Painful past revisited

Heavily forested with oak, bay laurel and large eucalyptus, Angel Island, with its spectacular views of Marin and San Francisco and its peaceful hiking and biking trails, was once a barbed-wire detention center for thousands of would-be Chinese immigrants.

For Genevieve Lew, an SF State student majoring in information science and office systems, her recent visit to the island with more than 150 other SF State students had a special significance. She was there with her sister to see for herself the remains of the immigration station where her Chinese father and grandfather were detained when entering the country in 1938.

"For me, this was a prison," said Lew, as she contemplated the interior of an old barrack that included a dormitory recreation with a display of bunks, one occupied by a woman mannequin.

"Once you get here, you get a real sense of what life was like in this place," she said.

Following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, only the wives and children of Chinese-American citizens, travelers, merchants, students and teachers were allowed to enter the country. The Angel Island Immigration Station was set up in 1910 to process immigrants from different countries. Only Asians, however, were detained on the island -- some for several weeks, others for up to three years.

"My father and grandfather were here for three months," mumbled Lew while listening to the docent, who is trained to bring alive the past of the island.

According to the docent, from 1910 to 1940 about 200,000 Chinese immigrants seeking a better life in America came through the station. At any one time, 200-300 males and 30-50 females were detained. It is estimated that 10 percent of the detainees were deported. Some committed suicide rather than face humiliation.

"The bathrooms were often the sites of suicides," said the docent, as she demonstrated how a small person could easily hang from a shower head.

"After a four-month journey, imagine the sense of failure it meant for them to go back," Lew said.

Although called the "Ellis Island of the West," Angel Island was different. While arrivals at Ellis Island were screened primarily for medical purposes, at Angel Island the intention was to exclude new arrivals from China, according to the docent.

Lew had heard about the island since childhood, but only this trip would give her and her sister answers to questions their parents evaded for years.

"There's a stigma about the island. Every time I asked my parents about it I hit a dead end. They wouldn't say much about it," said Lew, who made this trip as part of an Asian American history class.

"I didn't know about the historical value of the island when I first visited it years ago," she said.

Though the island opened as a national park in 1956, the immigration station didn't open for tours until 1972.

Inside the musty building, Lew reads some of the fascinating and evocative melancholy poems carved into the walls by detained Chinese immigrants. The poems, written in Chinese, went unnoticed until a park ranger discovered them in 1970.

My belly is so full of discontent it is really difficult to relax.
I can only worry silently to myself.
At times I gaze at the cloud-and-fog-enshrouded mountain front.
It only deepens my sadness.

"When I read (the poems) and think about them I understand the frustrations," she said.

[ Golden Gater Online October 19, 1995 ]

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