[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 19 (Monday, May 12, 1997)]
[Pages 649-650]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6998--Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, 1997

May 5, 1996

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Today, almost 10 million Americans can trace their roots to Asia and 
the Pacific Islands. This month provides a wonderful opportunity to 
recognize and celebrate all the ways in which Asian and Pacific 
Americans have enhanced our Nation and strengthened our communities.
    North America was visited regularly by Asian and Pacific traders as 
early as the 16th century, and by the late 1800s, this continent was 
receiving large numbers of immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, the 
Philippines, and the Indian subcontinent. These settlers worked hard, 
turning wilderness into bountiful farmland in Hawaii, opening new 
industries in the West, and helping to build the first transcontinental 
railroad.
    Along with a vast array of skills, Americans of Asian and Pacific 
Island ancestry brought their remarkable traditions of hard work and 
respect for family and education to their new country. Their belief in 
the American Dream of equality and opportunity enabled them to face the 
challenges of adversity and discrimination and achieve a record of 
distinguished service in all fields, from academia to government, from 
business to the military, and medicine to the arts. These people and 
their children managed to preserve the rich legacy

[[Page 650]]

of their homelands while also embracing the best values and traditions 
that define our Nation.
    In recent years, newly arrived groups of Asian and Pacific peoples 
have continued to enrich our proud tradition of cultural diversity and 
endow our Nation with energy and vision. Today, as we prepare to enter 
the 21st century, we must continually strive to fulfill the ideals that 
originally attracted so many immigrants to our shores.
    To honor the accomplishments of Asian and Pacific Americans and to 
recognize their many contributions to our Nation, the Congress, by 
Public Law 102-450, has designated the month of May as ``Asian/Pacific 
American Heritage Month.''
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1997 as Asian/Pacific American 
Heritage Month. I call upon the people of the United States to observe 
this occasion with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand on this fifth day of 
May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-first.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:27 a.m., May 6, 1997]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on May 7.