Thread by @danielmkim

Once again, & because now more than ever, #AAPI must be fiercely proud of our heritage, I’ll be posting a thread, updated daily, for #AAPIHM .

My 2018 thread: twitter.com/i/events/99457…

2019 is here:

https://twitter.com/danielmkim/status/1123946240474009600?s=21

& 2020’s thread begins here:

https://twitter.com/danielmkim/status/1256585319379501057?s=21

https://twitter.com/danielmkim/status/1123552816855957506

For day 1 of the Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month thread, I wrote a few years ago about the question we all hate, “where are you from?” #AAPIHM appafortwo.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/whe…

When I started this daily #AAPIHM thread a few years ago, I wanted to highlight people who had left a stitch or 2 in the fabric of American society, regardless of how or where. I hope that people can find value & inspiration in them like I have.

Today for #AAPIHM, we celebrate Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer Prize- and PEN Award-winning author whose writing can evoke a Brooklyn sidewalk & the smells of food on a Kolkata street in one page. theguardian.com/books/2021/may…

Today for #AAPIHM, a trailblazing politician. Peter Tali Coleman was the first American of Samoan descent to be appointed as the governor of the Territory of Samoa in 1956. He later won 3 elections for governor, & founded the Samoan Republican Party. archives.starbulletin.com/97/04/29/news/…

Today for #AAPIHM, who doesn't enjoy watching Conan O'Brien getting his ass kicked? Especially when it's by renaissance man Steven Ho @steviehaute: actor, director, stuntman, interior designer, & martial artist? vimeo.com/17770588

A culinary star today for my #AAPIHM thread. @ManeetChauhan was born in Punjab, but has been cooking in the US for 20 years. When she opened the Indian-Latino fusion restaurant At Vermilion in NYC, I remember that the thali sampler was to die for. maneetchauhan.com

1 of 3: Today for my #AAPIHM thread, a sad but necessary court case. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco. He visited China in 1890, but was detained upon his return due to his ethnicity & recently passed acts restricting Chinese immigration to the US.

2 of 3: In 1894 the Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision, ruled that Wong was indeed an American citizen under the jus soli concept of common law & the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment. 122 years later, a presidential candidate floated the notion that this ruling was invalid.

3 of 3: Millions of Asian Americans, myself included, are citizens who owe our status to this case, among others. We also owe a debt to one brave cook from California who fought for his rights, no matter how long it ultimately took. #AAPIHM law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/t…

1 of 2: Another author for the #AAPIHM thread, because I've always loved reading & hope my kids inherit that love. 20-odd years ago, someone loaned me a copy of "Cebu" written by Peter Bacho, & to say I was enthralled would be an understatement. amazon.com/Cebu-Peter-Bac…

2 of 2: Cebu was one of the first novels to cover an Asian American experience, as opposed to an Asian POV, specifically protagonist Ben not feeling fully at home either in the Philippines or the US. Cebu won the American Book Award in 1992. kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/p…

Today for the #AAPIHM thread, if you watched any movie or tv show in the last 50 years, you've probably seen James Hong, one of the most prolific actors ever. His arguably most important job was founding East West Players, a theatre for & by AAPI in 1965. cnn.com/2020/08/02/ent…

Today, like I always do for Mother’s Day for the #AAPIHM thread, here’s my biggest fan. I love you, Omma.

Basketball for the #AAPIHM thread. Everyone has heard of Linsanity, but what about Wataru "Wat" Misaka, the 1st non-white player in the NBA when the Knicks drafted him in 1947? si.com/more-sports/20…

1 of 2: Today for my #AAPIHM thread, we celebrate not whitewashing the fact that over 15,000 Chinese immigrants helped build the Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed on 10 May 1869.

https://twitter.com/danielmkim/status/1391796535977984002?s=20

2 of 2: The Chinese workers lived in tents, worked 7 days a week, many saving their pay (which was lower than that of Irish immigrants doing the same work) to bring families to the US. This, in turn, led to the exclusion acts limiting Chinese immigration. theguardian.com/artanddesign/2….

1 of 3: Today for the #AAPIHM thread, a tragic life. Dr. Haing Ngor, Ob-Gyn, fled Phnom Penh but was imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge. He watched his wife die in labor, because to treat her would've outed him to the Khmer as a doctor & subjected them both to death.

2 of 3 #AAPIHM : After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Ngor emigrated to the US, settling in LA, where he was cast as photojournalist Dith Pran in "The Killing Fields." Ngor remains the only Asian American to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

3 of 3 #AAPIHM : Ngor was killed during a robbery near his home in 1996. The foundation he established before his murder continues to help Cambodian orphans & promote Cambodian culture. hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-n…

1 of 4 for the #AAPIHM thread &, fittingly, #EidUlFitr. 5 years ago, a brave woman took the stage at the Democratic convention to share the pain of losing her son, & to assail what she saw as an undemocratic Republican nominee.

2 of 4 #AAPIHM: Ghazala Khan's faith had no bearing on her sacrifice for her adopted country but was, inevitably, the focal point of the GOP nominee's attacks against her. To their credit, even right-leaning VSOs like the VFW & AL came to her defense. wbur.org/cognoscenti/20…

3 of 4 #AAPIHM: When Mrs. Khan finally responded to those attacks in a Washington Post op-ed, she channeled a grief that was purely American, not exclusive to one faith or another. washingtonpost.com/opinions/ghaza…

4 of 4 #AAPIHM: The Khans still live in Virginia, still hand out pocket Constitutions at their home to any & all guests, & continue to be beacons of courage even after all the xenophobia whipped up by the GOP nominee whose lack of sacrifice they pointed out on that stage in 2016.

Today for the #AAPIHM thread, the first actress I saw onscreen without an Asian accent when I saw her on M*A*S*H as Nurse Yamato. Kellye Nakahara was a trailblazer in that she portrayed a character, not a caricature, & that was incredible in the late 70s. deadline.com/2020/02/kellye…

1 of 6: #AAPIHM is also #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth, so today's subject is a psychologist who spent his professional life promoting mental health & civil rights. Kiyoshi Patrick Okura, labeled "the most dangerous man in LA" during the height of anti-Japanese hysteria in 1942, was

2 of 6 #AAPIHM: interned with his wife, Lily, at the Santa Anita racetrack. They left when Father Edward Flanagan offered him the job of chief psychologist at the Boys Town orphanage in Omaha. Dr. Okura founded the Nebraska chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, & had

3 of 6 #AAPIHM: become JACL's national president by 1962. He took part in the March on Washington, because he saw civil & equal rights for Black people as a natural extension of his quest for equal treatment for Japanese Americans. rafu.com/2019/08/from-w…

4 of 6 #AAPIHM: Dr. Okura later worked for the National Institute of Health, specializing in mental health among Asian American communities, specifically newly arriving Vietnamese refugees, & establishing scholarships for AAPI who wanted to become mental health professionals.

5 of 6 #AAPIHM: When the Okuras received their reparation payments for being interned during WW2, they used it to establish the Okura Mental Health Leadership Foundation, which provides professional development to AAPI mental health professionals. apa.org/pi/oema/resour…

6 of 6 #AAPIHM: I say this a lot in these threads every May, that we owe a debt to someone, but as an Asian American who has benefited immeasurably from therapy - yeah, I owe Dr. Okura an unpayable debt. His life's work normalized AAPI seeking & receiving help.

1 of 5: A labor organizer for the #AAPIHM thread, Larry Itliong immigrated from the Philippines as a teenager, & almost immediately began working on farms as a picker & laborer. He also worked at an Alaskan cannery, where he lost 3 fingers. smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-in…

2 of 5 #AAPIHM: After World War 2, he both worked on farms & actively advocated for better pay & working conditions for Filipino Americans. By the early 1960s, he became the head of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, a union of Filipino farm hands.

3 of 5 #AAPIHM: The 1965 strike against grape farms in Delano was the first in which the mostly Latino National Farm Workers Association, led by César Chávez, stood alongside AWOC for a 10¢ raise. scpr.org/blogs/multiame…

4 of 5 #AAPIHM: In 1966, the AWOC & NFWA merged to form the United Farm Workers union, with Chávez as director & Itliong as assistant director, but Itliong resigned in 1970 because he felt UFW didn't advocate strongly enough for Filipino Americans.

5 of 5 #AAPIHM: Itliong died in 1977 at age 63, but his legacy continues on in Stockton's Little Manila & LA's Filipinotown, & a lifetime of activism that sought to improve conditions for his community. seiu1000.org/notification/l…

1 of 5: Today for the #AAPIHM thread, we head to Hawai'i & meet teacher, anthropologist, hula expert, author, & composer Kawena Pukui. Her grandmother, who raised her, was a renowned medicine woman, raconteuse of Hawaiian folk stories, & former hula dancer in Queen Emma's court.

2 of 5 #AAPIHM: Thanks to her grandmother & parents, Kawena grew up fluent in the Hawaiian language. Indeed, her full name is poetry & asks for protection from Pele, the goddess of fire: Mary Abigail Tui Kawena‘ulaokalaniohiʻiakaikapoliopelekawahineʻaihonua Wiggin.

3 of 5 #AAPIHM. Kawena collected every folk tale she could from her grandmother & other family members, & translated them for the Bishop Museum. Her seminal achievement was co-authoring the Hawaiian Dictionary in 1957, which is still considered the authoritative version.

4 of 5 #AAPIHM: She not only taught Hawaiian, but she also wrote 200 songs in that language & taught several generations her grandmother's art of hula. Her work inspired a renaissance of Hawaiian culture & language in the 1970s. hanahou.com/10.4/kawenas-l…

5 of 5 #AAPIHM: Today, Kawena is considered the ultimate kia'i (guarantor, protector) of a once-fading language & culture. If you ever get a chance to visit her collections at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, you'll be glad you skipped the nearby beach. kaiwakiloumoku.ksbe.edu/article/herita…

1 of 3: Today for #AAPIHM, a man who embodied his own words: "I want (white soldiers) to understand that I could do the job just as an equal or better." Randall Ching fought with the 5th Ranger Battalion from D-Day until the end of World War II. nbcnews.com/news/asian-ame…

2 of 3 #AAPIHM: Not only did Ching receive 2 Bronze Star Medals for valor, but last year he & other Chinese American veterans of WW2 received the Congressional Gold Medal. marinij.com/2020/12/13/nov… speaker.gov/newsroom/12920…

3 of 3 #AAPIHM: As if those accolades weren't enough, France awarded Ching the Legion of Honor, in the grade of Chevalier. Since Ching couldn't travel to DC for the Gold Medal ceremony, his son, a retired US Navy captain, awarded it to him. #RLTW, sir.

1 of 16 #AAPIHM: Today for the thread, a place, not a person. We watch as a dodgy neighborhood becomes a bustling Mecca for the Chinese American community. By the 1870s, 2,000 Chinese Americans lived mainly on 3 streets in southeastern Manhattan: Mott, Pell, & Doyers.

2 of 16 #AAPIHM: Want to know what it looked like just before Chinese moved into the area? Watch "Gangs of New York," about the 5 Points neighborhood, north of which Chinatown now sits.

3 of 16 #AAPIHM: By 1882, when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinatown had grown to over 80,000 residents & spilled onto neighboring Canal, Elizabeth, & Mulberry Streets.

4 of 16 #AAPIHM: Many of Chinatown's residents were refugees, either from China directly, or from the American West, where violent racist attacks were as regular as church bells on the hour. They landed here, only to find themselves hemmed into a slum by racist city officials.

5 of 16 #AAPIHM: NYC government's attitudes toward lower Manhattan's ethnic enclaves (Little Italy, Chinatown, Lower East Side) in the late 19th century could charitably be called neglectful. This led to Chinese establishing local & professional associations that filled the void.

6 of 16 #AAPIHM: Contrary to popular belief then, the associations were not just Tongs luring white women into working in brothels or opium dens; rather, a shadow government that maintained streets, provided health care, adjudicated disputes, & helped newer arrivals get settled.

7 of 16 #AAPIHM: Because every culture revolves around food, establishments that gave Chinese Americans a taste of home spread from a few teahouses on Mott St, to hundreds of restaurants by the turn of the 20th century.

8 of 16 #AAPIHM: Fun fact: "chop suey" supposedly was invented in San Francisco's Chinatown in the mid 1800s for white gold miners, then brought east to NYC. Reality: it was based on zap sui 杂碎 from Guangzhou that became popular with white people curious about Chinese cuisine.

9 of 16 #AAPIHM: The tremendous buying power of white tourists in the early 20th century can't be overstated. Between food, textiles, & leather goods, some merchants finally began to thrive financially, not just hope for subsistence income.

10 of 16 #AAPIHM: A tourism boom through the 1920s helped with Chinatown's nascent success. Many visitors to NYC - as well as NYers amazed that such an enclave existed just a few streetcar stops downtown - wanted to see it for themselves.

11 of 16 #AAPIHM: By the end of WW2, during which Congress finally repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinatown experienced a new wave of immigration. The passage of the Hart-Celler Act of 1965 finally did away with immigration quotas, & more women were able to emigrate.

12 of 16 #AAPIHM: Chinatown has expanded at least 8 blocks in each direction away from its original 3-block ghetto. Many of the newer residents are Fujianese, from the southeastern coast of mainland China, with their own cuisine & culture apart from Cantonese speakers.

13 of 16 #AAPIHM: Today, "Chinatown" can describe several neighborhoods: Flushing in Queens, which is predominantly Taiwanese; Elmhurst in Queens & Sunset Park in Brooklyn, where many Cantonese moved after being displaced by Fujianese; even parts of Holmdel in NJ.

14 of 16 #AAPIHM: The geographic spread of this part of the Chinese diaspora speaks to each group's resilience in the face of countless factors working against them. As I've said many times before, we who live now owe our forebears a debt.

15 of 16 #AAPIHM: I can't fathom what my dad's stepfather, Charlie Seto, likely faced as a Chinese American growing up in Chinatown in the 1930s - much less the hurdles he needed to leap to open his first restaurant in the 1960s, hardly a time of racial equality.

16 of 16 #AAPIHM: But without Charlie 60 years ago, or even the Charlie of 30 years ago who gave me a summer job washing dishes, I might not have found myself in my present career. Again, a debt is owed. Time will only tell if we can repay.

1 of 7: Another author for the #AAPIHM thread, because why not? Phùng Thị Lệ Lý was born in Da Nang, & grew up only knowing war. She experienced many of those horrors firsthand, first by the South Vietnamese, then the Viet Cong.

2 of 7 #AAPIHM: A few years after arriving in the US, Le Ly married Dennis Hayslip, a Vietnam veteran, but the marriage fell apart because of Hayslip's abuse. She went back to school full-time while also raising 3 children on her own, & even owned a restaurant.

3 of 7 #AAPIHM: Le Ly returned to Vietnam in 1986 to visit family, & upon her return established the East Meets West Foundation, which still works to provide medical care not just in her home village but all over Quang Nam Province. vietvet.org/eastwest.htm

4 of 7 #AAPIHM: Le Ly's first book, "When Heaven & Earth Changed Places," a memoir of her early life, was a bestseller, & was the first instance where a Vietnamese civilian woman's perspective intruded on the primarily US military male view of the war. amazon.com/gp/product/B00…

5 of 7 #AAPIHM: Her second book, "Child of War, Woman of Peace," is arguably more powerful than the first, & resumes her narrative from after she immigrated to the US. amazon.com/gp/product/B00…

6 of 7 #AAPIHM: The 2 books became the basis of Oliver Stone's film, "Heaven & Earth," in which a previous subject of this thread, Dr. Haing Ngor, played Le Ly's father. imdb.com/title/tt010709…

7 of 7 #AAPIHM: In 2000, she established the Global Village Foundation, which provides grants for pediatric health care & secondary education in rural areas of Vietnam. Le Ly's work has changed lives, but that work wouldn't have been possible without her indomitable will.

1 of 2: A comedian for the #AAPIHM thread. I'd never heard of Hassan Minhaj until he hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2017, aka Nerd Prom, but his speech just killed.

2 of 2 #AAPIHM: You don't have to be brown or Muslim to appreciate the themes of struggling for acceptance, & growing up as the child of immigrants, in @hasanminhaj's work, especially his show "Patriot Act" which strived to showcase POC perspectives.

1 of 4: Today for the #AAPIHM thread, football because it's Sunday. Eugene Chung was only the 3rd Korean American to play in the NFL, when the Patriots picked him in the 1st round of the 1992 draft.

2 of 4 #AAPIHM: I remember what a huge deal it was when he was drafted, & also when he played, which almost made me switch my allegiance to the Pats. Almost. But among my Gen X Korean American cohort, it almost felt like a part of the bamboo ceiling was being pushed aside.

3 of 4 #AAPIHM: Then I woke up today & saw this article. At first, I was heartened by the news that a coach who'd helped win a Super Bowl was interviewing for a head coaching position. Then I read further. bostonglobe.com/2021/05/21/spo…

4 of 4 #AAPIHM: We have a long way to go towards equal treatment, but apparently, even longer in the NFL, where an executive things nothing of telling an AAPI with more experience than other candidates for the same job, “You are not the right minority we’re looking for.”

1 of 6: Today for the #AAPIHM thread, a man who's been called the Asian American Bill Gates. Charles B. Wang founded Computer Associates International in 1976, which surpassed $1 billion in revenue within 15 years. qccommunity.qc.cuny.edu/pages/poc/char…

2 of 6 #AAPIHM: Wang expanded into philanthropy in 1999. His donations to the Chinatown & Flushing health clinics, renamed Charles B. Wang Community Health Centers, a much needed funding infusion. Now with 3 locations, they serve over 60k patients a year. cbwchc.org/aboutus.asp

3 of 6 #AAPIHM: It's hockey playoff time, & any mention of Charles Wang would be incomplete without mentioning his ownership & uneven management of the NY Islanders. His lasting legacy for the team was finding it a new home on Long Island. amny.com/sports/the-fin…

4 of 6 #AAPIHM: Wang was known around the league for his love & appreciation of his players, & I've had more than one Islander personally tell me that was a big reason why he signed with the Isles instead of another team.

https://twitter.com/RTaub_/status/1054176352876793856?s=20

5 of 6 #AAPIHM: A $50 million gift to Stony Brook University led to the construction of the Charles B. Wang Center for Asian American studies, the largest of its kind on the East Coast. The pan-Asian food court is amazing. So is this interview. stonybrook.edu/5questions/peo…

6 of 6 #AAPIHM: A personal note. I met Mr. Wang numerous times at 2 restaurants I managed in Long Island, & he was always gracious, even solicitous of my staff on one occasion where service went sideways for his event. He was "good people," as we used to say in the Army.

For continuity's sake, I have to add this offshoot thread to the main #AAPIHM thread because I'm a bad threader. Will pick this back up tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/danielmkim/status/1397228186883264513?s=20

1 of 6: Today for the #AAPIHM thread, let's get the joke out of the way first. Every Asian parent wants their child to become a doctor or lawyer. @PreetBharara made that come true, as a member of the Columbia Law Review, then as Assistant US Attorney. wnyc.org/people/preet-b…

2 of 6 #AAPIHM: What Preet's parents probably didn't count on, however, was him becoming the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, leading SDNY for 7 years through so many cases, it could fill 10 Law & Order seasons. theguardian.com/books/2019/mar…

3 of 6 #AAPIHM: Among Bharara's more notable cases, he investigated Russian oligarchs laundering money in high-priced NYC real estate, which led to passage of the Magnitsky Act & Putin sanctioning him personally.fcpablog.com/2016/12/19/con…

4 of 6 #AAPIHM: Between public corruption, terrorism cases that he argued should be tried in civilian courts rather than tribunals at Guantánamo, cybercrimes, & white collar financial crimes, Bharara was arguably the busiest US Attorney in the country. nytimes.com/2014/08/19/nyr…

5 of 6 #AAPIHM: Have you watched the Showtime series "Billions?" DYK that it's based on Bharara's investigation of insider trading at SAC Capital, or that US Attorney Rhodes is based on him? Now you do. abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/…

6 of 6 #AAPIHM: After being fired at the beginning of Trump's term, Bharara became a professor at the NYU School of Law, & also cohosts an informative podcast on legal issues. Not bad for a kid from Jersey. cafe.com/stay-tuned-pod…

1 of 7: Today for #AAPIHM, a term & a myth & a way of thinking about our community that refuses to die a well deserved death. Sociologist William Pettersen coined the term in a NY Times article in 1966. The article is linked here. inside.sfuhs.org/dept/history/U…

2 of 7 #AAPIHM: Dr. Pettersen wrote that Japanese Americans' work ethic & family values, which echoed that of Jewish immigrants, stood them apart from "problem minorities." He also argued that Japanese Americans' pursuit of higher education level differentiated

3 of 7 #AAPIHM: them, as problem minorities either couldn't or wouldn't attain the education levels needed to escape the cycle of crime & poverty. Today, this "model minority" term is used to describe the AAPI community as a whole, as if it's some monolithic group thatt

4 of 7 #AAPIHM: votes, feels, thinks, works, & loves the same - regardless of the fact that our heritages literally span half the globe. No less than than conservative darling Andrew Sullivan doubled down on this. Here's @jbouie's brilliant response. slate.com/news-and-polit…

5 of 7 #AAPIHM: If my own history is any bellweather, I'm far from a model minority. I'm politically active & vocal, when part of the myth implies silence. Family is important, but not a nuclear one. No advanced degrees on my walls.
npr.org/2021/05/25/999…

6 of 7 #AAPIHM: There's one line towards the end of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" that always spoke to me & 2nd generation AAPI when dealing with our Boomer immigrant parents: "You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man."

7 of 7 #AAPIHM: The model minority myth has insinuated itself into the current discourse around anti-AAPI hate attacks, with the implication that the community's stolidity will get us through. Thankfully, however, we aren't staying silent anymore. nbcnews.com/news/asian-ame…

1 of 5: Today for the #AAPIHM thread, a breaker of both the glass & bamboo ceilings. In 2005, Cristeta 'Cris' Pasia Comerford was selected from a pool of 450 applicants to become the 1st woman & 1st minority executive chef at the White House. asiasociety.org/philippines/cr…

2 of 5 #AAPIHM: Chef Comerford started her White House career as a sous-chef in 1995, & has now cooked for 5 administrations. Her love of her mother's cooking led to her contributing recipes to "The New Filipino Kitchen" amazon.com/New-Filipino-K…

2a of 5 #AAPIHM: Two of her recipes for this book are still up on the USDA website: usda.gov/media/blog/201…

3 of 5 #AAPIHM: Her position gave her automatic entry into possibly the most exclusive culinary association in the world, Le Club des Chefs des Chefs, whose members are chefs for heads of state or government. chefs-des-chefs.com

4 of 5 #AAPIHM: I love that one of Chef Comerford's favorite pastimes is cooking with her daughter, because that's one of my favorite things to do with my own children, building memories of not just being in a kitchen with a parent, but skills. share.america.gov/meet-history-m…

5 of 5 #AAPIHM: Chef Comerford continues to be an inspiration, & I'm now really looking forward to making that shrimp, chicken, & vegetable fried rice recipe.

1 of 5: Today for the #AAPIHM thread, a 16 year old kid who arrived at the University of Illinois from Pakistan in 1967. While Shahid "Shad" Khan studied engineering, he worked for a small auto parts company called Flex-N-Gate. jacksonville.com/article/201112…

2 of 5 #AAPIHM: By 1978 he started his 1st company, & bought Flex-N-Gate from his former boss in 1980. Under Khan, within 10 years, Flex-N-Gate went from manufacturing some bumpers for Toyota trucks to being Toyota's sole supplier for its US-built trucks. ceoworld.biz/2021/01/26/pro…

3 of 5 #AAPIHM: By 2010, Flex-N-Gate had expanded to 12,000 employees in 50 factories around the country, & Khan had become a billionaire. In 2012, Khan bought the Jacksonville Jaguars for $750 million, making him the 1st minority owner in the NFL. nytimes.com/2011/12/01/spo…

4 of 5 #AAPIHM: The following year, he purchased West London's Fulham F.C. for £200 million, & excited the fan base with plans to improve & expand Craven Cottage, Fulham's home since their inception in 1896. forbes.com/sites/mikeozan…

5 of 5 #AAPIHM: Now, with investments in real estate & hotels, in addition to his sports teams & Flex-N-Gate, Khan's net worth is estimated at around $8 billion. This fellow Asian American is impressed. This Liverpool fan is happy that Fulham got relegated again.

1 of 12: Today for the #AAPIHM thread, an inductee of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame & the Ranger Hall of Fame, recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal & the Legion of Merit, & honorary member of the Special Forces Regiment. army.mil/article/222562…

2 of 12 #AAPIHM: Roy Matsumoto was born in California, but his family sent him to study in Japan - specifically, Hiroshima, where his grandparents lived. Roy's parents & brothers joined him a few years later, because laws prevented Japanese Americans from owning land.

3 of 12 #AAPIHM: Roy & 1 of his brothers returned in the 1930s, & they survived the Great Depression by working on farms. By 1942, however, they were interned as enemy aliens at the relocation camp in Jerome, Arkansas, with no idea what was happening to their family in Japan.

4 of 12 #AAPIHM: The Matsumoto brothers both enlisted in the Army, with Roy's fluency in Japanese steering him into the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), which would provide interpreters for the Pacific theater. army.mil/article/115929…

5 of 12 #AAPIHM: Roy volunteered as a linguist for the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), which trained in India, then infiltrated up to 1,000 miles inside Japanese-held territory in Myanmar. history.army.mil/books/wwii/mar…

6 of 12 #AAPIHM: On Easter 1944 at Nhpum Ga, the 2nd Battalion of Merrill's Marauders was surrounded by Japanese at Nhpum Ga. Then-SSG Matsumoto tapped a Japanese phone line & learned of an attack planned against his combat team. marauder.org/matsumot.htm

7 of 12 #AAPIHM: The Japanese attacked with 2,000 soldiers, outnumbering the Americans 10:1, but the Marauders had shifted positions so that the Japanese attacked empty foxholes. During the assault, Roy ordered Japanese soldiers to charge, further exposing them to American fire.

8 of 12 #AAPIHM: After the battle for Maggot Hill, Roy was reassigned to the Office of Strategic Services, precursor to the CIA. Roy translated Japanese communications & interviewed Japanese POWs, some of whom knew Roy's brother, who served in the Japanese Army.

9 of 12 #AAPIHM: Roy assumed that his family were all killed in the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima, but by 1946, he'd reunited with 2 of his brothers, former POWs, & his parents. The harrowing account is in this fascinating oral history. ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-dens…

10 of 12 #AAPIHM: Roy worked as both a counterintelligence officer & translator for war crimes trials in Japan after the war. He married a Japanese woman & stayed in the Army, retiring in 1963 as a master sergeant.

11 of 12 #AAPIHM: In 1993, Roy, along with the 5307th's other MIS linguists, were inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame. This is because the current Ranger Regiment traces its lineage to Merrill's Marauders, & uses the 5307th's distinctive unit insignia. java.wildapricot.org/resources/Docu…

12 of 12 #AAPIHM: In 2011, at age 98, Roy & other Japanese American veterans of World War II received the Congressional Gold Medal. This American hero passed away 2 years later.

1 of 8: A wrap-up to my fourth thread for #AAPIHM. When I was a young boy, my parents took me to the Korean Day parade, which marches down Broadway & ends at 32nd Street, the original enclave of Korean American businesses in Manhattan.

2 of 8 #AAPIHM: Korean dancers, musicians, drummers, folk singers, veterans groups, civic & religious leaders - you name it - march. As did (at least in the late 1970s) up & coming business leaders adorned with a sash over a shoulder that proclaimed their company & title.

3 of 8 #AAPIHM: That's how my dad got to march in the parade twice. I remember standing with my mom on a corner, next to a deli where she'd gotten me a hot chocolate. I was proud to bursting, because my dad was *in* the parade. He was a big deal.

4 of 8 #AAPIHM: We waved at my dad, who waved back. The year before, he picked me up so I could watch the parade from a higher vantage point. He told me, "This is who we are. This is our heritage. But, you're also American. You're more American than me because you're born here."

5 of 8 #AAPIHM: "Always remember that, Daniel." I haven't forgotten, more than 40 years later. How could I ever forget, when the reality of how some people see my non-Americanness stares back at me in the mirror every day?

6 of 8 #AAPIHM: How can I forget, when cowards used my ethnicity for an excuse to fight me until I decided to stop fighting? But still, I am an American. We are Americans. Our community's history is rightfully part of our country's history, which is why we commemorate May.

7 of 8 #AAPIHM: As I've often said, only half in jest, fuck 'em, I ain't going anywhere. Neither are my brothers & sisters, who have woven themselves into the fabric of our country, stitch by brave stitch. We belong here. I hope you enjoyed this thread. Thank you for reading.

8 of 8 #AAPIHM: Now, a benediction to many of my Twitter threads:
Here endeth the lesson.
Be excellent to each other.

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