Introduction

Angel Island, located in San Francisco Bay, is a historic site that served as the primary immigration station for approximately 175,000 Chinese and 60,000 Japanese immigrants from 1910 to 1940 and a naval base during World War I¹. The island’s facilities were slated for demolition in the 1970s but were preserved², and nowadays the island hosts hiking trails, campsites, and a visitor center.

The island’s first official designation, as assigned in 1850 by President Fillmore, was as a reserve military base due to its position in the San Francisco Bay³. The first artillery batteries were built on the island in 1863 to defend itself against Confederate attacks by sea. The island was later named Ft. McDowell, and continued to expand on its military structures until it was shut down in 1947.

The first immigration-related use of Angel Island was in 1891 amid fears of the bubonic plague when facilities were set up on the island to quarantine immigrants prior to landing in San Francisco. Construction of the immigration station finished in 1910 for immigrants that had been rejected due to the Chinese Exclusion Act to dispute the rejection and prove that they had family that were US Citizens. As time passed and restrictions loosened, the immigration station was used to quarantine and possibly detain and deport Asian immigrants.

Angel Island is the west-coast counterpart of the more well-known Ellis Island in New York, with the most significant difference being that Angel Island primarily handled immigration from Asia while Ellis Island handled European immigrants. At the time, regulations on Asian immigration were much stricter than those on European immigration. Upon arrival at Angel Island, Immigrants would be separated by nationality, gender, and race. They would then be detained under harsh conditions in the island’s facilities for anywhere from two weeks to six months⁴ before either being allowed entry to San Francisco or rejected and deported back to their origin country. The stricter regulations on Asians meant that there was around an 18% rejection rate on Angel Island compared to a 1-3% rejection rate on Ellis Island⁵.