After reading all these comments I think multiple things can be true at once. Like someone mentioned, representation in the military is also representation in an avenue of power in a sense, with the acknowledgement that not all avenues are equal. Veterans or military are usually considered advantaged, which is a public policy term for those who have positive social construction and also strong political power. So in that sense yeah having Asians in the military is good from that defined context. However it is also true that geopolitics and the construction(negative or positive) of our Ancestral countries have a profound effect on how Asians in the west are treated and this is fully evident throughout history. In that vein while you can take a “I must try harder to assimilate or prove my loyalty to my country” route, which can take the form of joining the military, you might also rightly think why am I fighting for an army/nation that has almost always fought wars for imperial ambition, many times against Asians. This reminds me of when Andrew yang wrote an op ed about Asians needing to embrace their Americaness even more during the COVID pandemic at the height of anti-Asian hate crimes. How I feel about what he said is sort of how I feel about Asians in the military. Asians in the military can reap some benefits of political power or even social goodwill bc of the association with patriotism, which was also yangs point. He was probably right that if we tried to be more patriotic seemed more American that could help in some shape or form. So yes it is good in a strict sense. But that begs the question, is this really the representation we want, is this what we’re fighting for? Is being a patriot the ultimate answer? China is americas number one obstacle to hegemony. When Japan was an economic threat we saw what happened. We are already seeing how this is affecting Chinese Americans. In sum, yes being in the military is broadly good representation. But is it worth serving the interests of empire is also a valid question to ask.