Ghost town's Chinatown uncovered

By Soe Han Tha

ASAM NEWS

DURING HIS 2015 visit to the ghost town of Calico in California, Calvin W. Lew stumbled upon the ghost town’s Chinatown.

Calico, according to San Bernardino County, is “an old West mining town that has been around since 1881 during the largest silver strike in California.” However, “when silver lost its value in the mid-1890’s, Calico lost its population. The miners packed up, loaded their mules and moved away abandoning the town that once gave them a good living.”

While viewing the records and maps in a mini museum, Lew came across a map that said “Chinatown.” After following the map, he encountered evidence of Calico’s Chinese community. For example, there was a “Chinese bath tub,” which said back scrub 5 cents and full scrub 10 cents. Lew believes the tubs are an example of “the Chinese entrepreneurial spirit.”

Indications and signage about Calico’s Chinatown, though, were absent until Lew informed the office of Calico.

Lew hopes to educate others about history by bringing history alive. “I differ from most historians because I don’t nitpick projects like “This is wrong, that is wrong.” I want to bring history alive through movies or experiences.” 

Lew, however, wants to avoid feeding the public whatever is trending or already popular. “Instead of writing a book about Alexander Hamilton” to ride the wave of the musical Hamilton, for example, Lew believes his responsibility as a historian is “to highlight history that isn’t well-known.”

Lew received his bachelor’s degree in East Asian History, Film & Cinema from the University of California, San Diego. He pursued postgraduate Asian studies at Harvard University. However, after some reflection, Lew made the choice to swap Asian studies for something he described as “more practical:” Information Management Systems. When asked about how he feels about this decision today, Lew told AsAmNews, “People will have to make choices in life all the time…Money allows you to pursue your passions.”

With the financial independence and travel that come with his career in IT management, Lew has continued stoking the fires of his passion for Asian American history. He is doing research on his book on Lost Chinatowns, an idea he came up with for his masters thesis at Harvard. “Everywhere I go for business or pleasure, I go to the historical sites and talk to the people there.” His curiosity led him to discover Calico’s Chinatown.

Lew believes that West coast Chinatowns no longer hold the same significance today. “Most of the Chinatowns in the West has died out due to Asian American success. Asian Americans have integrated into American society. More of us live in the suburbs now.”

In contrast, Chinatowns elsewhere continue to play an important role for Chinese Americans. “In the East coast, it’s like back in the days. I love Boston Chinatown, New York Chinatown, Chicago Chinatown. These Chinatowns back east are how Chinatowns used to be in the West coast.” Lew believes that Chinatowns bring the Chinese community outside of Asia together.

Lew’s focus on Chinatown stems from his experience growing up in Southern California as an Asian American. “Back in the day in Southern California, every weekend, people would drive two hours to Los Angeles Chinatown for dim sum," he reminisced. "And you would see everyone you know because everybody’s there to eat dim sum and to hang out.”

The significance of the Great Port Chicago Explosion

A little bit of important history took place almost next door 70 years ago. Historians are starting to recognize that the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces began in a small unknown base in Port Chicago, just a few miles from where I live.

The deadliest home front disaster occurred in 1944 and took the lives of 322 sailors, 220 of them African American. The Port Chicago Weapons Magazine, later to be known as the Concord Naval Weapons Station, was the main munitions supply depot for the war in the Pacific Theater during WWII and during the Korean War.

The black sailors who volunteered to fight the enemy were instead assigned the unglamorous job of loading ammunition aboard ships. It was dangerous work and the sailors - without any proper training -- were encouraged to speed up their already unsafe work. When the sailors refused to work under dangerous conditions, they were threatened with court martial. Most of them returned to work but 50 remained steadfast in their refusal. Those 50 were placed in the brig and eventually court martialed, 

Years later, 49 of the 50 sailors were pardoned (but, not exonerated.) The one holdout maintained that what they did was not treasonous and refused the pardon.

The blast leveled the surrounding area in a mile radius and could be heard as far away as Vallejo, a distance of about 25 miles. (Unsubstantiated rumors say there was a nuclear device involved because that was about the time the U.S. began testing the nuclear bomb drop out in the Pacific.)

The explosion and the aftermath fought to the forefront the segregation that existed in the U.S. military through World War II. (That's why we had the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed 442nd Regiment made up of second-generation Japanese American,  and the 1st Filipino Regiment.

The Navy was the first branch of the U.S. military to desegregate which led to President Truman's order to desegregate all the Armed Forces. Many of the black soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought for our country came back home to a country that deprived them of the rights they fought for. They  came to realize the gap between the military opportunities and the way they were treated in civilian life. As part of the Greatest Generation, they helped fuel the Civil Rights Movement.

Here's a great column about the Port Chicago explosion by Tom Barnidge of the Contra Costa Times: http://www.contracostatimes.com/barnidge/ci_26179065/barnidge-civil-rights-lessons-port-chicago-disaster-still