In 2011, physical and mental hazing by fellow service members and superiors preceded the deaths by suicide of Marine Lance Corporal Harry Lew, of Santa Clara, Calif., and Army Private Danny Chen, of New York, N.Y. The deaths occured within six months of each other in Afghanistan.

For Pvt. Chen, the torment included a barrage of racist taunts such as “gook,” “chink” and “dragon lady.” While serving stateside and in Afghanistan, he was subjected to racial harassment, sometimes on a daily basis. In Afghanistan, he was constantly asked by other soldiers if he was from China. He was called ethnic slurs. Chen was forced by his superior officers to perform do a disproportionate number of sit-ups, to do push-ups with water in his mouth, and to crawl across gravel while carrying sand bags. The racial element was always present, evident as he was constantly told to give orders in Chinese to other non-Asian soldiers. After only a few weeks of deployment in Afghanistan, Private Chen was found dead in a guard tower, a rifle at his side. The military considers it suicide.

Lew shot himself with a machine gun at a patrol base in Helmand province at the age of 21, shortly after hours of physical abuse from his fellow soldiers. He was a nephew of U.S. Rep. Judy Chu. The Associated Press accounts say squad members and officers had been upset that Lew repeatedly fell asleep while on watch for Taliban fighters. Their frustrations escalated into alleged acts of violence and humiliation, with several Marines accused of punching and kicking him, making him do pushups and pouring sand in his face.

Punishment in the cases has been too light, according to many in the AAPI community and in the general population.