Amerasian Identity

The term Amerasian has two uses. It is often used to refer to people born in Asia with one Asian and one American parent, especially the children of U.S. soldiers and Asian mothers. Large numbers of Amerasians, defined in this way, have been born in the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. Sometimes the term is used more broadly to include all children of mixed Asian and non-Asian American ancestry. U.S. Census estimates indicate that there were close to two million individuals of mixed Asian and non-Asian heritage in the United States by 2008. The majority were young people, attending educational institutions in the United States. The immigrant children of U.S. servicemen have often faced difficult questions of personal identity that have posed special ...