Ask my young American-born nephews where Chinese people come from and they'll think of their grandparents and answer, 'Canada'. But for tens of thousands of American-born Chinese, the history of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents can be traced to one side of an island five kilometres from San Francisco.
New York's Ellis Island, under the silhouette of the Statue of Liberty, is more famous, as the gateway to America for European immigrants. But Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, was, for decades, the entry station for arrivals from Asia, mostly China. Nearly a million immigrants were processed here, at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was high.
Today, Angel Island is a 30-minute ferry ride across the bay from Fisherman's Wharf, past Alcatraz Island and determined kayakers paddling against waves created by luxury yachts and other vessels.
In 1910, when the immigration station on Angel Island opened, the site had been chosen because of its isolation, in the northern part of a heavy forest. The cold, watery distance from the San Francisco shoreline was deemed sufficient to deter escape.
A fire shut down the station in 1940 but the 300-hectare island, the largest in the bay, remained a popular camping spot. The abandoned immigration buildings were going to be destroyed, to make way for an enlarged camping area, but then, in 1970, poems and other writings were found carved into the decaying walls. Written by would-be immigrants, these inscriptions detailed their thoughts and despair as they endured days, weeks and sometimes months of interrogation before being allowed off the island.
Recently, Angel Island was named one of the 11 most-endangered historic places in the United States and efforts have been made to preserve what is left. Recently opened to the public were an interpretive centre and the restored barracks that housed the immigrants.