As a young opera star, Shimozumi encountered frequent incredulity at her unaccented English from those who assumed she a Japanese national. During World War II she was sent to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center solely because of her Japanese ancestry.
Journalist and activist who documented the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during WWII
Chinese American civil rights and labor activist whose support for causes such as the Black Power movement, feminism, and the environment spanned over 70 years.
Civil rights and community activist
Sue Kunitomi Embrey understood the need to recognize and protect places that are powerful parts of our national memory and used her civic voice to advocate for those places.
After attending Harvard Medical School, Nancy Chang’s career trajectory led her to cofound Tanox (now part of Genentech), a company that sought remedies for asthma and allergies through genetic engineering.
With just two employees, a master brewer’s certificate, and her father’s blessing, Mazumdar-Shaw began a business specializing in industrial enzymes for food and textile makers that now reaches around the globe.
An ambitious teenaged Uma Chowdhry (1947–2024) left her home in India to study physics and engineering in the United States. But after falling in love with chemistry, particularly materials science, the study of solids at the molecular level, Chowdhry decided to work in industrial research.
Dr. Margaret “Mom” Chung was the first Chinese American woman to become a physician. She founded one of the first Western medical clinics in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1920s. During World War II, she and her widespread network of “adopted sons,” most of them American soldiers, sailors, and airmen who called her “Mom,” became famous.
Esteemed Chinese empress who dedicated her life to serving as a stabilizing force and wise advisor within the imperial court.