Asian American History and Displacement

Vocabulary terms based on the lecture notes regarding Asian American migration waves, historical displacement due to war, housing struggles, and socio-political definitions.

First Wave 5

The group of Asian American communities comprising the Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Filipinos, and Koreans.

The Korean War (1950-1953)

A conflict that killed four million people, displaced over nine million, and separated eleven million families, resulting in a peninsula that remains technically at war today.

38th parallel

The line that has divided the Korean peninsula and its families for over seventy years, where military drills continue in the absence of a signed peace treaty.

Japanese colonization (1910-1945)

The 35-year period of colonial rule over Korea that preceded the Korean War and the Cold War politics involving U.S. intervention.

US Secret War in Laos

A covert military campaign from 1964 to 1973 involving over two million tons of dropped bombs, leading to a significant refugee crisis for Laotian and Hmong communities.

Plain of Jars

A strategically important area in Xieng Khouang Province that saw its population decline from 150,000 before the 1960s to only 9,000 after the US Secret War.

International Hotel (I-Hotel)

A San Francisco building housing predominantly low-income, elderly Filipino tenants who fought a nine-year battle against eviction until 1977.

I-Hotel Eviction of 1977

The forcible removal of all 196 residents of the International Hotel by riot police, signaling the displacement of Filipino enclaves by the financial district's development.

Refugee

Someone who departs their homeland without choice due to war, political, economic, or climate crises, and is often unable to return or bring possessions.

Islamophobia

The suspicion and fear of Islam, Muslims, and anyone who ‘looks’ Muslim.