Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans

Chinese immigrants to the U.S. in the 19th century were transformed into outsiders by racism and economic exploitation. This pattern, Takaki shows, would be imposed on other Asian immigrant groups. Filipinos, condescended to as ``little brown brothers'' by whites in the Philippines, became targets of violent white backlash once they emigrated to the U.S.; Indians were feared and persecuted as labor competition; Japanese-Americans withdrew into self-contained communities. Takaki, descended from a Japanese-American family who labored on Hawaiian plantations, and now an ethnic studies professor at UC Berkeley, has written a vibrant, rich history that gives back a voice to countless ``invisible Americans.'' His broad, multi-ethnic survey is peopled with real individuals, allowing us to experience their loneliness, separation from families, struggles for survival. Later chapters cover the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW II and the post-1965 ``second wave'' of Asian immigrants that included Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians. Photos. (Aug.)