>> Erika Gee grew up like any other Los Angeles kid, playing with Barbie and
clutching on to Pooh Bear for dear life. But she was different. Her grandfather
was not who he said he was. He'd come to the United States from China illegally
as a Paper Son, paying about $1800 to attach himself to another family.
>> I found out in high school. I was pretty surprised, and the legacy is that in
some ways our family came in illegally, and I was wondering are we going to get
deported?
>> Now, 35 years old, Erika Gee is with the Angel Island Immigration Station
Foundation, an organization that has researched Paper Sons.
>> Who are these people? They don't have the same last name as us. How could
they be related to us?
>> One scholar estimates 150,000 Paper Sons and Daughters committed this crime
to navigate around the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
>> We have to remember the times. It was during the Chinese Exclusion Act, and
at the time, and still is today, the only law in the U.S. immigration history
books that specifically excluded a specific group of people, and those were
Chinese laborers.
>> 125 years ago this month, the Chinese Exclusion Act was approved by Congress.
It stated that in the opinion of the government of the United States, the coming
of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain
localities.
>> The fear among the Californians and those especially in the Bay area of all
these Chinese wanting to take over their jobs. These were all people that were
willing to work, that helped to build the railroads and yet when the railroads
were completed, all of a sudden there's this hysteria about the Chinese
invading.
>> For 61 years until 1943, it was illegal for Chinese who were not among the
elite to enter the United States. David Leong was a Paper Son. He was eight in
1940, the year he came through Angel Island Immigration Station, the main
gateway for Chinese immigrants. While on the boat for 20 days, he memorized his
coaching papers, grand cheat sheets, that outlined who your fake parents and
siblings were and who lived on certain blocks of your would-be family village in
China. Young David had to convince his Angel Island interrogators he was the son
of a Mr. Chan and not a Mr. Leong.
>> So this is the interrogation room. This is where you walked in after three
weeks and what do you remember of this?
>> I think it was me, interpreter and interrogator, and I think two people on
the panel.
>> Leong passed the interrogation, and that's why today he was able to return
with us to Angel Island Immigration Station. Today, there's only a rebuilt
foundation of where the main administration building once stood. As we walked,
Leong spoke about his acting ability as an 8-year-old and the life he escaped
from in China.
>> The Japanese was -- plane was shooting at us, and missing us but then
[inaudible] was hitting the sand, and the sand was rising just as you see in the
movies.
>> Leong escaped a war as well as dirt floor living conditions to come to the
United States. On Angel Island, he was alone with no family and recalls the
fears he had.
>> At night, I won't go to the bathroom at all. People -- I heard people had
commit suicide in there because they couldn't [inaudible].
>> The fear Leong shares is what litters the walls of the Angel Island barracks,
poems of melancholy retrospectives of life in China or simple hopes of freedom.
Daniel Quan is an architect specializing in museums and has been researching the
history of Angel Island for 13 years.
>> The frustration that was felt by many of the detainees was written on the
walls as a statement or sort of silent statement, and so for them, the feeling
was this was a prison because they were just being held with -- against their
will. And for a lot of people, this was -- they heard about the immigration
process in China but actually have experienced it and lived in the wooden
building as they called it -- was something very different for them because they
weren't used to be helding against their will.
>> Under reconstruction now, the barracks here at Angel Island Immigration
Station held some 300 detainees at a time. The purpose was to keep them here
from two weeks to two years as they were interrogated. They were trying to keep
out illegal immigrants, potential Paper Sons and potential Paper Daughters.
Today, no one can enter inside the buildings of Immigration Station. The walls
are falling, halls dangerous with holes in the floor and the paint mosaic of
delapidation. Still many visitors come to the island to learn about their own
past.
>> Often we've met people that come over here, and they learn about their
parents' past through researching the national archives or through meeting
people that have worked with Immigration Station project and didn't even know
about it through their own family.
>> That is because many Paper Sons and Daughters still feel embarrassment or
even fear of being deported to this day, which takes us back to Erika Gee. She
was lucky enough to hear from her own grandfather who broke his silence and told
her real family name was Chen. But some questions remain.
>> Are you glad that your grandfather committed the crime?
>> In some ways, no because it was a crime, but at the same time, I'm really
fortunate that he did, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the risks
that he took in order to come over to the United States and to provide a better
opportunity for his family.
>> And when asked about immigrants trying to do what her grandfather did a
century ago, she waivers.
>> I don't know. I don't know if I feel comfortable saying it's okay for people
to come in.
>> It's perplexing for you, isn't it?
>> Yeah.
>> Hundreds of thousands of Chinese Americans face a similar dilemma.
Researchers suggest that one in three Chinese Americans are survivors or
descendants of the Paper Son system. That's about one million people. And many
only learn of their background as a love one takes the paper secret to their
grave, which was the case for Erika's cousins.
>> Some of my cousins are a little confused because they don't read Chinese, and
-- but then they know our character Gee, and then they're like well where is it
on the tombstone?
>> Erika still visits her grandfather's grave site to pay her respects to a
tombstone that has not one but two names engraved. His Paper Son name in English
and his real name in Chinese. Richard Lui, CNN Oakland, California.