Summary Of Strangers From A Different Shore

Asian Americans came to America with hopes and dreams of a better life in the 19th and 20th centuries. In Ronald Takaki's book, “Strangers From a Different Shore,” he mainly focuses on Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Indian, Korean, and Southeast Asian immigrants. The mass Asian immigration began due to the desire for cheap labor. Plantation owners needed more workers in Hawaii, while labor demands in the mainland came from industrialization and railroad work. As a result, many Asians came to America for the better life and began looking for jobs. However, the only jobs that were available for them were cheap labor jobs that white men did not want to do. Furthermore, there was a great deal of discrimination towards Asian immigrants through the

In an interview on NBC's Today show, Takaki brings up an example from E.D. Hirsch's book "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know." This best selling at the time includes a long list of terms that every American show know. That list contained Ellis island, however, it failed to mention Angel Island. This is significant because Ellis Island was the point for European immigrants while Angel Island was the location of the immigration station for Chinese and Japanese immigrants. These Asian Americans are strangers from a different shore because they aren't recognized as playing a significant role in American history. He uses "Strangers from a Different Shore" to reflect on the contributions of Asian Americans. Additionally, Takaki points out that Asian feel like strangers in America because they are not accepted as equals. Coming from a “different shore,” Asian immigrants constituted a unique laboring army of “strangers.” At the time, Asian immigrants were allowed to enter as “cheap” migratory laborers and members of a racially subordinated group, not future citizens of American