Voices of Angel Island: Inscriptions and Immigrant Poetry, 1910–1945

Description

Voices of Angel Island is a historical and literary anthology of the writings of immigrants detained at Angel Island, designed to provide a conduit for readers today to connect with early 20th-century perspectives on the process of “becoming American.” The Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay has been called the “Ellis Island of the West,” but its purpose was quite different. It was primarily a detention center, established in large part to discourage immigration by Asians. The station barracks contains an extraordinary archive: hundreds of poems and prose records in half a dozen languages are on the walls, inscribed by immigrant detainees between 1910 and 1940, and by P.O.W.s and “enemy aliens” during World War II. Charles Egan draws on over a decade’s work deciphering the wall inscriptions by Japanese, Chinese, Korean, European, and other detainees to assemble a selection of their writings in this book, alongside literary materials from Bay Area ethnic newspapers. While each inscription tells the story of an individual, taken together they illuminate historical, economic and cultural forces that shaped the lives of ordinary people in the early 20th century. Cover Half title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Japanese Inscriptions, 1910–1940 Wall Inscriptions Japaneses Prose and Poetry from Nichibei Shimbun 2 Korean Inscriptions, 1910–1940 Wall Inscriptions Korean Poetry from Sinhan Minbo 3 Chinese Inscriptions, 1910–1940 Wall Inscriptions An Angel Island Memoir 4 Other Inscriptions, 1910–1940 Russian Wall Inscriptions Russian Poetry from Russkii Golos South Asian Wall Inscriptions Punjabi Poetry from Ghadar de Gunj Wall Inscriptions in European Languages 5 Second World War Wall Inscriptions, 1942–1945 By Japanese Hawaiians Inscriptions from Yasutaro Soga By Prisoners-of-War By Post-war Deportees Appendices A. Poem Numbers in Island, 1st and 2nd Editions B. Wall Locations of Island Poems (Island 2nd Edition Order) C. Wall Locations of Island 2nd Edition Poems (Wall Order) D. Tet Yee Manuscript Poems and Locations E. Smiley Jann Manuscript Poems and Locations F. Wall Locations of Pictures Notes (including locations of wall inscriptions) Bibliography Index