Spacious Dreams

Day of spacious dreams!
I sailed for America,
Overblown with hope.
—Ichiyo, a Japanese immigrant

Spacious Dreams tells the story of the first wave of Asian immigration to the United States and Canada, beginning with the importation of Chinese laborers to work on the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii in the 1850s. In the next half century, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Asian Indians joined the Chinese in forming a rich, ethnically diverse community, whose struggles and achievements have yet to be fully accepted as part of the American experience.

Ronald Takaki is Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and is himself the grandson of Japanese immigrants. Based on his acclaimed history of Asian Americans, Strangers from a Different Shore, Professor Takaki's narrative draws heavily upon personal recollections, allowing Asian Americans, the fastest growing in North America, to tell of their hopes and dreams in their own words.