May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
The U.S. Census Bureau classifies Asian, Asian Pacific or Asian American and Pacific Islander as including people having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam; and any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands, including, for example, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, and Tonga.
As of 2024, it is estimated that there are 26.8 million Asian Americans in the U.S.
Like most commemorative months, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month originated with Congress.
The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the U.S., NAKAHAMA Manjiro, on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.
In 1978, Reps. Frank Horton of New York introduced House Joint Resolution 1007. This resolution proposed that the President should “proclaim a week, which is to include the seventh and tenth of the month, during the first ten days in May of 1979 as ‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.’” This joint resolution was passed by the House and then the Senate and was signed by President Jimmy Carter on October 5, 1978 to become Public Law 95-419. This law amended the original language of the bill and directed the President to issue a proclamation for the “7 day period beginning on May 4, 1979 as ‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.’”
During the next decade, presidents passed annual proclamations for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week until 1990 when Congress passed Public Law 101-283 which expanded the observance to a month for 1990. In 1991, Public Law 102-42 continued the month long observance, but only for 1991 and 1992.
Then in 1992, Congress passed Public Law 102-450 which annually designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.
Proclamations have continued in subsequent administrations, with some proclamations applying different names to the month, such as President Barack Obama signing Proclamation 8369 in 2009 recognizing May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and President Joe Biden signing Proclamation 10189 in 2021 recognizing May as Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. In his 2025 proclamation, President Donald Trump mentioned both Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.
Learn more about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, events you can attend and places you can visit, Asian culture, and notable Asian Pacific Americans at these and other sites:
- The Smithsonian Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month page
- The Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month .gov page
- The National Park Service Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month page
- The City and County of San Francisco Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month page
text adapted from AsianPacificHeritage.gov (https://asianpacificheritage.gov/About.html), the APA Heritage Foundation (https://apasf.org/about), and the U.S. Census Bureau (https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2026/asian-american-pacific-islander.html, and https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html).