May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States. There are several national park sites throughout the US and its territories that celebrate AAPI culture, history, and their ongoing contributions to America.
Here are descriptions of three national park sites and links to many more to help you begin your exploration of all things AAPI.
Manzanar War Relocation Center was created in 1942 to house Japanese American citizens and immigrants during World War II. The site was one of ten concentration camps throughout the country where over 110,000 Japanese people were imprisoned. Families were forced to give up their homes, businesses, and lives and move to cramped bunkhouses with little privacy or basic comforts.
The US National Park Service oversees other Japanese internment sites and memorials as well, including Amache National Historic Site, Minidoka National Historic Site, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, and Tule Lake National Monument.
On May 10, 1869 in a place called Promontory Summit in northern Utah, two bands of railroad lines were connected with the “Last Spike,” thus uniting the Eastern and Western United States. Golden Spike NHS commemorates this moment as well as the labor and laborers that constructed America’s first transcontinental railroad.
Many of those workers were Chinese immigrants, who endured lower wages and harsher working conditions than their white colleagues. Chinese rail workers were often given the most dangerous or challenging jobs, and it is estimated that around a 1,000 of them died while building the railroad. Golden Spike NHS memorializes their struggles and celebrates their hard work by telling the stories of these marginalized Chinese laborers.
Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau NHP is a sacred site for Native Hawaiians. The park was once a refuge, where those fleeing punishment for their crimes could find sanctuary and a new life. It also once housed the bones of ancient chiefs, which were imbued with sacred energy or mana. Though the original structures were dismantled and the bones removed, the park is still considered a place of great spiritual power and memory for the people of Hawaii. Many of the original structures and statues have been rebuilt using Native Hawaiian traditions and labor.
There are numerous other national park sites on the Hawaiian Islands and other US territories in the Pacific that protect and honor Pacific Islander heritage, like the National Park of American Samoa or Guam’s War in the Pacific National Historical Park.
Bonus: Wing Luke Museum
The Wing Luke Museum is a US National Park Service and Smithsonian Institute affiliated museum in Seattle, Washington that focuses on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history and culture. Established in 1967, this museum is community-based and full of pan-Asian art and artifacts.
Want more? You can find the complete US National Park Service list of AAPI parks here.