History 106B: Asian and Asian American History
BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES:
ASIAN AND PACIFIC DIASPORAS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Summer Session I, 2012
University of California, Santa Cruz
Michael Jin (mjin@ucsc.edu)
Humanities 1 Room 439
Office Hours: By Appointment
Course Description
This course examines movements of people, ideas, and culture within and across national and
colonial borders in Asia-Pacific from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. We will
reconsider the historical, conceptual, and geographical boundaries of the former and present U.S.
and Japanese empires in the region from the perspectives of displaced people in Asia-Pacific. These
people included indigenous peoples from various islands in the Pacific, migrants across national
borders, war and economic refugees, and conscripted soldiers and civilians from various colonial
posts. Our topics include race relations, immigration, colonialism, assimilation, gender ideology,
social movements, transnational family and community, and cultural representations. We will
consider the concept of “movement” as a series of multifaceted and interconnected phenomena
driven by larger historical forces, such as war, colonialism, diplomatic relations, and national
policies. Rather than focusing exclusively on selected historical narratives of colonizing and
colonized nation-states, we will examine how race, gender, class, sexuality, and other historical
issues have shaped the experiences of diverse people in diaspora.
Required Reading
The required readings consist of essays, scholarly articles and book chapters, fictional stories, and
memoirs that offer diverse perspectives of people who traversed across multiple national borders in
Asia-Pacific. The only required book you need to purchase is 1,000 Days in Siberia: The Odyssey of a
Japanese-American POW by Iwao Peter Sano. This book is available at Literary Guillotine (204
Locust Street in downtown Santa Cruz). The rest of the assigned readings are available on
eCommons.
Evaluation Criteria
25%
20%
25%
30%
Attendance, completion of reading assignments, quizzes, and class participation
short response papers
Take-home midterm
Term paper
1
Attendance and Class Participation
Please complete the reading assignments and be prepared to participate actively in class discussions.
You will not pass the course if you miss more than one class session without advanced permission
and/or evidence of a verifiable medical or family emergency. Your previous knowledge of
American, Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander history will not help you very much in this
course if you do not critically engage the course readings and participate in class discussions. In each
class session, 3-4 students will be asked to help facilitate the class discussion by preparing a set of
discussion questions related to the assigned readings. You are required to participate as a facilitator
for one discussion topic, for which you will sign up on the first day of the course.
Academic Integrity
You are required to strictly abide by the university policy on academic integrity for undergraduate
students. Plagiarism and/or any other type of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. For more
information, consult the official UCSC policy on academic integrity:
http://undergraduate/ucsc.edu/acd_integrity.
CLASS SCHEDULE
WEEK ONE
Session 1 (6/26)
Locating Asian and Pacific Diasporas: People, Geography, and History
Session 2 (6/28) Manifest Destiny Goes Pacific: The Two Empires
• Paul Spickard, “Pacific Diaspora?” in Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and
Across the Pacific (2002).
• Rhacel Salazar Parreñas and Lok C. D. Siu, “Asian Diasporas: New Conceptions, New
Frameworks” in Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions (2007).
• Dorothy Fujita-Rony, “The Role of Colonialism” in American Workers, Colonial Power:
Philippine Seattle and the Transpacific West, 1919-1941 (2003).
WEEK TWO
Session 1 (7/3)
•
From the Pacific to North America: The Meaning of Citizenship in the U.S.
Pacific Empire before World War II
Dorothy Fujita-Rony, “Empire and Migration,” “Region and Labor,” and “Resistance,
Return, and Organization” in American Workers, Colonial Power: Philippine Seattle and the
Transpacific West, 1919-1941 (2003).
Session 2 (7/5) Displacement of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the Japanese Empire
• C. Sarah Soh, “Gender, Class, Sexuality, and Labor under Japanese Colonialism and
Imperialist War” and “Japan’s Military Comfort System as a History” in The Comfort
Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory of Korea and Japan (2008).
2
•
Soon-Won Park, “The Politics of Remembrance: The Case of Korean Forced Laborers in
the Second World War” in Rethinking Historical Injustice and Reconciliation in Northeast Asia:
The Korean Experience (2007).
WEEK THREE
Session 1 (7/10) Migrants and Refugees across Empires
• Erika Lee and Judy Yung, “A People Without A Country”: Korean Refugee Students and
Picture Brides” and “In Search of Freedom and Opportunity: Russians and Jews in the
Promised Land” in Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (2010).
Session 2 (7/12) Forgotten History of American and Japanese Migrants in Asia-Pacific
• Iwao Peter Sano, Chapters 1-10, 28-30, and “Epilogue” in One Thousand Days in Siberia: The
Odyssey of a Japanese-American POW (1997).
• Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda, “When Minorities Migrate: The Racialization of the Japanese
Brazilians in Brazil and Japan” in Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions (2007).
WEEK FOUR
Session 1 (7/17) America’s Pacific: Liberation Narratives and the “Cold War”
• Vincente M. Diaz, “Deliberating ‘Liberation Day’: Identity, History, Memory, and War in
Guam,” Perilous Memories: The Asia-Pacific War(s) (2001).
• Eleana J. Kim, “‘Waifs’ and ‘Orphans’: The Origins of Korean Adoption” in Adopted Territory:
Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging (2010).
Session 2 (7/19) “World Refugee Fatigue”
• Nam Le, “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” in The Boat
(2005).
• Chia Youyee Vang, “Hmong History and Migration Prior to America” and “A New Home
in America” in Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora (2010).
WEEK FIVE
Session 1 (7/24)
•
Spam and Grits: Cultural Legacies of War and Colonialism in Asian/Pacific
Diasporas
Henry Yu, “Tiger Woods at the Center of History: Looking Back at the Twentieth Century
through the Lenses of Race, Sports, and Mass Consumption” in Sports Matters: Race,
Recreation, and Culture (2002).
Session 2 (7/26) Asian and Pacific Diasporas in the 21st Century
• Michael P. Perez, “Chamorro Resistance and Prospects for Sovereignty in Guam” in
Sovereignty Matters: Locations of Contestation and Possibility in Indigenous Struggles for SelfDetermination (2005)
3