“Post 328 is a living memorial to all the veterans, both Asian American and not, who have come from the Boston community and served America with honor and distinction.” -Post Commander Matthew Seto.
Boston Chinatown’s Post 328 has advocated on behalf of veterans, service members, and the local community for more than 75 years. Founded after World War II, Post 328 originally helped negotiate benefits for veterans and their families, helping many take advantage of the GI Bill of Rights, which included full tuition for education expenses, low interest loans, and unemployment benefits. Membership in the American Legion was originally limited to veterans who served in the military during a time of active conflict, and to any veteran who served in the military since the start of World War II on December 7th, 1941. Post 328 also works to understand the needs of more recent veterans.
The efforts of the Post are also visible via two “Hero Squares”, which are street sign intersections dedicated to the memory of a service member killed in action. The two Hero Squares in Boston Chinatown are in honor of George Oi (located at the intersection of Beach St and Hudson St) and Edward Wong (located at the intersection of Beach St and Harrison Ave). Both Oi and Wong were native Bostonians killed in action during World War II.
The American Legion is a national non-profit organization for American veterans that seeks to support the interests of veterans and service members, while also promoting the community, state, and nation. There are over 12,000 Posts across communities in the U.S., and over 300 Posts in Massachusetts alone. Post 328 is unique in that it is based in Boston Chinatown and it is largely composed of Asian-American Veterans.
On behalf of the community, the Post has championed many community engagement programs, such as leadership programs for youth, hospital rehabilitation, toy drives, Christmas parties for children, and numerous educational scholarships. Other major past achievements of the Post include the preservation of the community South Cove YMCA, which later became the Wang YMCA located at 8 Oak St W in the 1950s, and the establishment of the Post 328 Chinatown Youth Marching band in 1994.
The Post continues to decorate veterans’ graves and Hero Squares for Memorial Day and has been a regular participant in the annual Veterans’ Day Parade. The Post was also recognized as having one of the largest veterans’ contingents at the 2019 St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The Post is currently working on creating a traveling educational exhibit called the Chinese American Veterans Heritage Project.
In an interview with Post commander and Adjutant David Ching and Post commander Matt Seto, they expressed grave concern about the Asian hate rhetoric in this country. Although the role of the Post has changed in the last 75 years, Seto believes its place in the community is as important as ever. Seto believes the Post is important for Asian American representation. In 2019 when the Post first started marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston, Seto recalls “there were a bunch of people pointing at [veterans from Post 328] and saying, ‘What are they doing [in the St Patrick’s Day Parade]?’, which made me realize how important it is that there are Asian American veterans represented [in the public eye].” Seto says that “people don’t see enough Asian American faces, especially American veterans.”
The Post will create a permanent memorial to honor the service of Asian Americans in the United States military. Since 2017, Seto and then-commander Warren Yee have been raising funds to construct a memorial for Chinese American Veterans in Chinatown. Inspired by similar memorials in cities such as New York or Chicago, the proposed memorial in Boston’s Chinatown seeks to highlight Chinese American veterans and their contributions to the Chinatown community. However, despite ample planning and motivation from the Post, the Post’s efforts have been met with bureaucratic challenges. In addition to memorializing the contributions of Chinese American veterans, Ching states “We dedicated our lives for our country. We need to show everybody that Chinese Americans are part of America.” David Ching invites everyone to march with the Post at the next Veterans Day parade in November. Contact David at daching80@gmail.com for more information.
