations, including
47 Distinguished Service Crosses and a Congressional Medal of Honor.
But the price was catastrophic. Nearly 700 men were dead,
1700 maimed and critically wounded, and 3600 in all had become
casualties. The only men in the outfit ever captured by the
Germans were a handful of wounded and the medics who refused
to leave them even as the enemy closed in.

Captain Atkins had promoted me to first lieutenant the day I was
hit and recommended me for a Congressional Medal. I guess they
only give that to you when you're dead, which is, maybe, the way
it should be; instead, I got the D.S.C. to go with my three Purple
Hearts." (pp. 163-4)

(In 2000, after conceding that institutional racism in the United
States Armed Forces during the Second World War may have unjustly
deprived Asian Americans of their deserved military decorations,
the Medal of Honor was awarded to 22 Asian American veterans,
including Daniel Inouye, who previously had been awarded the next
highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross.)

"As a unit we were used like cannon fodder."
--George Sakoto (veteran of the 442nd RCT and winner of the Medal
of Honor)

(When Daniel Inouye returned home to the United States, he found
that the end of the war marked only the resumption of his struggle
to overcome American racism.)

"I went to this barbershop in one of the towns ringing San Francisco
--and got as far as the door. 'Are you Chinese?' the man said to me.
I looked past him at the three empty chairs, the other two barber
watching us closely. 'I'm an American', I said. 'Are you Chinese'?
'I think what you want to know is where my father was born. My
father was born in Japan. I'm an American.' Deep in my gut I knew
what was coming. 'Don't give me that American stuff', he said
swiftly. 'You're a Jap and we don't cut Jap hair.'

I wanted to hit him. I could see myself--it was as though I were
standing in front of a mirror. There I stood, in full uniform, the
new captain's bars bright on my shoulders, four rows of ribbons on
my chest, the combat infantry badge, the distinguished unit citations
--and a hook where my hand was supposed to be. And he didn't cut
Jap hair. To think that I had gone through a war to save his skin--
and he didn't cut Jap hair. I said, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry for you
and the likes of you.' And I went back to my ship."

--Daniel Inouye (Journey to Washington, pp. 207-8)

In 1987, Senator Inouye was the chairman of the Senate committee
investigating the Iran-contra scandal, whose protagonist, Oliver
North, had become a hero to the right-wing American "superpatriots".
Many of those Americans hated Senator Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii
(a state wherein whites are a minority). At one point during the
hearings, Senator Rudman, a Republican from New Hampshire, denounced
the hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans who had expressed their
hateful racist abuse in messages to Senator Inouye. Apparently, many
of those American "superpatriots" regarded Senator Inouye (who had
lost his right arm while fighting for the United States) not only as
"anti-American" but also as *not* even an American at all, often
vilifying him as a "Jap" who ought to be "sent back" to Japan
(where he never has lived).

Hence, even an Asian American such as Daniel Inouye, a long-serving
United States Senator and a war hero who has won the Medal of Honor
(the supreme American military decoration), cannot avoid being
condemned and abused by some hateful American racists, who might well
claim to be acting in the sacred name of American patriotism.

'Where men are ignorant, every man thinks himself at liberty to report
what he pleases.'
--Henry Fielding (Amelia)

--Nick