0:00:00.010,0:00:05.529
>> Erika Gee grew up like any other Los Angeles kid, playing with Barbie and

0:00:05.529,0:00:10.689
clutching on to Pooh Bear for dear life. But she was different. Her grandfather

0:00:10.709,0:00:16.190
was not who he said he was. He'd come to the United States from China illegally

0:00:16.210,0:00:22.230
as a Paper Son, paying about $1800 to attach himself to another family.

0:00:22.250,0:00:28.550
>> I found out in high school. I was pretty surprised, and the legacy is that in

0:00:28.570,0:00:33.729
some ways our family came in illegally, and I was wondering are we going to get

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deported?

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>> Now, 35 years old, Erika Gee is with the Angel Island Immigration Station

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Foundation, an organization that has researched Paper Sons.

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>> Who are these people? They don't have the same last name as us. How could

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they be related to us?

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>> One scholar estimates 150,000 Paper Sons and Daughters committed this crime

0:00:54.559,0:00:57.479
to navigate around the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

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>> We have to remember the times. It was during the Chinese Exclusion Act, and

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at the time, and still is today, the only law in the U.S. immigration history

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books that specifically excluded a specific group of people, and those were

0:01:12.569,0:01:14.950
Chinese laborers.

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>> 125 years ago this month, the Chinese Exclusion Act was approved by Congress.

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It stated that in the opinion of the government of the United States, the coming

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of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain

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localities.

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>> The fear among the Californians and those especially in the Bay area of all

0:01:34.089,0:01:38.290
these Chinese wanting to take over their jobs. These were all people that were

0:01:38.310,0:01:42.409
willing to work, that helped to build the railroads and yet when the railroads

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were completed, all of a sudden there's this hysteria about the Chinese

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invading.

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>> For 61 years until 1943, it was illegal for Chinese who were not among the

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elite to enter the United States. David Leong was a Paper Son. He was eight in

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1940, the year he came through Angel Island Immigration Station, the main

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gateway for Chinese immigrants. While on the boat for 20 days, he memorized his

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coaching papers, grand cheat sheets, that outlined who your fake parents and

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siblings were and who lived on certain blocks of your would-be family village in

0:02:19.120,0:02:24.949
China. Young David had to convince his Angel Island interrogators he was the son

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of a Mr. Chan and not a Mr. Leong.

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>> So this is the interrogation room. This is where you walked in after three

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weeks and what do you remember of this?

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>> I think it was me, interpreter and interrogator, and I think two people on

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the panel.

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>> Leong passed the interrogation, and that's why today he was able to return

0:02:49.819,0:02:54.439
with us to Angel Island Immigration Station. Today, there's only a rebuilt

0:02:54.459,0:02:59.189
foundation of where the main administration building once stood. As we walked,

0:02:59.209,0:03:03.609
Leong spoke about his acting ability as an 8-year-old and the life he escaped

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from in China.

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>> The Japanese was -- plane was shooting at us, and missing us but then

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[inaudible] was hitting the sand, and the sand was rising just as you see in the

0:03:17.759,0:03:19.489
movies.

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>> Leong escaped a war as well as dirt floor living conditions to come to the

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United States. On Angel Island, he was alone with no family and recalls the

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fears he had.

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>> At night, I won't go to the bathroom at all. People -- I heard people had

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commit suicide in there because they couldn't [inaudible].

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>> The fear Leong shares is what litters the walls of the Angel Island barracks,

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poems of melancholy retrospectives of life in China or simple hopes of freedom.

0:03:50.899,0:03:55.419
Daniel Quan is an architect specializing in museums and has been researching the

0:03:55.439,0:03:57.779
history of Angel Island for 13 years.

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>> The frustration that was felt by many of the detainees was written on the

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walls as a statement or sort of silent statement, and so for them, the feeling

0:04:10.280,0:04:13.619
was this was a prison because they were just being held with -- against their

0:04:13.619,0:04:18.720
will. And for a lot of people, this was -- they heard about the immigration

0:04:18.740,0:04:24.259
process in China but actually have experienced it and lived in the wooden

0:04:24.279,0:04:29.319
building as they called it -- was something very different for them because they

0:04:29.339,0:04:31.389
weren't used to be helding against their will.

0:04:31.389,0:04:35.959
>> Under reconstruction now, the barracks here at Angel Island Immigration

0:04:35.979,0:04:40.290
Station held some 300 detainees at a time. The purpose was to keep them here

0:04:40.310,0:04:44.100
from two weeks to two years as they were interrogated. They were trying to keep

0:04:44.120,0:04:49.470
out illegal immigrants, potential Paper Sons and potential Paper Daughters.

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Today, no one can enter inside the buildings of Immigration Station. The walls

0:04:54.209,0:04:59.050
are falling, halls dangerous with holes in the floor and the paint mosaic of

0:04:59.069,0:05:03.829
delapidation. Still many visitors come to the island to learn about their own

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past.

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>> Often we've met people that come over here, and they learn about their

0:05:09.649,0:05:15.230
parents' past through researching the national archives or through meeting

0:05:15.250,0:05:20.329
people that have worked with Immigration Station project and didn't even know

0:05:20.349,0:05:22.030
about it through their own family.

0:05:22.050,0:05:26.129
>> That is because many Paper Sons and Daughters still feel embarrassment or

0:05:26.149,0:05:31.500
even fear of being deported to this day, which takes us back to Erika Gee. She

0:05:31.519,0:05:35.500
was lucky enough to hear from her own grandfather who broke his silence and told

0:05:35.519,0:05:39.399
her real family name was Chen. But some questions remain.

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>> Are you glad that your grandfather committed the crime?

0:05:43.339,0:05:49.670
>> In some ways, no because it was a crime, but at the same time, I'm really

0:05:49.689,0:05:55.810
fortunate that he did, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the risks

0:05:55.829,0:05:58.500
that he took in order to come over to the United States and to provide a better

0:05:58.500,0:06:00.370
opportunity for his family.

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>> And when asked about immigrants trying to do what her grandfather did a

0:06:03.930,0:06:06.129
century ago, she waivers.

0:06:06.149,0:06:09.669
>> I don't know. I don't know if I feel comfortable saying it's okay for people

0:06:09.669,0:06:12.449
to come in.

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>> It's perplexing for you, isn't it?

0:06:13.490,0:06:15.160
>> Yeah.

0:06:15.180,0:06:18.879
>> Hundreds of thousands of Chinese Americans face a similar dilemma.

0:06:18.899,0:06:22.959
Researchers suggest that one in three Chinese Americans are survivors or

0:06:22.979,0:06:28.240
descendants of the Paper Son system. That's about one million people. And many

0:06:28.259,0:06:31.699
only learn of their background as a love one takes the paper secret to their

0:06:31.699,0:06:34.089
grave, which was the case for Erika's cousins.

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>> Some of my cousins are a little confused because they don't read Chinese, and

0:06:39.949,0:06:45.699
-- but then they know our character Gee, and then they're like well where is it

0:06:45.719,0:06:46.879
on the tombstone?

0:06:46.899,0:06:50.939
>> Erika still visits her grandfather's grave site to pay her respects to a

0:06:50.959,0:06:56.850
tombstone that has not one but two names engraved. His Paper Son name in English

0:06:56.870,0:06:59.620
and his real name in Chinese. Richard Lui, CNN Oakland, California.