Bowling in New York's Chinatown, after the war.
Moe, Jimmy, Hing, Mumps.
Looking east.
While American involvement in World War 2 is usually covered from 1941 to 1945, Japanese military expansion into China throughout the 1930s and war in 1937 held the attention of Chinese Americans. During this time mainstream Americans were generally sympathetic to the plight of China but eager to avoid involvement in the war in Europe when it broke out in 1939.Here are buttons that Jane Wong Young kept and wore while she was growing up in Chinatown.
Baseball
Probably played in the Xaffevillers-Rambervillers area, France, early 1945, possibly before the attack on the Siegfried Line in mid-March. These are probably H Company men (179th Infantry).
Most of the negatives in this collection have light streaks.
To summarize, here are some of the unique experiences of Chinese-Americans during this period
• Chinese-American world views and war interests influenced by opposition to Japanese encroachment on the Chinese mainland during the 1930s and the outbreak of war in 1937
• Small numbers, but coming from well organized communities (Chinatowns)
• Often isolated individuals serving in larger formations of white troops (compared to Japanese-Americans interred as groups or organized into fighting units)
• Chinese-Americans serving with white troops during official segregation policies practiced in the armed forces (compared to Japanese and African-Americans)
• Chinese-Americans overseeing or commanding white troops as NCOs or officers
• Chinese-Americans captured and interned as POWs
About the Second World War, there are too many books and sources available. For a historical and military account John Keegan's The Second World War (1990) is concise, well written and broadly connects events to global trends. For personal experiences and reflections of (mostly) American soldiers and civilians, Studs Terkel’s The Good War: An Oral History of World War II (1997) contains an extraordinary selection.
Most of the negatives in this collection have light streaks.
Website Purpose
This site has a couple of purposes, 1) to make available fragile documents and photos to family members and 2) to contextualize them for anyone interested in wanting to know more.
Of the 11 million Americans who served in World War II, 13,500 were Chinese-American, or a little more than one-tenth of one percent (1 in 1,000). The information about them seems to consist of scattered, unorganized accounts or too broadly generalized facts that fail to convey a strong picture of the era from a Chinese-American viewpoint. To this point, these photos and documents have some importance to the histories of Asian- and Chinese-Americans, the history of segregation, the war years, and afterward. Reading the 1945 mailing list of NY Chinatown's Bowling Club offers some idea about individuals and the breadth of experiences reflected in their assignments.
To summarize, here are some of the unique experiences of Chinese-Americans during this period
• Chinese-American world views and war interests influenced by opposition to Japanese encroachment on the Chinese mainland during the 1930s and the outbreak of war in 1937
• Small numbers, but coming from well organized communities (Chinatowns)
• Often isolated individuals serving in larger formations of white troops (compared to Japanese-Americans interred as groups or organized into fighting units)
• Chinese-Americans serving with white troops during official segregation policies practiced in the armed forces (compared to Japanese and African-Americans)
• Chinese-Americans overseeing or commanding white troops as NCOs or officers
• Chinese-Americans captured and interned as POWs
Unusual meeting: Two Chinese-Americans in Munich at the end of the war.
About the Second World War, there are too many books and sources available. For a historical and military account John Keegan's The Second World War (1990) is concise, well written and broadly connects events to global trends. For personal experiences and reflections of (mostly) American soldiers and civilians, Studs Terkel’s The Good War: An Oral History of World War II (1997) contains an extraordinary selection.
