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Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Home

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month

In 1992, Congress designated May as Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month to:

  • Commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843
  • Mark the anniversary of the transcontinental railroad's completion on May 10, 1869. (The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.)

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrates the achievements, contributions, culture, traditions, and history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

Local AAPI History:

Citizen 13660

A native of Riverside, Calif., and RCC alumnus Miné Okubo documented her life inside a temporary Bay Area detention center and the struggles and achievements of the Japanese and Japanese American community at a Utah concentration camp in her graphic novel Citizen 13660. With 197 pen-and-ink illustrations and poignantly written text, she illustrates life where she was incarcerated with thousands of other Japanese during World War II. It is the first book about a former prisoner's American concentration camp experience and has been a perennial bestseller used nationwide in college and university courses.

You can view Miné Okubo's artwork online or see an exhibition of her work at the Center for Social Justice & Civil Liberties in downtown Riverside.