NPS photo, courtesy Manzanar National Historic Site.
About
Asian American and Pacific Islander history and heritage are as vast as the many countries and nations who have created it.
These histories reflect more than a thousand years of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. As of 2024, over 20 million people of Asian or Pacific Islander descent live in the United States, totaling about 6 percent of the US population. Throughout this site, you can find stories of Asian American and Pacific Islander history and heritage from early Pacific Islander cultural centers to the fight for civil rights and political recognition.
As the nation’s storyteller, the National Park Service strives to tell the stories of ordinary and extraordinary Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders preserved in our nation’s parks, memorials, and historic sites. Come learn with us today!
What’s In a Name
There is no one answer or rule to tell us how we should refer to people of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. The question of whether to use various acronyms from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Asian Pacific American (APA), Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI), or something else has been increasingly debated in our communities. Many individuals express their own preference.
For consistency throughout the National Park Service Asian American and Pacific Islander subject site, we will:
- Use ethnic group specific names, when possible, like Chinese American or Indian American.
- Recognize the variations within communities, such as Filipinx (some use “-x” suffix to be inclusive of gender), versus Filipino and Filipino American.
- Primarily use “AAPI” following the Asian American and Pacific Islander National Landmarks Theme Study, but content across National Park Service webpages may vary.
- Recognize the agency and autonomy of communities that prefer different naming conventions and groupings that may change over time.
From New York to Hawai’i: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Is Everywhere
One of 10 relocation camps built to house people of Japanese descent forcibly relocated from the West Coast of the US during World War II.
Learn more about the history and culture of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through this National Park Service theme study.
Born in 1861 at Lihue, Kauai in the Kingdom of Hawaii, Wilhelmina Kekelaokalaninui Widemann was a suffragist.
Mabel Lee advocated for women's suffrage rights. She was also the first Chinese woman to earn a PhD in economics from Columbia University.
Geraldine Kenui Bell, better known as Geri, was the first Native Hawaiian woman to be superintendent of a National Park Service (NPS) unit.
In 1966, Mexican American and Filipino farmworkers marched out of Delano, California, protesting unfair working conditions in the fields.
Asian American and Pacific Islander Stories Are Abundant
- Boston National Historical Park
An Early History of Boston's Chinatown
- Type: Article
- Locations: Boston National Historical Park
- Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park
Mālama Honua
- Type: Article
- Locations: Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park
In May 2016 a double-hulled canoe called Hōkūleʻa, a replica of an ancient Polynesian vessel, sailed down the Potomac River to dock at the Washington Canoe Club at the C&O Canal National Historical Park in Washington, DC. Without modern instruments and guided only by the sun, sea and stars, Captain Kalepa Baybayan of the Polynesian Voyaging Society charted the canoe from Hawaii to DC to participate in BioBlitz 2016, a National Park Service Centennial celebration.
- War In The Pacific National Historical Park
Mabini Monuments
- Type: Place
- Locations: War In The Pacific National Historical Park
Two monuments to Apolinario Mabini stand along the Asan Beach Trail. Mabini was the Prime Minister and Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the first Philippine Republic from January 23, 1899 – May 7, 1899. When the United States acquired the Philippines from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War in 1899, Mabini and his followers refused to take an oath of allegiance to the United States and were exiled to Guam.
- Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Puʻuloa Petroglyphs
- War In The Pacific National Historical Park
Assan through the Ages
- Type: Article
- Locations: War In The Pacific National Historical Park
Assan Beach, the 2,500-yard shoreline stretching between Punta Adilok (Adelup Point) and Punta Assan (Asan Point), which the Marines in World War II called a "pair of devil horns," is a poignant symbol of the Guam's complex history, blending indigenous CHamoru traditions, wartime struggle, and ongoing military presence. In many ways, the story of Guam can be read through the story of Assan Beach. Talk a walk through history at Assan Beach.
- Type: Place
Greenwich Village Historic District’s reputation for dynamism can be attributed to its history of emerging artists and writers as well as the political unrest and activism of its inhabitants. With the rise of the counterculture movement during the 1960s, Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park became a hub for writers and musicians. In 1969, LGB residents of Greenwich Village pushed back against police harassment at the Stonewall Inn.
- War In The Pacific National Historical Park
Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Project: Asan Beach and Agat Beach Units
- Type: Article
- Locations: War In The Pacific National Historical Park
The Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Project (REAP) for the Asan Beach and Agat units of the park documented the mythic landscape, traditional practices, and ethnographic resources of the CHamoru and other traditionally associated people. It included interviews with eight individuals and incorporated existing archival and published information relevant to summarizing traditional cultural practices and cultural resources within the Asan and Agat units of the park.
- Presidio of San Francisco
Dr. Margaret "Mom" Chung
- Type: Person
- Locations: Presidio of San Francisco
Dr. Margaret “Mom” Chung was the first Chinese American woman to become a physician. She founded one of the first Western medical clinics in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1920s. During World War II, she and her widespread network of “adopted sons,” most of them American soldiers, sailors, and airmen who called her “Mom,” became famous. Although she faced prejudice because of her race, gender, and sexuality, Dr. Chung forged a distinctive path throughout her life.
Last updated: June 7, 2024