Asian immigrants often faced discrimination,
or unfair treatment, from whites.
In addition, the U.S. government did
not allow them to become U.S. citizens.
This meant that Asian immigrants did
not have the same rights as immigrants
from Europe.
Eventually, the government passed laws
to stop Asians from immigrating to the
United States. In 1882 the U.S. Congress
passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.
This law stopped Chinese people from
immigrating to the United States. The
Immigration Act of 1924 stopped all
immigration from Asia.
Despite this discrimination, many Asian
Americans started families, set up businesses,
and built communities in the
United States. Their children, born in
the United States, became U.S. citizens.
Many Asian Americans served in the
U.S. military.
Japanese Internment
In 1941 Japan bombed the U.S. military
base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The
United States then joinedWorldWar II.
During the war, the U.S. government
saw all Japanese Americans as possible
Chinese New Year festivities attract crowds to the neighborhood called Chinatown in
Chicago, Illinois.
A Japanese American family has their bags
packed for their move to an internment camp.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Asian Americans 207
enemies. It distrusted even those who
had been born in the United States and
were citizens.
The government forced Japanese Americans
on theWest Coast to move to special
camps, called internment camps.
These Japanese Americans lived in the
camps until the war ended in 1945.
They lost their jobs and often their land,
homes, and businesses. Even so, thousands
of Japanese Americansand other
Asian Americansserved in the U.S.
military during the war.
In 1989 Congress apologized to Japanese
Americans for their treatment duringWorldWar
II. The government also
gave 20,000 dollars to each surviving
internee.
New Laws and New
Immigrants
FollowingWorldWar II Congress
passed laws that led to fairer treatment
of Asian Americans. A law called The
Immigration and Nationality Act of
1952 gave all Asian immigrants the right
to become U.S. citizens. The Immigration
Act of 1965 allowed people from
any Asian country to immigrate to the
United States.
After 1965, many new Asian immigrants
came to the United States. Many came
from Korea and countries in Southeast
Asia, especially Vietnam. These immigrants
often were escaping wars in their
homelands. But Asian immigrants also
came to find work. For example, great
numbers of Indians came to work in the
United States as doctors, scientists, engineers,
or computer specialists.
Asian Americans Today
By 2000 there were more than 10 million
Asian Americans in the United
States. They made up about 4 percent of
the U.S. population. About half of them
lived in theWest, especially in Hawaii
and California. In the East, New York
had the highest number of Asian Americans.
More than 65 percent of the Asian
Americans in 2000 were U.S. citizens.
Some Asian Americans today feel that
other Americans still treat them as outsiders.
Nevertheless, many Asian Americans
have achieved high levels of
economic and educational success. Asian
Americans continue to be an important
part of U.S. society, as they have been
for more than 150 years.
#More to explore
Asia California Citizenship
Discrimination Hawaii Migration,
Human United States
Asian American architect and artist Maya
Lin stands beside one of her works. Lin is
famous for designing the Vietnam War
Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Norman Y.
Mineta was
the first Asian
American to
head a U.S.
government
department.
He served as
Secretary of
Commerce
and later as
Secretary of
Transportation.
208 Asian Americans BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Asmara
Population
(2002 estimate)
500,600
Asmara is the capital of the East African
country of Eritrea. It is also the countrys
largest city. Located in a highlands
region, Asmara is more than 7,500 feet
(2,300 meters) above sea level.
Asmara is a major market for farm products.
It is also a center for tanning hides.
Factories in the city make textiles, footwear,
and soft drinks. Roads, railroads,
and airplane routes connect Asmara to a
port on the Red Sea.
Asmara was once a small village of the
Tigre people. In 1900 it became the
capital of the Italian colony of Eritrea.
In 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia. The
Italians made Asmara the main base for
the attack. Afterward Asmara was the
leading city in the territory called Italian
East Africa. Later the British and then
the Ethiopians controlled Eritrea. In
1993 Eritrea won its independence, and
Asmara became its capital.
#More to explore
Eritrea
Asparagus
People have been eating asparagus as a
vegetable since ancient times. The vegetable
is also called garden asparagus.
This helps to separate it from the hundreds
of other types of asparagus plants.
All asparagus plants belong to the lily
family, along with onions and garlic.
Asparagus grows wild in parts of Europe,
Africa, and Asia. Farmers and gardeners
grow the vegetable in areas where the
winters are cool or cold. The worlds
leading asparagus producers are China,
Peru, and the United States.
People eat the young shoots of the
asparagus plant, which are called spears.
The spears shoot up from the roots during
the spring and early summer. They
must be picked by hand, not by
machine. That makes asparagus an
expensive crop to grow.
The spears of the asparagus plant are
normally green. That is because they
contain chlorophyll, the substance that
uses light energy to make food for
plants. Some growers in France and
other places bury the growing spears in
Tender asparagus spears shoot up from the
ground in spring and early summer.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Asparagus 209
soil. This shields them from the sun and
prevents them from making chlorophyll.
Spears grown this way are white. White
asparagus is known for its delicate flavor.
People usually eat asparagus spears
cooked. They are often served hot with
melted butter or a rich sauce. The spears
are also eaten cold in salads.
#More to explore
Garden Lily Plant
Aspen
The trees called aspens are known for
their fluttering leaves. Their leaf stalks
are long, weak, and flattened. They
allow the leaves to move in even the
slightest breeze.
Aspens belong to the group of trees
called poplars. The poplars are closely
related to willow trees. There are three
species, or types, of aspen. The European
aspen grows in Europe, northern
Africa, and Asia. The quaking, or trembling,
aspen and the big-tooth aspen are
found in North America.
The bark of aspens is usually smooth
and greenish gray or white. Aspen leaves
are rich green. In autumn the leaves turn
bright yellow before they fall off the tree.
The European aspen and the quaking
aspen can reach a height of 90 feet (27
meters). The big-tooth aspen can grow
to about 59 feet (18 meters).
Aspens can reproduce both by producing
seeds and by growing new sprouts. A
single aspen can produce more than 50