In 1977 Congress chose the first ten days of May to commemorate the history and contributions of Asian American communities here in the United States. The week's observance became a month, the very month in which the first Japanese immigrants came to the United States in 1843.  Americans also commemorate the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869 as the majority of workers who laid those railroad tracks were Chinese immigrants. 

The communities celebrated during American Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month have origins in many countries that the Asia-Pacific region encompasses, which includes the entirety of the Asian continent, as well as the Pacific Islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, and the Federated States of Micronesia), and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and Easter Island). Coming from such a wide geographical area, the Asian American and Pacific Islander community has a rich and varied history and culture to learn more about all month long.