Chinese Americans and U.S. Military Service in the Twentieth Century
by Matthew Kavorkian
right (1941) shows a Chinese American laborer using a sign reading “Me Chinese Please, No Jap” to identify himself as Chinese. Found at “Chinese Americans labeling themselves to avoid being confused with the hated Japanese Americans, 1941.” Rare Historical Photos. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/chinese-americans-during-ww2-1941/.
Paul Gaw Chow
June 7, 1907 – December 20, 1966
Although nearly eighty years have passed since World War II (1939-1945) officially began, it is only in recent years that public interest in the service of Chinese American veterans during World War II has started to emerge. After all, it was only in 2018 that President Trump signed into law the Chinese-American World War II Veteran Congressional Gold Medal Act, a bipartisan bill passed unanimously in both the House and Senate that granted a single Congressional Gold Medal to all Chinese Americans who served their country during the conflict as a way to recognize their dedication and sacrifice.[1] While extensive research has been conducted to highlight the experience of Japanese American soldiers during the Second World War, very little research exists with Chinese American soldiers as the focus. Although lack of information may cause some to believe that Chinese Americans did not contribute much to the war effort, this is far from the case. On the contrary, nearly 20,000 Chinese Americans served in the American Armed Forces during the Second World War, comprising 25% of the Chinese American population in the United States at the time and producing the highest service rate of any national group during the conflict.[2] To help honor their patriotism and devotion to this country, it is important that historians begin shining a greater light on the lives and stories of World War II Chinese American veterans, one of which was Private First Class Paul Gaw Chow.
Figure 1: 1886 political cartoon showing a racist depiction of Chinese being kicked out of America.
Found at “This Day in California History.” California Historical Society Since 1871. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://californiahistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2016/05/this-day-in-california-history-chinese.html.
Born in San Francisco in 1907, Paul Chow was a native citizen of the United States.[3] While many may take this fact for granted, Chow’s citizenship existed alongside a rather disheartening context at the time: natural-born citizenship was a luxury that many other Chinese living in the United States during the early twentieth century simply did not have. This is due to the unique federal restrictions that were placed on Chinese immigration a quarter century before: the Chinese Exclusion Acts. First introduced in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed in 1892 and made permanent in 1902, barring all people of Chinese origin from entering the United States and prohibiting those already in America from becoming naturalized citizens.[4] Essentially, the acts were intended to combat the increasing perceived economic “threat” that Chinese laborers, a large amount of which had entered the United States in the mid- to late nineteenth century to find work in gold mines and railroad companies, posed to American laborers in the West [see fig. 1].[5] However, these acts had implications that reached far beyond labor concerns for the Chinese immigrants already living within the United States at the time. With the passage of a single act, hundreds of Chinese families were instantly broken apart, as it was often the case that Chinese men who came to the United States to work left their wives and families behind in China, planning to eventually reunite with them one day in the future.[6] The act created a catch-22 for many Chinese men in the United States; they had to either accept the fact that their family would never be able to join them, or return to China and its collapsed economy with little room for new laborers. While Chow may have escaped the restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, it is highly likely that he was still subject to their effects, as he, like many other Chinese Americans, would have been unable to reunite with distant relatives in China or ever return to the country of his family’s roots.
Over the course of time, Paul Chow made his way to Southern California, settling down near the U.S.-Mexico border in the small rural town of Brawley, California.[7] On 970 G Street, Chow began to build his life.[8] Having only attended grammar school as a child, advanced career paths were out of Chow’s reach, leading to his eventual employment as a “sales clerk” in Brawley.[9] Considering how he listed his own employment as “self” prior to joining the military, it is quite possible that he owned his own small retail/service-oriented business, as was the case with many Chinese Americans in the pre-WWII era.[10] In terms of his personal life, little is known about his marriage situation. All of Chow’s records indicate that he was married by the time he entered the Army; however, there is no accessible record indicating who he was married to.[11] Even more interesting is the fact that on his draft registration card, his wife is not listed as his next of kin; instead, Chow identified a friend of his, Mr. Wong Chowy, as his person of contact in Brawley.[12] It seems unlikely that Chow would have been married to a Chinese woman who was still in China, as he was born and raised in the United States after the Chinese Exclusion Act. Regardless of who he was married to, it appears as if Chow lived a rather peaceful, secluded life in California until the war.
The period of war that eventually ensued had drastic effects on the Chinese American community in the United States. Whereas Japanese Americans became the subjects of increased legal and social discrimination in the United States as the nation prepared for the possibility of war in the Pacific, the image of Chinese Americans in in the United States was substantially revitalized. Beginning nearly a decade before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, China and its people were brutally victimized by the Japanese. Following their invasion and annexation of Manchuria in 1931, the Japanese continued to encroach on Chinese territory and sovereignty while China underwent a tumultuous civil war between the Chinese nationalists and communists, leading to the complete invasion of China and start of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.[13] It is important to note how the US government and many Americans were aware of this increasing Japanese aggression in the Asia-Pacific region before the attack on Pearl Harbor, which gradually transformed Japan into an enemy in the eyes of the American people.[14] On the opposite end, Chinese Americans became increasingly associated with their counterparts in China, who were seen as victims of unspeakable atrocities at the hands of the Japanese.
FIgure 2: A Chinese American woman using a Republic of China flag at the beach to identify herself as Chinese.
Found at “Chinese Americans labeling themselves to avoid being confused with the hated Japanese Americans, 1941.” Rare Historical Photos. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/chinese-americans-during-ww2-1941/.
Figure 3: A Chinese American laborer using a sign reading “Me Chinese Please, No Jap” to identify himself as Chinese.
Found at “Chinese Americans labeling themselves to avoid being confused with the hated Japanese Americans, 1941.” Rare Historical Photos. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/chinese-americans-during-ww2-1941/
The implication that this had on Paul Chow and other Chinese Americans like him was the decline of anti-Chinese discriminatory practices, which were largely replaced by anti-Japanese rhetoric. Chinese Americans quickly gained the stereotypical title of “the good Asians,” owing to America’s support of China’s resistance to Japan and persuading Chinese voices such as that of Madame Chiang (wife of Republic of China leader Chiang Kai-shek), who was adored by many Americans following her tours of America and lobbying in Congress that aimed to gain America’s support for her husband.[15] Many Chinese Americans saw an opportunity for better treatment in American society as these developments emerged. For example, large portions of the Chinese American community actively tried to distance themselves from Japanese Americas, such as by engaging in boycotts of Japanese goods and even wearing buttons and displaying signs with symbols or text indicating that they were Chinese and not Japanese [see fig. 2-3].[16] The American media establishment also assisted with these efforts. Many magazines and newspapers published articles, such as TIME magazine’s “How to Tell Your Friends from the Japs,” detailing procedures that non-Asian Americans could use to visually differentiate Chinese from Japanese.[17] While these news outlets mainly relied on preposterous racial pseudoscience to do so, they were able to successfully raise Chinese Americans to the status of allies in the war against Japan. Even the government contributed to granting Chinese Americans greater equality during the War, repealing the Chinese Exclusion Acts in 1943 and allowing Chinese immigration, including the reunification of separated families, for the first time in sixty-one years.[18]
Figures 4-5: Paul Gaw Chow’s 1940 Draft Registration Card.
Found at “WWII Draft Registration Cards for California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947.” Fold3 database. Entry for Paul Gaw Chow. Accessed May 06, 2019. https://www.fold3.com/image/631330721?xid=991.
The boost in Chinese American patriotism stemming from Chinese Americans’ shifting social status in American society enticed many Chinese American men to join the war effort, as they hoped to further prove their loyalty to the United States. While the capacity in which Chinese Americans could serve in the military had been restricted in the past, this changed during the war, such as when the U.S. Navy dropped its policy of only allowing Chinese Americans to work in mess halls in 1942 to encourage greater participation in the war effort.[19] Paul Chow was part of this new wave of Chinese American recruits, registering for the draft on October 16, 1940 and joining the U.S. Army on January 24, 1941, a little under eleven months before the attack on Pearl Harbor [see fig. 4-5].[20] As a private first class in the Army, Chow was part of the 17th Infantry Regiment.[21] It is worth mentioning that this regiment was not a segregated unit. Actually, it was not uncommon for Chinese Americans like Chow to be distributed throughout non-segregated units, as opposed to other minority soldiers such as African Americans and Japanese Americans. In fact, approximately 75% of World War II Chinese American soldiers did not serve in segregated units, which is an astonishing number considering the impact of Jim Crow segregation policies on the military at the time.[22] As part of the 17th Infantry, Chow was sent to the Pacific theater, where his regiment was awarded with battle honors for fighting in the Aleutian Islands, Eastern Mandates, and Leyte Ryukyus.[23]
Figure 6: Paul Gaw Chow’s gravesite at Fort Logan National Cemetery.
Found at “Paul G Chow.” Find a Grave. Accessed May 6, 2019. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27880193.
Following the war, Paul Chow returned to the United States to live out the rest of his life. Little is known about his life after the war, including when or if he ever moved from California to Colorado, his final resting place.[24] Chow passed away on December 20, 1966 at the age of 59, and was interred into Fort Logan National Cemetery on December 22 of the same year [see fig. 6].[25] While his life was seemingly simply before and after the Second World War, Paul Gaw Chow’s service as a Chinese American in the military was no simple feat. Chow’s story, alongside the stories of the other 20,000 Chinese Americans who served in World War II, exemplifies the honor and dignity of Chinese American veterans. Although they are often left out of popular narratives of America’s World War II experience, their service and achievements are, and will forever be, a part of this nation’s history.
Footnotes ↓
[1] This medal is currently displayed within the Smithsonian. See Tanner Iskra, “Chinese-American WWII Veterans receive Congressional Gold Medal,” Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (blog), January 31, 2019, https://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/56095/chinese-american-veterans-receive-congressional-gold-medal/.
[2] China Daily, “Search for WWII Chinese-American Veterans is a Race Against Time,” Wall Street Journal, n.d., https://partners.wsj.com/chinadaily/chinawatch/search-wwii-chinese-american-veterans-race-time/.
[3] “WWII Draft Registration Cards for California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947,” Fold3 database, entry for Paul Gaw Chow, accessed May 06, 2019, https://www.fold3.com/image/631330721?xid=991.
[4] For a transcript of the original act, see National History Day, the National Archives and Records Administration, and USA Freedom Corps, “Transcript of Chinese Exclusion Act (1882),” Our Documents, accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=47&page=transcript. For more on the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act on American society and law, see Ben Railton, The Chinese Exclusion Act: What it Can Teach Us About America (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
[5] For more on Chinese experience in America pre-World War II, see K. Scott Wong, Americans First: Chinese Americans and the Second World War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 6-44.
[6] The trend of men comprising the majority of the Chinese American population is described as the Chinese American “bachelor society” in Xiaojian Zhao, Remaking Chinese America: Immigration, Family, and Community, 1940-1965 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002), 78.
[7] “WWII Draft Registration Cards for California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947,” Fold3 database, entry for Paul Gaw Chow, accessed May 06, 2019, https://www.fold3.com/image/631330721?xid=991.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” Ancestry database, entry for Paul G Chow, accessed May 6, 2019, www.ancestrylibrary.com.
[10] Paul G. Chow’s employment on his draft card registration is listed as “self.” See “WWII Draft Registration Cards for California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947,” Fold3 database, entry for Paul Gaw Chow, accessed May 06, 2019, https://www.fold3.com/image/631330721?xid=991.
[11] Ibid. and “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” Ancestry database, entry for Paul G Chow, accessed May 6, 2019, www.ancestrylibrary.com.
[12] “WWII Draft Registration Cards for California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947,” Fold3 database, entry for Paul Gaw Chow, accessed May 06, 2019, https://www.fold3.com/image/631330721?xid=991.
[13] For more on Japanese incursions in China before and during World War II, see Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China, 3rd ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013), 397-432.
[14] For more on Japanese-American relations leading up to World War II, see Michael Bess, Choices Under Fire: Moral Dimensions of World War II (New York: Vintage Books, 2006), 42-57.
[15] See Wong, Americans First, 72-124.
[16] Ibid., 74, 79-82.
[17] Ibid., 73-79.
[18] Rudi Williams, “DoD’s Personnel Chief Gives Asian-Pacific American History Lesson,” DoD News, June 3, 2005, https://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=16498.
[19] Wong, Americans First, 60.
[20] “WWII Draft Registration Cards for California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947,” Fold3 database, entry for Paul Gaw Chow, accessed May 06, 2019, https://www.fold3.com/image/631330721?xid=991 and “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” Ancestry database, entry for Paul G Chow, accessed May 6, 2019, www.ancestrylibrary.com.
[21] “17th Infantry” is engraved on Paul G Chow’s headstone. See “Paul G Chow,” Find a Grave, accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27880193.
[22] Williams, “DoD’s Personnel Chief Gives Asian-Pacific American History Lesson,” DoD News, June 3, 2005, https://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=16498..
[23] “Honors and Lineage,” 17th Infantry Regiment Association, accessed May 6, 2019, http://www.17thinfantry.org/history/regiment.php.
[24] For more information regarding the experience of Chinese Americans such as Paul Chow post-WWII, see Matthew Kavorkian, “Biography of Osmund Hyukfoh Wong,” University of Denver Veterans Legacy Program (2019) for the 1950s and Matthew Kavorkian, “Biography of George Choy Wong Chang,” University of Denver Veterans Legacy Program (2019) for the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.
[25] See “Paul G Chow,” Find a Grave, accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27880193.
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