Asia Pacific heritage month in US

by Dr. Nimal Sedera

May is special for Asians living in the USA for it is the Asian Pacific Heritage Month in America. This is the time in which the Asians celebrate the event. It was in 1977, the representative Frank Hordon of New York and Norma Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution calling for the proclamation of a Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

It was during President Jimmy Carter’s regime that the first week of May was declared the Asian Pacific Heritage Month. In 1990, the period of one week was extended to month by President George W. Bush.

Asians in the early years were identified as “Oritantals” and Yougi Choice is given the credit of popularising the terminology “Asian Americans”.

One would show interest to know how many Asians live in the USA. Of the 300 million population, the Asians constitute five percent amounting to 15 million.

As per the recorded history the first Asian, a Japanese arrived in the USA on May, 7 1843. Asians brought to USA were mostly employed in the construction of the Transcontinental Rail Road. It was the Chinese labour that was mostly used in the construction which was completed in 1869.

From the arrival of the first Japanese in 1843 after 167 years the USA has an Asian American population of sixteen million as at today which is 5% of the entire American population. The Chinese arrived in Hawaii in 1718 the same year Captain Cook landed and it is the seventh generation of Chinese in the USA.

Of this number, the Chinese occupy the highest share of 3.53 millions and the Filipinos 3.05 millions, whilst Indians come third with 2.77 million. Other major ethnic groups include the Vietnamese 1.64 million, Koreans 1.56 million, Japanese 1.22 million, Cambodians 206,000, Pakistani 204,000, Lotanians 98 million, Taiwanese 150,000 and Laojians 198,000.

The Asians in the USA mostly live in the metropolitan areas and in Honolulu of the entire population in the city 46% are Asians. In Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Asian population is as high as 19.9%. In such cities has Las Vegas there is a 6.9% Asian population. There are the “Chin towns” “Little Manilas”, “Korea towns” and even the “Cambodian towns”.

Asians are the third largest minority in USA. The most outstanding features of the American Asian are reflected in the fields of education and earning. Asians have obtained the first place in education and second lowest in poverty rate.

According to the 2004 statistics 67% of Asian students completed the bachelors degree. The break up of it is as follows: Filipinos 47% the Chinese 50% Japanese 43% and Koreans 50.8%.

The keenness of the Asians in education is reflected in the employment structure of America. 50% of the nurses are Filipinos while 25% of the dentists and 25% of the doctors are Indians.

In the per person and the household income sectors Asians top the list with 30 thousand individual and 60 thousand family incomes as against the Whites 32/48, Hispanic 22/36 and the Blacks 28/30.

Asians have successfully integrated with the American society and play a vital role in every sector such as politics, trade, sports.

Asians are also in the House of Representatives. Normen Menita was the first Asian to hold a cabinet rank in 2000. George Ariyoshi became the Governor of Hawaii as far back as 1974. In the field of technology, Chen Ning Yang received the Nobel price for Physics in 1957 and many more Asians followed thereafter.

There are Asians who have sacrificed their lives such as Kapian Chawla for the sake of space technology.

There are over 270,000 illegal Filipino immigrants and a similar number of Indians, 250,000 Korean, 190,000 Chinese and 150,000 Vietnamese illegal immigrants.

A special feature of this celebration is the award of five scholarships to five bright Asian students for higher studies and the recognition of five outstanding Asians who have contributed to the development of Asian culture in Las Vegas.