I remember attending an Asian Students Association meeting at the University of Virginia to hear from the guest lecturer
Ronald Takaki, whom I had known about because of
his book condemning the
United States's use of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The students' excitement was as if a diety had entered the room, and it was really the first time I remember considering ethnicity and identity to be important. Professor Takaki was a
leading figure in the movement for multiculturalism in education.
India in the West: South Asians in America was published in 1995 as part of a series of books designed for young adult readers. It is adapted and reprinted from his 1989 classic
Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans.
