TIMELINE of Asian American History between 1910 and 1919

1911
"LUE GIM GONG" ORANGE
One of Lue Gim Gong's outstanding accomplishments happened when he cross- pollinated a "Hart's Late" with a "Mediterranean Sweet" and produced a new orange, the "Lue Gim Gong" which ripened in early fall and was more resistant to cold. It was propagated by Mr. George Tabor of the Glen St. Mary's Nursery. As a result the nursery received a Silver Wilder Medal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the first time such an award was made for citrus.
Lue also developed a grapefruit that grew singly on the branch rather than in a clump, an aromatic grapefruit that had little juice but smelled wonderful. He also propagated roses and other flowers and fruits. He claimed to have a cure for skin cancer.
Lue's lasting importance lies in his skill as a citrus breeder, leading to his nickname, the Luther Burbank of Florida. He developed several important new crosses of oranges and grapefruit which revolutionized the industry. He also produced important new apple and raspberry varieties.
BACKGROUND: Born in 1859 to a family of Chinese farmers, Lue Gim Gong, was interested in America and the opportunities that lay over the Pacific Ocean. After his uncle returned from America when Lue was 12, Lue pleaded with his parents to let him go with his uncle to America. His parents agreed, giving him a bolt of silk to sell when he arrived. He lived in a heavily Chinese populated area in San Francisco until the age 16 when he moved to North Adams, Massachusetts to work at a shoe factory. At this factory, Lue met Fannie Burlingame, his Sunday School teacher. When she learned of his skill with plants, she asked him to live with the Burlingame's to tend their greenhouse. She converted him to Christianity, and helped him become an American citizen in 1877.

Lue had been advised to move to a warmer climate due to his recent contraction of tuberculosis. Due to his conversion, he was unable to return to China. Fannie recommended a relocation to DeLand, Florida, where she and her sister owned land. Lue agreed, and in 1885, he was working once again, this time in orange groves. Lue noticed that the oranges currently in use were very susceptible to cold weather. After experimenting, he finally developed an orange in 1888 that was both sweet and was hardy to cold weather. The "Lue Gim Gong Orange" is still grown in Florida today.

1911
1ST ASIAN AMERICAN CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR AWARDEES
The first Asian Americans to receive the United States' highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, were La Union native Jose Nisperos of the U.S. Army's elite Philippine Scouts and Navy Fireman 2nd Class Telesforo Trinidad in 1911 and 1915, respectively.

<1911
ASIAN AMERICAN ORGANIZATIONS ARE FORMED
Pablo Manlapit forms Filipino Higher Wages Association in Hawaii. Japanese form Japanese Association of Oregon in Portland.

1911
PHILIP AHN
Birthdate of Philip Ahn, the first Asian American actor to be inscribed in the Hollywood "Walk of Fame."

1912
L.A.'S ROLE IN THE CHINESE REVOLUTION
In the heart of downtown L.A.'s Chinatown is a bronze statue of China's revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the "George Washington" of China. The statue is a storied landmark with a hidden Los Angeles-based history of Chinese insurgents training in secret in the City of Angels with the help of various prominent citizens of Los Angeles.

1914 Racist Sheet Music

The "Red Dragon" caper--one of the city's best-kept secrets for almost 40 years--was plotted in the old Chinatown, where Union Station now stands. The plot helped catapult Sun to power and promised members of a secret syndicate handsome returns to American financial backers from the new Chinese government, who put up millions of dollars to overthrow the dynastry of Empress Dowager Tz'u-his - the "Dragon Lady."
Homer Lea, a sickly, 88-pound hunchback Angeleno who had bad eyesight and obsession with military glory was neither Chinese nor a trained military man. Yet he became a chief military advisor to Sun. He was born in Denver in 1876 with a severe spinal curvature that made him look virtually neckless and condemned him to constant pain. Lea graduated from L.A. High School, attended Occidental College and then transferred to Stanford University. While at Sanford, he endeared himself to two Chinese foreign students, Allen Chung and Lou Hoy.
Through Chung and Hoy, he acquired a working knowledge of Chinese and went on nocturnal visits to an underground Bay Area organization, the Chinese Freemasons.
With the help of Gen. Adna R. Chaffee, commander of the Allied forces in China during the Boxer Rebellion, Lea recruited aides such as ex-U.S. soldier Ansel E. O'Banion. Charles Beach Boothe, a pillar of South Pasadena society, was the checkbook of the syndicate that helped to raise as much as $9 million--in 1910 dollars.
By 1903, Lea opened military training schools for young Chinese in several American cities, among them the Western Military Academy in Chinatown, training revolutionary cadres to be smuggled illegally into China. Most cadets were American-born, but some were smuggled into the U.S. from China on Mexican fishing boats. O'Banion signed an oath of allegiance to the secret society Po Wong Wui, the "Protect Emperor Society," at a banquet in Chinatown.
Prominent businessmen such as Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and Elihu Root, Teddy Roosevelt's Nobel Peace Prize-winning secretary of state, were only too glad to lend their names and give their support so young Chinese men could get a good education. They were not told about the military mission of the training nor about the guns and bayonets kept in a locked back room. Secrecy was the key to the planned rebellion because the empress had spies everywhere, including Los Angeles.
On Sept. 30, 1905, shortly after Sun was smuggled into San Francisco on a potato boat, he attended a lavish banquet in his honor in Los Angeles' Chinatown, where two assassins lay in wait, long knives at the ready. But O'Banion foiled their plan, hitting their heads with the butt of his gun.

Sun's revolution crested on Oct. 10, 1911, and broke the back of a 300-year-old dynasty. Lea suffered a paralyzing stroke and died two weeks before his 36th birthday in May 1912.

1912
CHINESE SLAVE GIRL PLOT
With the capture late Monday night of Leong Moon, interpreter on the Japanese liner Nippon Maru, and four chinese girls, the immigration authorities are confronted with one of the most brazen attempts at smuggling and bribery they have ever had to deal with.

From admissions made by the girls the Federal investigators believe they were able to expose a ring for the smuggling of Chinese woman and coolies into this country as extensive as the opium conspiracies with which the customs authorities have been confronted recently.

Promises of rich husbands and an easy life here are still sealing the lips of the girls, in the opinion of those in charge of the investigation.

The very assurance with which Leong Moon walked ashore from the Nippon [Maru] accompanied by the Chinese girls, who were disguised as men, leads the officials to believe that "the way had been greased," and that the only reason why the "Celestial slaves" are not now occupying dens in Chinatown is because the arrangement of the smugglers miscarried.

1912
CHINESE AMERICAN CITIZEN ALLIANCE IS FORMED
Native Sons of the Golden State established lodge in LA Chinatown. Members are American-born Chinese in California. Main purpose is to defend civil rights of Chinese Americans. Name is changed in 1914 to Chinese Americans Citizens Alliance.

1912
DUKE KAHANAMOKU: 1ST ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN OLYMPIAN

Duke Kahanamoku was born August 24, 1890 in downtown Honolulu. Just before turning 22, he won his first Olympic gold medal and went on to represent the United States in the Olympics for the next 20 years. In 1912, Duke won his first Olympic gold medal and set a world record in the 100-meter free-style and won a silver medal as a participant in the 200-meter relay in Stockholm. He won his second and third gold medals in 1920 during the Antwerp Olympics, again breaking his world record in the 100-meter free-style and setting a world record on the free-style relay team. In the 1924 Paris Olympics, he won a silver medal for the 100-meter free-style. Then in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, he was awarded a bronze medal as an alternate on the water polo team.

Duke won medals, trophies and worldwide fame as a swimmer, but also went on to become a longboard surfing legend. Museums and memorials in Australia, California, Florida, New York and Hawaii pay tribute to his worldwide influence on surfing.

1912
NEISEI EDUCATION
Sikhs build gurdwara in Stockton and establish Khalsa Diwan. Japanese in California hold statewide conference on Nisei education.

1912
TUN VS. EDSELL
Tun v Edsell: American-born Tang Tun is refused re-entry by the Supreme Court,

1912
CALIFORNIA LAND OWNED BY JAPANESE AMERICANS
Japanese Americans owned 12,726 acres of farmland in California

1913
ASIAN AMERICANS UNABLE TO BUY OR LEASE LAND
California passes alien land law prohibiting "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from buying land or leasing it for longer than three years. Sikhs in Washington and Oregon establish Hindustani Association. Asian Indians in California found the revolutionary Ghadar Party and start publishing a newspaper. Pablo Manlapit forms Filipino Unemployed Association in Hawaii. Japanese form Northwest Japanese Association of America in Seattle. Korean farmworkers are driven out of Hemet, California.

1913
YAMATO ICHIHASHI - STANFORD'S 1ST NON-WHITE PROFESSOR
Yamato Ichihashi was Stanford's first non-white professor. He started teaching here right after he completed his doctoral work in 1913 at Harvard, and he remained here from 1913 until he died in 1962.

He was an intellectual pioneer because of his expertise in Japanese history and Pacific relations that helped Stanford University established as a center for East Asian studies and for Pacific studies.
Ichihashi came to the United States as an ambitious student in 1894 and attended high school in San Francisco and enrolled at Stanford Univrsity in 1902.
His qualifications for being a Stanford University professor included being completely fluent in English, fluent in Japanese and trained in the classical education that was required of college-bound students at the time that required knowledge of the subjects of Greek, classical literature and economics. Ichihashi received his degree in economics and got his Ph.D. in political economy.
In late March, 1942, and he and other Japanese Americans at Stanford University were taken from Palo Alto to Tule Lake to be interned. Ichihashi kept a daily diary to record his experiences with the intention with the plan to write a book about his experiences and the internment experience overall.

Ichihashi was interned from 1942 until the spring of 1945. His return to Stanford University was very difficult. He died in 1962.

1914
CANADA STOPS ASIAN INDIAN IMMIGRATION
Aspiring Asian Indian immigrants who had chartered a ship to come to Canada by continuous journey are denied landing in Vancouver.

1915
JAPANESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Japanese form Central Japanese Association of Southern California and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce.

1915
ASIAN IMMIGRANTS BARRED FROM ANY PROFITS FROM SEAFOOD
Passage of Washington state law barring Asian immigrants from taking "for sale or profit any salmon or other food or shellfish

1916
TORAICHI KONO HIRED BY CHARLES CHAPLIN
In 1916, Toraichi Kono entered Charles Chaplin's life when he was recruiting for a secretary after having lived off and on in California for more than twelve years. He saw an article in a newspaper providing a job as a chauffeur that ended up to be with Chaplin. It has been reported that he was Chaplin's driver, personal secretary, a handy man, closest confidante, his caretaker and - according to most accounts, the person that Chaplin trusted more than anyone else. Chaplin hired Kono - allegedly - because the cane, one of the trademarks of the Little Tramp character Chaplin played, was made in Japan. There have been reports that Kono had such control over Chaplin's domestic arrangements that at one point in the mid-'20s, all 17 male workers at the actor's estate were Japanese. It has been reported that there has been dozens of letters intended for Chaplin but addressed to Kono as evidence that was the man you had to go through to get to the star.

He was born in 1888 to a wealthy family in Hirohima and preferred associating with geishas, gambling and a rebellious spirit. He was sent to live with family members in Seattle for a year in the hopes that he would learn discipline and obedience, upon his return - it was observed that the efforts were unsuccessful. Shorty thereafter, he moved/ran away to the US at the age of 17 or 18 (1906) with the intentions to become a lawyer. Unlike many Japanese who arrived in America fleeing poverty, Kono was a party guy running from the restraints of an arranged marriage and a wealthy but demanding father - even though he was a man of the Japanese Meiji period with strict moral disciplines. He was a pilot whose first wife wouldn't let him fly, and he worked in a shop and as a houseboy before meeting Chaplin at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, where the actor then lived.

After 18 years Kono and Chaplin decided to go their separate ways after some disputes that involved Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's 3rd wife. Afterwards, Chaplin arranged for him to get work in the movie business, but Kono never found a way to stay there. He opened up a law office in Little Tokyo at Los Angeles and was known among the neighbors just as a lawyer Kono, not by the long-term relationship with a famous man.

Kono did take up Chaplin's offer to become the Japan representative - chief manager - of United Artists Japan (which Chaplin co-owned) but quit after a year. He entered a social world that included Japanese naval spies who were scouting for information on U.S. Navy battleships. The FBI arrested Kono on espionage charges, though the allegations were dropped in favor of attempts to deport him. Kono fought further attempts to deport him after the war but by the 1950s had returned to his birthplace of Hiroshima.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Kono was rearrested the same day. The FBI thought Kono became a Japanese spy after he left Chaplin's employ in the mid-1930s. In the run-up to Pearl Harbor, with Japanese-American tensions rising, they caught Kono meeting with Japanese naval officers looking for information about U.S. naval deployments. He was arrested, released and then quickly interned after the attack. He spent the war in internment camp at Kooskia Idaho, where he ran the projector on movie nights, just as he had done for the screenings at the Chaplin mansion. He was not released until 1948.

Kono was fond of Chaplin, while not so with Chaplin's second very young wife Rita Grey, who was an avid spender of money and enjoyed parties with marine officers. Kono tried to support Chaplin in many ways. When Chaplin was going through the divorce with his first wife Mildred Harris, his project "Kid" which was in the process of being edited, was in danger of being held down by the court as a property. Both ended up fleeing, Kono driving the car with $60 and Chaplin himself with $70 in his pocket respectively all the way down to Salt Lake in Utah.

Kono took also care of private matters. He was supposed to have camouflaged the proceedings with Rita Grey and Chaplin, to support a smooth process for their wedding.

He passed away in Hiroshima in 1971.

Ince/Hearst Situation
In the "Oneida Incident" - Toraichi Kono is widely thought to know the truth (he was the chief source of information for Gerith von Ulm's biography on Chaplin). He was supposedly on the dock in San Diego waiting to pick up Chaplin (despite Chaplin's commentary to the contrary - described in his autobiography), who was scheduled to meet United Artists executives the next day. He was present when Ince was brought ashore when he saw Ince bleeding from a bullet wound to the head from William Randolph Hearst. One story behind the shooting is that he had mistaken Ince for Chaplin in the dark, whom he thought have had many romantic trysts with Marion Davis (Hearst's mistress). It has been noted that Marion had "supposedly" written naïve and highly indiscreet love letters that was sent to Chaplin through Kondo - as told in von Ulm's book. Within her book, this "person" was identified as"Maisie" in her book for a wide variety of reasons. One such letter, Kono recalled, bore the imprint of her lipstick-smeared mouth - the lover's come for "sealed with a kiss."). This incident became part of Hollywood legend.

1917
MINORU YASUI
Minoru Yasui, University of Oregon's first Asian Pacific American law school graduate was born on October 19, 1916. He was the third son of Masuo and Shidzuyo Yasui and was born in Hood River, Oregon.

He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1937 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and received his law degree with honors from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1939.
On February 19,1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Approximately one month later, Lt. General John L. DeWitt, Military Commander of the Western Defense Command, issued Public Proclamation No. 3.2. This order imposed travel restrictions and a curfew for German, Italian, and Japanese nationals. However, the Proclamation applied to American citizens of Japanese descent as well, but not American citizens of German or Italian ancestry. Min viewed this order as unlawful discrimination based on racial grounds and a dear violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Minoru volunteered himself to become the test case to challenge these restrictions. On March 28,1942, Min deliberately violated Public Proclamation No. 3. Min's trial began on June 12,1942, before Judge James Alger Fee in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. The trial lasted only one day.
Judge Fee ruled that the curfew order as applied to American citizens, even those of Japanese ancestry, was unconstitutional. However, he then went on to find that Minoru Yasui was not a United States citizen. Judge Fee concluded that Min's actions, particularly his work for the Japanese Consulate in Chicago, effectively resulted in a renunciation by Min of his U.S. citizenship. As an "alien" of Japanese ancestry, Min had disobeyed a lawful regulation governing enemy aliens and was guilty as charged.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals certified Min's appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court reversed the findings of Judge Fee.3 The Court found that the lower court erred in its finding that Minoru Yasui had lost his United States citizenship. It also found that the lower court erred in ruling the curfew order unconstitutional as applied to United States citizens. Consistent with its analysis, the Court then upheld the lower court's conviction of Min and the fine of $5,000, but freed him from further incarcerations.
He sat for the Colorado bar examination in 1945. Although he received the highest scores among the group of candidates that sat for the bar examination that year, Min was denied admission to the Colorado bar because of his criminal conviction. Represented by Samuel L. Menin of the American Civil Liberties Union, Min appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court. Min was admitted to practice law in Colorado in January 1946.

Min vehemently believed that the U.S. government needed to acknowledge the wrong that had been committed against the Japanese-American community and pay reparations for the economic losses suffered by those forcibly relocated. For several years, he served as Chairman of the National JACL Redress Committee. However, Min died on November 12,1986, before seeing the culmination of his hard work by the enactment of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988,9 providing redress, reparation, and an official apology from the government to the thousands of Japanese Americans incarcerated or relocated under duress during World War II.

1917
LAW RESTRICTS IMMIGRATION
All Asian immigrants except for Japanese and Filipinos banned by order of Congress.

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Song Lead Sheet of a 1919 Racist Song

1917
ALIEN LAND LAW RESTRICTS IMMIGRATION
Arizona passes an Alien Land Law. 1917 Immigration Law defines a geographic "barred zone" (including India) from which no immigrants can come. Syngman Rhee founds the Korean Christian Church in Hawaii.

These laws were originally aimed at the Japanese, but later amended in 1923 and 1927 to cover all Asians. Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana had laws similar to this. Chinese, as aliens, were ineligible for citizenship and were denied the right to buy or own land. These laws were declared unconstitutional in 1947.
All Asian immigrants except for Japanese and Filipinos banned by order of Congress.

1917 Immigration Act (aka "Barred Zone" Act) prohibited Indian (South Asian) laborers from entering the United States on the basis that India and all of Asia (except Japan and the Philippines) existed in the "barred zone."

1917
I.M. PEI IS BORN

Ieoh Ming Pei, whose name means, "to inscribe brightly," is one of the preeminent architects of the twentieth century. Pei's modernist works illustrate his affinity for geometric shapes, silhouettes, and striking contrasts that has impacted people

across the world.

I.M. Pei was born in Canton, (now Guangzou) China in 1917. He later lived in Shanghai and Hong Kong, before leaving for the United States in 1934 to study architecture.

He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940. He was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal, the MIT Traveling Fellowship, and the American Institute of Architecture's Gold medal. As the result of Japan's invasion of China in 1939, Pei remained in the United States.

Pei graduated Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1946, then spent seven years, beginning in 1948, as director of the architectural division at the firm of Webb & Knapp.

In 1954, that Pei became a U.S. citizen.

In 1955 Pei established his own architecture firm. His work on the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado established his firm's reputation.

Pei was selected by Jackie Kennedy to design and build the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1964, Pei began working on the JFK Library and achieved a position of prominence among architects around the world.

In 1968, Pei initiated work on the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C. The East Wing proved to be the first of many internationally renowned buildings by Pei.

In 1993, the completion of Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre created a new historic landmark for Paris. Pei described it as, "the greatest challenge and greatest accomplishment of my career."

Pei has earned countless awards and distinctions and the enduring respect of many nations.

I.M. Pei has designed nearly 50 projects in the United States and abroad. Over half of these projects have won major awards. Pei has been awarded the highest honors from nations the world over.

In 1986, at the one hundredth anniversary of the Statute of Liberty President Ronald Reagan designated Pei as one of twelve naturalized American citizens to receive the Medal of Liberty, for his outstanding service as an architect.

Pei used the $100,000 prize from the Pritzker award that he won in 1983 to establish a scholarship fund for Chinese architecture students to study in the United States, with the stipulation that the students return to work China to work in architecture. Additionally, Pei has worked for and supported the establishment of a greater democracy in China.

Some of Pei's most famous buildings:

Mesa National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colorado (1961-1967).
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, (1968-1973)
National Gallery of Art, East Building, Washington DC (1968-1970)
John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts, (1964-1979)
Fragrant Hill Hotel, Beijing, China (1979-1982)
Dallas Municipal Administration Building, Dallas, Texas (1965-1978)
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, Texas
Bank of China, Hong Kong, China (1982-1990)
Grand Louvre, Paris France, La Pyramide Paris, France (1980-1993)
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland, Ohio, (1986-1995)

Additional awards I.M. Pei has won:

Decorated by the French Government as a Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters
Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale for lifetime achievement in architecture
Medal of Freedom by President George Bush for his contributions to world peace and service to the U.S. government
1983 Pritzker Architecture Award
Thomas Jefferson Memorial for Architecture, 1976.
Elected to the American Academy, 1975.
American Institute of Architect's Gold Medal the highest architectural honor in the United States, 1979.
Medal of French Legion of Honor, 1987.
National Arts Club Gold Medal of Honor, 1976.
Grande Medaille d'Or from the French Academie d'Architecture, 1982.

1917
ASIAN AMERICANS IN WWI
All-Japanese Company D, 1st Hawiian Regiment of Infantry, is formed in Hawai'i to serve in World War I. There were, also, Chinese Americans also served in WWI.

About 500 Chinese served as logistic support for General Pershing when he chased after Mexican Pancho De Villa in 1916. These Chinese return to the USA with Pershing (because Panch De Villa put a price their heads for helping General Pershing). General Pershing attempted to give them USA citizenship as a reward but Congress denied that. General Pershing was able to procure Permenant Resident status for these Chinese soldiers at a later date.

Prior to and during WWI, the US Navy allowed Filipino enlistees to serve under a range of military occupational rating such as petty officer, band master, musician, coxswains' mates, seamen, machinist, fireman, water tender, commissionary stewards, officer's stewards, and mess attendents.

Testifying in Congress on April 11, 1930, on a bill sponsored by Rep. Richard Welch (Calif.) that would exclude Filipinos from entering the U.S., Brig. General F. Lee J. Parker, chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, reminded the members of the House committee on immigration that more than 25,000 Filipinos in World War I, served in the U.S. armed forces giving evidence of their wholehearted loyalty.

After WWI, the United States Navy issued new rulings restricting filipinos, even those with college education, to the rating of officer stewards and mess attendent. These military occupational discrimination practices were stopped in the 1970's when there was a senatorial investigation of the use of stewards in the military due to pressure from the civil rights movement.

1918
ASIAN SERVICEMEN CAN BE NATURALIZED CITIZENS
Servicemen of Asian ancestry who had served in World War I receive right of naturalization. Prior to and during WWI, the US Navy allowed Filipino enlistees to serve under a range of military occupational rating such as petty officer, band master, musician, coxswains' mates, seamen, machinist, fireman, water tender, commissionary stewards, officer's stewards, and mess attendents. After WWI, the United States Navy issued new rulings restricting filipinos, even those with college education, to the rating of officer stewards and mess attendent. These military occupational discrimination practices were stopped in the 1970's when there was a senatorial investigation of the use of stewards in the military due to pressure from the civil rights movement. During WWI (1917-1918) 2,666,867 men were drafted, about 1,300,000 actually were deployed in europe. All males between the ages of 21 and 30 were required to register for military service. Asian Indians form the Hindustani Welfare Reform Association in the Imperial and Coachella valleys in southern California.

1919
JAPANESE LABOR UNION
Japanese form Federation of Japanese Labor in Hawaii.

1919
SAMMY LEE IS BORN
Sammy Lee, Olympic gold medalist in diving, born in Fresno, CA.

1919
KOREAN AMERICAN "RICE KING"
February 20. The School of Aviation was founded in Willows, California, when Kim Chong-nim, a successful Korean American rice farmer known as the "rice king," donated three airplanes. Future pilots were to be trained there to fight against the Japanese empire in the Korean struggle for independence from Japan.