The Chinese American WWII Veterans Digital Resource and Archive is a comprehensive four-year digital editing project that builds on content from the book, Honor and Duty: The Chinese American WWII Veterans © 2020 Heritage Series, LLC, which was published and released on Veteran’s Day–November 11, 2020. The book identifies 22,827 Chinese American WWII veterans and contains over 20,000 service records. Information from enlistment cards, Form 53-55 (now known as Form DD214), separation papers, and discharge records provide extensive details about each veteran. In advance of the book’s publication a documentary film, Honor and Duty: The Mississippi Delta Chinese, © 2016 Heritage Series, LLC, was released using content and research for the book.
The scope of this innovative project will create the first digital resource and archive of these public and private records, acknowledging Chinese and Chinese American veterans of WWII. No single repository or archive exists today that compiles the names of the Chinese and Chinese Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and U.S. Merchant Marine Corps (hereafter referred to as the U.S. Armed Forces). Their service has been largely excluded from the WWII historical record, overlooked in U.S. history books, academic publications, popular culture and media, inadvertently erasing part of the Chinese American contribution to U.S. history.
The Chinese American WWII Veterans Digital Resource and Archive will be developed, hosted, and maintained by the CDE and published on the project’s website (www.ww2cavets.com). Site development will take place in Drupal, a highly configurable, open-source content management system and publication platform. The platform, based on content management systems developed by the CDE for other editorial projects, will be adapted to this project’s content and workflow management, accessibility, and publication goals.
Project Director: E. Samantha Cheng
