Takaki writes a descriptive narrative on the shadowed topic of Chinese Immigration in the 19th century. According to Takaki, large amounts of Chinese men began immigrating from China to the West Coast of the United States around 1850 because China was suffering from war, natural disasters, and high taxes. Coincidentally, this time period also marked the beginning of one of the most influential transportation projects in America - the Transcontinental Railroad. The Transcontinental Railroad is one of the United States greatest accomplishments of the 19th century.  At first, the Americans encouraged the Chinese to immigrate so they could work for the railroad companies, but the Chinese came in hopes to participate in the gold rush. Politicians created a “miners tax” that taxed anyone mining in California that was not a citizen three dollars a month. Chinese men could not become citizens because of a naturalization act passed in the 18th century that concluded only white immigrants could become citizens. This forced the Chinese away from the gold mines and into the railroad work force.  

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     The Central Pacific Railroad was appointed the job of building the railroad on the west side of the country. Still, this building project attracted the Chinese immigrants because they could make up to 10x the amount of money they would make a month in China by working for the Central Pacific Railroad.  They worked the more dangerous jobs on the railroad including operating power drills and handling explosives. At one point, they lived and worked in tunnels under sixty foot of snow. (Takaki, 145). The Chinese also worked for less money that white workers. When the Chinese went on strike for equal pay, they were isolated in the mountains and starved. The strike lasted a week. Ultimately, the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad was a Chinese accomplishment (Takaki).

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    Growth of a Nation, a 5th-grade textbook, also describes the process of building the Transcontinental Railroad. However, this text does not address the harsh details that involve racism and discrimination. When referencing the difficulties, the Central Pacific Railroad Company encountered when finding employees due to the draw to the gold mines, it states, “but thousands of young Chinese immigrants were interested in these (railroad) jobs” (Boyd, 132). The book fails to mention the reasoning of why Chinese immigrants were interested in railroad jobs. Instead of addressing the miner’s tax, the naturalization law, or the racism they faced the book mentions the Chinese workers were treated “unfairly” at mining camps. The book continues to describe the harsh jobs the miners held such as using explosives but never provides details regarding unequal pay and strike attempts. Takaki writes that the Central Pacific Railroad was a Chinese accomplishment, but the textbook only tells of the “Golden Spike” that was dug into the railroad upon completion by the president of the Central Pacific, a white American man (Boyd, 133).