At that point, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at irony that Asian American history is excluded from history textbooks, especially given the extent of US imperialism in Asia. While that doesn’t touch upon the positive contributions of Asian Americans, much of this history directly impacted Asian American activism that shaped the US, from labor movements and anti-war movements to women’s rights, gay rights, and indigenous rights.
For a super reductive history brief that I’m writing simply to make a point, the US fought in: 1) the Philippine–American War (1899–1902), when the US annexed the Philippines as a result of the Spanish–American War, despite the Philippines’ declaration of independence; 2) the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901), an anti-foreign, anti-colonial and anti-Christian uprising in China; 3) the Korean War (1950–1953), after the US and the Soviet Union decided to each administer a half of Korea as part of Japan’s surrender during WII, causing Cold War tension clashes between the North and South; 4) the Vietnam War (1955–1975), another Cold War-era proxy war, wherein North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the US.Â
And those are just some of the better known conflicts the US has been involved in throughout East and Southeast Asia (let alone Western Asia, such as the Middle East, or the Pacific, like in Hawaii and Samoa). Domestically, the US incarcerated Japanese people in camps during WWII and effectively banned Asian immigration until 1965.Â
If these are at all mentioned in American history textbooks, they’re often glossed over and minimized, with no real acknowledgment of their impact or destruction.