Amerasian

An Amerasian originally meant a person born in Asia to an Asian mother and a U.S. military father also known as War babies or G.I. babies.[1][2] Most modern day Amerasians are either half or quarter American origin.

For the 2010 film, see AmerAsian.

Several countries have significant populations of Amerasians in South Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and, most notably, the Philippines, the last having had the largest US air and naval bases outside the US mainland.[3]

Definitions

The term was coined by writer Pearl S. Buck and was formalized by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Many people were born to Asian women and U.S. servicemen during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The official definition of Amerasian came about as a result of Public Law 97-359, enacted by the 97th Congress of the United States on October 22, 1982.[4]

According to the United States Department of Justice and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), an Amerasian is: "[A]n alien who was born in Korea, Kampuchea, Laos, Thailand or Vietnam after December 31, 1950 and before October 22, 1982 and was fathered by a U.S. citizen."[5] The Amerasian Foundation (AF) and Amerasian Family Finder (AFF) define an Amerasian as "Any person who was fathered by a citizen of the United States (an American servicemen, American expatriate or U.S. Government Employee (Regular or Contract)) and whose mother is or was, an Asian National Asian."[6]

The term is commonly applied to half Japanese children fathered by a U.S. serviceman in Japan, as well as half Korean children fathered by veterans of the Korean War or stationary soldiers in South Korea. The term is also applied to children of Filipinos and American rulers during the U.S. colonial period of the Philippines (still used until today) and children of Thais and U.S. soldiers during World War II and the Vietnam War. The U.S. had bases in Thailand during the Vietnam War.

Amerasian should not be interpreted as a fixed racial term relating to a specific mixture of races (such as Mestizo, Mulatto, Eurasian or Afro-Asian). The racial strain of the American parent of one Amerasian may be different from that of another Amerasian; it may be White, Black, Hispanic or even Asian. In the latter case, it is conceivable that the Amerasian could be fathered by a person who shares the same racial background but not the same nationality.

In certain cases, it could apply to the offspring of American females, who engaged in professions such as military nurse, and Asian males.[7] Mixed-race children, whatever the occupations of their parents, have suffered social stigma. With genetic relation to U.S. soldiers, Amerasians have faced additional exclusion by perceived association to military enemies of Asian countries. [8][9] This stigma extended to the mothers of Amerasians, majority of whom were Asian, causing many of the Asian mothers to abandon their Amerasian children. [10][11] The abandonment of both parents led to a large proportion of orphaned Amerasians.[12][13]

Philippines

Since 1898, when the United States annexed the Philippines from Spain, there were as many as 21 U.S. bases and 100,000 U.S. military personnel stationed there. The bases closed in 1992 leaving behind thousands of Amerasian children.[14] There are an estimated 52,000[15] Amerasians in the Philippines, but an academic research paper presented in the U.S. (in 2012) by an Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines Amerasian college research study unit suggests that the number could be a lot more, possibly reaching 250,000 this is also partially due to the fact that almost all Amerasian intermarried with other Amerasian and Filipino natives.[16][17]

Unlike their counterparts in other countries, American-Asians, or Amerasians, in the Philippines remain impoverished and neglected. A study done by the University of the Philippines' Center for Women Studies further found that many Amerasians have experienced some form of abuse and even domestic violence. The findings cited cases of racial, gender and class discrimination that Amerasian children and youth suffer from strangers, peers, classmates and teachers. The study also said black Amerasians seem to suffer more from racial and class discrimination than their white counterparts.

Two-thirds are raised by single mothers, others by relatives and non-relatives; six percent live on their own or in institution, and 90 percent were born out of wedlock.[14] It was reported in 1993 that prostitutes are increasingly Amerasian, children of prostitutes caught in a cycle that transcends generations.[18]

Vietnam

In April 1975, Operation Babylift was initiated in South Vietnam to relocate Vietnamese children, many orphans and those of mixed American-Vietnamese parentage (mostly Vietnamese mother and American serviceman father), to the United States and finding American families who would take them in. The crash of the first flight of Operation Babylift led to the death of 138 people, 78 of which were children. Over three thousand Amerasians were evacuated from South Vietnam; however, more than twenty thousand Amerasians remained.[19]

In 1982, the U.S. Congress passed the Amerasian Immigration Act in an attempt to grant Amerasian immigration to the U.S. However, the Amerasian Immigration Act was not applied to Vietnamese Amerasians, due to a lack of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnamese government. This was due to a clause in the Amerasian Immigration Act that required documentation of the fathers in the U.S. in order for the Vietnamese Amerasians to acquire a visa. In 1988, U.S. Congress passed the American Homecoming Act, aiming to grant citizenship to Vietnamese Amerasians born between 1962 and 1975, which led to 23,000 Amerasians and 67,000 of their relatives to immigrate to the U.S. For the Vietnamese Amerasians, this meant that their migration to the U.S. occurred as teenagers, leading to struggles in the resettlement process.[20]

International Amerasian Day

March 4 has been designated as Amerasian Day in the Philippines. The Amerasian Foundation has designated it as International Amerasian Day.[21]

In 1982, the U.S. passed the Amerasian Immigration Act, giving preferential immigration status to Amerasian children born during the Vietnam Conflict.[22] The act did not apply to Ameriasians born in the Philippines, who can only become United States citizens if their father claims them; most do not.[22]

A class action suit was filed in 1993 on their behalf in the International Court of Complaints in Washington, DC, to establish Filipino American children's rights to assistance. The court denied the claim, ruling that the children were the products of unmarried women who provided sexual services to U.S. service personnel in the Philippines and were therefore engaged in illicit acts of prostitution. Such illegal activity could not be the basis for any legal claim.[23]

  • The 1957 film Sayonara features a Japanese woman who falls in love with a white serviceman, and they talk about having mixed children together.
  • In the 1972 TV series M*A*S*H, episode 15 of season 8, "Yessir, That's Our Baby", Hawkeye and BJ attempt to send an AmerAsian baby to the United States, facing difficulty at every step of the way. With no other viable solution, they act on Father Mulcahey's advice and take the baby to a monastery in the dead of night to provide her with safety and care.
  • "Straight to Hell", a song by rock music group the Clash, considers the plight of Vietnam War Amerasians.
  • The 1977 movie Green Eyes starred Paul Winfield as a Vietnam War veteran who returns to Vietnam in search of the son he fathered with a Vietnamese woman.
  • The Chuck Norris film Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988) depicted Amerasian children trapped in Vietnam; Norris plays the father of an Amerasian child who believes that his Vietnamese wife died during the Fall of Saigon.
  • In the 1984 TV series Highway to Heaven, episode 11 of season 1, titled "Dust Child," the two lead characters Jonathan, played by Michael Landon, and Mark, played by Victor French, help an AmerAsian girl facing racial prejudice when she goes to live with her father's family in the United States.
  • In the 1988 TV series In the Heat of the Night, episode 9 of season 3, titled "My Name is Hank," an AmerAsian teenager named Hank believes that he was fathered by a deceased police officer once employed by the Sparta, Mississippi police department.
  • The Oscar-nominated 1995 film Dust of Life tells the story of Son, a boy with Vietnamese mother and African American father, who is interred in a 're-education' camp.
  • In the 1997 animated television sitcom King of the Hill, Hank discovers that he has an Amerasian brother living in Japan.
  • In the 1999 American Vietnamese language film Three Seasons, James Hager, played by Harvey Keitel, searches for his Vietnamese Amerasian daughter in hopes of "coming to peace with this place".
  • The 2001 novel The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen is a memoir about the author's experience growing up as an Amerasian in Vietnam until he emigrates to the United States at age eighteen.
  • Daughter from Đà Nẵng is a 2002 award-winning documentary film about an Amerasian woman who returns to visit her biological family in Đà Nẵng, Vietnam after 22 years of separation and living in the United States.
  • The musical Miss Saigon focuses on a young Vietnamese woman who falls in love with an American GI and later has his child after the Fall of Saigon.
  • The 2004 film The Beautiful Country is about an Amerasian boy (played by Damien Nguyen) who leaves his native Vietnam to find his father.
  • The 2010 documentary Left By The Ship which aired on PBS Independent Lens in May 2012, follows the lives of four modern Filipino Amerasians for two years, showing the struggle to overcome the stigma related to their birth.
  • In the 2017 book, The Rebirth of Hope: My Journey from Vietnam War Child to American Citizen, by Sau Le Hudecek, Texas Christian University Press. The author recalls the trials she endured growing up in post-war Vietnam as a daughter of an American GI.

See also

References
  1. "Definition of AMERASIAN". Merriam-webster.com.
  2. "the definition of amerasian". Dictionary.com.
  3. "Explainer: How Can You Be Half-American and Still Not a Citizen?". Pbs.org – Blog – Independent Lens.
  4. Pub.L. 97–359
  5. from instructions for INS Form 360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er) or Special Immigrant
  6. Amerasian Foundation – Giving Amerasians a Voice – Amerasian Definition Archived 2018-01-30 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  7. Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1 August 1990. ISBN 0812213173.
  8. "One Man's Mission To Bring Home 'Amerasians' Born During Vietnam War". npr.org.
  9. The dust of life: America's children abandoned in Vietnam. Seattle : University of Washington Press. 1999. ISBN 0295741066.
  10. "Children of the Vietnam War". smithsonianmag.com.
  11. The dust of life: America's children abandoned in Vietnam. Seattle : University of Washington Press. 1999. ISBN 0295741066.
  12. "Children of the Vietnam War". smithsonianmag.com.
  13. The dust of life: America's children abandoned in Vietnam. Seattle : University of Washington Press. 1999. ISBN 0295741066.
  14. "FindArticles.com – CBSi". findarticles.com.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-03-09. Retrieved 2017-01-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. Beech, Hannah (2001-04-16). "The Forgotten Angels". Time. Time Inc. Archived from the original on 2007-01-23. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
  17. Mixed Marriage...Interreligious, Interracial, Interethnic By Dr. Robert H. Schram
  18. Feminism and Women's Studies: Prostitution Archived 2007-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  19. Gowen, Annie (18 April 2015). "40 years after the fall of Saigon, Americans' children are still left behind". Stars and Stripes. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  20. Asian Immigrants and Refugees: Demographic Transformations in the United States from World War II to the Present. National historic landmark theme study. 2017. ISBN 978-0-692-92584-3.
  21. International Amerasian Day Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  22. Sunshine Lichauco de Leon (31 December 2012). "Filipinos fathered by US soldiers fight for justice". The Guardian. Manila. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  23. "The Life of Street Children in the Philippines and Initiatives to Help Them". cpcabrisbane.org.

Further reading
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