In April I went to California for work and went up to San Francisco to spend the weekend with Ray's family. Ray had flown out in the middle of the week to spend time with his mom.
Saturday we all took the ferry out to Angel Island. Angel Island is where the undesirable asian immigrants were sent during the early part of the 20th century. Kind of like Ellis Island but much more servere. Joe Chow, Ray's dad and Joe's mom. arrived at Angel Island around 1930, when Joe was around 6 (maybe 4?). Hid dad had come to the US earlier, and then sent for his wife and son. The US did not really want a six y.o. and a young woman; but eventually they let them in. Unfortunatley, Joe's mom had diabetes, and died when he was still a kid. Joe had some colorful stories about helping his dad in the restaurant business - he owned a Chinese take out joint right across the entrance from a major auto plant in Detroit.
Joe went on to be in the top of his public high school class, went to Michigan State, and University of Michigan. His profession was a nuclear metallurgist, and his career was at Brookhaven National Labs; to make money he imported sails from China. Not a dumb guy.
The US in 1946 tried to deport Joe because he was Chinese. This is what is wrong with our immigration policy. The US wanted to deport a great, personable, intelligent, talented, wonderful guy who only wanted to raise his kids and contribute to society. Because he had asian features the US wanted to send him to Communist China - where he was basically illiterate- because he was an educated American. Today we do that with other classes of immigrants.
Joe's metallurgical research was on nuclear containment - I have searched his patents.Aside from being extermely intelligent, and very charming, he was a great dad and family man. When I met Joe, I knew that Ray was the man that I wanted to marry.
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