Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (66 page)

ioi. "Veterans Survey"; and Tsai, Chinese Experience, p. I 17.

ioz. Except for a detachment of nisei Wacs in the intelligence corps, the approximately three hundred Japanese American women who volunteered for service were assigned to bases all over the country as well as in Germany and Japan.
See Nakano, Japanese American Women, p. 170.

103. See Susan Hartmann, "Women in the Military Service," in Clio Was a
Woman: Studies in the History of American Women, ed. Mabel Deutrich and Virginia Purdy (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1980), pp. 195- 205,
Campbell, Women at War, chaps. I and z; Hartmann, Home Front and Beyond,
chap. 3; Jones, Labor of Love, chap. 7; and Mattie Treadwell, United States Army
in World War II, Special Studies; The Women's Army Corps (Washington, D.C.:
Department of the Army, 1954), chap. 30.

104. Campbell, Women at War, p. 49. Spars (from Semper Paratus, the motto
of the U.S. Coast Guard) were members of the Coast Guard women's reserve.

105. See ibid., chap. z; and Hartmann, Home Front and Beyond, chap. 3.

sob. The following account is derived from my interview with Helen Pon
Onyett.

107. The following account is from my interview with Jessie Lee Yip, November z, 11989.

io8. Ruth Chan Jang, who enlisted in the WAC in 1944, said she initially
had no intention of joining the service because her parents read in the Chinese
newspapers that "servicewomen go in there only to serve the men" (interview
with author, July 8, 1994).

1109. CSYP, January 6, April 29, October 22, 29, November 11z, 1943; and
Chinese Press, March z6, April 116, October 8, zz, 29, 1943.

110. Charlotte Sexton, interview with author, August 17, 198z.

iii. Maggie Gee, interview with author, February 25, 1990.

1111 z. Maggie Gee, slide presentation at Chinese Historical Society of America, San Francisco, May 17, 1991.

I13. For a history of the WASP, see Sally Van Wagenken Keil, Those Wonderful Women in Their Flying Machines (New York: Rawson, Wade, 1979); and
Vera S. Williams, WASPs: Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II (Osceola, Wis.: Motorbooks International, 1994).

11 114. Maggie Gee, interview.

115. Maggie Gee, slide presentation.

11116. Helen Pon Onyett, interview.

117. Jessie Lee Yip, interview.

11118. May Lew Gee, interview with author, June z5, 11994.

119. Marietta Chong Eng, slide presentation at Chinese Historical Society
of America, San Francisco, May 17, 1991; and interview with Genny Lim, September 13, 1982, Chinese Women of America Research Project, Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco.

11 zo. Ruth Chan Jang, interview.

izi. On the impact of World War II upon women in the labor force, see
Chafe, American Woman, chap. 6; Milkman, Gender at Work, chap. 4; Campbell, Women at War, chaps. 4 and 5; Hartmann, Home Front and Bevond, chaps.
4 and 5; Charles Wollenberg, Marinship at War: Shipbuilding and Social Change
in Wartime Sausalito (Berkeley, Calif.: Western Heritage Press, 1990), chaps. 6
and 7; Rupp, Mobilizing Women, chap. 6; and Gluck, Rosie the Riveter, chap. i.

1 zz. See Jones, Labor of Love, chap. 7.

123. Quoted in Gluck, Rosie the Riveter, p. 42.

1 24. On the demobilization of women in the labor force at the end of World
War II, see Chafe, American Woman, chap. 8; Campbell, Women at War, chap.
8; Rupp, Mobilizing Women, chap. 6; and Milkman, Gender at Work, chap. 7.

125. Louise Purwin, "Chinese Daughters of Uncle Sam," Independent
Woman z3 (November 1944): 337, 353•

iz6. Lucy Lee, interview with author, May 17, 1982.

127. The six shipyards included the Kaiser yards in Richmond, Marc Island
Navy Yard in Vallejo, Naval Drydocks at Hunter's Point in San Francisco, Marinship in Sausalito, Moore Dry Dock Company in Oakland, and Bethlehem Steel
in Alameda and South San Francisco.

iz8. L. Wang, "Politics of Assimilation," p. 135. For sample ads, see Chinese Press, January 1, 1943; and Chinese Times, October 6, November z, 1942..

1z9. Chinese Press, August z1, 194z, p. i; Tsai, Chinese Experience, p. i 16.

130. Broussard, Black San Francisco, p. 145; and Shirley Ann Moore, "The
Black Community in Richmond, California, 1910-1963" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1989), p. 86.

131. San Francisco Chronicle, December 24, 1942, p. I.

132.. Fore 'n Aft, December 31, 1942.

133. Fore'n Aft, April 7, 1944.

134. Marin-er, June a6, 1943.

13 5. Ibid.

13 6. Letter quoted in ibid.

1 37. Ibid.

138. See Moore, "Black Community," pp. 93-96; Broussard, Black San
Francisco, pp. 158-65; and Wollenberg, Marinship at War, chap. 7. All three
sources discuss the landmark case of James v. Marinship, in which a black welder,
Joseph James, won a discrimination suit against the Boilermakers' Union for segregating blacks into an auxiliary union.

139. See Lichtman, "Women at Work," chap. 2.

140. Katherine Archibald, Wartime Shipyard (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1947), pp. 100-109-

141. San Francisco Chronicle, December 2.4, 1942, p. I.

14z. Frances Jong, interview with author, February 1z, 199o.

143. Maggie Gee, interview.

144. May Lew Gee, interview.

145. Rena Jung Chung, interview with author, June 30, 1994.

146. J. Wong, Fifth Chinese Daughter, pp. 194-95; CSYP, April z1, 1943

147. See Campbell, Women at War, chap. 4; Hartmann, Home Front,
chap. 5; Chafe, American Woman, chap. 7; and Lichtman, "Women at Work,"
chap. 3.

148. Dare, "Economic and Social Adjustment," p. 69; and R. Lee, "Chinese in the United States Today," p. 419.

149. Chinese Press, May 28, 1943, p. 6; and June 4, 1943, P. 2.

150. Gladys Ng Gin, interview.

151. J. Lee, "A Chinese American," pt. II, p. 167.

152. CSYP, June 3, 1942; February 27, March z6, 1943; April 11, 1944;
February i 1, 1945; and Chinese Press, April z, 1943, p. 6.

153. Chinese Press, May 29, 1942, p. 6.

154. Margaret Woo, interview with author, February 24, 1983.

15 5. Lonnie Quan, interview.

156. Broussard, Black San Francisco, pp. 146-65.

157. Lonnie Quan, interview.

158. Campbell, Women at War, pp. 66-71.

159. San Francisco Chronicle, August 7, 1942, p. 8.

16o. Chung, "TV Summary."

161. Ibid.; Purwin, "Chinese Daughters of Uncle Sam," p. 337; CSYP, October 31, 1944; Gertrude Atherton, My San Francisco (Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merrill, 1946), pp. 272-77; and San Francisco Chronicle, June 5, 1945, P. 5;
January 6, 1959, pp. 1, 4.

162. Chinese Press, March 27, 1942, p. 1.

163. Quoted in Chinese Press, December z6, 1941, p. I.

164. Chinese Press, January 30, 1942, p. 1.

165. J. Lee, "A Chinese American," pt. II, p. 173.

166. Chinese Press, August zo, 1943, p. 1; October z9, 1943, pp. 1-2; and
CSYP, January 3, December 8, zz, 1943; March 14, December z4,11944.

167. Chinese Press, January 16, 1942, p. 1.

168. Chinese Press, January 16, 1942, p. I.

169. Chinese Press, August 13, 1943, P. 1; CSYP, May 15, 1943; and Alice
Fong Yu, interview with author, March 31, 1986.

170. Chinese Press, January 16, March 30, April io, September 4, November 13,194z; April 9, 1943; Emily Lee Fong, interview with Carey Mark Huang,
April 1z, 1982, Chinese Women of America Research Project, Chinese Culture
Foundation of San Francisco; and Stanley Lee, interview.

171. San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 1942, p. iz; and R. Lee, "Chinese in
the United States Today," p. 444. On the nationally coordinated effort at wartime
fund-raising as carried out in San Francisco, see Leni Cahn, "Community Interpretation of Foreign Groups Through Foreign War Relief Agencies in San
Francisco" (Master's thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1946).

172. Liu Pei Chi, History, p. 580.

173. Martha Taam, interview with author, November 27, 1989.

174. Purwin, "Chinese Daughters of Uncle Sam," P. 327; and CSYP, November 6, 9, 1942.

175. CSYP, December 5, 194z; May 17, 1943; December z3, 1945; and
San Francisco Chronicle, June 19, 1944, P. 9; July 8, 1944, P. 1.

176. CSYP, August 14, 15, 19, 1945.

177. Margaret Woo, interview.

178. Lorena How, interview.

179. CSYP, August i9, and September 8, 1945.

Epilogue

1. The following account is derived from Jew Law Ying, interview with author, September 7, 198z.

z. The actual transcript of her interrogation ran ten pages (single-spaced)
and included many details regarding family history, village and home life, her
wedding celebration, and the time she spent with my father in Hong Kong before he departed for the United States. See Jew Law Ying, folder 40766/1113, CDCF-SFDO.

3. As someone who helped my mother calculate her earnings every month,
I was aware of the "doctoring" of time sheets that her employer required of
her. Throughout her working life as a seamstress in Chinatown, my mother was
paid at a piece rate and not by an hourly wage, in violation of state laws and
union regulations. Like many other Chinatown seamstresses, she was a victim
of paternalism at work and union tokenism; and she felt powerless to do anything about it. For an analysis of the difficulties in organizing Chinatown seamstresses, see Chalsa Loo, Chinatown: Most Time, Hard Time (New York: Praeger,
1991), pp. 189-z11.

4. For a discussion of the postwar period and supporting statistical evidence,
see Judy Yung, Chinese American Women: A Pictorial History (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986), pp. 80-95, Iz3-z4.

5. For a discussion of the basic tenets of the Asian American movement
within the context of the civil rights movement, see William Wei, The Asian
American Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993) -