Introduction

Special food formulae are prepared for babies at Manzanar reception center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. NPS photo, courtesy Manzanar National Historic Site.
Special food formulae are prepared for babies at Manzanar reception center.

NPS photo, courtesy Manzanar National Historic Site.

About

Asian American and Pacific Islander history and heritage are as vast as the many countries and nations who have created it.

These histories reflect more than a thousand years of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. As of 2024, over 20 million people of Asian or Pacific Islander descent live in the United States, totaling about 6 percent of the US population. Throughout this site, you can find stories of Asian American and Pacific Islander history and heritage from early Pacific Islander cultural centers to the fight for civil rights and political recognition.

As the nation’s storyteller, the National Park Service strives to tell the stories of ordinary and extraordinary Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders preserved in our nation’s parks, memorials, and historic sites. Come learn with us today!

What’s In a Name

There is no one answer or rule to tell us how we should refer to people of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. The question of whether to use various acronyms from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Asian Pacific American (APA), Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI), or something else has been increasingly debated in our communities. Many individuals express their own preference.

For consistency throughout the National Park Service Asian American and Pacific Islander subject site, we will:

  • Use ethnic group specific names, when possible, like Chinese American or Indian American.
  • Recognize the variations within communities, such as Filipinx (some use “-x” suffix to be inclusive of gender), versus Filipino and Filipino American.
  • Primarily use “AAPI” following the Asian American and Pacific Islander National Landmarks Theme Study, but content across National Park Service webpages may vary.
  • Recognize the agency and autonomy of communities that prefer different naming conventions and groupings that may change over time.

From New York to Hawai’i: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Is Everywhere

Heart mountain marker with mountain behind.Photo-Jeremykemp, CC BY-SA 3.0, wikimedia
Heart Mountain Relocation Center

One of 10 relocation camps built to house people of Japanese descent forcibly relocated from the West Coast of the US during World War II.

Image of Japanese women in a WWII internment camp. NPS photo
AAPI Theme Study

Learn more about the history and culture of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through this National Park Service theme study.

Close of of  woman holding umbrella. Public domain
Wilhelmina Kekelaokalaninui Dowsett

Born in 1861 at Lihue, Kauai in the Kingdom of Hawaii, Wilhelmina Kekelaokalaninui Widemann was a suffragist.

Image of Mabel Lee from New York Tribune
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee

Mabel Lee advocated for women's suffrage rights. She was also the first Chinese woman to earn a PhD in economics from Columbia University.

A woman in the National Park Service uniform stands at a podium.
Geraldine Kenui Bell

Geraldine Kenui Bell, better known as Geri, was the first Native Hawaiian woman to be superintendent of a National Park Service (NPS) unit.

Filipino workers on strike hold up protest signs.
The Road to Sacramento

In 1966, Mexican American and Filipino farmworkers marched out of Delano, California, protesting unfair working conditions in the fields.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Stories Are Abundant


Last updated: June 7, 2024

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