Chinese Interrogations

From 1910 – to 1940 Chinese immigrants were interrogated at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Many Americans resented the Chinese because they thought they were stealing their jobs and that the Chinese were taking jobs for lower wages. In 1882 The United States passed the exclusion act which implemented new restrictions and requirements for the Chinese. The act allowed the courts to refuse citizenship to the Chinese and allowed them to be deported. When the Chinese reached Angel Island the men were separated from the women and children and they were all subjected to examinations that were humiliating for the individuals. Life for the immigrants at Angel Island was stressful and demoralizing, hundreds of people were kept in small rooms with bunkbeds.
Interrogations were said to have lasted for hours and while they were being detained in the detention barracks they expressed their feelings by writing poetry that they carved into the walls.
Over a hundred poems have been recorded and they were rediscovered in 1970. During the interrogations that could last up to several days the Chinese were asked about their families, and where their village was located in their native country. Due to the language barrier miscommunications were common during the interrogations which led to more deportations. The detainees were held for long periods of times, some up to two years and were interrogated repeatedly during their stay. Some of the carvings that the immigrants wrote still exist today. Some say “I was here”, or some simply just say a name but most are carvings of poems written in
Chinese.