Lost Poetry / From a Former Detainee

Henry Wong

Image of Wong Gong Jue (Henry Wong) from the National Archives

“On August 3, 1991, when I returned to Angel Island at age 80, I remembered the poem I had written on the wall. The poem was written with a gold-tipped Watermark fountain pen - a gift from my godfather in Denver, CO - on the wood of the hallway wall in the barracks.

This poem I wrote in August 1927 at the Angel Island Immigration Station. I had been interviewed several times by inspectors during the past half-year. Yet I was still waiting to be called regarding admission.”

Henry Wong

 
AIISF's Voices of Resilience, curated by Russell Nauman, Operations Manager and Edward Tepporn, Executive Director, 2020.

Images provided by Russell Nauman, 2020.
Poem and translation provided by the family of Henry Wong, 2004.