Korean American pioneer aviators : the Willows airmen

208 Pages·2015·2.17 MB·English

by  Chang

Preface
Koreans in America: from Farmers to Independence Activists
Korean diaspora in America is closely linked and connected with Korean
migration to China, Japan, and the former Soviet Union (Many Koreans often
boarded ships to America once they arrived in China), as well as socio-political
conditions in Korea. It is a widely held belief that Korean emigration to the
United States began when more than 7,200 Koreans arrived in Hawaii as sugar
plantation laborers between 1903 and 1905. With the arrival of 102 Korean
laborers in Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 13, 1903, official Korean immigration
had begun.[1] In fact, Congress officially designated January 13 as Korean
American Day, and in 2003, the Korean American community commemorated
the centennial anniversary of Korean immigration to the United States.
Between 1910 and 1940, approximately 1,000 Korean students, picture brides,
wives, and children arrived and sought admission to the United States through
the port of San Francisco. Since Korea was a colony of Japan, Koreans were
legally Japanese subjects. However, Korean immigrants in the United States
refused to be identified as Japanese and insisted on their Korean national
identity.
Meanwhile, the Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Association adopted a conscious
strategy to diversify its labor force in order to prevent workers from organizing a
labor union. The “divide and control” strategy resulted in bringing 400,000
workers from 33 different countries between 1860 and 1940.[2] Korean laborers
were part of this multiethnic labor force that fundamentally changed the
landscape of Hawaiian society. In particular, plantation owners sought Korean
laborers “because of frequent strikes by the Japanese workers—thirty-four
strikes between 1900 and 1905. In addition, it was cheaper to recruit laborers
from Asia than Europe as it cost 250 dollars for Caucasian laborers, but only 70
dollars for Asian workers.”[3]
The Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Association sent David Deshler to Korea to
recruit laborers. The association promised Deshler pay on a per capita basis as
well as the profit he could make by transporting Korean laborers from Incheon,
Korea, to Kobe, Japan, on his steamship.[4] Initially, Deshler faced several major
obstacles, and it was not easy for him to recruit Korean workers. First, Korea did
not have an organizational structure to oversee the emigration process. Prior to
1905, Korea was still ruled by a monarchy. Consequently, the King of Korea had
to issue permission for Koreans to emigrate, and the Korean government had to
establish the Su Min Won to handle the emigration process and issue passports.
Second, Koreans proved reluctant to leave their ancestors’ graves, as they felt
obligated to honor their customs and beliefs through ancestral worship. The third
obstacle Deshler faced was how to finance the transportation fee of Korean
laborers, as costs amounted to roughly 100 dollars per person.
The Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Association instructed David Deshler to set up a
bank in Incheon, Korea—Deshler’s Bank. The association provided Deshler
with funds. The Deshler Bank advanced transportation fees to Koreans who
wanted to go to Hawaii. The Korean workers could then pay back the fee from
their paychecks over a three-year period.[5]
Deshler successfully recruited thousands of Koreans as Hawaiian sugar
plantation workers. The reason for his success was multifaceted, including a
religious factor. According to researcher Wayne Patterson, “American recruiters
seeking Korean labor for Hawaii met with success largely because of their
connections to Protestant missionaries who urged their new parishioners to leave
their homeland for the promise of a land under the influence of Christianity.”[6]
When Koreans arrived in Hawaii, they were treated like all the other laborers
and viewed as a necessary “commodity” for profit, not as human beings. Faced
with low pay and harsh working conditions, at least one thousand Koreans
migrated to the United States mainland after they paid back their transportation
loan.
In 1905, the Japanese government opposed Korean emigration to Hawaii and
stopped it after Korea became a protectorate of Japan. The Japanese government
was concerned with the rise of anti-Japanese sentiment and the threat of the
Japanese Exclusion Act in the United States. As a major rising power in Asia,
Japan demanded equal treatment alongside advanced nations such as England,
France, Germany and the United States. To protect its international status as a
first-class nation, the Japanese government decided to take action against Korean
immigration to Hawaii. It reasoned as follows: (1) the goal was to protect and
preserve the international prestige of Japan by eliminating the threat of Japanese
exclusion in California; (2) the influx of Japanese workers from Hawaii
exclusion in California; (2) the influx of Japanese workers from Hawaii
contributed to the rise of anti-Japanese sentiment and exclusion movements in
California; (3) if Koreans could be kept out of Hawaii, the wages of Japanese
workers would rise to the point where Japanese laborers in Hawaii would not
move to California; therefore, (4) it could achieve its goal by preventing Korean
laborers from being brought into Hawaii as strikebreakers.
For these reasons, the number of Korean immigrants (less than 8,000) was much
smaller than Chinese (46,000), Filipino (125,000), or Japanese (180,000).
Compared with other Asian immigrant groups, Korean immigrants came from a
very diverse background. Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants came from
rural and particular geographic areas of Guangdong, China; the Southwestern
part of Japan; or Luzon in the Philippines. However, Korean immigrants came
from all over the Korean peninsula, and from a combination of both rural and
urban backgrounds.
Two distinct characteristics of Korean immigrants were that many converted to
the Christian faith and came with relatively high educational backgrounds. Faced
with harsh working conditions and low wages, some Koreans were lured to
California for higher wages and better working conditions. With the arrival of
Korean workers from Hawaii, and later, the arrival of picture brides, the Korean
immigrant community on the U.S. mainland began to expand and flourish.
Picture brides were women who agreed to marry Korean workers in the United
States through the exchange of photographs and background information.
Grooms in the U.S. sent photographs of themselves to family members, friends
and matchmakers to help them in the selection process.
The Role of Korean Women and the Independence
Movement
It is important to note that Korean picture brides played a fundamental role in the
development of the Korean American independence movement. Not only did
these Korean brides bring stability and family to the Korean men that were in the
United States, they also brought with them the spirit of democracy and Christian
values. Many Korean women left their families and their country for several
reasons: personal liberation, economic reasons, education for their children, and
to escape from Japanese colonial domination.[7]
During the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910–1945), Christian churches were
established throughout the peninsula. In particular, missionaries established
schools for girls and universities for women to educate and elevate the status of
females in Korean society. The position of women during the Chosun dynasty in
Korea was always submissive and secondary to the father before marriage,
husband after marriage, son after the husband’s death. Before Christian
missionaries came to the Korean peninsula, Koreans lived by the Confucius
system, which prohibited women from learning how to read and write or,
holding social status or position. The segregation of man and woman was strictly
enforced, and social interaction beyond the home was prohibited. Korean women
especially chose to come to America for personal liberation and to rebel against
Korea’s oppressive feudalistic Confucian society. Confucianism in Korea treated
women inhumanly and brutally. For example, a Korean woman decided to
separate from her husband in Korea who refused to leave his concubine. “One
day she defied him and announced, ‘I am no longer going to live with you, I am
going to take my three children to America and educate them. I shall become a
wonderful woman! You shall be disgraced and you will remain as you are!’”[8]
With the establishment of schools for women by American missionaries, many
Korean women were able to go to high school and college where they learned
egalitarianism, democracy, and Christian values. With these ideologies in hand,
Korean women helped to fuel the Korean independence and nationalist
movement. Women like Maria Kim (also known as Kim Jinsang or Kim
Geunpo) participated in the fight against Japanese colonial rule. One Korean
woman recalled her encounter with Maria Kim.
My friend, Maria Kim, came to see me in Yokohama and said we must
return to Korea and enlighten our friends about the evils of the Japanese
government and work for Korean independence. “You go and I’ll go. I’ll
represent Yokohama Seminary and you, Maria, represent Tokyo.” I left
first, stopped by Seoul, then went to Pyongyang and met Reverend Nahm
Dungnung. He said preparation had been made for the March 1
Independence Movement on the King’s funeral day. “Don’t worry, each
state, each city, the whole nation is prepared to arise at the same time. You
go to Sunchun and prepare for ‘Mansei.’”[9]
Some of these Korean women participated in the March 1, 1919, Mansei
movement before they came to America.[10] Later, many Korean women joined
the Korean Patriotic Women’s Association in Hawaii and on the U.S. mainland
(KPWA). The association was a women’s national unification group which
called on all Korean women around the world to help in the struggle for
freedom. Staging media campaigns and collecting donations for the Korean
Liberation Army, the association of women worked hard for the freedom of their
homeland.
In Hawaii, Korean women endured the double burden of working side by side
with the men out in the fields during the day and laboring at home with domestic
affairs such as cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes at night. Koreans had to
work long hours under harsh conditions; their wages were barely enough to
survive on. “If all of us worked hard and pooled together our total earnings, it
came to about 50.00 dollars a month, barely enough to feed and clothe the five
of us. We cooked on the porch, using coal oil and when we cooked in the fields,
I gathered the wood. We had to carry water in vessels from water faucets
scattered here and there in the camp area.”[11]
Another Korean woman recalled her hard life on the Hawaiian plantations, “I’ll
never forget the foreman. No, he wasn’t Korean—he was French. The reason I’ll
never forget him is that he was the most ignorant of all ignoramuses, but he
knew all the cuss words in the world.”[12]
Despite the low wages and the terrible working conditions, Korean women
continued to migrate to the United States. Korean women that arrived in the
United States in the early 1900s as picture brides carried the spirit of Korean
nationalism and democracy with them. They tried to instill these values in their
husbands. Korean men, at the time, were fighting amongst themselves arguing
about who should lead the independence movement. Factionalism between
Syngman Rhee and Dosan Ahn Chang Ho supporters further split the Korean
American community’s independence efforts. These picture brides helped to
bring stability to their husband’s activities and unite the Korean American
community. The contributions of these pioneering Korean women should not be
overlooked or forgotten.
U.S. Korean Immigration 1882–1902
By 1905, the Japanese government banned Korean immigration to America so it
could protect its subjects in Hawaii and stop them from migrating to the United
States mainland. After 1905, Korean refugees and exiles often fled to Manchuria
or Russia in order to escape brutal Japanese military rule. Once in China,
or Russia in order to escape brutal Japanese military rule. Once in China,
Koreans travelled to Shanghai and boarded American steamer ships headed to
San Francisco. Upon arrival in San Francisco, Korean refugees and immigrants
had to overcome the challenges of U.S. immigration laws and policies that
excluded Asian labor migration. In other words, Korean refugees had to
overcome two major obstacles—the immigration ban by the Japanese
government and restrictive U.S. immigration laws.
However, it is also important to recognize that a very small number of Koreans
came to the United States before 1903. With the signing of the Treaty of Amity,
Commerce and Navigation between Korea and the United States in May 1882, a
Korean envoy led by Min Young-ik arrived in the U.S. in 1883. A member of
the envoy, Yoo Kil-joon, did not return to Korea and remained in the United
States. He became the first foreign student from Korea to study in America when
he enrolled at the Governor Dummer Academy in Massachusetts.[13]
In 1885, Soh Jae-pil,[14] Park Yeong-hyo, and Suh Gwang-beom arrived in San
Francisco via Yokohama, Japan. On January 9, 1901, Peter Ryu arrived in
Honolulu, and he is believed to be the first officially recorded Korean immigrant
to the United States.[15]
In 1885, failing a revolt for modernization of Korea against the feudalistic
government, Jae-pil Soh escaped to Japan with two other young leaders and
later arrived in San Francisco as a political refugee. Jae-pil Soh changed his
name to Philip Jaisohn. Aided by a Mr. Hollenback, an industrialist, Dr.
Jaisohn graduated from the Hillman Academy, in Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania, in two years. He became the first Korean ever to receive an
American M.D. degree in 1892. Two years earlier he had become the first
Korean to be a naturalized U.S. citizen, and in the following year he
married Muriel Armstrong, a socialite, a daughter of the U.S. Post Master
General, and a relative of President Buchanan, thus becoming the first
Korean ever to marry a Caucasian. Very much worried about the political
future of his native land, Dr. Jaisohn returned to Korea in January 1896, and
initiated another revolution—a revolution in social, political, economic,
educational, medical and health issues, to name a few, and planted the seed
of democracy in his native land. Dr. Jaisohn started the reform movement
by publishing on April 7 the first Korean newspaper using the Korean
alphabet—The Independent—as opposed to the Chinese characters that
dominated the Korean culture so that for the first time women, children, and
in fact people of all strata of the society could read newspapers.[16]
According to researcher Bhang Sun-joo, at least 200 Koreans entered the U.S.
between 1894 and 1902 through San Francisco. Many of them were ginseng
merchants who came with substantial amounts of money.[17] Bhang estimates
that the number of Koreans during this period could be more if we were to
include those who entered through other ports. The San Francisco Call (June 5,
1898) reported the arrival of “Distinguished Koreans” in an article:
Hoo Cum-wan, Can Cum-yung, Sun Hok-win, Bun On-quam, Lok Leong-
win and Din Chum-won. [These] Commissioners from Korea to the
Exposition at Omaha, visited the Custom-house yesterday for the purpose
of getting admitted a shipment of ginseng they were taking with them.
Although the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese immigration, the
merchant class was exempt from the exclusion. Likewise, Korean ginseng
merchants, who had substantial amounts of money, compared to the typical
Asian immigrant, travelled to the United States freely and with few restrictions.
In January 1900, eight Korean passengers on the steamer Queen Adelaide came
to Tacoma, Washington. They were on their way to San Francisco, carrying a
dozen big trunks and boxes filled with Oriental herbs and drugs.[18] In addition,
famed Korean independence activist Dosan Ahn Chang Ho and his wife arrived
in San Francisco on October 14, 1902, to study. However, after Ahn Chang Ho
witnessed street fights between Korean ginseng merchants over territorial rights
in San Francisco, he decided to give up his plan to study and began to organize
the Korean immigrant community.[19] To promote unity and improve the lives of
Korean immigrants in San Francisco, Ahn organized the Chinmokhoe
(Friendship Association) in 1903. A year later in March 1904, Ahn moved to
Riverside, California and established the first Korean settlements on the United
States mainland. The settlement is commonly known as Dosan’s Republic or
Pachappa Camp. It was located at 1532 Pachappa Ave. (changed to 4526
Commerce Street in 1954). It housed several buildings, including the Korean
Labor Bureau which provided employment services to Korean immigrants.
Although it is unclear exactly how many people lived in the settlement, at least
sixty or seventy Korean immigrants lived together.
At the time, local Japanese American labor contractors monopolized labor
contracting in favor of Japanese workers, so Ahn decided to establish the Korean
Labor Bureau to provide employment services to Korean immigrants. Other
buildings at the Pachappa Camp included residences as well as a community
center that functioned as the focal point of Korean community activities such as
weddings, Sunday services, and other gatherings. The organization developed an
internal policing mechanism to maintain and enforce order in the community.
Those “policing agents” were given authority over a wide range of community
affairs.[20]
Korean immigrants were lured to Riverside, California, because of employment
opportunities in the citrus and service industries, higher wages, and Pachappa
Camp. In 1905, Dosan Ahn Chang Ho also founded the Gong Rip Hyop Hoe
(Cooperative Association) in Riverside. Its goal was to develop democratic
policies and institutions to improve Korea’s foundation for an independent
nation. In 1909, the Cooperative Association became the Korean National
Association. With his pioneering leadership, dedication, and honesty, Ahn
changed the course of history, as he touched many people’s lives. It is also
important to note that many Koreans who arrived in the United States before
1903 were leaders in the Korean American community. Therefore, it is
important to recognize Koreans who entered the U.S. prior to the official labor
migration in 1903.
Riverside, California, occupies a historically significant and important part of
Korean American history for several reasons: (1) it is the location of the first
Korean immigrant settlement on the United States mainland; (2) the Riverside-
based Korean Labor Bureau provided employment services for Korean
immigrants who came from Hawaii and elsewhere; (3) as the first Koreatown on
the United States mainland, Riverside functioned as a community center as well
as a mecca of the early Korean independence movement; (4) Dosan Ahn Chang
Ho founded several important Korean independence organizations while he lived
and worked in Riverside, including the Cooperative Association, New Korea
Society, and Heung Sa Dan (Young Korean Academy) that laid ground for the
establishment of the Korean National Association.
Christianity in Korea
Christianity is inextricably linked to U.S.-Korea relations and Korean
immigration to the United States. Christianity and church are an important
element that influenced and defined the early Korean immigrant communities in
the United States. During the late nineteenth century, Christianity began to make
significant inroads into Korean society which is a stark contrast to the “failure”
of the American missionaries’ attempts to convert people in China and Japan.
Remarkably, Christianity is now a major Korean religion and no longer a foreign
import.[21] So why did Koreans gravitate toward Christianity, particularly the
Protestant church?
American missionaries arrived in Korea via China in 1884. Many intellectuals
and elites in Korean society embraced the Christian element of “reform” which
extended educational and social mobility to women and the lower classes.[22]
Prior to the introduction of the Western-style educational system in Korea, only
the Yangban (ruling elite) class had access to education as a means to secure
positions in government.
American missionaries built schools, universities, and hospitals. Reform-minded
young people were lured into Christianity and the church. Mission schools
became not only a place to interact between missionaries and students, but also a
site where people could exchange ideas and views; this had profound influence
on Korean society. The number of students enrolled in these Christian and/or
mission schools grew rapidly and laid the foundation for a meritocratic system
institutionalized after the Korean War (1950–1953). Soon after Japan’s
colonization, three different types of educational systems were institutionalized
in Korea—public, private, and mission schools.
Although mission schools above all sought to train Korean people with the
Christian spirit, ultimately transforming them into Christian converts, many
Christian school founders and students became active in the independence
movement. Leaders of the Korean nationalist movement also established many
private schools in order to educate and enlighten young people as a means to
bolster support for the liberation of Korea.
Ahn Chang Ho and Lee Dong-hwi (who later became Prime Minister of the
Korean Provisional Government) devoted themselves to the education of young
students by establishing private schools in Korea prior to their departure.[23]
Several Korean immigrants in America, who were directly or indirectly,
involved with the Willows Korean Aviation School/Corps, graduated from these
private schools in Korea established by Korean nationalist leaders Ahn Chang
Ho and Lee Dong-hwi.