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Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror for Young People

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Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror for Young People

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Chapter 8, entitled "Searching for Gold Mountain," provides an overview of early Chinese immigration in the US. Chapter 10 focuses on the Japanese experience. As a young-readers adaptation, it is well-suited for students grades 6 and up. Takaki was a renowned professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley and a Japanese-American himself, so his perspective as an academic and AAPI make this source quite powerful.

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This student-recommended video is one of many from the Gold Mountain exhibit at the California Museum. It was a universal favorite, for its accessible animations woven with documentary evidence. My students recommend it for ages 8 and up.

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Lim Lip Hong, featured in “Gold Mountain” exhibit

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My students and I co-created this open syllabus in the spring of 2021 as a seed for what we hope will grow into a full-fledged, engaging, and credible syllabus on Asian-American history for middle schoolers. In the spirit of open educational resources (OER), we hope you will copy, expand, customize, reuse, remix, and re-share the syllabus. Aside from the Takaki readings and the Edith Maude Eaton entry, all resources here were chosen by students and then peer evaluated to determine how credible, engaging, and grade-appropriate each was. After we completed the syllabus, we critiqued it, noticing the need for a wider range of the groups comprising AAPI, resources in other languages, and local history.

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One student offered history.com's overview of Asian American History. Peer reviewers noted that this source is best for older middle-schoolers, as the content can get graphic and the language can get dense. Students found the source reasonably credible, given the source list provided at the end, but recognized that history.com presents more commercial than academic histories.

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The first major wave of Asian immigrants arrived at American shores in the mid-1800s and Asian Americans have since played a key role in U.S. history, while also facing discrimination and exclusion.

A diverse population, the nation's 20 million-plus Asian Americans have roots in more than 20 countries in Asia and India, according to the Pew Research Cente r, with Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese making up 85 percent of today's Asian American population. Here's a look at some of the notable milestones throughout Asian American history.

Gold Rush Lures New Wave of Immigrants

May 7, 1843: A 14-year-old fisherman named Manjiro becomes the first official U.S. Japanese immigrant after being adopted by American Capt. William Whitfield who rescued the boy and his crew after a shipwreck 300 miles from Japan's coast. Years later, Manjiro returned to his home country, where he was named a samurai and worked as a political emissary with the West.

Page Act, Chinese Exclusion Act Restrict Immigration

May 6, 1882: Facing hostile, and often violent treatment from locals, Chinese immigrants are targeted by Congress with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, signed into law by President Chester Arthur. The act bans Chinese workers from entering the country and excludes Chinese immigrants from American citizenship. Every 10 years, Congress extends its provision until 1943, when World War II labor shortage pressure and increased anti-Japanese sentiment leads to its demise and Chinese immigrants are allowed to become naturalized citizens.

March 3, 1885: In the case Tape v. Hurley, California's Supreme Court rules that the state entitles "all children" access to public education. The case centers on Mamie Tape, then 8, an American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants whose family sued the San Francisco Board of Education for denying her admission because of her race.

White Coal Miners Target Chinese Workers

September 2, 1885: Angered that they're taking away "white" jobs, white coal miners attack Chinese laborers in the Wyoming territory during what comes to be known as the Rock Springs Massacre. Twenty-eight Chinese are killed, with 15 more injured by the mob, which also looted and set fire to all of the homes in the area's Chinatown. Federal troops are brought in to return Chinese miners, who had fled, to Rock Springs, and Congress eventually agrees to compensate the workers for their losses.

May 27-28, 1887: Seven white horse thieves ambush a group of Chinese miners who had set up camp along the Snake River in Oregon, murdering all 34 men and mutilating their bodies before dumping them in the river. Three members of the gang stand trial in the Hells Canyon Massacre, with one testifying for the state, and all are found not guilty by an all-white jury.

February 5, 1917: Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1917, which includes an "Asiatic Barred Zone," banning Chinese, Asian Indians, Burmese, Thai, Maylays and others. Japan is not on the list of those excluded, as prohibitions against immigrants from that country are already in place, nor is the Philippines, as it is a U.S. territory.

Japanese Internment

December 7, 1941: The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, fearing Japanese immigrants or those with Japanese ancestry had taken part in planning the attack, issues an executive order that forces more than 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast into internment camps.

According to the National Archives, approximately 70,000 of those targeted are U.S. citizens, and no charges are made against any of them. Most lose their homes, businesses and belongings, and are held until the war ends. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signs a law apologizing for the civil liberty injustice with the order to pay $20,000 to each person who had been incarcerated.

Asian-American Firsts in Congress

January 3, 1957: Dalip Saund of California is sworn in as a U.S. Representative, becoming the first Asian-American, first Indian American and first Sikh to serve in Congress. An immigrant from India, he became an American citizen in 1949, eventually earning a Ph.D. and being elected as a judge before serving three terms in the House. According to the U.S. House of Representatives History, Art & Archives, he was vocal on issues such as communism and civil rights, including desegregation. "The problem of man's injustice to man is a world problem," he said in response to the case in Little Rock, Arkansas. "Let one who is innocent and pure throw the first stone."

August 24, 1959: Born in Honolulu the son of poor Chinese immigrants, Hiram L. Fong is sworn in as Hawaii's first U.S. Senator, becoming the first Asian American elected to the chamber. The only Republican senator ever elected from the state, he defended President Richard Nixon's Vietnam policies, and, according to the U.S. House of Representatives History, Art & Archives, saw himself as an Asian American spokesman. "I feel sometimes they think I am their senator," he once said. "I try to interpret America to them and to interpret them to America."

January 4, 1965: U.S. Representative Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii is sworn in as the first Asian American woman, and first woman of color, to serve in Congress. A supporter of women's and civil rights and an advocate for education, children and labor unions, Mink opposed the Vietnam War, supported Head Start and the Women's Educational Equity Act and was a co-author and sponsor of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, outlawing sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal funding. She also co-founds the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus in 1994.

Advances in Labor Rights

August 19, 1973: Martial arts movie Enter the Dragon premieres, three weeks after its action star, Bruce Lee, dies from an allergic reaction to pain medication in Hong Kong. In his first starring role in a Hollywood film, the box office hit cements Lee, born in 1940 in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, as a film icon.

March 28, 1979: President Jimmy Carter proclaims a week in May is to be designated Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week, which would be continued by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. In 1990, Bush broadens the observance to cover the month of May and, in 1992, Congress passes a law permanently designating May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. May is chosen in honor of the first official Japanese immigrant's arrival in the U.S. on May 7, 1843, and because May 10, 1869, marks the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

June 24, 1982: More than 20,000 garment workers, most of whom are female immigrants from China and Hong Kong, rally in New York's Chinatown after labor union negotiations stall. A second rally is held the next month, with a one-day strike taking place July 15, the largest in the history of Chinatown that ends with employers accepting the union's contract demands.

Asian Americans in Architecture, Film

October 2018: Director Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians breaks box office records, becoming North America's highest-earning romantic comedy in a decade. It's also the first Hollywood studio movie since 1993's Joy Luck Club starring an "all-Westernized Asian American cast," according to the Hollywood Reporter. Based on the novel by Kevin Kwan, the film, made for $30 million, has grossed more than $238 million.

July 21, 2000: President Bill Clinton swears in Norman Mineta as the U.S. secretary of commerce, making him the first Asian American to serve in a presidential cabinet. Mineta, a Japanese American who had been sent to a World War II internment camp in 1942, was the first Asian American mayor of a major city, San Jose, Calif., served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1999 and, in 2001, was named transportation secretary under George W. Bush. Bush also appoints Elaine Chao secretary of labor, the first female Asian American to serve in a presidential cabinet. President Donald Trump names her secretary of transportation in 2017.

Sources

Key facts about Asian origin groups in the U.S., Pew Research Center

Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Congress: First Arrivals, First Reactions, U.S. House of Representatives

Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History, Library of Congress

U.S. Immigration Station, Angel Island, National Park Service

Grapes Of Wrath: The Forgotten Filipinos Who Led A Farmworker Revolution, NPR

Japanese-American Internment During World War II, National Archives

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Library of Congress

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Asian American Timeline - Immigration, Achievements & Famous Firsts

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Asian immigrants have come to American shores since the mid-1800s, playing a significant role in U.S. history, but one that's rife with inequity and exclusion. See a timeline of key events.

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Author Edith Maude Eaton used her Chinese-British heritage to bring stories of Chinese-American experience to larger societal awareness.

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From PBS's Oregon Experience, this student-selected episode explores the Hells Canyon Massacre. The video is a half-hour long, and one student suggested that it could be used in part or whole. Given the content, this might be best for older middle schoolers.

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Oregon Experience
Season 11 Episode 1102 | 27m 14s |

Chinese immigrants were instrumental in building the West, but they faced unprecedented legalized discrimination and violence. In 1887, a gang of Wallowa County men killed as many a 34 Chinese gold miners along the Snake River. For over a century the murders were covered up, and no one was held accountable. Today, the massacre at Hells Canyon is finally acknowledged.

Aired: 01/23/17

Rating: TV-G

Problems Playing Video? Report a Problem |

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Oregon Experience | Massacre at Hells Canyon | Season 11 | Episode 1102

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Oregon Experience Season 11 Episode 1102 | 27m 14s | Chinese immigrants were instrumental in building the West, but they faced unprecedented legalized discrimination and violence. In 1887, a gang of Wallowa County men killed as many a 34 Chinese gold miners along the Snake River.

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This student-discovered TEDEd talk explores the Chinese Exclusion act with a particular focus on Chae Chan Ping's Supreme Court Case. Students laud the engaging animation that delivers what they deemed critical information in the study of AAPI history.

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The dark history of the Chinese Exclusion Act - Robert Chang

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This student-selected site was well received and viewed as thorough and authoritative resource adaptable for a range of audiences.

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writing on the walls

Over 200 poems and hundreds other inscriptions found on the detention barracks walls have long been a centerpiece of the Immigration Station's rebirth as a National Historic Landmark.

From the time the Immigration Station opened in 1910, the walls of the detention barracks became the voice of the men held inside. Through frustration, fear, anxiety, and possibly even boredom, many detainees wrote or carved their thoughts into the soft wooden walls. These inscriptions form a very personal written account of a unique immigration experience that is now a part of our American heritage.

The proliferation of Chinese inscriptions undoubtedly led other immigrants to leave behind their own personal messages. Japanese immigrants, and later Japanese POWs and repatriating Japanese nationals, also left inscriptions on the walls. Writings in Russian, English, and South Asian languages can also be found throughout the barracks.

When the Immigration Station closed in 1940, the Army took possession of the station, converting it to a prisoner of war (POW) processing center. This lasted through 1946, with its last year used as a repatriation center for Japanese nationals. Upon its final closing, the facility was decommissioned by the Army and turned over to the State of California. It laid abandoned until 1963, when the California Department of Parks and Recreation took possession of the island as a state park.

For the next eight years, a plan was developed to turn the site into a campground with extensive recreational facilities. Demolition of the Immigration Station buildings was imminent. Fortunately in 1970, park ranger Alexander Weiss decided to explore the old barracks and discovered a multitude of Chinese carvings on the interior walls. Weiss turned to the local Asian American community, for help in finding the meanings of the carvings. They determined that the writings were historically significant. This led to an avalanche of activism from volunteer professionals and students that lasted through the 1970s and ultimately resulted in the detention barracks and its poems being saved for future generations.

Chinese Poetry of the Detention Barracks

The most visible and durable testimony of those detained at Angel Island are the notable poems, some written, some carved with a classical Cantonese technique into the wooden walls of the barracks. This was not mere graffiti. Couched in classical allegories and historical references, these poems poured forth the aspirations of the immigrants with their anger and sadness at the injustice of their initial reception by America.
THE POETS
From 1910 to 1940 most of Angel Island's Chinese detainees were young men between 14 and 18 years of age. Some had an elementary school education in the form of private tutoring, but they were rarely educated at the high school level. Detainees knew some classical Chinese and the ABC's of Chinese calligraphy. However, some fairly high quality poems indicated that there were a few older and well-educated persons amidst the detainee population. The overwhelming majority of the authors of the poems did not sign their names to their poems. Only a dozen or so signed their real names. A few others included their surnames, birthplaces, and the dates of their writing.
POETRY THEMES
Traditionally, Chinese scholars emphasize that poetry reveals one's heart, aspirations and feelings. One can imagine that a group of young men with some education came across the Pacific Ocean with very high expectations of a new life in the New World. They had no idea that they would be detained on Angel Island. Given this situation, the prevailing sentiments were disappointment, anger, depression and homesickness beyond some imaginary lines, a complex only found in youth. Some themes have been found in the poetry at the Immigration Station. Theses themes include: missing home village; unfulfilled aspirations; concerning the nation and people; hopelessness and pain; hatred; life in detention; and ancient stories, legends and historical figures.
POETRY FORMS
The poems on Angel Island mainly are of the classic Chinese poetry, notably the Tang Poetry. Some of the poems actually observe the strict rhyming patterns, couplet requirements and the regulation of tunes. But this is not universal to all poems.

Translation
Detained in this wooden house for several tens of days,
It is all because of the Mexican exclusion law which implicates me.
It's a pity heroes have no way of exercising their prowess.
I can only await the word so that I can snap Zu's whip.

From now on, I am departing far from this building
All of my fellow villagers are rejoicing with me.
Don't say that everything within is Western styled.
Even if it is built of jade, it has turned into a cage.

Poem 135

Poetry in the Classroom

AIISF provides resources for educators who want to bring the lessons of the Angel Island Immigration Station into the classroom.

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Poems and Inscriptions | Angel Island Immigration Station - San Francisco

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From the time the Immigration Station opened in 1910, the walls of the detention barracks became the voice of the men held inside. Through frustration, fear, anxiety, and possibly even boredom, many detainees wrote or carved their thoughts into the soft wooden walls.

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This student-selected video, part of the New-York Historical Society's "Paper Sons and Daughters" exhibit, shares one family's experience with Chinese immigration in the early 20th century. All students found the resource engaging, valuable, and trustworthy. In addition to the comments below, some students noted out loud in class that the clip is offered by the reputable New-York Historical Society and that the speaker featured was herself a professor of Asian American Studies at UC Santa Cruz.

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Paper Sons & Daughters [exhibition video] // Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion

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This student-selected Britannica School introduction to Angel Island was well endorsed for younger middle schoolers or readers who benefit from audio or leveled reading. It does require a Britannica school account to access.

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This student-found resource focuses on Executive Order 9066 establishing internment camps for Japanese Americans. Students found the resource fairly reliable, as Britannica has a reputation for being accurate, and they appreciated the text features such as photos and hyperlinked definitions to tough words. They recommend the resource for older students given the text complexity.

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Table of Contents

Executive Order 9066, (February 19, 1942), executive order issued by U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, which granted the secretary of war and his commanders the power "to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded." While no specific group or location was mentioned in the order, it was quickly applied to virtually the entire Japanese American population on the West Coast.

In the days after the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, suspicion fell on Japanese American communities in the western United States. The U.S. Department of the Treasury froze the assets of all citizens and resident aliens who were born in Japan, and the Department of Justice arrested some 1,500 religious and community leaders as potentially dangerous enemy aliens. Because many of the largest populations of Japanese Americans were in close proximity to vital war assets along the Pacific coast, U.S. military commanders petitioned Secretary of War Henry Stimson to intervene. The result was Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066.

Within a week the Nisei (U.S.-born sons and daughters of Japanese immigrants) of southern California's Terminal Island had been ordered to vacate their homes, leaving behind all but what they could carry. On March 2, 1942, Gen. John DeWitt, the army's administrator for the western United States, issued Proclamation No. 1, which established Military Area No. 1 (the western halves of California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as southern Arizona) and Military Area No. 2 (the remaining areas of those four states). DeWitt issued a series of subsequent proclamations that clarified that all persons of Japanese descent would be removed from the entire state of California and the remainder of Military Area No. 1. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9102 on March 18, 1942, creating the War Relocation Authority, a civilian agency tasked with speeding the process along. A few days later the first wave of "evacuees" arrived at Manzanar War Relocation Center, a collection of tar-paper barracks in the California desert, and most spent the next three years there.

Ultimately, the number of internment camps expanded to 10, and more than 110,000 Japanese Americans spent the remainder of the war in them. In December 1944 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ex parte Mitsuye Endo that it was beyond the power of the War Relocation Authority "to detain citizens against whom no charges of disloyalty or subversiveness have been made for a period longer than that necessary to separate the loyal from the disloyal." In 1948 Pres. Harry S. Truman signed the Evacuation Claims Act, which gave internees the opportunity to submit claims for property lost as a result of relocation. Pres. Gerald Ford formally rescinded Executive Order 9066 on February 16, 1976. In 1988 Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, which stated that a "grave injustice" had been done to Japanese American citizens and resident aliens during World War II. It also established a fund that paid some $1.6 billion in reparations to formerly interned Japanese Americans or their heirs.

Michael Ray

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Executive Order 9066 | Facts, History, & Significance

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Executive Order 9066, (February 19, 1942), executive order issued by U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, which granted the secretary of war and his commanders the power "to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded."

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This student-selected TED-Ed video was deemed by peers as helpful and trustworthy, good for most middle-school ages. The producer, Densho, a non-profit digital repository, offers a full lesson plan.

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Ugly History: Japanese American incarceration camps - Densho

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This student-selected article from the National World War II Museum in New Orleans provides a brief overview with highlighted key terms of the camps. The article's follow-up piece on post-war anti-Japanese sentiment adds depth. (For older students, the "About Us"  may also provide nuance to conversations about source credibility and bias.

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At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, about 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry lived on the US mainland, mostly along the Pacific Coast. About two thirds were full citizens, born and raised in the United States. Following the Pearl Harbor attack, however, a wave of antiJapanese suspicion and fear led the Roosevelt administration to adopt a drastic policy toward these residents, alien and citizen alike.

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Used as a sample during our review process, this history.com article provides helpful information but in an ad-laden, somewhat distracting format. The graphic nature of the crime makes it best for the oldest middle schoolers.

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How the 1982 Murder of Vincent Chin Ignited a Push for Asian American Rights

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Two autoworkers who reportedly mistook Chin to be Japanese received no jail time for the killing.

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UCLA's Asian American Studies' Collective Memories video

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UCLA's Asian American Studies' Collective Memories video

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This student-selected video presents reflections from those involved in the formation of UCLA's Asian American Studies program. The variety of voices and the focus on activism is supported by documentary photos.

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The Collective Memories | UCLA Asian American Studies Center

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This moving, student-selected TEDxWomen talk provides a personal, multi-generational story of emigration from China to Australia (and ultimately the US). Tan Le's story is about the women, fortitude, and survival. The harsh realities of the account make it most suitable for older middle-school students.

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In 2010, technologist Tan Le took the TEDGlobal stage to demo a powerful new interface. But now, at TEDxWomen, she tells a very personal story: the story of her family -- mother, grandmother and sister -- fleeing Vietnam and building a new life.

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This project was created by 7th graders at the Chapin School in New York City in spring of 2021. In addition to sharing with you the AAPI history sources they found, I have added some of their peer-review evaluation comments under each entry. To protect my students' privacy, I have left their names off of those comments, and because this is largely their work, I have tucked my own name only in my Padlet handle.

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This student-selected article from the House of Representatives' website relays the life and work of Patsy Mink, the first BIPOC woman elected to Congress. Though peer reviewers found it dense, and maybe best suited to a deep-dive research project on Mink, the bio works well with Ronald Takaki's Chapter 10 of A Different Mirror on Japanese immigration to Hawaii as well as any Japanese internment resources.

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Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color elected to Congress, participated in the passage of much of the 1960s Great Society legislation during the first phase of her congressional career. After a long hiatus, Mink returned to the House in the 1990s as an ardent defender of the social welfare state at a time when much of the legislation she had helped establish was being rolled back. As a veteran politician who had a significant impact on the nation during both stints in the U.S. House of Representatives, Mink's legislative approach was premised on the belief that representation extended beyond the borders of one's congressional district. "You were not elected to Congress, in my interpretation of things, to represent your district, period," she once noted. "You are national legislators." ¹

Patsy Matsu Takemoto was born in Paia, Hawaii Territory, on December 6, 1927, one of two children raised by Suematsu Takemoto, a civil engineer, and Mitama Tateyama Takemoto. She graduated from Maui High School in 1944 as class president and valedictorian and went on to attend Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln before graduating with a BA in zoology and chemistry from the University of Hawai'i in 1948. Mink originally planned to pursue a medical degree but turned to law school after several medical schools turned down her application. Three years later, she earned a JD from the University of Chicago Law School, the first Hawaiian nisei woman to do so. In 1951 she married John Francis Mink, a graduate student in geology at the university. The couple had one child, a daughter named Gwendolyn, and moved to Honolulu. Facing discrimination from bigger firms due to her interracial marriage, Patsy Mink went into private law practice and lectured on business law at the University of Hawai'i. ² In 1954 Mink founded the Oahu Young Democrats and worked as an attorney for the territorial house of representatives in 1955. Mink won election to that chamber in 1956 and 1958 before winning a seat in the territorial senate, where she served from 1958 to 1959.

In 1959, when Hawaii achieved statehood, Mink set her sights on the new state's lone At-Large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and began to campaign for the post. Hawaii's Delegate and Democratic "boss," John Anthony Burns, remained in Washington, DC, until June, when he suddenly began working behind the scenes to rearrange the Democratic ballot to his liking. He convinced Daniel Ken Inouye to abandon his Senate campaign and file for the House seat instead, frustrating Mink's efforts and forcing a primary. Though Mink was also one of Burns's protégés, she frequently broke with party leadership in the territorial legislature. Throughout her career, Mink never had a warm relationship with the state leaders of her party; she attributed their lack of support to her unwillingness to allow the party to influence her political agenda. ³ Additionally, Burns viewed Inouye as his successor, and the two worked together atop the state Democratic Party for many years. The famously liberal International Longshore and Warehouse Union switched their endorsement from Mink to Inouye, who won by a two-to-one margin in the primary, leaving Mink to focus on her legal career. ⁴ Mink returned to politics in 1962, winning a seat in the Hawaii state senate, where she served from 1962 to 1964 and eventually chaired the education committee.

In 1964, after reapportionment created a second At-Large seat for Hawaii in the U.S. House, Mink again mounted a grassroots campaign that relied on a staff of unpaid volunteers; her husband, John, served as her campaign manager, "principal sounding board," and "inhouse critic." ⁵ She ran without the blessing of the state Democratic Party leadership, raising campaign funds largely in small individual contributions. Mink barely edged out two other Democrats in the October primary to secure her spot on the ballot alongside Spark Masayuki Matsunaga, Daniel Inouye's successor in the House. Mink stressed her independence in the general election even as many Democrats arranged deals to support one of the Republican nominees to defeat her. ⁶ With help from President Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory in the presidential race, Mink and Matsunaga were elected as the state's two At-Large Representatives. In a four-way race, she received 27 percent of the total to become the first Asian-American woman and just the second woman from Hawaii to serve in Congress.

In her subsequent five campaigns for re-election, Mink faced a number of difficult primaries in which the local Democratic Party tried to oust her, twice by running women candidates, which Mink interpreted as an effort to deprive her of the gender issue. ⁷ She proved a durable candidate in the general elections, however, despite being viewed initially as a presidential coattail rider. In 1966 and 1968, in a four-way race for the two House seats, she garnered slightly more than 34 percent of the vote. In the 1966 race, she collected more votes than any of the other three candidates. In 1970 Hawaii was divided into two geographically distinct congressional districts. Representing the outer islands and suburban Oahu, Mink began traveling back to her district every other week to combat the notion that she was a purely national figure with little interest in the local needs of her constituents. The configuration of the new district also forced Mink to shift her campaigning methods, since she could no longer rely on the Honolulu media market to spread her message. ⁸ Her efforts paid off, however; Mink ran unopposed in 1970 and won 53 percent of the vote in 1972 and 63 percent in 1974. ⁹

In the House, Mink successfully sought a seat on the Committee on Education and Labor, on which she served from the 89th Congress (1965-1967) through the 94th Congress (1975-1977). In her second term, she also joined the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs and, in the 93rd (1973-1975) and 94th Congresses, served on the Budget Committee.

Mink's committee assignments allowed her to concentrate on the same issues that had been the focus of her attention in the Hawaii legislature. Among the education acts Mink introduced or sponsored in the U.S. House were the first childcare bill and legislation establishing bilingual education, student loans, special education, professional sabbaticals for teachers, and Head Start. Starting in 1967, she also put significant effort into passing a bill to institute a national daycare system to support low-income households. The Comprehensive Child Development Act was folded into the Economic Opportunity Act (S. 2007) in 1971. But it failed to become law, in part, because opponents objected that it offered too many incentives for mothers to work outside the home and that it promoted a "communal" approach to rearing children. Though the Economic Opportunity Act passed both houses of Congress, President Richard M. Nixon vetoed it in December 1971. ¹⁰ Mink later called the bill's failure "one of the real disappointments" of her political career. ¹¹

Mink maintained a focus on national issues, especially those affecting Asian Pacific Americans (APA) and the Pacific region. She fought to preserve family reunification provisions in several proposed immigration reform bills and worked alongside Representative Matsunaga to educate Americans about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. ¹² As a member of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, she supported the economic and political development of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. As chair of the Subcommittee on Mines and Mining, she helped author the landmark Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1975, and in the following year helped to pass a major overhaul of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. The House failed to override President Gerald R. Ford's veto of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, though a similar measure was eventually signed into law in 1977.

During the Johnson presidency, Mink strongly supported the administration's domestic programs that were part of the Great Society legislation, but she was a critic of America's increasing involvement in the Vietnam War. In September 1967, she refused to support the President's request for an income tax increase because she feared that the new revenues would be used for military action rather than the expansion of social programs. It was, she said, like "administering aspirin to a seriously ill patient who needs major surgery." ¹³ If inflation threatened the economy, she suggested, the administration should raise taxes on big business and not just the average working taxpayers. ¹⁴ In April 1972, she cosponsored Massachusetts Representative Michael Joseph Harrington's concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 589) calling for an immediate termination of military activity in Vietnam, but the House took no action on it. Her views clashed with those of the three other Members of the Hawaii congressional delegation as well as with those of many of her constituents in a state with a heavy military presence. Years later, however, Mink recalled, "It was such a horrible thought to have this war that it really made no difference to me that I had a military constituency. It was a case of living up to my own views and my own conscience. If I was defeated for it, that's the way it had to be. There was no way in which I could compromise my views on how I felt about it." ¹⁵

Mink also advocated many women's issues in Congress, including equal rights. One of her great legislative triumphs was the Women's Educational Equity Act, passed as part of a comprehensive education bill in 1974. It provided $30 million a year in educational funds for programs to promote gender equity in schools, to increase educational and job opportunities for women, and to excise gender stereotypes from textbooks and school curricula. She realized early in her House career that "because there were only eight women at the time who were Members of Congress, that I had a special burden to bear to speak for [all women], because they didn't have people who could express their concerns for them adequately. So, I always felt that we were serving a dual role in Congress, representing our own districts and, at the same time, having to voice the concerns of the total population of women in the country." ¹⁶

Working with Representative Edith Starrett Green of Oregon and Senator Birch Evans Bayh of Indiana, Mink built critical support for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which barred sexual discrimination in institutions receiving federal funds and opened opportunities for women in athletics. Though the broad strokes of the legislation were relatively noncontroversial at passage, the House and Senate worked for several months to hammer out more than 250 differences-11 of which dealt specifically with sexual discrimination-between their bills. ¹⁷

As enforcement of Title IX took effect, the full ramifications of the act became clear and many supporters of public school men's sports programs objected to it, believing that their funding was being cut in favor of women's sports under the new statute. In 1975 opponents filed an amendment to the appropriations bill for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare that would exempt school athletics from Title IX. Despite heavy lobbying by Mink, the amendment survived the House version of the bill. After the Senate struck the amendment in conference, the House faced a tight vote on whether to stand by its position. Just before voting, Mink received an emergency call informing her that her daughter had been in a life-threatening car accident in Upstate New York. Mink rushed to her daughter's side while the voting commenced, ultimately ending in a narrow 212 to 211 victory for Title IX opponents. When newspapers characterized Mink's tearful exit as a result of the vote, her allies leapt to the Congresswoman's defense. Speaker Carl Albert of Oklahoma and Representative Daniel John Flood of Pennsylvania explained the circumstances of Mink's absence the following legislative day, and the House voted to "recede and concur" with the Senate, with Mink in attendance. Mink's daughter (and Title IX) survived. ¹⁸

Mink garnered national attention for her fervent support of liberal causes. In 1971 she received an invitation from Oregon Democrats to appear on the Democratic presidential primary ballot in that state in order to draw attention to the antiwar movement. Mink committed to the symbolism of her place in the race with seven weekend visits to Oregon. "My candidacy offers a real and tangible alternative," she said, "based-if any one word can be singled out-on humanism." Ultimately, Mink received only 2 percent of the vote and withdrew her candidacy afterward. However, she continued to receive votes in Wisconsin and Maryland even after she had ceased campaigning. ¹⁹

In 1976, passing up a bid for what would have been certain re-election to a seventh term in the House, Mink sought the Democratic nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate. She lost the nomination to fellow House Member Spark Matsunaga. ²⁰ Her supporters criticized Mink for not running a more aggressive campaign, but Mink insisted she had been running for the nomination and not against Matsunaga, a respected colleague. ²¹ She remained active in politics, serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs from 1977 to 1978. For the next three years, she was president of the Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal political lobbying organization founded in 1947 by an array of scholars, activists, and politicians. ²² Mink returned to Hawaii and was elected to the Honolulu city council, serving from 1983 to 1987 (from 1983 to 1985 as its chair). She ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1986 and then for mayor of Honolulu in 1988. "Life is not based on being an elected politician," she said during this period. "Politics is a constant involvement in the day-to-day working of society as a whole, one part of which is government." ²³

Despite these electoral setbacks, Mink kept her sights set on returning to public office. An opportunity to return to Congress arose in 1990 when Hawaii Governor John Waihee III appointed Representative Daniel Kahikina Akaka to replace the recently deceased Senator Matsunaga. Mink announced her intention to seek both the Democratic nominations for the special election to fill the vacancy created by Akaka's departure from the House and the November general election for the new term in the 102nd Congress (1991-1993), though she was not the party's choice in either case. Hawaii Democratic Party leaders backed Mufi Hannemann, whose youth and business connections they found appealing. Mink countered by using the campaign slogan "The Experience of a Lifetime," a message that resonated with Hawaiian voters who tended to prioritize seniority and expertise in their representatives. Both the special election and the primary for the new term were held on September 22, 1990, and Mink edged out her nearest competitor, Hannemann, in both contests by less than 3 percent. ²⁴ She easily won the November general election to the full term in the 102nd Congress and was reelected comfortably to five subsequent terms with winning percentages ranging from a high of 73 percent in 1992 to a low of 60 percent in 1996. ²⁵

Mink was once again appointed to the Committee on Education and Labor (later Education and the Workforce) and was assigned to the Government Operations (later Government Reform) Committee. During the 103rd Congress (1993-1995), she was on the Natural Resources and Budget Committees, serving on the latter through the 105th Congress (1997-1999).

Mink continued to pursue legislative reform in health care and education. Believing that voters cared more about quality health coverage than any other domestic issue, she advocated a universal health care plan that would allow people of all economic backgrounds to receive medical treatment. Mink combined two of her long-standing interests when she cosponsored the Gender Equity Act in 1993. Disturbed that gender discrimination persisted in the United States 20 years after the passage of Title IX, Mink asserted that targeting gender bias in elementary and secondary education would help reduce inequalities between the sexes. She told the House, "We must assure that schools all across this country implement and integrate into their curriculum, policies, goals, programs, activities, and initiatives to achieve educational equity for women and girls." ²⁶ Mink continued to crusade for women's rights by co-chairing the Democratic Women's Caucus in 1995.

In May 1994, Mink joined Representative Norman Y. Mineta of California and other colleagues in forming the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. "We have felt that we have not been consulted on important steps taken by this administration and ones in the past," Mink declared. With so few APA Members of Congress, the caucus welcomed Representatives and Senators as full members, regardless of ethnicity, as long as they represented a district with a large APA constituency. ²⁷ Mink won election as chairwoman of the caucus when Mineta resigned from Congress the following year, and she served in that capacity through 1997. ²⁸

Throughout her political career, Mink remained true to her liberal ideals. Previously in the majority both in her party affiliation and her political ideology, she often found herself in the minority during her second stretch in the House. During the 1990s, Mink expended considerable effort opposing conservative legislation that challenged the agenda she had promoted in the 1960s and 1970s. An outspoken critic of the welfare overhaul legislation that the Republican-led Congress and the William J. (Bill) Clinton administration agreed upon in 1996, Mink exclaimed, "Throwing people of f welfare and forcing them to take the lowest-paying jobs in the community has created a misery index for millions." ²⁹ As Ranking Member of the Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations during the 105th Congress, Mink butted heads with conservative Republicans regarding a proposed $1.4 million investigation of alleged fraud within the Teamsters union. As a loyal supporter of organized labor, Mink accused Republican leadership of sponsoring a "fishing expedition" that wasted "taxpayers' money for sheer partisan political purposes." ³⁰

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Mink also raised concerns about the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002. Created in response to the perceived failures of various U.S. intelligence agencies to uncover plots against the homeland, DHS was charged with preventing further domestic terrorist strikes. Mink feared the sprawling new agency might undermine civil liberties by violating the privacy of American citizens in the name of national security. In favor of full disclosure of government attempts to safeguard the nation from international threats, she proposed that no secrets be kept from the public. ³¹ "She had already been through that as a Japanese American, seeing people put into detention camps on the basis of what they supposedly were as opposed to what they had actually done," said fellow Hawaii Representative Neil Abercrombie. ³²

On September 28, 2002, after a month-long hospitalization with pneumonia, Patsy Mink died in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her name remained on the November ballot, and she was re-elected by a wide margin. Democrat Ed Case defeated Patsy Mink's husband and more than 30 other candidates in the special election to succeed her in the remainder of the 107th Congress (2001-2003) and later won election to the 108th Congress (2003-2005). ³³ Shortly after Mink's death, John A. Boehner of Ohio, chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, reflected upon Mink's congressional service: "Patsy Mink was a vibrant, passionate, and effective voice for the principles she believed in. Her passing is a significant loss for our committee, the people of Hawaii and the people of the United States." ³⁴ Norman Mineta, her colleague and a co-founder of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, called Mink "an American hero, a leader and a trailblazer who made an irreplaceable mark in the fabric of our country." ³⁵

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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MINK, Patsy Takemoto | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

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Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color elected to Congress, participated in the passage of much of the 1960s Great Society legislation during the first phase of her congressional career. After a long hiatus, Mink returned to the House in the 1990s as an ardent defender of the social welfare state at a time when much of the legislation she had helped establish was being rolled back.

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We had planned to include local AAPI history here, from stories shared by family members and friends to specific developments such as the growth of AAPI communities and institutions in New York City. We invite you to adapt this section to include local AAPI history in your town or community.