Liberty Ships, Closed Doors · Episode 9 of 13 · 30 min
The Other Workers: Native, Chinese, and Filipino Americans at War
The war's hunger for workers and soldiers cracked doors open for Native Americans, Chinese Americans and Filipinos, each with a catch. Native people left reservations in unprecedented numbers, with a complicated lasting cost. Congress repealed Chinese exclusion with a quota of just 105 a year, and Filipino veterans were stripped of promised benefits in 1946. The doors opened because the war needed these people.
Where it happens
- United States+16 more episodesWhere Native Americans left reservations for war work
- Philippines+1 more episodeHomeland of Filipinos who served under the American flag
Timeline
- 1882Chinese Exclusion Act bars immigration and naturalization
- 1941-1945Native Americans leave reservations; code talkers deploy
- January 3, 1942Filipinos become eligible to enlist or be drafted
- December 17, 1943Magnuson Act repeals Chinese exclusion with a quota of 105 a year
- 1946Rescission Act strips benefits from Filipino veterans
Still debated
Native war-industry and off-reservation figures are imprecise, and the war accelerated urban migration that fed postwar relocation and termination without being its sole cause. Partial redress for Filipino veterans came later and remains incomplete.
← PreviousThe Bracero Bargain and the Zoot Suit RiotsNext →Boomtowns: Life and Death in America's Disposable Cities
