Museum Celebrates Asian History in U.S. : Culture: Everyday objects are an important component of the institution’s series of grass-roots history projects.

What happened to Seattle’s Japanese-Americans after they left the internment camps of World War II? Did Chinese immigrants work in the Pacific Northwest’s mining camps?

One of the few museums in the country whose range includes all Asian-American cultures, Seattle’s Wing Luke Asian Museum has been working to piece together the answers to such questions, revealing the rich history of Asian-Americans.

The museum was created in 1967 to honor Wing Luke, the first Chinese-American elected to public office in the continental United States. Luke, a Seattle city councilman, died in a 1965 plane crash.

Museum director Ron Chew said it has fulfilled Luke’s dream of an institution that would preserve and display Asian-American folk art and history.

“A large part of the (museum’s) purpose is to let people know we’ve been here and to enable the community to play a role in telling that story,” Chew said.

“Down the road, (the younger generations) need to be reminded and educated about the struggles that their parents and grandparents went through.”

The museum tells of Asian-Americans’ contributions that are often forgotten, Chew said.

“The idea most people have is the Chinese are recent immigrants who operate restaurants or have whiz kids involved in high academic achievement,” he said.

But, according to Chew, the first Chinese immigrants arrived in Washington when it was a territory. They provided the majority of laborers in building the railroads, worked in logging camps and prospected the rivers for gold.

The museum treasures ordinary objects--clothing, utensils, photographs, immigration documents--as artwork and artifacts. Their value is not monetary, Chew said.

It’s in what they represent as clues to the daily lives, history and experiences of Asians who came and settled in this country.

Historians, academia and community members praise the museum’s work.

“It has an excellent record, and it’s getting better all the time,” said Michael Warner, director of the Heritage Resource Center in Washington, D.C.

The museum provides an important teaching tool and resource, said Shawn Wong, director of the University of Washington’s Asian-American studies program.

“My students are seeing where history took place, in the context of the community,” Wong said.

Chew is convinced the most accurate reflections of the Asian-American experience come from within the community.

So he has relied on and encouraged community volunteers to work on grass-roots history projects.

“The elders in the community really have a lot of knowledge and wisdom, having lived through and survived many hardships and challenges,” he said. “What we’re saying is to value that as much as a diploma from an accredited institution.”

“It’s important for the diverse communities in the United States to tell their own stories,” Warner said.

“It’s closer to the heart.”

That was demonstrated in an exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the order that led to the evacuation and internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Japanese-Americans, young and old, researched and mounted items, while others loaned photographs and furniture.

The museum’s next grass-roots history project will depict the history and culture of Asian-Americans in Washington, from the early Hawaiians and Chinese immigrants of the 1800s to recent arrivals from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Scheduled to open in April, the display will focus on 10 major ethnic groups, defining their common struggles and describing their unique cultures and history.

Chew wants the museum to have a larger national presence for its message of cultural diversity and Asian-Americans.

He hopes other organizations will follow in his museum’s footsteps.

“A lot is being lost in the process of communities changing. Unless institutions are dealing with it to preserve it, things will be dumped and thrown away,” he said.