Shohei Ohtani is first ballplayer to get 50 steals and 50 home runs

Shohei Ohtani  is baseball's first Mr. 50/50 and is major league baseball's new face.  The L.A. Dodger player continues to write himself into the MLB record books by becoming the first ballplayer to get 50 stolen bases and 50 home runs in the same season. The Japanese player cemented his place as the new face of "America's pasttime."

"This is a game that has been played for over 200 years," said the Dodgers' Japanese American manager Dave Roberts. "And this is something that has never been done."

“To be honest, I’m the one probably most surprised,” Ohtani said through a translator of his Hall-of-Fame level performance. “I have no idea where this came from, but I’m glad I performed well today.”

Ohtani's remarkable feat, overshadowed what he did in the game against the Marlins with "one of the Greatest Single-Game Performance in MLB History," according to MLB writer Juan Toribio

In the same game against the Marlins in which he became the only player to achieve the 50 steals and 50 homeruns, Ohtani became the first player with three homers and two steals in a game. He doubled twice, had a career-best six hits and set a Dodgers record by driving in 10 runs.

“The individual performance tonight was remarkable,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “With this game of baseball, it was a win for Major League Baseball. I know people all over the globe were watching this game and we’re excited to see that they got a chance to witness history.”

The 6'-4" Ohtani has been rewriting the record books since he crossed the Pacific to play with the L.A. Angels in 2018 as a pitcher and fielder. Over the off-season, he signed go with the Nagels crosstown rivals, the Dodgersafter signing a record-breaking 10-years contract for $700 million with $680 million deferred.

After his third homerun, breaking the record, Ohtani was mobbed by his teammates when he reached the dugout. The 15,000 Marlin fans continued cheering until the Dodger emerged from the dugout for a curtain call.

The Marlins had a chance to spoil the Dodgers' party. With Ohtani at the plate and having already homered twice, first base was open. Conventional strategy would have been to deliberately walk him. Marlins manager Skip Schumaker chose to pitch to Ohtani instead of intentionally walking him.

“If it was a tight game, one run lead or we’re down one, I probably put him on,” Schumaker said in the post-game press conference. “Down that many runs, that’s a bad move baseball-wise, karma-wise, baseball god-wise. You go after him to see if you can get him out. I think out of respect for the game, we were going to go after him. He hit the home run. That’s just part of the deal.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Democrats bolster their outreach to AANHPI voters, a key constituency

 

Scene from the newest ad for the Harris / Walz campaign.

Contrary to some polls that say the major political parties have neglected Asian American voters, the Democrats continue to strengthen their outreach to that key voting bloc.

Today (Sept. 18), the Harris-Walz campaign released its third ad airing across the battleground states that speaks directly to Asian American voters.

Titled “My Mother," the newest ad focuses on Vice President Kamala Harris’ personal story for undecided voters who claim they don't know enough about the Democratic nominee interspersing her growing up as a child of immigrants with her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last month.

FYI:

•  Watch "My Mother" ad for the Harris/Walz campaign
• Watch the first two ads Reduced and  The Seal.

The 60-second television and digital ad – the campaign’s third ad targeting Asian American communities in the last month – features Harris’ remarks at the Democratic National Convention paying tribute to her mother, who migrated to the US from India. It also spotlights the Vice President’s unshakable determination to stand up for the people, a value that has underpinned her extensive career in public service – from the courthouse to the White House.

Asian American voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin ,where Asian American voters cold determine the Nov. 5 outcome, will see “My Mother” across an array of digital channels like Meta, Snap, YouTube, Connected TV, iHeart Radio, and Pandora.  Starting this week, the ad will also air on nearly 70 different broadcast outlets serving diverse Asian American audiences – including The Filipino Channel (TFC), Crossings TV, Chime TV, SBS TV, KHMER TV, CNN-News 18, NTV Bangla, GEO TV, ITV Gold, TV Asia, and elsewhere.

“Vice President Harris has never forgotten the values she learned from her mother that have shaped her lifelong commitment to stand up for people – a story that millions in our communities can relate to,” says Andrew Peng, the Harris-Walz Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander spokesperson. “While Donald Trump looks to take us backwards, Vice President Harris will chart a new way forward to advance opportunity, dignity, and safety for the American people.”

Asian Americans, who make up the nation’s fastest-growing voting bloc, are a key part of the Harris-Walz campaign’s winning coalition and had the largest voter registration increase of any group compared to the 2020 election cycle.

However, a survey by AAPI Data, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment Education Fund and Asian American Futures, released Sept. 9 found that 51% of Asian American voters in California said they have not been contacted by Democratic Party, and 59% said they were not contacted by the Republican Party.

With most of the effort going towards battleground states, California has not been the main focus of the Republican or Democrat campaigns. However, with about a third of the nation's Asian American population, the state survey results may give a good idea of the sentiments of all of Asian America.

With less than 50 days until Election Day, Team Harris-Walz will soon have dedicated Asian American voter engagement staff in every single battleground state, and the campaign is aggressively bolstering its efforts to reach Asian American voters in several ways – including through extensive paid media, virtual and in-person events, the mobilization of roughly a dozen grassroots affinity groups, and the rollout of a comprehensive fact sheet outlining how Vice President Harris and Minnesota Gov. Walz are delivering for Asian American communities.

“My Mother” is part of Team Harris-Walz’s historic $370 million in digital and television advertising reservations between Labor Day and Election Day. The campaign plans to launch additional digital, TV, radio, and print ads in the weeks ahead sharing Vice President Harris’ message and the dangers of Trump’s Project 2025 agenda directly with Asian American voters.

“AANHPIs are America’s fastest-growing demographic, and in critical battleground states, they could make the difference between winning and losing,” says Democratic National Committee spokesperson Nina Raneses in an interview with NBC. “The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the DNC will continue to make the case for the Harris-Walz ticket to AANHPI voters and pave the path to victory in November.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

'Shogun' sweeps 76th Emmy awards

Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai won Emmy's for their performances in "Shogun."

Shogun, the television series that tells the spic story of a power struggle and the political intrigue in feudal Japan, won 18 Emmy's culminating in being named Outstanding Drama Series.

In addition, Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai were awarded best actor and best actress in a drama series for their lead roles in Shogun as Lord Yoshii Toranaga and Lady Toda Mariko. The 10-part series premiered on the FX network, streamed on Hulu and produced by Disney also won an Emmy for Frederick E.O. Toye for directing the bilingual series.

"This is to all the women who expect nothing and continue to be an example for everyone," said the emotional Sawai as she gave thanks.

Speaking of the Japanese and American crews and bicultural cast who worked on the project that took 10 years to bring to the screen, Sanada said, "And ‘Shōgun' taught me that when people work together, we can make miracles."

The rich, historical drama, based on James Clavell’s bestselling novel, earned 25 nominations in total and is only the second non-English language program to be nominated in the outstanding drama category. In addition to the four Emmy's won Sunday evening in Los Angeles, the series won 14 Emmy's awarded at the Creative Arts Emmys held a week earlier. The 18 total Emmys set a record for the most awards  given to a show in a single season.

The accolades heaped on Shogun at the Emmys and other awards shows, may be another signal of the changing attitudes in Hollywood in regards to Asian representation and non-English-language television.

FYI: The complete list of Emmy winners in 2024

Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada with their Emmy trophies.

It is the third year in a row in which a project featuring actors of Asian descent in lead roles winning Emmys. In 2022, the Korea's Squid Games won an Outstanding Actor Emmy for Lee Jung-jae, a director's Emmy for Hwang Dong-hyuk and came within a hair's breath of winning Best Drama Series but lost to Succession. The following year Steven Yeun and Ali Wong won best actors in a limited series for their lead roles in Beef.

The success of Shogun means there will be a second season and possibly a third season. The writers and producers are starting from scratch since the first season ended where Clavell's 1975 novel ended.

Following is a press release from FX:

“FX, Hulu and the Estate of James Clavell are working to extend the critically acclaimed global hit drama Shōgun, moving forward to develop the saga with two additional seasons of the drama series. The show’s key creative partners including co-creators, executive producers and writers Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, executive producer Michaela Clavell, and series star and producer Hiroyuki Sanada are on board for the development. Production timing has not been locked in, but a writers’ room is being assembled and will begin this summer.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

For Manila concert, all Olivia Rodrigo tickets are only $25

Livies assemble! Olivia Rodrigo has announced a brand new Guts Tour concert date where every single ticket costs just $25. The only catch, the concert is in Manila.

Normally, securing tickets for Olivia's concert can go upwards to thousands of dollars, but her fans in Manila will get a bargain and you can be sure that some of her loyal Liviews in Asia and the America's will fly to Manila to watch their favorite singer belt out her hits.

Though Olivia's father is Filipino American, like so many Americans of Filipino descent, she has never been to the Phiippines.

In an interview with myx.global, she said: "I’m so stoked. I think it’s going to be so much fun to play those kinds of rock songs in an arena too. I’m so excited to feel that energy. I’m so excited to go places that I haven’t been before. I’m really excited to go to the Philippines — I’ve never been — so that’s going to be fun."

Tickets for the world tour instantly sold out but Olivia has one last surprise up her sleeve. Olivia is doing one extra Guts Tour concert in Manila and all the tickets are Silver Star prices. This means you could be front row at the tour and it will only set you back $25.

On Sept. 10, Olivia's official fan fan page Livies HQ revealed that Olivia is doing a charity concert in Manila in October. They wrote: "manila🗣️ liv is bringing her silver star show presented by @americanexpress to you for the #GUTSWorldTour!!!! all net ticket proceeds will go to liv’s Fund 4 Good 🌟" This means you can see Olivia for just $25 and be up close.

If you want to get tickets for Olivia's Manila show, they go on sale on Sept. 14, Manila time, via Live Nation. So login to your Live Nation account and join the queue then. As it's a Silver Star show, you can select up to four tickets in the seated or standing area but you won't know exactly which tickets you get until you redeem them.

If you're successful in getting tickets, they can be redeemed at any SM Tickets Outlet between Saturday, Sept. 28 and Friday Oct. 4, Manila-time. Just show up to the outlet and a valid ID with your name on it to get your tickets. For those in the United States' west coast, remember Manila is 15 hours ahead.

Olivia has sold special Silver Star tickets for her previous Guts World Tour dates to help fans who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford them. However, Olivia's Manila show marks her first show where all the tickets -- from the VIP seats to the rafters -- are just $25.

The $25 converts to 1,500 Philippine pesos.

Olivia will be performing in the Phillipine Arena which hosts 55,000 people making this her biggest show to date.

Good luck, Livies!

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Plot to assassinate US poliliticians foiled, suspect indicted

ASIF RAZA MEERCHANT

A Pakistani national, Asif Merchant, also known as Asif Raza Merchant, was indicted Tuesday for allegedly plotting to kill US politicians.

Merchant, with alleged ties to Iran, was accused of a murder-for-hire scheme assassinate a politician or US government official. Federal authorities  foiled the plot before any attack could be carried out. 

Although the indictment does not mention Donald Trump, CBS cited sources who stated that the Republican presidential nominee was one of the intended targets.

“This dangerous murder-for-hire plot was allegedly orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian regime's playbook,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any US citizen, is a serious threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI. Protecting Americans from terrorists remains our highest priority.”

Merchant was initially arrested and charged  in July 2024 when he was ordered detained and remains in federal custody.

The arrest and indictment comes a month after 20-year-old Thomas Mathhew Crooks tried to assassinate Trump at an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

As set forth in court documents, in approximately April, after spending time in Iran, Merchant arrived in the United States from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could assist him with the scheme to kill a politician or government official. That person reported Merchant’s intention to law enforcement and became a confidential source (the CS).

In early June, Merchant met the CS in New York and explained his assassination plot. Merchant told the CS that the opportunity he had for the CS was not a one-time opportunity and would be ongoing. Merchant then made a “finger gun” motion with his hand, indicating that the opportunity was related to a killing. 

Merchant further stated that the intended victims would be “targeted here,” in the United States. Merchant instructed the source to arrange meetings with individuals whom Merchant could hire to carry out these actions. Merchant explained that his plot involved multiple criminal schemes:  stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home; planning a protest; and killing a politician or government official.

At that meeting, Merchant began planning potential assassination scenarios and quizzed the CS on how he would kill a target in the various scenarios. Specifically, Merchant asked the CS to explain how the target would die in different scenarios. Merchant told the CS that there would be “security [] all around” the person.

Merchant stated that the assassination would occur after he left the United States, and he would communicate with the source from overseas using code. The same source asked whether Merchant had spoken to the unidentified “party” back home with whom Merchant was working. Merchant responded that he had and that the party back home told him to “finalize” the plan and leave the United States.

In mid-June, Merchant met with the purported hitmen, who were in fact undercover US law enforcement officers in New York. Merchant advised the undercover officers  that he was looking for three services from them: theft of documents, arranging protests at political rallies and for them to kill a “political person.” Merchant stated that the hitmen would receive instructions on who to kill either the last week of August or the first week of September, after Merchant had departed the United States.

Merchant then began arranging means to obtain $5,000 in cash to pay the men he believed were hitmen as an advance payment for the assassination, which he eventually received with assistance from an individual overseas. 

On June 21, Merchant met with the undercover officres in New York and paid them the $5,000 advance. After Merchant paid the $5,000 to the men, one of them stated, “now we’re bonded,” to which Merchant responded “yes.” The undercover oficers then stated “Now we know we’re going forward. We’re doing this,” to which Merchant responded “Yes, absolutely.”

Merchant subsequently made flight arrangements and planned to leave the United States on Friday, July 12. On July 12, law enforcement agents arrested Merchant before he could leave the country.

The Justice Department will not tolerate Iran’s efforts to target our country’s public officials and endanger our national security,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “As these terrorism and murder for hire charges against Asif Merchant demonstrate, we will continue to hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Sept. 9, 2024 marks the centennial anniversary of the Hanapepe Massacre where 16 Filipino strikers killed

 

Hundreds of Filipino workers were arrested after the Hanapepe Massacre.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published on the 95th anniversary of the Hanapepe Massacre. It has been updated with new findings.

One hundred years ago on Sept. 9, 1924 in Hawaii, the bloodiest labor confrontation known as the Hanapepe Massacre claimed the lives of 20 people, 16 of whom were Filipino striking farm workers. 

You wouldn't know it now. The Hanapepe River still slowly flows through the sleepy little town on its way to the ocean. If you blink you might miss the turnoff to Hanapepe on the island of Kauai. Most tourists zip past Hanapepe Town, the site of a labor riot 95 years ago when 16  striking Filipino sugar workers and four lawmen were killed.

No one is left alive who survived the deadly events e of Sept. 9, 1924 that became known as the Hanapepe Massacre.

The sugar workers were on strike for better working conditions and an increase in pay, from $1 a day to $2 a day.

Filipinos were the last group of immigrant laborers to arrive to the Islands after the Chinese and the Japanese. Plantation owners pitted the ethnic groups against each other to thwart any labor organizing.

The victims of the massacre were among the 37,019 Filipinos who immigrated to Hawaii between 1907 and 1924.

Tiffany Hill writes in a magazine article in the Honolulu Advertiser:

"Filipinos working on sugar plantations were given the worst housing and the lowest paying jobs. On Kauai, Filipino laborers worked and lived on the Koloa, Makaweli, Kekaha, Lihue and McBryde Sugar Co. plantations. The majority of the workers were young men, single and uneducated. They came from three regions of the Philippines: Visayans arrived first, followed by Ilocanos and, in much smaller numbers, Tagalogs, each group speaking a different language. In addition, there were significantly fewer Filipino women than men. “A lack of women in the Filipino community meant many fewer families, a totally different view of life and really no sense of community,” says Andy Bushnell, a retired Kauai Community College history professor who gives talks on the Hanapēpē Massacre."

The sugar strike covered the plantation workers on Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauai but it did not involve the majority of the workers. Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese workers didn't support the Filipino-led labor organizing effort. The strikers in Hanapepe were from the Visayan islands of the Philippines. Plantation owners used the Ilocanos to try and break the strike. Two Ilocanos were viewed as scabs by the Visayans and were forcibly detained by the strikers.

A plaque commemorating the Hanapepe Massacre was dedicated in 2006.

The Sheriff and his deputies went to the strike HQ to seek the released of the Ilocanos. The lawmen were armed with guns and the strikers also had a few guns and the machetes they used to cut the sugar cane. No one knows who made the first aggressive move but in minutes 16 strikers were shot dead by sharpshooters who were hiding in the hill above the scene. The strikers fatally injured four of the law enforcement task force, which included deputized civilians.

After the violent confrontation, at the Sheriff's request, Hawaii National Guard were called in to maintain order between the strikers and plantation owners.

Though there are no speeches from dignitaries and proclamations from politicians today,  the sugar worker strikes launched a history of labor organizing that should be taught in our classrooms. Asian Americans were not bystanders in the making of America. 

The sugarcane workers who died that day 100 years ago were buried in an unmarked trench. Until October, 2019, the location of the mass grave was unknown. Using new technology, researchers using underground radar determined that there were 12 "anomalies" buried in the mass grave in the Hanapepe Filipino Cementary.  A simple concrete marker nearby simply says: "Born 1886, Died Sept 9, 1924."

This marker is over a mass grave believed to the burial site of 12 Filipino strikers.

The "anomalies" are believed to be the bodies of 12 slain strikers, according to members of Hawaii chapter of the FANHS The burial sites of the other four victims still remain unknown.

Out of respect for the interred, the mass grave has not been dug up but their is an effort to raise funds for a permanent memorial to the strikers killed in the bloodiest confrontation in Hawaii's labor history.

After the Hanapepe incident, plantation owners stayed away from the Visayas province and concentrated their recruitment efforts in the Ilocos provinces, which explains why the largest Filipino subgroup in Hawaii today is Ilocano.

Because of the hazy details of the massacre, amazing as it may seem to us today, there was no hue and cry from the public and the violence and resulting mass arrests stunted any momentum the strike had generated. 

Hundreds of the sugar strikers were arrested. The Hawaiʻi Sugar Planters Association gave $500 to the families of each of the sheriffs killed, while the slain workers’ families had to split $75. Many of the strikers were deported to the Philippines. 

It wasn't until 1937 that a labor union combining all of the ethnic groups was successful in gaining any concessions from Hawaii Sugar Planters' Association. The white elite families that ruled over Hawaii since 1893 when they overthrew the islands' Queen Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha retaliated by moving their sugar and pineapple operations to other countries in Asia and Latin America. 

The point is: Asian workers were never the uncomplaining, compliant, quiet, subservient stereotype that society has imposed on all Asian Americans. They were far from being the "model minority."  From the sugar workers, the Alaskeros working on the boats and canneries of Alaska to the farmworkers on the West Coast to the nurses, teachers, hotel workers and domestic workers of today, Asian Americans fought -- and are still fighting -- for their rights, justice and equality.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter. 

Hanapepe Massacre and the Delano Grape Strike anniversaries fit theme for FilAm Hhistory Month

On September 8 in 1965, Filipino agricultural workers in California began the strike that became known as the Delano Grape Strike.

September 9, marks the 100-year anniversary when16 Filipino sugar cane striking workers were killed in Hawaii in the Hanapepe Massacre.  

The Filipino American National History Society (FANHS) is urging that this October, emphasis be put on the long history of resistance, struggle, solidarity and relisiance exhibited by Filipino Americans throughout US history.

FANHS statement:

"Throughout Filipino American history, there have been instances of struggle, resistance, solidarity, and resilience. Struggle and resistance are defined as the ways that the Filipino American community has persisted through various types of systemic oppression and violence - ranging from discriminatory laws that treated Filipino Americans as second-class citizens to the hate violence Filipino Americans endured because of their race, ethnicity, and other identities.

"Solidarity includes the ways that Filipino Americans have organized to fight against injustice - either within their own communities or alongside other racial and ethnic groups. Resilience involves the ways in which Filipino Americans have successfully overcome adversity throughout history - despite the systemic and interpersonal obstacles they have endured.

"From the painful to the triumphant, all of these moments contribute to a cumulative Filipino American history. We encourage our communities to reflect on our history and celebrate our collective love and joy."

If the plantation owners in Hawaii and the big business owners of the California vineyards thought by importing workers from the Philippines tthey were bringing in a bunch of docile workers, they were mistaken.

On September 9, 1924, 16 Filipino sugar workers and four civilian deputies were killed in the Hanapepe Massacre. The next day the National Guard came in to oversee the arrest of 76 more workers, effectively breaking the Filipino-led strike in Hanapepe, Kauai,i Hawaii. 

Filipino and Mexican farm workers joined together to form the United Farm Workers.

On September 8, 1965, over 800 Filipino farmworkers affiliated with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) struck ten grape vineyards around Delano, California.

Filipino strike leaders, led by Larry Itliong, were able to convince the prdominantly Mexican and Mexican American union, National Farm Workers Association (NFWA)) led by Cesar Chavez, to join the Delano Grape Strike the following week. The joining of the two unions gave birth to the United Farm Workers.

Perhaps the earliest example of Filipinos offering resistance, organizing and resliance occurred cmore than a century earlier.

During the Galleon trade bringing goods from the Philippines to Mexico and onward to Spain, Filipino sailors, either as slaves or crew were used extensively. Many of the Filipino sailors left their cruel masters and integrated themselves with local communities in Mexico. 

Some of the sailors, known as Manilamen,  escaped the Spanish ships in New Orleans and formed communities in the Louisiana bayous ias early as 1763 according to some historians. Communities such as Manila Village and St. Malo were among the two earliest known Asian American communities in the United States. 

October 1992 was the first time that Filipino American History Month (FAHM) was celebrated in the United States initiated by the Filipino American National History Society. The month was chosen because the first recorded Filipino to set foot in North America occurred on Oct. 18, 1587 when two Filipino crewmen from the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de Buena Esperanza, part of the busy galleon trade, were sent on a scouting expedition in what is now Morro Bay, California.

In Spanish records, they were called "Indios Luzones," natives of Luzon, one main islands of the Philippines, then under Spanish rule. The scouting party met with resistance from indigenous people during which one of the Filipinos was killed.

Since the the first observance of FAHM, several states have declared October as Filipino American History Month and occasionally, there is a proclamation from the White House noting the role of Filiipino Americans in the US. Last year, the month was noted in a social media post from President Biden.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Breast cancer rises among Asian American and Pacific Islander women

KFF HEALTH NEWS

Breast cancer survivor Christina Kashiwada

Breast cancer rates may be dropping in the US, but rising among AANHPI women

By Phillip Reese

Kaiser Foundation Family Health News

Christina Kashiwada was traveling for work during the summer of 2018 when she noticed a small, itchy lump in her left breast.

She thought little of it at first. She did routine self-checks and kept up with medical appointments. But a relative urged her to get a mammogram. She took the advice and learned she had stage 3 breast cancer, a revelation that stunned her.

“I’m 36 years old, right?” said Kashiwada, a civil engineer in Sacramento, California. “No one’s thinking about cancer.”

About 11,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and about 1,500 died. The latest federal data shows the rate of new breast cancer diagnoses in Asian American and Pacific Islander women — a group that once had relatively low rates of diagnosis — is rising much faster than that of many other racial and ethnic groups. The trend is especially sharp among young women such as Kashiwada.

About 55 of every 100,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50 were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, surpassing the rate for Black and Hispanic women and on par with the rate for white women, according to age-adjusted data from the National Institutes of Health. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races but are grouped separately in this data.)

The rate of new breast cancer cases among Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50 grew by about 52% from 2000 through 2021. Rates for AAPI women 50 to 64 grew 33% and rates for AAPI women 65 and older grew by 43% during that period. By comparison, the rate for women of all ages, races, and ethnicities grew by 3%.

Researchers have picked up on this trend and are racing to find out why it is occuring within this ethnically diverse group. They suspect the answer is complex, ranging from cultural shifts to pressure-filled lifestyles — yet they concede it remains a mystery and difficult for patients and their families to discuss because of cultural differences.

Helen Chew, director of the Clinical Breast Cancer Program at UC Davis Health, said the Asian American diaspora is so broad and diverse that simple explanations for the increase in breast cancer aren’t obvious.

“It’s a real trend,” Chew said, adding that “it is just difficult to tease out exactly why it is. Is it because we’re seeing an influx of people who have less access to care? Is it because of many things culturally where they may not want to come in if they see something on their breast?”

There’s urgency to solve this mystery because it’s costing lives. While women in most ethnic and racial groups are experiencing sharp declines in breast cancer death rates, about 12 of every 100,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women of any age died from breast cancer in 2023, essentially the same death rate as in 2000, according to age-adjusted, provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The breast cancer death rate among all women during that period dropped 30%.

The CDC does not break out breast cancer death rates for many different groups of Asian American women, such as those of Chinese or Korean descent. It has, though, begun distinguishing between Asian American women and Pacific Islander women.

Nearly 9,000 Asian American women died from breast cancer from 2018 through 2023, compared with about 500 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women. However, breast cancer death rates were 116% higher among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women than among Asian American women during that period.

Rates of pancreatic, thyroid, colon, and endometrial cancer, along with non-Hodgkin lymphoma rates, have also recently risen significantly among Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50, NIH data show. Yet breast cancer is much more common among young AAPI women than any of those other types of cancer — especially concerning because young women are more likely to face more aggressive forms of the disease, with high mortality rates.

“We’re seeing somewhere almost around a 4% per-year increase,” said Scarlett Gomez, a professor and epidemiologist at the University of California-San Francisco’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We’re seeing even more than the 4% per-year increase in Asian/Pacific Islander women less than age 50.”

Gomez is a lead investigator on a large study exploring the causes of cancer in Asian Americans. She said there is not yet enough research to know what is causing the recent spike in breast cancer. The answer may involve multiple risk factors over a long period of time.

“One of the hypotheses that we're exploring there is the role of stress,” she said. “We're asking all sorts of questions about different sources of stress, different coping styles throughout the lifetime.”

It’s likely not just that there’s more screening. “We looked at trends by stage at diagnosis and we are seeing similar rates of increase across all stages of disease,” Gomez said.

Veronica Setiawan, a professor and epidemiologist at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said the trend may be related to Asian immigrants adopting some lifestyles that put them at higher risk. Setiawan is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed a few years ago at the age of 49.

“Asian women, American women, they become more westernized so they have their puberty younger now — having earlier age at [the first menstrual cycle] is associated with increased risk,” said Setiawan, who is working with Gomez on the cancer study. “Maybe giving birth later, we delay childbearing, we don't breastfeed — those are all associated with breast cancer risks.”

Moon Chen, a professor at the University of California-Davis and an expert on cancer health disparities, added that only a tiny fraction of NIH funding is devoted to researching cancer among Asian Americans.

Whatever its cause, the trend has created years of anguish for many patients.

Kashiwada underwent a mastectomy following her breast cancer diagnosis. During surgery, doctors at UC Davis Health discovered the cancer had spread to lymph nodes in her underarm. She underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy and 20 sessions of radiation treatment.

Throughout her treatments, Kashiwada kept her ordeal a secret from her grandmother, who had helped raise her. Her grandmother never knew about the diagnosis. “I didn't want her to worry about me or add stress to her,” Kashiwada said. “She just would probably never sleep if she knew that was happening. It was very important to me to protect her.”

Kashiwada moved in with her parents. Her mom took a leave from work to help take care of her.

Kashiwada’s two young children, who were 3 and 6 at the time, stayed with their dad so she could focus on her recovery.

“The kids would come over after school,” she said. “My dad would pick them up and bring them over to see me almost every day while their dad was at work.”

Kashiwada spent months regaining strength after the radiation treatments. She returned to work but with a doctor’s instruction to avoid lifting heavy objects.

Kashiwada had her final reconstructive surgery a few weeks before covid lockdowns began in 2020. But her treatment was not finished.

Her doctors had told her that estrogen fed her cancer, so they gave her medicine to put her through early menopause. The treatment was not as effective as they had hoped. Her doctor performed surgery in 2021 to remove her ovaries.

More recently, she was diagnosed with osteopenia and will start injections to stop bone loss.

Kashiwada said she has moved past many of the negative emotions she felt about her illness and wants other young women, including Asian American women like her, to be aware of their elevated risk.

“No matter how healthy you think you are, or you're exercising, or whatever you're doing, eating well, which is all the things I was doing — I would say it does not make you invincible or immune,” she said. “Not to say that you should be afraid of everything, but just be very in tune with your body and what your body's telling you.”

About the author: Phillip Reese is a data reporting specialist and an associate professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento.

FYI: This article was produced by KFF Health News, Supplemental support comes from the Asian American Journalists Association-Los Angeles through The California Endowment.

Korean American woman reaches US Open Tennis finals

 

Jessica Pegula with her mother, Kim Pegula.

Surprising almost everybody but herself and her family, Korean American Jessica Pegula  is playing in the finals of the US Open Tennis Tournament.

Ranked No.6 in the world, Pegula  advanced to her first Grand Slam final after mounting a rousing comeback to defeat Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the US Open semifinals on Thursday. The 30-year-old Buffalo native trailed 6-1, 2-0 before storming back to notch her 15th win in her last 16 matches

"It's a childhood dream," Pegula said. "It's what I wanted when I was a kid. It's a lot of work, a lot of hard work put in. You couldn't even imagine how much goes into it.

"So to be able to overcome all those challenges and say that I get a chance at the title Saturday is what we play for as players, let alone being able to do that in my home country here, in my home Slam. It's perfect, really."

Pegula is the oldest American woman in the Open Era to make a maiden Grand Slam final. She is the third American woman aged 30 or over to make a US Open final, joining Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova.

FYI: Watch the US Open's Women's finals Saturday (Sept. 7) on ESPN at 4 p.m. EDT; 1 p.m. PDT

Jessica Pegula is in her first Grand Slam final.

Jessica Pegula's mother

Pegula is the daughter of Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills and the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres.

Jessica Pegula's father, is a self-made billionaire, making his fortune through his independent oil and gas company East Resources. He sold the bulk of his businness in 2010 for $4.7 billion. He used that money to buy the Sabres in 2011 and the Bills in 2014.

Jessica Pegula's mother, Kim, was born in Seoul, South Korea. At age 5, she was adopted by Ralph and Marilyn Kerr, and grew up in Fairport, New York. Kim and Terry met in 1991 and married in 1993.

While Terry Pegula built his fortune, Kim was an active partner in the day-to-day operation of the family's various businesses interests, including the professional sports teams.

In June 2022, Kim went into cardiac arrest, changing the lives of the Pegula family. She suffered significant brain damage and memory issues and is still undergoing therapy. Kim has rarely made any public appearances since.

"My mom is the president and owner of both the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills," Jessica wrote in the Player's Tribune in February 2023. "She loved to work. She did everything and our family constantly told her how she needs to slow down and take time for herself. She was the woman behind my dad’s success and my dad would happily admit that.

"She jumped into this journey with him and learned many lessons along the way, breaking a lot of barriers. She was the shift in culture, positivity, and the heartbeat of many of the employees. She gave everyone so much of her time and effort. She lived it and loved it, and it was felt by everyone she met," Jessica wrote. "Now we come to the realization that all of that is most likely gone. That she won’t be able to be that person anymore."

Representation Matters 

Because of her personal history, Kim Pegula didn't grow up exposed to her Korean heritage.

"I don't know a lot of my heritage because she really didn't want to know that much and she didn't really grow up in it," admitted Jessica Pegula .

Jessica Pegula's first trip to Korea to compete in the Hana Bank Korea in 2019 changed her perspective. It was also her mother's first trip back to Seoul. The family used the tournamet to build a family trip around the tournament. The mother and daughter even visited the orphanage where her mother was taken in.

"I think that experience made me realize the importance of my heritage," Jessica Pegula said. "Asian people love other Asian people and Koreans loved her. She doesn't speak Korean, but they were so proud."

"Around that time is when I started to realize how important it was," said Pegula.

Jessica Pegula's own leadership decisions have followed her mother's example. She has been a member of the WTA Player's Council since 2020 and recently joined the Asian American Pacific Islander Tennis Association as a founding member of the board of directors.

"Even though I didn't exactly grow up fully Korean," Pegula said, "it's something that now I think me and my family and my sister have also wanted to learn more about because we realize how important it is for those that come over here and those that are in Asia, they see us in these different lights representing them when there's not a lot of us."

Jessica Pegula will be on the biggest stage of her career when she faces  World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka for the US Open title on Saturday. The match is a rematch of last month's Cincinnati Open jard fought final, which Sabalenka won 6-3, 7-5.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

DOJ alleges former anti-PRC activist turned out to be a spy for China

Yuanjun Tang,may have been a spy for the government he protested against.

A United States citizen who was a pro-democracy activist in China and was granted asylum by the US was charged as being an unregistered agent of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Yuanjun Tang, 67, who became a US  citizen was charged by criminal complaint with acting and conspiring to act in the PRC) and making materially false statements to the FBI. Tang was arrested earlier this week in Flushing, Queens.

Tang allegedly used his personal history as a pro-democracy activist to infiltrate anti-PRC groups in the United States.

According to court documents, Tang is a former PRC citizen who was imprisoned in the PRC for his activities as a dissident opposing the one-party authoritarian political system controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the PRC’s sole ruling party. 

In or about 2002, Tang defected to Taiwan; he was subsequently granted political asylum in the United States and has since resided in Queens, New York City, where he has regularly participated in events with fellow PRC dissidents and leads a nonprofit dedicated to promoting democracy in China.

Spying on anti-PRC dissidents

Between at least in or about 2018 and in or about June 2023, Tang acted in the United States as an agent of the PRC by completing tasks at the direction of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), which is the PRC’s principal civilian intelligence agency. The MSS is responsible for, among other things, the PRC’s foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, espionage and political security functions.

Specifically, through a particular email account, encrypted chats, text messages and audio and video calls, Tang regularly received instructions from and reported to an MSS intelligence officer regarding individuals and groups viewed by the PRC as potentially adverse to the PRC’s interests, including prominent US-based Chinese democracy activists and dissidents. 

He also traveled at least three times for face-to-face meetings with MSS intelligence officers and helped the MSS infiltrate a group chat on an encrypted messaging application used by numerous PRC dissidents and pro-democracy activists to communicate about pro-democracy issues and express criticism of the PRC government. 

US authorities recovered instructions Tang received from the MSS and photographs, videos and documents that he collected or created for transmission to the MSS from numerous electronic devices and accounts belonging to Tang.

Tang also made materially false statements to the FBI. He falsely claimed that he was no longer able to access an email account through which he had communicated with his MSS handler through draft emails.

Tang is charged with one count of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; one count of acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and one count of making false statements, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. 

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy to the US said he was unaware of the details of the case.

Before fleeing China, Yuanjun, a native of China’s northeastern Jilin province, had been sentenced by the Chinese authorities to 20 years in prison for taking part in the 1989 democracy movement that resulted in the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing, serving eight years before being released.

He remained active in advocating for democracy in China and was repeatedly detained, questioned and harassed by the authorities before fleeing to Taiwan, according to a Taipei-based rights group that helped with his asylum bid in 2002.

PRC infiltratration of America

Tang's alleged activities is part of the PRC's aggressive strategy to harass and intimidate US citizens and US residents and influence US policy towards the PRC. 

The Justice Department has charged numerous individuals tied to transnational repression cases in recent years.

Communities of dissidents and pro-democracy activists living in the US have long been targets of China's intelligence agency, which uses the families of the activists still living in the mainland as a form of coercion as prosecutors alleged occurred in Tang's case.

On Wednesday, the DOJ filed charges agains Linda Sun, who used to be a top-ranked aid of New York Gov. Linda Horchul. In her influential position, she put the PRC in highly visible situations to receive honors for good promote that country in the public's eye. At the same time as the PRC was receiving praise, she blocked Taiwan from receiving similar honors and meetings with New York officials.

Earlier this month, a New York jury convicted a naturalized US citizen of Chinese dissent who led a pro-democracy group of secretly working with Chinese intelligence officers to surveille dissidents.

And last year, the FBI arrested two defendants on charges that they set up and operated an illegal Chinese police station in the middle of New York City in order to influence and intimidate critics of the Chinese government in the US.

The charges against Tang and the other alleged suspects has shaken the Chinese diaspora, especially those critical of the PRC. However, some were not surprised.

Mike Gao, a Chinese American lawyer who said he has known Tang for 20 years, told Radio Free Asia that Tang’s attitudes toward the Communist government in China appeared to soften as he grew older.

“He’s changed somewhat in recent years, often criticizing the student movement for being too aggressive during the Tiananmen protests,” Gao told RFA in an interview. “I had many face-to-face debates with him about this, and I confronted him, ‘Why don’t you condemn the Chinese government instead for the massacre?’”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.