Japanese American activists such as the late Yuri Kochiyama worked in solidarity with other communities of color to advance the civil rights movement.

While the order also affected German- and Italian-Americans on the East Coast, the vast majority of those incarcerated in 1942 were of Japanese descent. Many of them were naturalized citizens, second- and third-generation Americans. Internees who fought in the celebrated 442nd Regiment were coerced by the United States military to prove their loyalty to a country that locked them up simply for being Japanese.

Optimistically, before Donald Trump declared COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus,” Yang believed that “getting the virus under control” would rid this country of its anti-Asian racism. But Asian American history, my field of research, suggests a sobering reality.

Australiapopulation by state

The map above shows Australia overlayed with the USA (without Alaska). Both countries main landmass are comparible in size. While Alaska is not shown, Australia does have a large region in the Antarctica called 'Australian Antarctic Territory' which covers nearly half of the Antarctic continent. However, USA doesn't recognise this territory but other countries such as Britain and France do.

In the 21st century, even the most “multicultural” North American cities, like my hometown of Toronto, Canada, are hotbeds for virulent racism. During the 2003 SARS outbreak, Toronto saw a rise of anti-Asian racism, much like that of today.

As history shows, Asian American communities stand to gain more working within communities and across the lines of race, rather than trying to appeal to those in power.

Adrian De Leon receives funding from the Fulbright Commission and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang called upon Asian Americans to become part of the solution against COVID-19.

Whereas “The Joy Luck Club” had long been the most infamous depiction of Asian-ness in Hollywood, by the 2018 Golden Globes, Sandra Oh declared her now famous adage: “It’s an honor just to be Asian.” It was, at least at face value, a moment of cultural inclusion.

In the late 19th century, white nativists spread xenophobic propaganda about Chinese uncleanliness in San Francisco. This fueled the passage of the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act, the first law in the United States that barred immigration solely based on race. Initially, the act placed a 10-year moratorium on all Chinese migration.

In reality, as cultural historian Robert G. Lee has argued, inclusion can and has been used to undermine the activism of African Americans, indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups in the United States. In the words of writer Frank Chin in 1974, “Whites love us because we’re not black.”

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Self-isolation, social distancing and healthy practices should not be in the service of proving one’s patriotism. Instead, these precautions should be done for the sake of caring for those whom we do and do not know, inside and outside our national communities.

The map above shows Australia overlayed with the USA (without Alaska). Both countries main landmass are comparible in size. While Alaska is not shown, Australia does have a large region in the Antarctica called 'Australian Antarctic Territory' which covers nearly half of the Antarctic continent. However, USA doesn't recognise this territory but other countries such as Britain and France do.  Australia compared to a range of countries Map above showing countries to scale that can fit inside Australia.  The Great Barrier Reef overlayed in EuropeThe Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system on Earth, It is made up of about 3000 individual reefs. Clearly visible from space, it has the equivalent length of the eastern coastline of the USA. It also measures about the same length as The Netherlands to southern Italy or England's south coast to the top of northern Africa. Perth to Australia and London to Moscow comparisonThe straight line distance between London and Moscow is 2501 km / 1554 mi. The straight line distance between Perth and Sydney is 3297 km / 2049 mi.Driving from London to Moscow takes 31 hours on the M1. That is a distance of 2876 kilometers or 1787 miles. Driving from Perth to Sydney takes 41 hours on the A1. That is a distance of 3930 kilometers or 2442 miles.

The straight line distance between London and Moscow is 2501 km / 1554 mi. The straight line distance between Perth and Sydney is 3297 km / 2049 mi.

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In the early 20th century, American officials in the Philippines, then a formal colony of the U.S., denigrated Filipinos for their supposedly unclean and uncivilized bodies. Colonial officers and doctors identified two enemies: Filipino insurgents against American rule, and “tropical diseases” festering in native bodies. By pointing to Filipinos’ political and medical unruliness, these officials justified continued U.S. colonial rule in the islands.

Author & photographer: David Johnson (Virtual Australia). Providing a credit or link is appreciated.Our content: logos, site names, text, photos, and website design are protected by international copyright law.Original versions of our photos can be purchased / licensed & web versions can be shared subject to conditions.

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Australiapopulation 2024

Driving from London to Moscow takes 31 hours on the M1. That is a distance of 2876 kilometers or 1787 miles. Driving from Perth to Sydney takes 41 hours on the A1. That is a distance of 3930 kilometers or 2442 miles.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system on Earth, It is made up of about 3000 individual reefs. Clearly visible from space, it has the equivalent length of the eastern coastline of the USA. It also measures about the same length as The Netherlands to southern Italy or England's south coast to the top of northern Africa.

Over the past decade, from Pulitzer Prizes to popular films, Asian Americans have slowly been gaining better representation in Hollywood and other cultural industries.

In her 2008 study, sociologist Carrianne Leung highlights the everyday racism against Chinese and Filipina health care workers in the years that followed the SARS crisis. While publicly celebrated for their work in hospitals and other health facilities, these women found themselves fearing for their lives on their way home.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 to incarcerate people under suspicion as enemies to inland internment camps.

In her new book, “Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion,” Occidental College historian Jane Hong reveals how the United States government used Asian immigration inclusion against other minority groups at a time of social upheaval.

The model minority concept, developed during and after World War II, posits that Asian Americans were the ideal immigrants of color to the United States due to their economic success.

For example, in 1943, a year after the United States incarcerated Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066, Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act. White liberals advocated for the repeal not out of altruism toward Chinese migrants, but to advocate for a transpacific alliance against Japan and the Axis powers.

By allowing for the free passage of Chinese migrants to the United States, the nation could show its supposed fitness as an interracial superpower that rivaled Japan and Germany. Meanwhile, incarcerated Japanese Americans in camps and African Americans were still held under Jim Crow segregation laws.

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The coronavirus sees no borders. Likewise, I think that everyone must follow the example of these organizations and activists, past and present, to reach across borders and contribute to collective well-being.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system on Earth, It is made up of about 3000 individual reefs. Clearly visible from space, it has the equivalent length of the eastern coastline of the USA. It also measures about the same length as The Netherlands to southern Italy or England's south coast to the top of northern Africa. Perth to Australia and London to Moscow comparisonThe straight line distance between London and Moscow is 2501 km / 1554 mi. The straight line distance between Perth and Sydney is 3297 km / 2049 mi.Driving from London to Moscow takes 31 hours on the M1. That is a distance of 2876 kilometers or 1787 miles. Driving from Perth to Sydney takes 41 hours on the A1. That is a distance of 3930 kilometers or 2442 miles.

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and University of Southern California provide funding as members of The Conversation US.

In the face of rising anti-Asian racist actions – now at about 100 reported cases per day – Yang implores Asian Americans to “wear red, white, and blue” in their efforts to combat the virus.

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The straight line distance between London and Moscow is 2501 km / 1554 mi. The straight line distance between Perth and Sydney is 3297 km / 2049 mi.Driving from London to Moscow takes 31 hours on the M1. That is a distance of 2876 kilometers or 1787 miles. Driving from Perth to Sydney takes 41 hours on the A1. That is a distance of 3930 kilometers or 2442 miles.

Map showing Australia over Europe. Broome to Sydney covers the same distance as England to Turkey. Perth to Sydney is like travelling from Spain to Syria.

To the northwest in Koreatown, the grassroots organization Ktown for All conducts outreach to unhoused residents of the neighborhood, regardless of ethnic background.

But in the United States, Asian Americans have long been considered as a threat to a nation that promoted a whites-only immigration policy. They were called a “yellow peril”: unclean and unfit for citizenship in America.

A former internee at the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas, Kochiyama’s postwar life in Harlem, and her friendship with Malcolm X, inspired her to become active in the anti-Vietnam War and civil rights movements. In the 1980s, she and her husband Bill, himself part of the 442nd Regiment, worked at the forefront of the reparations and apology movement for Japanese internees. As a result of their efforts, Ronald Reagan signed the resulting Civil Liberties Act into law in 1988.

Australiapopulation

In Los Angeles, where I live, the Little Tokyo Service Center is among those at the forefront of grassroots organizing for affordable housing and social services in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. While the organization’s priority area is Little Tokyo and its community members, the center’s work advocates for affordable housing among black and Latinx residents, as well as Japanese American and other Asian American groups.

For example, in 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration signed the much-celebrated Hart-Celler Act into law. The act primarily targeted Asian and African migrants, shifting immigration from an exclusionary quota system to an merit-based points system. However, it also imposed immigration restrictions on Latin America.