Angel Island History of Angel Island

A couplet on the black stone tablet of the immigrant camp summed up the fate of the immigrants in China at that time: "Don't leave your hometown and wander in the wooden house, and start a business in Kinmen for the first time." The historical injustice lies in the fact that most hardworking and kind China immigrants, full of the hope of getting rid of poverty and starting a new life, traveled across the ocean and docked in San Francisco with the ship, but were unexpectedly sent to the "Angel Island" and waited for a long screening and quarantine in those lonely wooden houses. They were strictly questioned and even asked how many windows there were in their house. They were strictly examined and even searched naked, and some prisoners had to wait for repatriation in despair.

The pain of being detained in a foreign country can be imagined. The living conditions in the cell are extremely bad. A small room, once filled with double beds or triple rooms, has to accommodate 120 people at most. Eighty cents a day is a terrible meal, plus discrimination and hopeless waiting. Some people can't stand it and commit suicide by hanging themselves; Someone had a nervous breakdown and cut himself with sharpened chopsticks.

Among the prisoners, there are many students who have read a lot of poems. They send love poems and express their feelings on the wall, and vent their feelings and helplessness on the wooden wall. When will the prisoners who issued "Woori (the place where Zhou Wenwang was imprisoned) rest in peace? It's another autumn in Qiu Ge, so it's hard to complain, and the snow will never stop. ".

People in cages lament that their situation is "too ashamed to open their eyebrows and curl up in a circle to vote for others", denouncing the injustice of "beauty has power without justice, and we also suffer from it"; There are also prisoners who regret that they should not "work for the United States rather than be a cow", and as a result, they end up in a situation where "houses are towering, there is no way to live, and their homes are prisons". These anonymous poems shouted out the grief and indignation of the bullied. Looking at these poems full of blood and tears, I deeply feel that the heaviness between the lines has long been "unable to move and preoccupied." At that time, the wooden house used to hold women and children was burned down in a fire in 1940, leaving only the wooden house for holding male prisoners. These works carved on the wall were found in the men's cell.

When history came to 1974, with the unremitting efforts of the Chinese community, the California Parliament passed a bill and established the "Historical Citizen Committee of Angel Island Immigration Camp" to study and preserve the remains of the "wooden house" detention center. Two years later, the California legislature allocated $250,000 for the initial renovation of the site. 1998 May 16, the US government officially listed the "Angel Island Immigration Camp" as a "historical site" for protection. At present, a larger protection and maintenance project is being carried out on the island. Today's "Angel Island" has become a tourist attraction, which not only provides a beautiful resting place for people, but also inspires people to deeply reflect on history.

On the way home, looking back at "Angel Island", we can only silently pray for peace, peace and harmony in our hearts; I hope that the tragedy of history will not repeat itself!