Page done by India, Priyanka, Shreyas, & Gerald 

     During the 1800s, many Americans did not distinguish between Japanese and Chinese citizens. As a result, they were often treated the same. However, in the 1900s, Americans began identifying ethnic Chinese as people from a different culture than the Japanese, even though many people still thought they looked the same.

     In the 1900s, Chinatowns began transforming from ghettos into tourist attractions.^[1]

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     In 1943, President Roosevelt repealed the Chinese Exclusion Acts, and citizenship was granted to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chinese living in America. Other changes in immigration laws allowed families to be reunited; wives and children were allowed to join their husbands and fathers who were working in the United States. Previously, only working men were allowed to live in the States. There was a quota system, however. Only 105 Chinese immigrants were allowed into the U.S. each year.^[3] The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 (the rise of the communists) caused a wave of Chinese immigration in the 1950s, primarily Mandarin-speaking professionals who were displaced by the revolution.^[4]

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Immigrants oftern entered America through Angel Island, pictured above.

          During World War II, approximately 14,000 Chinese Americans are thought to have been drafted into the U.S. army.  ^[6]When the United States entered the war in 1941, Americans and Chinese found themselves sharing a common enemy, the Japanese. To strengthen their respective campaigns against Japan, the two nations began forming closer ties with each other. Additonally, the demand for weapons and supplies was growing due to the war, and America was able to pull itself out of depression. The need for supplies resulted in jobs for thousands of Chinese Americans, who had previously been forced by the government to work in Chinatowns for practically nothing. Americans gradually accepted the Chinese into their society.

      In 1952, the Walter-McCarran Act permitted first generation Chinese Americans to be considered for citizenship application. The act passed in 1965, and tensions between Americans and Chinese continued to diminish. ^[7] In the 1950s, Tawain and Mainland China began sending scholars to America to study at universities. After school, they needed to be employed to remain in the States. It wasn't until 1965 that Chinese were allowed to stay in America after graduation, even if they were unemployed. Additionally, in 1965, the quota of Chinese immigrants to America was raised to 20,000, making Chinese immigration equal to that of the rest of the world. By the end of the 70s, there were over 400,000 Chinese immigrants in America.^[8]

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