9-11 APA Book Published: Betty Ann Ong’s family reflects on her role and congressional investigation
January 30, 2004
A pioneering compilation of essays, photographs, and artwork — telling in part how Sept. 11 impacted Asian Pacific Americans— has now been published under the title of Voice of Healing: Spirit and Unity After 9/11 in the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community.
At a West Coast book premiere staged at Los Angeles’ new Chinatown public library, Cathie Ong Herrera fought back tears as she praised how the book remembered her late sister — former American Airlines Flight Attendant Betty Ann Ong. Ong — a San Francisco native — was on Flight 11 (Boston to Los Angeles) when terrorists commandeered her plane, but she was able to contact authorities on the ground and tell them what was happening.
“It is very difficult for me to be able to not be emotional [about] everything. I have to talk about it,” said Herrera. “My family and I had the opportunity to hear a recording of that conversation in January 2002. We’ve been wanting for the public to hear it, and finally now it’s going to happen. It’s going to be a day we’re going to be proud of. At the same time, it’s going to be emotional for my family.” (The recording was played at a hearing on Jan. 27.)
Holding a stack of the new 132-page books to take home to her family and friends, Herrera also expressed concern about the efforts by the Bush Administration to bring the hearings to a close.
“I don’t agree with what’s happening,” Herrera added. “I really feel the public deserves to know the truth. And I feel if the commission needs to have an extension on their time to do a complete investigation, I think they should be granted it.”
Congressional hearings are underway in Washington, D.C. in an effort to find out if the acts of terrorism could have been prevented and what steps must be taken to prevent it from happening again.
Other people recognize the need to bring closure to this matter. L.A. City Fire Inspector Lloyd Fukuda was at Ground Zero for 11 days providing stress management help to both firefighters and to local citizens.
“A lot of us would like to move on,” he said. “It was so painful to all of us. There were numerous experiences. I’ve written down a lot of it, but I just couldn’t finish it after I got through 10 pages of writing.”
A combination of events took place that made Voice of Healing a reality. Following the tragedies, Deborah Ching, president of Los Angeles’ Chinatown Service Center, and Kathay Feng, Organization of Chinese Americans’ national secretary, asked each other what were the roles of Asian Pacific Americans in these historic events and how they would be remembered. They began to look into the possibility of creating a book on the subject.
“As we started to look at some of the possible options,” Feng recollected, “we thought there were so many stories that needed to be told. There were so many pictures and images that have never been published. As we talked about it more, we realized that a book would not only tell about the tragedies of 9-11, but also about the heroism of people and those who came forward and gave generously of their time, their blood and their resources. We knew something like this could fill up hundreds of pages.”
Ching also feels the book will help people realize that Asian Pacific Americans are also truly American.
“Faces that look like ours are also American faces,” she said, underscoring one of the book’s important themes. “Because of how we look does not mean we’re less involved or less impacted by the things that happen to this country. And our support for this country and our sacrifice for this country is as much as any other American. When people look at this book, I think they’ll see that.”
Following the Sept. 11 tragedies at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Cathay Bank joined with OCA to set up a non-profit organization called “9/11 Healing Hands.” The bank donated $250,000 in seed money, and close to $400,000 was raised to help relief agencies dealing with the tragedies and the impact to New York’s Chinatown. OCA officials say remaining funds were applied toward the publication of the Voice of Healing book.
Wilson Tang, a regional vice president for the bank, told the audience Cathay Bank “plans to donate copies of Voices of Healing to various libraries, schools and community centers to educate the community about this tragic event.” OCA is also distributing the books to local libraries and schools across the country through its local chapters.
Sam Luk, national executive vice president for OCA, said, “The story of what happened to New York’s Chinatown was unreported or overlooked largely by the public agencies and the relief agencies. Our community not only felt the shock and anger but they also were patriotic.”
OCA provided researchers to collect interviews and historical photographs and helped to edit the stories featured in the book. Editorial director and book publisher Icy Smith feels this support was very important.
“It took about a year to put together this book,” she said. “It was a tough job choosing the submissions. Reading letters from the Chinese community to the radio stations was really touching and also interviewing heroes. One of the stories was about Rebecca Canalija, an emergency nurse at the NYU Downtown Hospital. When I interviewed her, she just cried and cried — even two years after 9-11. She still can not forget about that horrific day, the charred bodies and the agonizing moans.”
To learn more about the new book and ordering it, visit OCA’s website at: www.ocanatl.org. The book retails for $24.99 plus shipping and is co-published by the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) and East West Discovery Press.
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