A woman wearing a traditional dress holds her infant son

Calvin Ong as a baby with his mother in China.

Courtesy of Calvin Ong

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I Was Turned Away

On Angel Island, tens of thousands of hopeful immigrants, like Calvin Ong, were stopped from entering the U.S.

January 4, 2021

Courtesy of Calvin Ong

Calvin Ong today

Imagine leaving your family and friends to move to a new country. You don’t speak the language, and you know almost no one there. To get to your new home, you have to spend 18 days at sea on a ship crowded with strangers. 

That’s what 10-year-old Calvin Ong did in 1937, when he said goodbye to his mother and brother in China and headed to California. He planned to start a new life with his father, who had moved there before Ong was born. 

“America was a land of opportunity,” says Ong, now 93.

But he soon found out that the American dream wouldn’t be easy to achieve. His first stop in the U.S. was Angel Island near San Francisco. The immigration station there was built to keep out immigrants from Asia, not welcome them. 

Where Is Angel Island?

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

Unfairly Blamed

By the time of Ong’s arrival, Chinese immigrants had a long history in the U.S. The first big wave of immigrants began to arrive during the California Gold Rush of the 1840s. Chinese immigrants went on to start businesses, work on farms, and help build the nation’s railroads (see “Connecting America,” below). 

But immigrants from China often faced racism and had no choice but to work for low pay. In the 1870s, the U.S. economy was in trouble and jobs became scarce. Many Americans blamed Chinese workers, even though they were a tiny portion of the U.S. population. 

In 1882, the U.S. government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. It banned nearly all Chinese immigrants from entering the country. The law was the first to restrict immigration on the basis of nationality or race.

Angel Island opened in 1910 to enforce this law. Still, about 175,000 Chinese people made the journey to the island over the next 30 years. Immigrants from Japan, India, Russia, and nearly 80 other nations did too. About one in five of them would be turned away.

Trick Questions

Aerial Archives/Alamy Stock Photo

Angel Island

On Angel Island, Ong was assigned to stay in a cramped room filled with rows of triple bunk beds. Because he had arrived without a parent, he had to live with adults he’d never met. 

“I never saw anyone except the Chinese men,” Ong recalls.

Before he was released to his father, Ong would have to answer questions correctly during an interview. But there was no telling when he would be called. Some Chinese immigrants were held on the island for more than a year.

“It became a prison,” Ong says. 

After nearly six months, Ong was finally interviewed. He had studied day after day, but the questions were purposefully tough, especially for a kid. What direction did his house in China face? How many steps led to his front door? What were the ages of his neighbors? Ong failed the test and was deported. 

“It was one of the worst moments of my life,” he recalls. “I felt I had failed my family, and it was the end of my journey.”

An American at Last

In 1943, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, or officially done away with. Ong returned to the U.S. and became a citizen in 1951. His mother and brother joined Ong and his father two years later. 

Ong went on to serve in the U.S. military, own a business, and raise a family of his own. He says he would do it all over again.

“Even with all the hardships, it was worth it,” he says. “I sincerely love America.”

Connecting America

© Pajaro Valley Historical Association 1984.23.81

In 1869, the transcontinental railroad linked America’s east and west coasts for the first time. If not for Chinese immigrants, it might not have been built.

  • About 15,000 Chinese men helped build the railroad. Many had the dangerous job of using explosives to blast tunnels through mountains.
  • They were paid less than other workers earned, about $1 per day (about $19 in today’s money). Unlike white workers, they had to pay for their own food and housing.
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