ISLAND: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants...

ISLAND: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 by Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim and Judy Yung (University of Washington Press: $14.95, illustrated). An estimated 175,000 Chinese immigrants entered the United States between 1910 and 1940 through the immigration facility on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay; men and women seeking freedom and economic opportunity in the “Land of the Flowery Flag” found themselves interned on the island, sometimes for months. The anonymous poems in this anthology were written as graffiti on the wooden walls of the detention barracks. Many of these poems reflect the bitterness of the internees, who discovered that racial exclusionary laws forced Chinese to undergo medical and legal tests that were not required of immigrants from Japan and other Asian countries: “America has power, but not justice./ In prison, we were victimized as if we were guilty./ Given no opportunity to explain, it was really brutal./ I bow my head in reflection but there is nothing I can do.” However, the majority of the verses express the profound melancholy of people longing for both the homes they left and the homes they dreamed of establishing. “Today is the last day of winter,/ tomorrow morning is the vernal equinox./ One year’s prospects have changed to another./ Sadness kills the person in the wooden building.” To supplement the poetry, the editors interviewed former detainees and workers at Angel Island. This moving volume documents a neglected chapter of American history.