Strangers from a Different Shore

Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans is a 1989 book by American historian Ronald Takaki. Takaki analyzes the long and diverse history of Asians in America, explaining the personal and economic circumstances that prompted their immigration, and recounting their myriad experiences in their new country. Takaki argues that, traditionally, historians’ Eurocentric histories have neglected to analyze and explain Asian Americans’ role in American history. This has led to a distorted perception of the American past and perpetuated a lingering stereotype of Asians as perpetual foreigners, rather than full Americans. Takaki aims to remedy this misconception as he investigates over a century of Asian American history, revealing the scope of Asian American involvement in shaping the nation. Strangers from a Different Shore was selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of the 20th century.

This study guide refers to the Kindle edition of this work, published in 2012.

Content Warning: The source texts contains references to racist abuse and discrimination, including occasional racial slurs and epithets, which are reproduced in this guide only in direct quotes.

Summary

In the Preface, Takaki argues that the history of Asian ethnic groups in the US deserves as much scholarly attention as other aspects of American history. In Chapter 1, the author offers a brief overview of Asians in America, noting that federal and state governments discriminated against Asian immigrants while also taking advantage of the wealth generated by their labor. In Chapter 2 Takaki explores the first wave of Asian immigrants, analyzing the “push” and “pull” factors which prompted Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, and Indian men and women to leave their homelands and venture to the US. Navigating different forms of cultural and legal oppression, these newcomers sought paid work in mining, plantations, the railroad, and many other jobs. In Chapter 3, Takaki examines Chinese immigration to the US in the 19th century, explaining how most Chinese immigrants intended to come to the US temporarily to earn money, viewing the US as a bastion of wealth and opportunity. Once in the US, however, many struggled to cope with low pay, dangerous work, and cultural and political hostility.

In Chapter 4 Takaki explores the history of Asian Americans in Hawaii, focusing on their exploitation on plantations, and their resistance to the low wages and poor working conditions through unionization, striking, and moving to urban centers. In Chapter 5 the author explains how Japanese immigrants coped with discrimination by establishing their own communities and organizations, helping each other become successful entrepreneurs and farmers. As racist discrimination persisted and immigration restrictions worsened, second-generation (or Nisei) Japanese Americans tried to retain their Japanese language and customs while also embracing American culture. In Chapter 6, Takaki examines how labor and housing discrimination prompted Chinese Americans to form Chinatowns throughout the US, where they generally had a lower standard of living but kept their culture alive through businesses and social organizations.

In the following chapter the author explains how the first wave of Korean immigrants formed a small minority in the US, but survived in their new country by strategically supporting each other. Most Korean immigrants were fiercely patriotic and contributed to the Korean resistance against the Japanese occupation.

In Chapter 8, the author discusses Asian Indian immigration to the US, explaining that the first immigrants from India were nearly all men who followed Hinduism, Sikhism, or Islam and usually had experience as farmers which they used as agricultural laborers in the US. In Chapter 9 Takaki examines first wave Filipino immigrant experiences. Most of these immigrants worked in agriculture or in the service industries, and like other Asian immigrants they struggled to establish themselves in the US due to labor exploitation and discrimination in housing.

Takaki explains how World War ll became a “watershed” moment for civil rights, as the government sought to differentiate itself from the explicitly racist Nazi regime by repealing discriminatory legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. However, the US also violated Asian Americans’ rights by forcibly imprisoning over 100,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps in the western US.

In Chapter 11, the author narrates the second wave of Asian immigration, beginning in 1965 as Korean and Chinese immigrants moved to the US to escape political and economic problems, and continuing through the 1970s as Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Laotian refugees fled the devastation of the Vietnam War. In Chapter 12, Takaki brings his analysis into the present day, analyzing how some Asian Americans continue to live on the margins of US society, while even the most successful Asian American communities experience discriminatory “glass ceilings” due to their race. In Chapter 13, the author concludes his work by celebrating the United States’ growing multiculturalism and crediting Asian American activism with helping to dismantle discriminatory legislation and making the US a more equitable and inclusive country.