Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco

by Judy Yung

  The All-American War Effort: 194 1

  All of America was stunned on the morning of December 7, 11941, when 353 Japanese bombers and fighters swooped over Pearl Harbor, breaking the backbone of the country's Pacific Fleet during a two-hour preemptive strike. President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the Axis powers within twenty-four hours of the attack, thus ending the debate on whether the United States should enter the war once and for all. America's entry into World War II was the turning point for both the Allies and the country's economic slump. Almost overnight, the United States turned its full attention to war production, supplying the Soviet Union and Britain with much-needed military equipment and supplies to fight the Nazis. As the Soviet army finally succeeded in driving Hitler's army out of Eastern Europe after a series of savage and bloody battles, Americans joined forces with the British, successfully pushing the German army out of Northern Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France. In May 1945, the Allies took Berlin, Hitler committed suicide, and the Nazi regime was toppled. Attention then was focused on the war in the Pacific, where the U.S. Navy had been waging an "islandhopping" offensive to prepare for a full-scale invasion of Japan. America's use of its newly developed atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki three days later (before giving Japan a chance to surrender) finally brought Japan to its knees and ended World War II.

  On the home front, the war accomplished what the New Deal had failed to do-bring about economic recovery. Massive government deficit spending in war production resulted in a boom economy for the country. The GNP rose from $125 billion in 1941 to $21z billion in 1945; total output of manufactured goods increased 300 percent between 1940 and 1944; and government expenditures soared from a mere $11 billion in 1939 to $117 billion in 1945. As thousands of men were sent to the battlefront, a labor shortage occurred in the expanded war economy. Wages increased 44 percent in four years, and jobs in the war industries and in the private sector opened up for both women and racial minorities. Swept up by the tide of patriotism in the face of a national crisis, Americans across the country bought war bonds, cooperated with war production and rationing, and volunteered for civil defense and Red Cross work.

  Chinese Americans, although deeply immersed in a nationalist movement to resist Japanese aggression in China, were as shocked as other Americans by Japan's bold move at Pearl Harbor. Lonnie Quan, who was living in San Francisco Chinatown at the time of the attack, recalled that "day of infamy":

  I remember December 7th so clearly. I was living at Gum Moon Residence Club on Washington Street. It was Sunday. I didn't have a radio in the room. I didn't know what was going on. And my date came to take me out, and he said, "This is it." And I didn't know what he was talking about. He said, "President Roosevelt declared war. Pearl Harbor was attacked." I was shocked. I think everybody was in a state of shock for a few weeks. I remember going to work in a restaurant, Cathay House. And everybody was just kind of glued to the radio. And for the next few weeks, it seemed like everything was at a standstill.84

  Whereas Japanese Americans were seen as enemy aliens, stripped of their civil rights, and herded into concentration camps for the duration of the war, the mass media promoted Chinese Americans, along with Filipino, Korean, and Asian Indian Americans, as valiant allies and loyal sons and daughters of Uncle Sam.85 Chinese Americans, fearful of being mistaken for Japanese, displayed signs in their windows announcing, "This is a Chinese Shop," wore buttons that read "I am Chinese," or carried identification cards signed by the Chinese consul general.86 Social attitudes toward Chinese Americans changed overnight. Once considered immoral, unclean, and a threat to the American way of life, they were now depicted as good, honest, hardworking Americans. According to Helen Pon Onyett, who had experienced discrimination living in Waterbury, Connecticut, up to the time of the war:

  Really at that time, even being second generation, it was a little bit difficult being in the minority. You weren't really a part of things. Then when World War II happened, everyone couldn't do enough for China. And Madame Chiang Kai-shek came and provoked a lot of sympathy and everyone started feeling, we are Americans and we should support China. And I could feel the reaction toward me. We were the only Chinese family in town, and their reaction toward us was really a turnabout.87

  The overwhelmingly positive response to Madame Chiang Kai-shek's visit in 1943 was indicative of mainstream America's new attitude regarding China and Chinese Americans. Educated at Wellesley College and an accomplished orator who spoke impeccable English, Madame Chiang addressed Congress with an eloquent but forceful speech on behalf of China's war effort. "The U.S. Senate is not in the habit of rising to its feet to applaud," wrote a reporter in Time. "For Madame Chiang it rose and thundered."88 She spoke as an equal, subtly condemning the United States for its lack of support in the last five and a half years of war. However important Hitler might be, she pointed out, the United States must act now and join China's fight, or lose the possibility of creating a world democracy.89 When she finished, one grizzled congressman was heard muttering, "Goddam it, I never saw anything like it. Madame Chiang had me on the verge of bursting into tears. "90 She made a similar impact on the thousands of Americans who came out to welcome her in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Her dignified presence shattered the stereotyped image of China as a weak, backward nation and of Chinese women as exotic porcelain dolls. Representing China, now America's ally, she was, in the words of one Chinese American reporter, "A lady of tact and charm, as well as courage and intelligence. A lady who speaks for and is symbolic of a great people."91 It was partly thanks to her efforts that the Chinese exclusion laws were repealed: as she indicated to several key congressmen at a dinner party on May 15, repeal would give a good boost to Chinese morale.92

  Soon after Madame Chiang's visit, Senator Warren Magnuson introduced a bill in Congress calling for the repeal of the Exclusion acts. Widely supported by religious, civic, and even labor organizations, its passage on December 17, 1943 , was based largely on wartime enthusiasm for China, commercial interests in China, and the need to challenge Japanese propaganda in Asia. As President Roosevelt put it to Congress, "I regard this legislation as important in the cause of winning the war and of establishing a secure peace. China is our ally. For many long years she stood alone in the fight against aggression. Today we fight at her side.... By the repeal of the Chinese exclusion laws, we can correct a historic mistake and silence the distorted Japanese propaganda."93

  In 1944, open Chinese immigration was resumed after sixty-one years of Exclusion (though at a token allocation of 105 per year) and Chinese aliens were finally granted the right to naturalization. Because of the war emergency, other discriminatory barriers were lowered as well; Chinese Americans were now allowed to join the armed services on an equal basis, to work in white-collar jobs, skilled trades, and for the civil service, to live outside of Chinatowns, and to be included in the allAmerican war effort. The sociologist Rose Hum Lee went so far as to proclaim:

  For them [Chinese Americans] the present crisis is another stepping stone toward complete assimilation. No longer do Americans think of the Chinese as mysterious Orientals from a little known land. Most of these Chi nese living among them are fellow citizens. The rest of them, as well as their cousins in the old country, are Allies. The crisis of December 7 has emancipated the Chinese in the United States.95

  Certainly, the impact of World War II on Chinese American women was far-reaching. As they volunteered for the armed services, took jobs in defense factories and the private sector, and redoubled their efforts in war relief work on the home front, their horizons broadened, their socioeconomic status improved, and they found themselves falling in step with the rest of America. Lonnie Quan recalled,

  All of a sudden, San Francisco started being a boom town. Everybody was getting jobs. The shipyards were open and it was very exciting [because] you didn't know when you were going to war.... And that's when it's romantic in a way, and sometimes,
it's very sad. You see all your friends going away to war and maybe not coming back.96

  In contrast, Japanese American men and women were pushed out of step: they lost their freedom, suffered heavy economic losses, and received permanent psychological scars from being incarcerated in concentration camps without just cause or due process of the law.97

  IN THE ARMED FORCES

  Approximately eleven million men and women were inducted into the U.S. armed forces between 1941 and 1945. With the growing demand for manpower and the steady application of political pressure by black and women's groups, racial and gender barriers were lowered. Resident aliens were permitted to enlist, with promises of U.S. citizenship down the line. Of the 59,803 Chinese adult males in the United States at the time, over zo percent joined the U.S. Army. A smaller percentage also served in the navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Because Chinese men at the time were predominantly single, they were susceptible to the draft, but almost all went willingly out of a strong sense of both Chinese nationalism and American patriotism. Chinese Americans in New York cheered themselves hoarse when the first draft numbers included Chinese names. In Butte, Montana, all eleven Chinese men of draft age enlisted before they were drafted.98 As Private Charles Leong wrote from Buckley Field in Denver, Colorado:

  The average Chinese GI Joe likes and swears by the army. The most obvious reason, of course, is the fact that every Chinese would like to par ticipate in defeating our common enemy-the Jap. Reason Number Two is perhaps more complex, but equally important.... To GI Joe Wong, in the army a "Chinaman's chance" means a fair chance, one based not on race or creed, but on the stuff of the man who wears the uniform of the U.S. Army.99

  Unlike blacks and Japanese Americans, who were placed in segregated units, Chinese Americans were partially integrated into the military.'oo A high percentage of Chinese G.I.'s saw combat duty in Europe and in the Pacific. Of the 12,041 Chinese draftees, 214 died in the war.101

  As the country geared up for war, it became apparent that valuable manpower was being wasted in duties such as office work that could be carried out by women. Within the first fourteen months of the war, Congress passed bills to establish women's corps in the army, navy, Coast Guard, and marines, with the stipulation that enlisted women be confined to noncombat duties. Out of patriotism and a sense of adventure, and attracted by the economic benefits, over 3 50,000 women volunteered, making up z percent of the military. Most were white, single women. Black women, numbering 4,000 in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) alone, were the only sizable racial minority group. Like their male counterparts, they were often kept segregated and bore the brunt of racial discrimination in terms of poor work assignments, lack of promotion, and overall treatment. Black women were outright excluded from the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, the women's corps in the navy) until 1945. In contrast, the small numbers of Puerto Rican, Chinese, Japanese, and Native American women who served were integrated into the women's military units and suffered less discrimination.102 While most servicewomen experienced a sense of personal development and satisfaction in rising to the challenges of military service, they were never treated on a par with the men or allowed to share power. Women, including officers, were generally assigned traditional female tasks of office work, communication, and health care. Sexual harassment and male hostility were pervasive, and the inefficient use of women's time and abilities contributed to lapses in morale. 103 AS one historian put it, "Wacs, Waves, Spars, and women Marines were war orphans whom no one loved." 104

  The exception to this rule was nurses, who were welcomed into the military from the beginning because of their sought-after skills as well as the popular acceptance of nursing as noble war work for women. The 76,ooo women who served in this capacity represented 3 r percent of all active professional nurses in the nation. Many risked their lives behind the battle lines, caring for the wounded under enemy fire. In return, they were the first servicewomen to be accorded equal pay and full military rank.105 Helen Pon Onyett was among the first Chinese American women to volunteer for the Army Nurse Corps.106 Twenty-five years old at the time and with four years of nursing experience under her belt, she welcomed the opportunity "to do better in the military." She recalled how she reached her decision to enlist:

  I was visiting New York Chinatown with some friends of mine. On one of those side streets they had stuck on the wall an announcement that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. And all those people were milling around there, and everybody was so excited about it and up in arms. It shook everyone up. I was so irritated about it [the attack], whereas what was happening over there in Germany didn't affect me as much. That's what got me thinking about it. I ought to contribute something, so finally, after a year or so, I volunteered.

  Her first hurdle was to pass "boot camp," where she learned military maneuvers and survival techniques. "I hated it," she said, "wearing fatigues and helmets, living in tents that weren't temperaturized, and learning to abandon ship on rope ladders. It was all quite strenuous."

  For the duration of the war Helen nursed the wounded aboard transports off North Africa and the acutely injured at a military hospital back in the United States. "I can't swim, so I wore my Mae West [life jacket] twenty-four hours a day," she said. "It was scary, especially when some of the ships you would be traveling with would be sunk right under your nose. All I could think was, `If you gotta go, you gotta go."' Compared to the five hundred black nurses, who were kept in segregated units and served only black troops, Helen experienced no racial discrimination. On the contrary, she insisted, "I was treated as a nurse nurse, not an Oriental somebody." So rewarding was her military experience that Helen decided to stay on after the war, serving more than thirty years in the reserves and becoming one of the few women to be promoted to the rank of full colonel (in 1971). "When I spoke before audiences," she pointed out, "people gawked at me, saying, `Oh, my God, she's a colonel,' not `She's Oriental."' When the general awarded her the Meritorious Service medal, one of eight major decorations for distinguished military service that she would receive, she added, "all the wives came over and said, `It's about time someone recognized a woman.' See, not Oriental, but just a woman."

  Jessie Lee Yip was one of the few Chinese women in San Francisco to become a Wac.107 She remembered first feeling the impact of World War II at her high school graduation:

  Sergeant Jessie Lee. (Courtesy of Jessie Lee Yip)

  All I remember is that we were graduating. We were all in a row and you stood up to go get your diploma. I was near the front, and boys and girls wore different colored robes. This one row stood up, and it was all girls. And I heard a gasp from the audience because they were so shocked that there were no boys. The reason was, most of the boys had enlisted.

  Upon graduation, Jessie got a job at Western Union as a teletypist. Inspired by a family friend, Lt. Emily Lee Shek, the first Chinese American woman to join the WAC, she considered signing up out of a strong sense of patriotism. However, most Chinatown parents opposed their daughters enlisting. "Like dancing or anything that was different, all the parents were against it," said Jessie. "I asked a couple of friends to join with me, and they said they wouldn't even think about it because their parents wouldn't let them."108 Despite the special efforts of Madame Chiang Kai-shek and WAC recruiters to lower height and weight re quirements and entice women to form an all Chinese women's air unit, few Chinese women in San Francisco volunteered for military service.109 "I had wanted to go on a ship and be a steward," said Jessie, "but family friends said, 'Nah, you don't want to do that, because on the ship people get sick and you have to clean it up.' They thought I wouldn't be happy or able to hack it." When Western Union switched her to the graveyard shift, however, she finally decided to quit her job and enlist, with the blessings of her liberal-minded mother. "My mother's more modern," Jessie explained. "She was born in America and lived in New York. In fact, I have a hunch she wanted to go [into the service] herself. She's that kind."

 
The WAVES, known for being discriminatory, turned her down, so she tried the WAC. After she had passed all the required tests, "they sent a staff car out for me, and within five minutes I was a Wac." Six weeks of basic training in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, followed: "It was to get us used to military life. We had to parade. We had taps [bugle calls], shots, KP, calisthenics, and everything but the front-line stuff." Jessie was then assigned to the Third Air Force headquarters in Tampa, Florida, as a teletypist. Local people would stare at the sight of a Chinese woman in uniform, but, like Helen Pon Onyett, she did not recall experiencing discrimination while in the service. Jessie became close friends with two other Wacs who were white, and because they went everywhere together, they became known as the Three Musketeers. Being one of the few Chinese women in the WAC had its advantages. She was "queen bee" to Chinese G.I.'s on the base, who all courted her. Her only complaints were having to work the night shift, endure the heat, and do without good, Chinese home cooking. Like Helen, Jessie signed up for the reserves after the war, but she served only a brief period as a recruiter in San Francisco Chinatown before returning to school on the G.I. bill.

  In contrast to Helen's and Jessie's experiences, Charlotte Sexton, an Amerasian from Hawaii who worked as a teletypist at army bases in Oregon, Virginia, and Maryland, recalled incidents of both racism and sexism. In one case, her friend Alice Chow was accosted while off duty. "Alice really looks Oriental; and this fellow came up and spun her around in the middle of the street in Baltimore, Maryland. He said, `You damn Jap, get out of that uniform! "' Charlotte also noted that men whom she and other teletypists trained were often promoted ahead of them: "We taught the men how to do it, what to do, and kind of overseeing them. Then lo and behold, not only one of them but two or three of them would come up the ranks and pass us. Before you know it, they were over us and not knowing any more than we knew."110