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ASIAMERICA MINISTRIES in THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH REMEMBERING THE PAST, CELEBRATING THE PRESENT, VISUALIZING THE FUTURE In 1973, Asian Episcopalian clergy and lay leaders, with the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Winston Ching as first Asiamerica Missioner, gathered in San Francisco, California and organized their work into the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry (EAM). Over time, EAM has evolved into a three-fold ministry: ministry to Asian immigrants in the United States; ministry to Asian-Americans or Americans born and raised in the United States of Asian ancestry; and ministry of bridge-building to churches in Asia, especially those belonging to the worldwide Anglican Communion and those in concordat with The Episcopal Church. In 2013, the Asiamerica Ministries Network in The Episcopal Church, with the leadership of the Rev. Canon Dr. Winfred Vergara, the second Asiamerica Missioner, celebrated its 40th anniversary and “remembered its past, celebrated its present, and visualized its future.” 2 The next EAM Consultation will be held in Seoul, Korea, from September 29 to October 5, 2015. It is set to coincide with the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Anglican Church in Korea, and the theme is “Celebrating Our Partnerships; Uniting Our Missions.” The Consultation hopes to put into practice the lessons learned in America and to set into motion a closer, broader, and deeper partnership with Asia. This article narrates the immigration history of Asians in the United States; the beginnings of Asiamerica Ministry in The Episcopal Church; and the lessons learned and the challenges faced by Asiamerican Episcopalians as they continue to work toward growth and diversity in American church and society. HISTORY OF ASIAMERICA IMMIGRATION The first Asians who set foot on American soil were Filipinos, at a time when the Philippines was a colony of Spain. Filipinos served as crewmen on Spanish galleons, plying their trade from Manila to Acapulco. Practically slaves and maltreated by their masters, a dozen or so Manila men or “Luzon Indios” as the Spaniards called them, jumped ship and settled in the bayous of Louisiana, establishing the Malong Village, circa 1573–1587. Narrative accounts from historian Marina Espina say that they engaged in the shrimp drying industry and intermarried with the local Cajuns and Native Americans. According to oral history, their descendants participated in the War of 1812, fighting the British under the command of French buccaneer, Jean Lafitte. Nothing has been written about them in American history textbooks. Chinese immigration While the early Filipinos were “accidental migrants,” the first intentional Asian immigrants came from China. In 1849, James W. Marshall, an American contractor who was constructing a sawmill for John Sutter at Coloma in Sacramento Valley, California, accidentally struck gold. The 3 HISTORY OF ASIAMEICA IMMIGRATION news of the “Gold Mountain” (Gam Saan in Cantonese) spread like wildfire in Kwangtung Province in southeast China, inspiring a few hundred Chinese adventurers to make their way to California. In 1851, a group of 2,716 Chinese braved the rough ocean to get to America. By 1852, that figure increased nearly tenfold, to 20,026. While Chinese adventurers came to California with “Gam Saan on their minds,” their American recruiters had different plans for the Chinese, namely to hire them as cheap labor to perform dynamite blasting for the mining industry. The recruiters decided that the Chinese physique and agility were perfect for the job. Blasting mountains with dynamite was a very risky endeavor, however, and many Chinese lost lives and limbs. When the “gold fever” subsided and the mining industry stabilized, Chinese laborers moved to other industries, such as agriculture, trade, and manufacture, with a large number helping to build the transcontinental railroads, which also required dynamite blasting. Japanese immigration The Chinese immigration was followed by immigration from Japan. Japanese Americans, known collectively as the Nikkei (“of Japanese lineage”), are perhaps the only ethnic group in the United States who couched their immigration history and evolution in terms of generational groups. This is largely due to the fact that, while other Asian immigrations were open-ended and ongoing, Japanese immigration began in 1885 and practically stopped in 1924. Many Japanese Americans of today are offspring of those early immigrants. Most of the Japanese who entered the United States after 1924 were tourists, businessmen, entrepreneurs, and brides of American citizens, rather than immigrant families or groups. 4 The following are descriptions of each generation of Japanese Americans: (1) Issei, the first generation of Japanese immigrants, arrived between 1885 and 1924. Many of them became naturalized U.S. citizens. (2) Nisei, the second generation, were American-born Japanese and offspring of Issei. Nisei who were sent to Japan to be educated were known as Kibei. (3) Sansei, the third generation, were children of Nisei; and (4) Yonsei the fourth generation, were progeny of Sansei. The Issei were young, unmarried sojourners who dreamt of making money and then returning home to Japan. They first settled in Hawaii and worked on pineapple plantations. A large number also moved to California, Oregon, and Washington – and only few returned to Japan. The Issei lived a migrant life, finding abundant work in agriculture, small businesses, domestic service, lumber mills, and canneries, as well as on the railroads. Many also found employment in the mining industry, partly due to the halt of Chinese immigration resulting from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. With their natural talent in agriculture, Japanese immigrants gravitated toward farming. By 1910, many agricultural workers in California were Japanese. After the devastating earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, some Japanese survivors regrouped and migrated to other states as far as Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. Korean immigration The Japanese immigrants were followed by the Koreans. Korean immigration to America occurred during the time when China and Japan were competing for dominance in Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Japan emerged victorious when it defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and then proceeded to invade and occupy Korea. The Koreans 5 resisted the Japanese invasion but were no match for the Japanese military forces who then occupied the peninsula. Japanese colonization of Korea, instead of promoting its avowed “Korean welfare and prosperity,” destroyed Korean culture and national consciousness. The Japanese overhauled the Korean school system, replaced Korean language classes, and expunged Korean history and culture from school curricula. The Japanese colonizers also stripped Koreans of their land, confiscated crops for Japanese consumption, and prohibited Koreans from engaging in commerce. With Japanese domination weighing heavily on them, Koreans considered the news that jobs awaited them in Hawaii to be “honey in the rock,” a divine answer to their cry for deliverance. From the standpoint of Hawaiian sugar plantation owners, however, the arrival of Korean immigrants was meant to neutralize Japanese laborers who were beginning to show discontent. In a move reminiscent of the theory of “divide and rule,” white Hawaiian planters exploited the anti-Japanese sentiments of Koreans to undercut the threat of Japanese labor strikes. Korean immigration was also tinged with religious connection. Recruitment of cheap Korean labor was carried out by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association through the American missionary movement in Korea. Horace Allen, the American ambassador to Korea, and William Deshler, the chief recruiter, engaged the services of Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries to entice their Korean church members to go to Hawaii in order to “become better Christians and be blessed with prosperity.” Posters and newspaper advertisements portrayed Hawaii in the biblical image of “a land flowing with milk and honey and rice,” a compelling incentive to Koreans suffering under Japanese control of their homeland. In 1902, a total of 121 Koreans arrived in Honolulu. Over the next two years, they were joined by more than 7,000. This trend came to a halt when the Japanese government (in firm control of the Korean colony and obviously in response to bad report from the Japanese in Hawaii), prohibited Koreans from going to America. This ban was lifted when the United States and Japan signed the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in 1907. In this agreement, 6 7 Japan agreed not to issue passports for Japanese citizens wishing to work in the continental United States, thus effectively eliminating new Japanese immigration to America. In exchange, the United States agreed to accept the presence of Japanese immigrants – and their Korean colonials – already residing in America, as well as settled agriculturists, and to permit the entry of the immigrants’ wives, children, and parents. The Korean War that took place in the aftermath of World War II divided the Korean Peninsula into North and South, the North going Communist and the South going under the protectorate of the United States. This precipitated the next wave of Korean immigration to America. Many Korean women took advantage of the War Brides Act of 1945. Approximately 150,000 Korean orphans, left parentless by both World War II and the Korean War, also came to the United States and were adopted by American families. Korean professionals,

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