Spokane Chinese Aid War Effort

Spokane Chinese Aid War Effort

Attitudes toward Chinese Americans began to shift during World War II. As this article from the Spokesman-Review indicates, Americans of Chinese descent were seen as allies in the fight against Japan. For many Chinese Americans, support for involvement in Asia began years earlier, as Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 before starting a full-scale invasion of China in 1937. Support for the United States war effort amongst Spokane's Chinese American community was led by a local chapter of the Kuomintang (KMT), which was the ruling party in China during the war. The article also discusses buttons worn by local Chinese Americans intended to differentiate them from Japanese Americans in Spokane. The article quotes Lucille Lee, a Chinese American graduate of Washington State University, who stating that Chinese Americans wore the buttons to protect them from discrimination even though they did not feel that Japanese Americans were to blame for the acts of the Japanese Empire.

Spokesman-Review

Spokane (Wash.): Cowles Publishing Company

1942 January 18

Newspaper clippings