Voices of Angel Island : Inscriptions and Immigrant Poetry, 1910-1945

Voices of Angel Island is a historical and literary anthology of the writings of immigrants detained at Angel Island, designed to provide a conduit for readers today to connect with early-20th-century perspectives on the process of "becoming American."

The Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay has been called the "Ellis Island of the West," but its purpose was quite different. It was primarily a detention center, established in large part to discourage immigration by Asians. The station barracks contain an extraordinary archive: hundreds of poems and prose records in half a dozen languages are on the walls, inscribed by immigrant detainees between 1910 and 1940, and by POWs and "enemy aliens" during World War II. Charles Egan draws on over a decade's work deciphering the wall inscriptions by Japanese, Chinese, Korean, European, and other detainees to assemble a selection of their writings in this book, alongside literary materials from Bay Area ethnic newspapers. While each inscription tells the story of an individual, taken together they illuminate the historical, economic, and cultural forces that shaped the lives of ordinary people in the early 20th century.

“Voices of Angel Island is a revelatory study of detention in America. By capturing the inscriptions, graffiti, and poetry of detainees on Angel Island, Charles Egan has produced a rare multi-lingual, multi-ethnic history from below.” —Beth Lew-Williams, Associate Professor of History, Princeton University, USA, and author of The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America (2018)

“Voices of Angel Island brings the voices of unwanted early-20th-century Asian and Russian immigrants to the forefront of the history of modern America. Charles Egan masterfully combines the anthology of migrant poetry and inscriptions from the walls of Angel Island's detention facilities with archival and oral histories to create a visceral and intimate portrait of the politics and experiences of immigration in America.” —Elena Barabantseva, Senior Lecturer in Chinese International Politics, University of Manchester, UK, and author of Overseas Chinese, Ethnic Minorities and Nationalism: De-Centering China (2012)