Asian Americans is a five-hour PBS documentary film series made by ITVS, WETA, and the Center for Asian American Media. The series focus on the history of Asian and Asian American people in the United States and first aired on May 11, 2020. It received a Peabody Award in 2021.
Crew The series lead producer was Renee Tajima-Peña who described the series as being about "not about how Asians became American, but how Asians have helped shape America." The series' music was composed by Vivek Maddala. Narration throughout the series was done by Asian American actors Daniel Dae Kim and Tamlyn Tomita.
Summary
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Episode 1: Breaking Ground First aired on May 11, 2020, Episode One focused on the early immigration of Asian people from China, India, Japan, and the Philippines starting in the 19th and 20th century.
The episode opens with the story of an Igorot boy named Antero who served as an interpreter and house boy for anthropologist Albert Jencks. In 1904, Antero accompanied Jencks to the world fair in St. Louis to be a part of the Philippine exhibit. The United States, through its imperialism, had annexed part the Philippines and highlighted this by having a Philippine exhibit at the 1904 fair. Fair managers instructed the various Igorot people to perform dances and dog-eating for the crowds, even though the consumption of dog was not common and was for ceremonial purposes. The exhibit was used to enforce the ideas of a racial hierarchy and portrayed the Igorot people as savages. A descendant of Antero, Mia Abeya, speaks of her grandfather and his goal of earning enough money and status to live the American dream.
The episode then describes how Asian immigrants were drawn to California by the 1848 Gold Rush but wound up working on the transcontinental railroad. Chinese workers were seen as a reliable and cheap source of labor and became essential as they made up nearly 90% of the western railroad company's construction crew. Chinese Associations would recover Chinese railway workers' remains from avalanches or other construction accidents to be repatriated back to China. Historian Gordon H. Chang stated that nearly 12,000 people's remains could be sent back to China at one time. When the transcontinental railroad was completed on May 10, 1869, the photo taken to commemorate the accomplishment omits any trace of Chinese workers.
The number of Chinese laborers in 1870 was crucial for the development of California but led to an increasing belief that they were a threat to White American laborers. The anti-Chinese sentiment included attacks on Chinatowns, burnings of businesses, and lynchings. The anti-Chinese sentiment was codified into law when the United States congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which was the first time a group of people were banned from entering the United States solely on the basis of race and nationality.
The Chinese Exclusion Act, the documentary states, set the stage for the use and enforcement of immigration documents and the laws used to arrest and deport people found in the country unlawfully. Historian Erika Lee said the Chinese were, in essence, "the first illegal immigrants, the first undocumented immigrants."
Several court cases that impacted Asian and Asian Americans status in the United States are detailed in the episode. Chinese couple Joseph Tape and Mary Tape sued on behalf of their daughter, Mamie Tape, to go to a white school in the court case Tape v. Hurley. Alisa Kim, a descendant of the Tapes, speaks on her ancestors pasts in the episode. Yick Wo v Hopkins set the precedent of equal protection under the law regardless of race. In the Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, Wong Kim Ark won the right of citizenship for anyone born in the United States.
While there were legal victories, the documentary describes how Asians continued to face discrimination and hardship. Angel Island Immigration Station near San Francisco was used to detain predominantly Asian immigrants. Connie Young Yu describes her grandmother's experiences in Angel Island, which was complicated due to her grandfather's death. The documentary also mentions how in the early 20th century only white people and Black people could apply for naturalized citizenship and so Asian immigrants had to appeal for citizenship through these mechanism. Most noteworthy of this incident mentioned was the court case United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, where Thind attempted to argue he was in fact Aryan and thus could apply for naturalization. The consequences of United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind being ruled against Thind meant that all Indians in the United States could have their land and businesses taken away or be denaturalized.
Writer Vivek Bald appeared in the episode to talk about Moksad Ali, an Indian peddler salesman, and his African-American wife, Ella Ali's experiences as an interracial couple. Moksad Ali's descendants also are shown in the episode and speak on his experience as peddler salesman and one of the earliest peddlers to settle in New Orleans. The documentary details how Indian people, such as Moksad Ali, often settled near or in African-American communities due to the fact they were still seen as dark-skinned people in a highly segregated South. However, Moksad and Ella Ali are buried in an all-white cemetery, an example of how Asian identity complicated the understanding of race.
Episode One also touches on how the second-generation of Asian Americans worked toward assimilation and acceptance. The experiences of Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa are described in the documentary as examples of Asian individuals finding great success in the United States yet still hitting the bamboo ceiling, due to the fact they were often hired to only portray villains or other negative stereotypes. The documentary describes how The Good Earth epitomized Hollywood racism and showcased how white actors in yellowface were rewarded and prioritized rather than casting Asian actors as the protagonists.
Episode One concludes with a summary of how Asian and Asian Americans have challenged the idea of citizenship, social belonging, and what it means to be American.
People featured in Episode One are: Candy Gourlay, Nayan Shah, Connie Young Yu, Gordan Chang, Mae Ngai, Erika Lee, Vivek Bald (writer), Sharmila Sen (writer), Shirley Lim (historian), Nancy Wang Yuen, and Elaine Cho
Episode 2: A Question of Loyalty First aired on May 12, 2020. Episode Two mainly focuses on the experiences of the Uno and Ina families in the era of Japanese internment camps in the United States.
Episode 2 begins with film director Satsuki Ina describing finding her mother's identification number given to her in the Japanese internment camps and the narrator asking the audience "What does it mean to be a loyal American?" Roberta Uno, a descendant of George Uno - a Japanese immigrant - speaks on how her grandfather immigrated but was unable to own land or become a citizen. Uno speaks of her own family's experience with racism and how anti-Asian sentiments continued, including from other immigrants. The discrimination manifested in segregated neighborhoods, exclusion from organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America, and fewer work opportunities. Roberta Uno's uncle Buddy Uno is one such example where he could only find work as a mainstream reporter in Japan. Buddy Uno, who was also a Japanese Military correspondent, wrote positively of the Japanese military in the Sino-Japanese War. Buddy Uno would later become a propagandist for the Japanese during the war.
Historian Brian Niiya speaks in the episode on the differences between the Japanese Issei and Nisei generations. Niiya describes how Nisei generations "because they had been treated so badly in the United States and I think there was a greater openness to overlook some of the atrocities that the Japanese were committing."
While Buddy Uno was successful overseas, his connection to the Japanese military made his father - George Uno - a target of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to detain and investigate after the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. George Uno was detained in Griffith park. The United States imposed a curfew on all Japanese People and regulated how far they could travel. The episode talks about how Earl Warren became a driving force behind the internment of over one hundred thousand Japanese Americans without any charges or due process.
In an effort to avoid the anti-Japanese hate and discrimination, Chinese and Korean Americans wore buttons or other identifiers to communicate to the public they were not Japanese. The episode also describes how some Chinese and Korean Americans fully supported America's war effort since it would mean Japanese Imperialism in China, Korea, and the Philippines may be put to an end. Susan Ahn Cuddy, the first-Asian woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy and its first female gunnery officer, joined the navy as a way to honor her Korean activist father, Ahn Chang Ho "Dosan" and the country of Korea. Philip Ahn, Susan's brother, also honors Korea and his parents by taking pride in playing villainous Japanese roles in Hollywood films as a way to create more anti-Japanese sentiment.
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which authorized the incarceration of around 110,000 Japanese people, two-thirds of them were born in the United States and were citizens. Dr. Ina described how the imprisonment by The United States government was racially motivated due to the fact they imprisoned anyone who they deemed as having 1/16th Japanese blood. Historian Jane Hong describes the different types of internment camps and how family separation was not uncommon. Imprisoned Japanese had to answer a loyalty questionnaire.
The episode describes how Japanese enlisted in the U.S. military from the internment camps. Three of the Uno brothers joined the U.S. military. Howard and Stanley Uno joined as intelligence officers while Ernest Uno was in the 442nd Infantry Regiment. The three Uno brothers vowed to kill their brother Buddy Uno because he was considered a traitor. In 1944, Buddy Uno was stationed in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and met with photojournalist Carl Mydans. Mydans would later describe him as a tortured soul. Buddy Uno never returned to the U.S. and died of Tuberculosis. His descendants speak of him as someone who did his best to survive.
George Uno and his youngest son, Edison Uno, were released from the internment camps in 1947. Edison went on to be an activist for previously incarcerated Japanese and his work, along with others such as Yuji Ichioka, would culminate in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 signed by President Reagan.
The episode concludes with a call to action to prevent the practice of family separation and internment of people from ever happening again.
People featured in Episode Two are: Satsuki ina (American film director), Roberta Uno (descendant of George Uno), Brian Niiya (historian), Amy Uno, Jane Hong (historian), Christine Cuddy (daughter of Susan Ahn Cuddy), and Emiko Uno (daughter of Buddy Uno).
Episode 3: Good Americans Episode 3 aired on May 12, 2020. Episode Three focuses on the continued discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans, the struggle of assimilation, and the rise of Asian Americans in politics all in the context of the Cold War.