| The Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is a
federal celebration, signed by the United States Congress on October 28, 1992,
in Public Law 102-450, to recognize the contributions of Asian Pacific Americans
in all walks of life to this nation. The driving force behind the initial
proclamation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month took place two decades ago
when Jeannie Jew and her associate Ruby Moy, then personal assistant to
Representative Frank Horton, R-NY, pounded the halls of Congress to get the
first Asian Pacific American Heritage Week declared. In June 1997, Horton
and then Representative Norman Mineta, D-CA, introduced House Resolution 540,
which proclaimed the first 10 days of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage
Week. A month later, senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga
introduced a similar legislation into the Senate. On October 2, 1978,
President Jimmy Carter signed the Joint Resolution and the first Asian Pacific
American Heritage Week was celebrated in May 1979. A similar law was
passed each year until May 1990 when the week-long celebration was extended to a
full month. But since the resolution did not contain an annual
designation, Jew and her supporters had to lobby for the commemorative law to be
re-authorized each year.
On October 23, 1992, President George Bush
signed Public Law 102-450 to permanently designate May of each year as Asian
Pacific American Heritage Month.
Many Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
activities are scheduled throughout May at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
However, Wright State University observes Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
in April in order to avoid conflicts with their academic schedule.
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Note: The above map is only
intended to give a rough idea about the positions of the countries.
Please do NOT try to make any political sense out of this map.
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