THE ORIGIN AND HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ASIAN AMERICAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH

• May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian/Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

• In 1992, the official designation of May as Asian/Pacific Heritage Month was signed into law.  Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month got its start as a congressional bill, inspired by Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month, with the mission of bringing attention to the contributions Asian and Pacific Islander Americans have made to the history and culture of the United States.

• On October 5, 1978, President Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating an annual celebration. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed an extension turning it into a month-long celebration. The proposed resolutions sought that May be designated for two reasons; on May 7, 1843, the first Japanese immigrant arrived in the United States, and more than two decades later, on May 10, 1869, the Golden spike was driven into the First Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed using Chinese labor. 

​

Information from: Common Fund and AsianPacificHeritage.gov.

​