Amerasian

Pearl S. Buck is credited for dubbing the term Amerasian.

Denny Tamaki, a Japanese Amerasian, is the current Governor of Okinawa Prefecture.

The term was coined by writer Pearl S. Buck and was formalized by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Many people were born to Asian women and U.S. servicemen during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The official definition of Amerasian came about as a result of Public Law 97-359, enacted by the 97th Congress of the United States on October 22, 1982.[5]

According to the United States Department of Justice and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), an Amerasian is: "[A]n alien who was born in Korea, Kampuchea, Laos, Thailand or Vietnam after December 31, 1950 and before October 22, 1982 and was fathered by a U.S. citizen."[6] The Amerasian Foundation (AF) and Amerasian Family Finder (AFF) define an Amerasian as "Any person who was fathered by a citizen of the United States (an American serviceman, American expatriate or U.S. Government Employee (Regular or Contract)) and whose mother is or was, an Asian National."[7]

The term is commonly applied to half Japanese children fathered by a U.S. serviceman in Japan, as well as half Korean children fathered by veterans of the Korean War or stationary soldiers in South Korea. The term is also applied to children of Filipinos and American rulers during the U.S. colonial period of the Philippines (still used until today) and children of Thais and U.S. soldiers during World War II and the Vietnam War. The U.S. had bases in Thailand during the Vietnam War.

Amerasian should not be interpreted as a fixed racial term relating to a specific mixture of races (such as Mestizo, Mulatto, Eurasian or Afro-Asian). The racial strain of the American parent of one Amerasian may be different from that of another Amerasian; it may be White, Black, Hispanic or even Asian. In the latter case, it is conceivable that the Amerasian could be fathered by a person who shares the same racial background but not the same nationality.

In certain cases, it could apply to the offspring of American females, who engaged in professions such as military nurse and Asian males.[8] Mixed-race children, whatever the occupations of their parents, have suffered social stigma. With genetic relation to U.S. soldiers, Amerasians have faced additional exclusion by perceived association to military enemies of Asian countries.[9][10] This stigma extended to the mothers of Amerasians, majority of whom were Asian, causing many of the Asian mothers to abandon their Amerasian children.[11][10] The abandonment of both parents led to a large proportion of orphaned Amerasians.[11][10]

The Amerasian Immigration Act included Amerasians whose fathers were U.S. citizens and whose mothers were nationals of Kampuchea (Cambodia).[12] As many as 10,000 Cambodian Amerasians may have been fathered by US servicemen.[13]

Harry B. Harris Jr., a Japanese Amerasian, is the 23rd United States Ambassador to South Korea.

According to one estimate, around 5,000 to 10,000 Japanese Amerasian babies had been born from 1945 to 1952.[14] Data from the Japanese Welfare Ministry from July 1952, on the other hand, revealed that only 5,013 Japanese Amerasian children were born in all of Japan. Masami Takada from the Welfare Ministry put an exaggerated estimate of 150,000 – 200,000. Another investigation by the Welfare Ministry was conducted again in August 1953, this time them revising the number to reveal that only 3,490 half-castes of American fathers and Japanese mothers had been born during the 7 years of American occupation of Japan, which lasted from 1945 – 1952.[15] Some of the children were abandoned and raised in orphanages such as the Elizabeth Saunders Home in Oiso, Japan.

The actual number of Japanese Amerasians is unknown. Officially, the number of 10,000 Japanese Amerasian would be an upper limit. Some contemporary writers had however reported rumors of 200,000 while actual numbers had been found to be 5,000, possibly 10,000, no more than 20,000 allowing for underestimates. Of those fathered by American soldiers. Their presumed "colors" were 86.1% "white," 11.5% "black" and 2.5% "unknown."[16]

The Amerasian Immigration Act included Amerasians whose fathers were U.S. citizens and whose mothers were nationals of Laos.[19] The number of Laotian Amerasians is currently unknown.

Insooni is a South Korean Amerasian singer.

Since the Korean War, there has been a significant population of Amerasians in South Korea. Many Amerasians were born into "Camptowns" which were established by the South Korean government. The women in these Camptowns were affected by the post-war poverty and turned to prostitution with American soldiers. This perpetuated the stereotype that children born in Camptown's were mothered by prostitutes. The South Korean government never viewed Korean Amerasians as Korean citizens. Hence, the government encouraged the foreign adoption of mixed South Korean babies. United States Congress passed the 1953 Refugee Relief Act which allowed 4000 Amerasians to emigrate to the US for adoption.[28][29] This group became commonly known as Korean Adoptees. They were part of the International adoption of South Korean children that made up roughly 160,000 adoptees.

US soldiers fathered children in Taiwan at the end of World War II. Today there are an estimated 1,000 Taiwanese Amerasians.[31] Over 200,000 American soldiers in Korea and Vietnam visited Taiwan for rest and relaxation between 1950 and 1975.[32]

Tammy Duckworth, a Thai Amerasian, is the United States Senator from Illinois.

In Thailand, Amerasian children are dubbed as Luk khrueng or half children in the Thai language. These Amerasians were fathered by US soldiers who took part in the Vietnam War.[33] At the height of the Vietnam War, 50,000 GIs were based in Thailand.[34] The Pearl S. Buck Foundation estimated around 5,000-8,000 Thai Amerasians. Some migrated to the United States under the 1982 Amerasian Immigration Act. An unknown number were left behind.[35]

An Operation Babylift flight arrives at San Francisco, 5 April 1975.

The exact number of Amerasians in Vietnam is not known. The U.S soldiers stationed in Vietnam had relationships with local females, many of the women had origins in clubs, brothels and pubs. The American Embassy once reported there were less than 1,000 Amerasians. A report by the South Vietnamese Senate Subcommittee suggested there are 15,000 to 20,000 children of mixed American and Vietnamese blood, but this figure was considered low.[38] Congress estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Amerasians by 1975 lived in Vietnam.[39] According to Amerasians Without Borders, they estimated about 25,000 to 30,000 Vietnamese Amerasians were born from American first participation in Vietnam in 1962 and lasted until 1975.[40] Although during the Operation Babylift it was estimated at 23,000.[41] In April 1975, Operation Babylift was initiated in South Vietnam to relocate Vietnamese children, many orphans and those of mixed American-Vietnamese parentage (mostly Vietnamese mothers and American serviceman fathers), to the United States and find American families who would take them in. The crash of the first flight of Operation Babylift led to the death of 138 people, 78 of which were children. During the operation, they estimated over 3,000 Amerasians were evacuated from South Vietnam; however, more than 20,000 Amerasians remained.[42]

In 1982, the U.S. Congress passed the Amerasian Immigration Act in an attempt to grant Amerasian immigration to the U.S. However, the Amerasian Immigration Act was not applied to Vietnamese Amerasians, due to a lack of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Vietnamese government. This was due to a clause in the Amerasian Immigration Act that required documentation of the fathers in the U.S. in order for the Vietnamese Amerasians to acquire a visa. In 1988, U.S. Congress passed the American Homecoming Act, aiming to grant citizenship to Vietnamese Amerasians born between 1962 and 1975, which led to 23,000 Amerasians and 67,000 of their relatives immigrating to the U.S. For the Vietnamese Amerasians, this meant that their migration to the U.S. occurred as teenagers, leading to struggles in the resettlement process.[43]

March 4 has been designated as Amerasian Day in the Philippines.[65] The Amerasian Foundation has designated it as International Amerasian Day.[66]

• The 1957 film Sayonara features a Japanese woman who falls in love with a white serviceman and they talk about having mixed children together.
• In the anime and manga franchise Great Mazinger ("Guretto Majinga" in Japanese), the character of Jun Honoo is the daughter of a Japanese woman and a U.S. African American serviceman. As such, she had to endure stigma and racism during her youth due to her status as "hafu" and her darker skin compared to Amerasians born from white parents.
• In the 1972 TV series M*A*S*H, episode 15 of season 8, "Yessir, That's Our Baby", Hawkeye and BJ attempt to send an Amerasian baby to the United States, facing difficulty at every step of the way. With no other viable solution, they act on Father Mulcahy's advice and take the baby to a monastery in the dead of night to provide her with safety and care.
• "Straight to Hell", a song by rock music group the Clash, considers the plight of Vietnam War Amerasians.
• The 1977 movie Green Eyes starred Paul Winfield as a Vietnam War veteran who returns to Vietnam in search of the son he fathered with a Vietnamese woman.
• The Chuck Norris film Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988) depicted Amerasian children trapped in Vietnam; Norris plays the father of an Amerasian child who believes that his Vietnamese wife died during the Fall of Saigon.
• In the 1984 TV series Highway to Heaven, episode 11 of season 1, titled "Dust Child," the two lead characters Jonathan, played by Michael Landon and Mark, played by Victor French, help an Amerasian girl facing racial prejudice when she goes to live with her father's family in the United States.
• In the 1988 TV series In the Heat of the Night, episode 9 of season 3, titled "My Name is Hank," an Amerasian teenager named Hank believes that he was fathered by a deceased police officer once employed by the Sparta, Mississippi police department.
• The Oscar-nominated 1995 film Dust of Life tells the story of Son, a boy with a Vietnamese mother and African American father, who is interned in a 're-education camp.
• In the 1997 animated television sitcom King of the Hill, Hank discovers that he has an Amerasian brother living in Japan.
• In the 1999 American Vietnamese language film Three Seasons, James Hager, played by Harvey Keitel, searches for his Vietnamese Amerasian daughter in hopes of "coming to peace with this place".
• The 2001 novel The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen is a memoir about the author's experience growing up as an Amerasian in Vietnam until he emigrates to the United States at age eighteen.
• Daughter from Đà Nẵng is a 2002 award-winning documentary film about an Amerasian woman who returns to visit her biological family in Đà Nẵng, Vietnam after 22 years of separation and living in the United States.
• The musical Miss Saigon focuses on a young Vietnamese woman who falls in love with an American GI and later has his child after the Fall of Saigon.
• The 2004 film The Beautiful Country is about an Amerasian boy (played by Damien Nguyen) who leaves his native Vietnam to find his father.
• In 2007 at TED, Photographer Rick Smolan's The Story of a Girl tells the unforgettable story of a young Amerasian girl, a fateful photograph and an adoption saga with a twist.
• The 2010 documentary Left by the Ship which aired on PBS Independent Lens in May 2012, follows the lives of four modern Filipino Amerasians for two years, showing the struggle to overcome the stigma related to their birth.
• The 2014 movie Noble, tells the true life story of Christina Noble, who overcomes the harsh difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to find her calling by helping the Bụi Dời (Vietnamese Amerasians) on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.[67]
• In the 2017 book, The Rebirth of Hope: My Journey from Vietnam War Child to American Citizen, by Sau Le Hudecek, Texas Christian University Press. The author recalls the trials she endured growing up in post-war Vietnam as a daughter of an American GI.
• In 2018, Dateline NBC aired Father's Day, a Vietnamese Amerasian woman takes a DNA test hoping to learn more about her family tree. What she discovers will change her family forever—and send her father to the other side of the globe to confront a past he thought he had left behind.[68]

Listed in chronological order:

• Sturdevant, Saundra Pollack, and Brenda Stoltzfus, Let the Good Times Roll: Prostitution and the U.S. Military in Asia, New Pr, January 1, 1993. ISBN 978-1565840492.
• Bass, Thomas A., Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home, Soho Press, Incorporated, 1997. ISBN 1-56947-088-X.
• McKelvey, Robert S., The Dust of Life: America's Children Abandoned in Vietnam , University of Washington Press, August 1, 1999. ISBN 978-0295978369.
• Merlin, Jan, Ainoko, Xlibris Corp, February 1, 2002. ISBN 978-1401044213.
• Anderson, Wanni Wibulswasdi; Lee, Robert G., Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas, Rutgers University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8135-3611-1.
• Yarborough, Trin, Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War, Potomac Books, April 1, 2005, ISBN 978-1574888645.
• Gage, Sue-Je Lee (2007). "The Amerasian Problem: Blood, Duty, and Race". International Relations. Sage journals. 21 (1): 86–102. doi:10.1177/0047117807073769. S2CID 144367370..
• Nguyen, Kien, The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood, Back Bay Books, October 22, 2008. ISBN 978-0316286640.
• Mendezona, Matthias, How Sweet The Mango, No?: The Journey of a Hispanic Amerasian, BookSurge/CreateSpace Publishing, May 2, 2009. ISBN 978-1439224724.
• DeBonis, Steven, Children of the Enemy: Oral Histories of Vietnamese Amerasians and Their Mothers, McFarland & Company, April 19, 2013. ISBN 978-0786476015.
• Le, Kevin, The Outcast Amerasian, Publish Green, April 13, 2014. ASIN B00MPTEQRW.
• Hudecek Sau Le, The Rebirth of Hope: My Journey from Vietnam War Child to American Citizen, Texas Christian University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0875654324.
• Vo, John, What Endures: An Amerasian's Lifelong Struggle During and After the Vietnam War, Xlibris Us, February 16, 2018. ASIN B07CPL3KYR.
• Kakinami Cloyd Fredrick D., Dream of the Water Children: Memory and Mourning in the Black Pacific, 2Leaf Press, March 2, 2019. ISBN 978-1940939285.
• Cho, Grace M, Tastes of War: A Korean American daughter's exploration of food and family history, in order to understand her mother's schizophrenia., The Feminist Press, May 18, 2021. ISBN 978-1952177941.
• Thomas, Sabrina, Scars of War: The Politics of Paternity and Responsibility for the Amerasians of Vietnam, University of Nebraska Press, December 2021. ISBN 978-1496200549.

List includes archived websites as well:

• AAHope Foundation at the Wayback Machine (archived June 20, 2006). AAHope was formed by Jonathan Tinquist, a Vietnam veteran.
• Amerasian Child Find Network at the Wayback Machine (archived January 4, 2006). ACFN was formed by Clint Haines, A Vietnam veteran who was searching for his Amerasian child.
• Amerasian Family Finder at the Wayback Machine (archived September 6, 2008). AFF was formed by Jennifer Williams, a Filipino Amerasian.
• Amerasian Foundation at the Wayback Machine (archived March 6, 2016). AF was formed by Kevin Miller, Jr., a Japanese Amerasian and US Marine Corps veteran.
• Amerasian Photography Project by Enrico Dungca.
• Amerasian Research Network, LTD..
• AmerasianUSA at the Wayback Machine (archived April 28, 2008). Formed by Shandon Phan, a Vietnamese Amerasian.
• Amerasians Without Borders. AWB was formed by Jimmy Miller, a Vietnamese Amerasian.
• AmerasianWorld.com's "Salaam Central Asia", by Kevin Miller, Jr., MPA.
• Asian-Nation: Vietnamese Amerasians, by C.N. Le, Ph.D., a Senior Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
• Asian-Nation: Multiracial Asian Americans, by C.N. Le, Ph.D., a Senior Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
• Elizabeth Saunders Home Reunion Facebook Page. The Elizabeth Saunders Home in Japan included many Japanese Amerasians.
• GSP American-Thai Research at the Wayback Machine (archived July 11, 2007). Run by Gene Ponce, a US Air Force veteran.
• The Halfie Project. A podcast by Becky White (Korean / American) exploring mixed Korean identity.
• War and Children Identity Project at the Wayback Machine (archived October 12, 2004). This organization worked with other organizations that served "Children of War" fathered by foreign soldiers.