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By his air of absolute confidence and physical potency Bruce Lee liberated countless people of all races from the pernicious stereotypes surrounding Asian men.
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Bruce Lee had enjoyed some success as Kato, the Green Lantern's sidekick, but left for Hong Kong after being spurned as being “too Chinese” to play the lead in the Kung Fu TV series. It didn't matter to Hollywood that Lee had conceived the series as a vehicle for his martial arts skills. Lee renewed his assault on Hollywood with two low-budget Hong Kong-made features: Fists of Fury (1971) and The Chinese Connection (1972). Both were box office smash hits with global audiences, laying the groundwork for Warner Brothers to produce Enter the Dragon.
November 5, 1976: First Asian American U.S. Senator from a mainland state
Dr. Samuel Ichiye (S. I.) Hayakawa became the first American of Asian descent to be elected to the U.S. Senate from a mainland state. The diminutive (5-6) Republican had become a popular symbol of no-nonsense conservatism after standing up to radical anti-war demonstrators as president of San Francisco State University. In his seventies when he took office, Hayakawa was criticized for falling asleep during Senate discussions. The Senate's business involved much that he couldn't “give a good goddamn” about, he explained. By the end of his term, both S. I. Hayakawa and his brand of feisty conservatism had fallen out of fashion. He did not seek a second term.
Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was born in Vancouver, Canada on July 18, 1906 of Japanese immigrant parents. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1955. He was a semanticist renowned for his love of the English language long before becoming a Senator. After leaving the Senate he once again became a galvanizing force for both major parties by introducing a constitutional amendment to require the use of English in all public discourses.
August 10, 1988: Reparations for Japanese American internees
House Resolution 442 was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It provides for a payment of $20,000 to each surviving Japanese American internee and a $1.25 billion education fund, among other provisions. It sought to address the sense of betrayal felt by Japanese Americans when FDR signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. It forced 110,000 Japanese Americans to liquidate their assets on 3-day notice and relocate to remote prison camps.
The campaign to seek reparations was begun on July 10, 1970 by the western branch of the Japanese American Citizen's League. The campaign's emotional turning point came when 750 Japanese American witnesses recounted their experiences before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. The first $20,000 redress payments were made on October 9, 1990 to 107-year-old Mamoru Eto and eight other elderly survivors.
June 13, 1989: First Asian American Pro Sports Superstar
Chinese American Michael Chang become the youngest male to win a Grand Slam (17 years, 3 1/2 months, a record that still stands) and the first American man in 34 years to win the French Open. The grueling five-set final against 3rd-ranked Stefan Edberg lasted 3 hours and 41 minutes. When it was over, Chang had pulled off the year's second biggest upset by a score of 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Just a week earlier Chang had flabbergasted the tennis world by pulling off the biggest: a 5-set 4th-round win over top-ranked Ivan Lendl.
Michael Chang's 1989 French Open exploits made him the first Asian American to attain the status of a global sports superstar. The Hoboken, New Jersey native began his pro career at the age of 15 and went on to win 34 ATP career titles with earnings totaling over $18 million before retiring on September 4, 2003.
November 5, 1996: First Asian American governor of a mainland state
Gary Locke became the first and only Asian American elected governor of a mainland state when he won the Washington State governorship by a wide margin. Locke's success in raising the state's educational standards and balancing its budget led to a landslide victory for a second term in 2000. A third term was virtually assured, but Locke announced in early 2004 that he would forego a third term in order to spend more time with his wife and two young children. That January Governor Locke commanded a national stage when he was chosen to deliver the Democratic rebuttal to President Bush's State of the Union Address.
June 22, 1999: First Asian American chief of a military service branch
Japanese American Eric K. Shinseki became the U.S. Army's highest-ranking officer when he took over as the 34th Chief of Staff. His term in office was marked by a push to remake the Army into a lighter, more mobile fighting force. Shinseki became a controversial figure when he ordered the Special Forces to switch to tan berets so the rest of the Army could sport black berets. He incurred the ire of the Bush administration when he correctly predicted that the U.S. would require a much larger force to occupy Iraq than called for in Pentagon plans. Shinseki retired from the Army on June 11, 2003 because, he hinted, he was forced out by the Bush Administration.
The Kauai native was placed on the Army's fast track after compiling one of the most distinguished records of any Vietnam veteran. Within a few months of graduating from West Point in 1965 Second Lieutenant Shinseki went to Vietnam as an artillery forward observer. He went back for a second tour as commander of a tank squadron. He was wounded three times during those tours. On one occasion Shinseki's injuries were so severe that even his own sergeant assumed he had died in the hospital. Thirty years later, learning that Shinseki had survived, Les Cotton called him "the finest person and the best officer I have ever served with". Shinseki's valorous leadership under fire won him two Distinguished Service Medals, the Bronze Star and several Purple Hearts.
July 25, 2000: First Asian American cabinet secretary
Norman Mineta was confirmed Secretary of Commerce, becoming the first Asian American to be appointed to a cabinet-level post. Just six months later, he was confirmed as George Bush's new Transportation Secretary, making him the first person ever to serve in the cabinets of both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Norman Mineta has enjoyed a distinguished political career that began in 1967 when he became the first minority to win a seat on the San Jose City Council. He set another milestone in 1971 when he was elected mayor, becoming the first Asian American mayor of a major city. After being elected to Congress in 1975 he led the push for the Japanese American Reparations bill (H.R. 442) and chaired the Public Works and Transportation Committee from 1992 to 1994 when the democrats lost control of Congress.
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