Los Angeles Chinatown and World War II
Introduction
by Annie Luong
On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States entered World War II. Among those who joined the armed forces were Chinese Americans who wanted to show their patriotism and loyalty to their country. Others fought a different battle, raising funds and selling war bonds. The war offered opportunities and experiences that would change their lives forever and affect the course of Chinese American history.
Approximately 15,000 to 20,000 Chinese Americans served in the war or 19-25% of the total Chinese population in the United States served in the U.S. Armed Forces. According to one survey of Southern California Veterans of Chinese decent, 42% served in the Army, 39% in the Air Corps, and the remaining 19% were in the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, or Merchant Marines.1 They were assigned a variety of jobs ranging from cook to pilots with ranks ranging from Private to Major.
As the war continued, Chinese Americans not in uniform fought the battle in a different way. Many joined the campaign to save, recycle, and ration tires, rubber, scrap metal, and gasoline. Even before American involvement in the war, Chinese Americans were trying to relieve China, who was suffering from its war with Japan. With Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s visit in 1943, Chinese Americans had already been raising funds for several years. Simultaneously, Chinese American women were entering the war industry as men were sent off to the war. Through this, they were able to expand the roles of Chinese Americans and women in the war industry.
Through the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (G.I Bill), many war veterans were able to attend college to resume their education. The bill provided loans to veterans who wanted to buy houses or start businesses and paid for the G.I.’s entire education if they chose to attend school. Through the bill, many Chinese Americans from Los Angeles Chinatown entered universities such as the University of Southern California, University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Berkeley. Many became engineers, teachers, judges, doctors, and professionals. 2
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1 Jim Fong & Marjorie Lee, “The Unsung 390,” in Marjorie Lee, editor, Duty & Honor: A Tribute to Chinese American World War II Veterans of Southern California, (Los Angeles: CHSSC, 1998), 81.
2 K. Scott Wong, “The Meaning of Military Service To Chinese Americans During World War II,” Duty & Honor: A Tribute to Chinese American World War II Veterans of Southern California, (Los Angeles: CHSSC, 1998), 9.
The Japanese Ship Boycotts of 1939
By Annie Luong
In 1939, the Chinese Patriotic Society organized a boycott of Japanese goods and lobbied for a national embargo on war materials to the aggressor country. Scrap iron was being recycled into war material in Japan; the United Chinese Societies called for volunteers to protest at the docks against allowing scrap metal-carrying ships to head toward Japan. Many of the protestors went to the waterfront near Los Angeles to picket ships that were chartered by Japanese agents. There were similar protests in the docks of San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. In 1939, approximately 2,000,000 tons of scrap iron was exported from the United States to Japan.
It wasn’t just men at the protest, women and children joined as well. Marie Louie remembers, “Well, we didn’t buy Japanese made goods. Every time we bought something we looked at the label. So we boycotted Japanese goods. Marie’s mother was among the Chinese women, who went out to San Pedro and demonstrated against sending scrap iron to Japan, “My mother went with Mrs. Tom, our dear friend. They went together and joined other women and they picketed the long shore men that were loading things… My mother is a very shy person. And yet she went to picket, which we thought was out of character for her, but she really felt the need to picket.” 1
Due to the protests, many of the longshoremen refused to load scrap metal onto the ships. Some workers sympathized with the protestors and joined in the protest. Various people of other ethnicities also joined in the protest. On December 19th, the Waterfront Employers’ Association gave the ultimatum for the protests to end and the longshoremen to continue to work or the entire shipping business of San Francisco and the West Coast would be tied up. The United Chinese Societies met with the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU) who told them that the Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council passed a resolution embargoing all materials to Japan. On December 20th, the protestors withdrew their picket line.
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1 Marie Louie interview with William Gow, Chinatown Remembered Project, CHSSC, April 6, 2007.
Ben Fong Boycotting Scrap Metal
Ben Fong Interview with Annie Luong
Chinatown Remembered Project
May 25th, 2008.
AL: Do you recall the 1939 boycott of those ships sending scrap metal to Japan.
BF: Yes, I recall that because there was a big to do about that. And and then, in fact, I went down to the shipyard one time. I walk up to Chinatown. So I forgot where were to 10th street or someplace. And we got on to a flatbed truck with benches on there. We sat in there and and there’s a so the flatbed truck was instead of a bus, were just crammed full of people. And we were driven down to the to the, I think Terminal Island or someplace to the shipyard. And we picket for that so-called boycott of Japanese getting scrap metal from the US. See, this is before the war. You know, when at that point in time the Japanese were heavily involved with the operation in China. And somehow I got roped into that. I don’t recall much about it.
Women in the War Industry
By Joey Ng
During World War II, the predicament of the war led to changes in production and many of the men in the workforce went to war overseas. Women entered the war industry in order to take the places of their brothers, husbands, and sons. At first, many of the companies disagreed with the idea of women in the workforce, but they gradually began to accept the idea due to the need for labor.
Jenny Lee Taylor, then Jennie Lee, entered the war industry after the bombing of Pearl Harbor at the age of twenty-two.1 She recalls her experience at the Warren School of Aeronautics, where she learned to weld, as being “mostly men. They taught everything about…working in the Defense factory. I went in and took up aluminum welding.”2 Though labor was needed in the war industry, racism and discrimination were still prevalent. For example, Jennie Lee passed the entry test as the top scorer at Douglas Aircraft Company, but she was not hired until after she applied for a second time. During that time she worked at a small company on Olympic Boulevard welding aluminum boxes for six months. Her entry to Douglas was a significant event as she was certified to be “the first Oriental woman welder” by newspapers and magazines. At Douglas, Taylor remembers, “ I used to weld aluminum oil tanks, Aluminum gas tanks…We used to have a lot of fun.”
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1 “Chinese Welder Tops,” Los Angeles Daily News, March 15, 1943.
2 Jennie Lee Taylor interview with William Gow, Chinatown Remembered Project, CHSSC, April 22, 2007.
Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s Visit
By Wesley Huang
In 1943, Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chinese President Chiang Kai-Shek, toured America in order to address Congress about the Chinese Exclusion Act and to gather support for China’s fight against Japan during World War II. The Chinese Exclusion Act denied all but a few select categories of Chinese immigrants from entering the United States. This ban had been in place for over 60 years. On her tour of the US, Soong, whom the press referred to as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, gave a speech to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. She discussed the fight between China and Japan, stating that “the longer Japan is left in undisputed possession of these resources, the stronger she must become. Each passing day takes more toll in lives of both Americans and Chinese.”(1 Representing China, she made the U.S. understand the significance of China’s battle with Japan and that an emphasis should be placed on stopping Japan before defeating Germany. Impressed and affected by her speech, President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States pledged to send aircraft to aid China “as fast as the Lord will let us.”
Soong’s visit not only helped China politically, but also helped Chinese immigrants living in America. Her speech at the Hollywood Rose Bowl helped to encourage the citizens of Chinatown to fundraise. She depicted what China was experiencing from the invasion of Japan. Peter Soo Hoo Jr. recalled that “she gave a very terrific speech, very fluent English. Very intelligent.”2 There are many different opinions of Soong, but one cannot dispute her influence aiding the people of China, and in helping to end the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in part as a result of Soong’s visit to the United States. (Additional research by Annie Luong)
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1 “Speech to Congress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek calls upon the US to join China–in war and peace,” Life Magazine, March 1, 1943, 26.
2 Peter SooHoo Jr. interview with Jennifer Tang, Chinatown Remembered Project, CHSSC, April 24, 2008.
For more on Soong Mei-ling’s visit to Los Angeles see The Madame Chiang Kai-shek Project, created in 2010 for UCLA’s Asian American Studies 187A, “Doing Community History” course by Annie Wong, Princeton Ly, Paul Kang, Matt Ng, and Gina Hwang.
Esther Lee Johnson on Madame Kai-Shek’s Visit
Audio PlayerEsther Lee Johnson
Interviewed with William Gow
March 9th, 2008
William Gow: Do you remember anything about China Relief?
Esther Lee Johnson: You know, now that you brought it up…. yes I do. I remember, let me see, when Madam Chiang came to the Rose Bowl, they would give out materials, yards and yards of it, and they made Chinese dresses for all of us girls and we all wore that down to the Rose Bowl and we learned the Chinese national anthem in Chinese. And, let me see what else…
William Gow: So you were in the actual performance?
Esther Lee Johnson: Yes, we all went down there and how we got there? I don’t know… [chuckles].
William Gow: How old were you?
Esther Lee Johnson: I was born in 1930 and the war was 1941 so I was old enough to really…
William Gow: Do you know what year she came 43?
Esther Lee Johnson: You know I’m not sure, I hate to guess yeah…, but I remember that we…you know I went there and that’s how we get away from my parents when not working and got there…I don’t know, but I think maybe it’s because it’s a big occasion, I mean it’s something not every day Madam Chiang came over so…but I remember that very …going to the Rose Bowl. It was like heaven, you know, because we never seen, you know, other than Chinatown and all that. We…we used to take the streetcar down to Third and Main where the Hybidrum theater and the Million Dollar theater on Broadway but…other than that we wouldn’t go too far you know and walked to New Chinatown…that was as far as we went. And then when we went to high school, to Belmont, took the bus, that was a trip, you know…so…
William Gow: So Madam Chiang came…um…. Did you go to the Moon Festival?
Esther Lee Johnson: Yes…the moon festival, that was in Chinatown. The lanterns and all that and the dragon. I remember carrying the lantern marching around but that’s about it.
The Moon Festivals of 1938 and 1941
By Linda Thai
In 1938, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association funded a three-day moon festival celebration as a fundraiser to help relieve war torn China and to promote awareness of what was happening in China. The festival brought the local residents of the Chinatown community together as well as people outside the local community. The Moon Festival also served as a form of entertainment with performances from groups such as the Mei Wah Drum Corps. Ben Fong remembers that “at the time, the Moon Festival was promoted throughout the papers so there were a lot of patrons there to just see what was going on.”
In 1941 another Moon Festival helped to raise funds for the war relief against Japanese aggression once again. In this festival, there were parades, lion dances fire crackers, and even newsreels showing the damage and casualties as a result of the bombings. To raise money, volunteers sold war bonds. Relief boxes were placed around the festival so attendees could donate money. Jennie Lee Taylor recalls that, “all the laundries and restaurants, people would put in their pennies and dimes, whatever they had for change.”2 Movie stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Bob Hope, and Judy Garland participated in the parade. The parades connected China City, Old Chinatown, and New Chinatown for three days. Though the intent of the Moon Festival was clear, there was still much suspicion at the time of where the money would go. As Ben Fong recalls, “the ones that were being harassed for money, normally felt that a lot of it probably doesn’t go to war relief, probably goes to the pockets of the top people.” In all, the Moon Festival raised over $25,000 in relief funds to aid innocent civilians in China, (Additional research by Annie Luong)
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1 Ben Fong interview with Annie Luong, Chinatown Remembered Project, CHSSC, March 15, 2008.
2 Jennie Lee Taylor interview with Scott Chan, Chinatown Remembered Project, CHSSC, May 9, 2007.
For more on the wartime Moon Festival fundraisers in Los Angeles see, William Gow, “A Night in Old Chinatown, China Relief Fundraising and the 1938 Moon Festival in Los Angeles,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol 87, No 3., 439-472.
Service in World War II
By Annie Luong
On December 7th, 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States entered World War II. Among those who joined the armed forces were Chinese Americans who wanted to show patriotism and loyalty to their country. Others fought a different battle raising funds and selling war bonds. The war offered opportunities and experiences that would change their lives forever and affect the course of Chinese American history.
Approximately 15,000-20,000 Chinese Americans served in the way. According to the 1940 U.S. census, this meant that 19%-25% of the total Chinese population in the United States served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Of this figure 42% served in the Army, 39% in the Air Corps, and the remaining 19% were in the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard or Merchant Marines. They were assigned a variety of jobs ranging from cook to pilots with ranks ranging from Private to Major.1
As the war continued, Chinese Americans not in uniforms fought the battle in a different way. Many joined the campaign to save, recycle, and/or ration tires, rubber, scrap metal, and gasoline. Even before American involvement in the war, Chinese Americans were trying to relieve China, who was suffering from its war with Japan. With Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s visit in 1943, Chinese Americans had already been raising funds for several years. Simultaneously, Chinese American women were entering the war industry as men were sent off to war. Through this, they were able to expand the roles of Chinese Americans and women in the war industry.
Through the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (G.I. Bill), many war veterans were able to attend college to resume their education. The bill provided loans to veterans who wanted to buy houses and paid for the G.I.’s entire education if they chose to attend school. Through the bill, many Chinese Americans from Los Angeles Chinatown entered universities such as the University of Southern California, University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley. Many became engineers, teachers, judges, doctors, and professionals.
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1 Jim Fong & Marjorie Lee, “The Unsung 390,” in Marjorie Lee, editor, Duty & Honor: A Tribute to Chinese American World War II Veterans of Southern California, (Los Angeles: CHSSC, 1998), 81.
Stanley Mu Joins the Army
Audio PlayerStanley Mu interviewed by Mable Kong
After I graduated from high school, I joined the army. I told them I wanted to get into infantry or field artillery. [I was a] young kid, didn’t know any better. I don’t think [my parents] really wanted me to join, but they didn’t say I can’t. A buddy and I in high school decided we’ll join together. He joined the Marine Corps, and I tried to join at that time, but I was not a citizen. Back in those days, if you were born in China and not a US citizen, it was more difficult to join the army. So, it took me a little longer to join.
I finally joined the army, and they shipped me to Belvoir, Virginia in the Corps of Engineers because I studied engineering at Los Angeles City College. I went there to learn to build bridges, roads, demolition, and how to dig up booby traps. You get up about dawn, then you line up for formation, and then there was a roll call [to] be sure nobody had sneaked out of the barracks into town. Then you go to the mess hall and have breakfast. After breakfast, you get a little bit of time of your own, and then you’re assembled, then you go through your daily training.
One of the things that we did [was that] one squad of people would go into a simulated town, and they would then put these explosive things in there, hide it wherever they want, and then another squad would be in another section doing that. Then after that’s all done, everybody trades, and you’re supposed to dig up the other squad’s.
When I was at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, I don’t think there were very many Chinese there. I didn’t have any difficulty at all because everybody in the barracks was all about the same age, so we all had a good time together.
After my basic training, I got sent overseas to England, and I was shipped overseas to a replacement depot. From there, they will ship you to a different outfit where they needed engineers at that time. I was very lucky because when I was in high school, I took a typing class. They needed people in headquarters to take care of the files and the forms, and they don’t want people just to write on it because nobody could read the writing.
The sergeant in charge of the office interviewed me, and he said, “I understand you can type.” I said, “Yes, I can type.” He said, “Show me.” So, I started to type without looking at the typewriter, and he was very surprised that I was really able to type. He said, “Good. You report to the headquarters tomorrow morning.” That’s how I got transferred out of a lined outfit into headquarters, which was very lucky because going to headquarters, I worked in an office. I had a nice place to stay in the barracks. The replacement depot received the new troops from the US, and then from there, they’re assigned to different outfits, and what I did was to type their forms. Was a pretty good job.
I had very few problems when I was there, but I remember one Saturday, we went into town, and they were having a dance there, and we would go dancing with the girls there. That night, there were a bunch of English sailors there, and since I wasn’t very big, about four or five of those guys kind of circled around me, where I was standing. You know that they’re gonna try to beat you up. My buddy, after the dance, came, and I gave him the eyes that he knew that these guys were all around me; they were gonna beat me up. So, he pushed a couple of them around so that he can get by me, then we exchanged some talk, and then these sailors all disappeared. He saved me from a beating that time. It was toward the end of 1943.
I really wanted to fight, but since I had such a nice job and everything was so nice, I didn’t mind just working in the office. That’s where I was stationed until shortly after the European Theater. The war was over in Germany. The 44th Infantry Division was pulled back, and we were to get a thirty-day furlough in August, then report back for duty to go to the Pacific Theater to fight with Japan. At that point, I had enough points so that I didn’t have to go overseas. But like the smart kid I am, I volunteered to go because I had been transferred to headquarters of the 44th Infantry Division, and General Dean’s personal secretary had enough points to get out of the army. He was smart, he got out. I got his job to be personal secretary to the commanding general. Halfway through my furlough, we dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan, and the war was over. So, I didn’t get to go overseas to the Pacific. I got discharged from the army and then came home, and I went to school on the GI Bill.
I was naturalized in England as a US citizen because I was already in the army. As I understood it, Hitler made some sort of statement that if any of the US soldiers were captured and they’re not citizens of the US, he would execute them as saboteurs. So, they gathered about six hundred US troops in England and naturalized all of us at the same time.