Chinatown History Project
Angel Island
Angel Island
The angel island trip we went on was really fun and interesting. The boat ride seemed long at first, but it was all worth it. After we had gotten off the boat, we found out that we had to hike up a long flight of stairs and then walk along a dirt road for twenty minutes to meet the guide. We ate lunch while we were walking because we were dying of hunger. It was an extremely long walk up a very long flight of stairs that seemed to go straight in a very steep hill. While we were walking there, we saw a lot of houses and apartment buildings that the military used to occupy in the days of the Civil War. Lets go over some history on the military side of Angel Island . The batteries were not built until the Civil War. George Wright, the commander of the Department of the Pacific, obtained $100,000 from the War Department for the purpose of defending San Francisco against possible attack by the Confederacy; so three weaponry batteries were quickly built, but that never really happened, so in 1866 it was designated the army's general depot for receiving and distributing new recruits bound for duty in the West.
Angel Island is the largest island in the San Francisco Bay and is best known for its immigration station. The station operated from 1910 to 1940 and was the main entry point in the United States for people coming from Asian countries. More than one million people were processed at the immigration station. The immigration station was a place that the Asian people that wanted to come to America stayed to be inspected and see if they can come over. You can only come over if you have a family member in America . They check and ask you question about your history and see if you match the relatives in America because some people fake it and the security at Angel Island make sure that no cheating will accord. But, the questions that were asks was not also fair because it was really specific. This was cancel out the cheating factor. The people stand in detention periods where they stay at the immigration station until the angel island security make sure what the Asians are saying is true. After the questions and the detention period only two things can happen. Your family and relative pick you up and you're free to go to America or you didn't pass and you're sent back to wherever you came from.
The outbreak of the Spanish-American War led to the establishment of Angel Island 's first use as a detention camp. There are sons called paper sons where the sons are fake and the papers are fake. These paper sons started at the 1906 earthquake because all the papers were burn, so there were a lot of fake papers going around. After all the fake papers, the Angel Island immigration station was developed. There was also another way that the Asians cheat their way into America . They have something called “coaching papersEthat have the answers to the questions that the security at Angel Island will ask. They memorize it and they will pass the test. At the end, the immigration station was closed down because a law was passed that allowed Asian's come to America .
The immigration center was not like a hotel. The life for all the immigrates was not good at all. Everything went in a schedule. It was kind of like jail. You can't really even go outside, so there is like nothing to do, but being stuffed up in a room all day. The immigrates decided to do something about it. They began to write all types of poems in the walls, until every inch of the wall is filled with poems.
But, before the Asians can go to the immigration center, they had to be cleaned up. There were a lot of diseases like smallpox and plague going around the world at the time, so the security was trying to keep the people as clean and healthy as possible. The first thing that they had to do when they arrive was to throw their entire luggage into a room with really hot steam. All the hot steam will clean off the entire luggage before it does into the station. The ships and everything was being clean by hot steam also.
We even went into one of the houses. It was freaky at first because the room was dimly lit, but we found it really interesting. It also started to rain, but there was shelter in the museum so we were safe. The guide told us the places in the island and the history behind it. It was really interesting because we didn't know that Angel Island was also used as a base for the US military during the Civil War and World War I.
After all the talking, we went outside and took a group picture with the guide. The guide told us some directions to some of the important places on the island. The next place that we went to after that was the immigration center. While going to the center, we passed a big rock with writing on it. The rock said something about new life in America . We also saw a big bell. The bell was actually really old. It was used for alerting the immigrants of when it was time to sleep and eat.
We tried ringing the bell and that was really a loud sound. Our eardrums were tired afterwards. After all the bell excitement, we went into the immigration center. The guide was already talking when we got there. He said the immigrants that lived on the immigration center were really lonely and bored and that was the only way that they can express themselves, so that they wrote poetry all over the walls. We were wondering at first where we are not allowed to touch the walls and we know why now!
Ever inch of the room was covered with poems! We looked around for a little while and then we started to go next door. There was a short film next door about the survivors of Angel Island . It was an interesting film because all these people were talking about their own experiences on Angel Island . After the film, we had to hike back to the boat place to board the boat.