Hello Pen Pal, I really enjoyed hearing about your cultural background and your beliefs, not that it was all so beautiful because your people too, faced prejudice and discrimination. Now I see you want to know about the history of my people, well as you know I am of Asian descent. My ancestors started to arrive in the America as early as 1800s. The descendants of the Asian consist of Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Bangladesh and Twainese. We became somewhat popular during 1848, when gold was discovered in what is now California. The European Americans openly allowed Asian immigrants during this time because they worked long hours for cheap labor, digging for gold during the “Gold Rush”. After the hype of gold was over white Americans begin to label Asian as a threat and did not want us there anymore. The Chinese Exclusion Act was put into place to stop the flow of immigrants from China. It was so crazy to me when I heard about this from my ancestors and read it in books; because to me it seems as all people coming to this were immigrants. The Native Americans were there and had developed their cultures and traditions, and then Europeans came and started to claim what wasn’t rightfully theirs. Any who, laws were being passed barring Asian people from certain kind of work, intermarrying with whites, owning homes, receiving education, and living in certain parts of cities. This left us with no other choice but to go back to what we knew best, help each other. Chinatowns began to form, Chinese restaurants, Korean grocery stores, laundry shops and etc. We were isolated in our own communities for our own survival. This was not by our choice, but was the only option we had left due to prejudice and discrimination from the whites. At the time Asian were forbidden to become citizens and were not allowed to vote, but they fought for equal rights and for dignity and self respect. Throughout all our efforts we just wanted to become Americans and add to the growth and culture. When World War II began, it brought on more challenges for people of Asian background. The Americans were afraid that Asian may take the side of Japan, especially after Pearl Harbor. In 1942 President Roosevelt forced many Japanese to live in military detention camps. They stripped them of their property, farms and small business, but most of all their liberty, dignity, and traditions. It was in 1944 when the Supreme Court labeled this as unconstitutional and Japanese were released. Later in 1988 the surviving camp inmates received $20,000 as compensation for their time being forced to live in the camps. Later they passed The 1965 Immigration Act. This act was a significant moment in Asian history. It changed the past by pushing the old strict immigration policies and allowed Asians into mainstream American society. Also during the war many Asian women married the white soldiers and were allowed to come to America freely. This act help pass laws to where