Some themes have been found in the poetry at the Immigration Station. Given this situation, the prevailing sentiments were disappointment, anger, depression and homesickness beyond some imaginary lines, a complex only found in youth. They had no idea that they would be detained on Angel Island. One can imagine that a group of young men with some education came across the Pacific Ocean with very high expectations of a new life in the New World. Traditionally, Chinese scholars emphasize that poetry reveals one’s heart, aspirations and feelings. A few others included their surnames, birthplaces, and the dates of their writing. Only a dozen or so signed their real names. The overwhelming majority of the authors of the poems did not sign their names to their poems. However, some fairly high quality poems indicated that there were a few older and well-educated persons amidst the detainee population. Detainees knew some classical Chinese and the ABC’s of Chinese calligraphy. Some had an elementary school education in the form of private tutoring, but they were rarely educated at the high school level. Couched in classical allegories and historical references, these poems poured forth the aspirations of the immigrants with their anger and sadness at the injustice of their initial reception by America.įrom 1910 to 1940 most of Angel Island’s Chinese detainees were young men between 14 and 18 years of age. The most visible and durable testimony of those detained at Angel Island are the notable poems, some written, some carved with a classical Cantonese technique into the wooden walls of the barracks. This led to an avalanche of activism from volunteer professionals and students that lasted through the 1970s and ultimately resulted in the detention barracks and its poems being saved for future generations.
They determined that the writings were historically significant. Weiss turned to the local Asian American community, for help in finding the meanings of the carvings. Fortunately in 1970, park ranger Alexander Weiss decided to explore the old barracks and discovered a multitude of Chinese carvings on the interior walls.
Demolition of the Immigration Station buildings was imminent. It laid abandoned until 1963, when the California Department of Parks and Recreation took possession of the island as a state park.įor the next eight years, a plan was developed to turn the site into a campground with extensive recreational facilities. Upon its final closing, the facility was decommissioned by the Army and turned over to the State of California. This lasted through 1946, with its last year used as a repatriation center for Japanese nationals. When the Immigration Station closed in 1940, the Army took possession of the station, converting it to a prisoner of war (POW) processing center.
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