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KOREAN STUDIES REVIEW

Wayne Patterson, The Ilse: First Generation Korean Immigrants in Hawaii, 1903-1973. Honolulu: Hawai'i Studies on Korea, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, and Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawai'i 2000. 275 pages. (ISBN: 0-8248-2093-2)

Reviewed by Kwang Chung Kim

Western Illinois University

[This review first appeared in Acta Koreana, 3 (2000): 186-88. Acta Koreana is published by Academia Koreana of Keimyung University.]

Professor Wayne Patterson is a renowned historian in the field of East Asian immigration studies. In his previous book, The Korean Frontier in America: Immigration to Hawaii, 1896-1910, published in 1988, he examined the Koreans immigration of 7,500 to Hawaiian sugar plantations, considering elements such as social "push" factors in Korea, "pull" factors in Hawaii, and the intermediate roles of American missionaries and diplomats. As Professor Patterson observes, however, a gap still existed in the literature. That is, no study had ever looked systematically at what happened to these Korean immigrants after their arrival. This new book fills that gap, examining various aspects of the Korean immigrants' experiences in Hawaii from the time they first arrived to 1973, the seventieth anniversary of their arrival. Together, these two books present a fairly good analysis of the earlier Korean immigration in Hawaii. As the author notes, with the availability of these two books, the Korean portion of the East Asian immigration experience in the United States need no longer be omitted from our histories and our consciousness.

As noted by the author, completion of this book took twelve years, during which time Professor Patterson patiently collected data from numerous sources, including various libraries and archives, such as the University of Hawaii, the library for the Center of Korean Studies, the Hawaii State Archives, the Hawaiian Planters' Association Plantation Archives, and even the Diplomatic Records Office in Tokyo.

As made clear in this book, Korean immigrant life in the Hawaiian sugar plantations was far from easy. Korean workers earned only 75 cents a day and 16 dollars a month, and suffered inhumane working conditions at the plantations. Naturally dissatisfied and despite a reputation for being "docile," they moved from plantation to plantation or on into cities at a much faster rate than any other of the 33 ethnic groups in Hawaiian immigration history. Within 25 years, 90 percent of Korean immigrants had left plantation life. A high proportion of them were engaged in non-agricultural jobs such as shopkeepers, peddlers, restaurateurs, cart-sellers and the like. Korean immigrants also assimilated faster than any other ethnic group in Hawaii. They spoke better English than Chinese or Japanese immigrants. Korean workers showed a higher rate of outmarriage and of various deviant behaviors such as excessive drinking, gambling, fighting, and even sexual assault. Since 90 percent of Korean immigrants were males, gender imbalance was a serious issue. From 1910 through 1924, picture brides-estimates range between 600-1000-arrived in Hawaii with Japanese passports. Despite numerous disappointments and sorrowful personal experiences, virtually all of the picture brides married their grooms and started family life. Their marriage further facilitated their exodus to the city. Korean immigrants were highly nationalistic and participated in numerous rebellious actions against the Japanese government. Korean immigrants also generally kept their distance from Japanese immigrants and sometimes had hostile relations with them. Occasionally, Korean immigrants were even used as strike-breakers against striking Japanese workers.

According to Professor Patterson, by the 1930s, the native-born children-the second generation of the Ilse-constituted the majority of Korean Americans in Hawaii. Naturally, inter-generational conflict was serious in the family life of Korean immigrants and their children. And yet, the second generation children stayed in school longer than any other ethic group in Hawaii and also achieved good academic records. Occupationally, they showed the highest rate of professionalization. When they reached maturity in the 1960s and 1970s, they had the highest per capita income and the lowest unemployment rate of any group in Hawaii. At the same time, they exhibited high rates of outmarriage and of deviant behavior as well.

With the onset of the Pacific War came an expansion of defense industries in Hawaii. This chain of events allowed Korean immigrants greater opportunities for earning a good income, thus securing their socio-economic position. When World War II finally ended in 1945, Korean immigrants were overjoyed at the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule, but most of them were already aged. Syngman Rhee's government in South Korea did not allow many Korean Americans in Hawaii to visit Korea. In the 1960s and 1970s, due to an extremely high rate of outmarriage among the third generation Korean Americans, they were highly assimilated in Hawaii's mainstream society and had little contact with the post-1965 Korean immigrants. Nonetheless, the entire book is basically about the early Korean immigrants' (Ilse) life experience. Thus, life experiences of the second and third generations in this book complement the Ilse's own story.

As part of the Asian immigrants who responded to the labor demand in Hawaii, Korean immigrants shared many points in common with Chinese and Japanese immigrants. They were all impacted by poverty and other deteriorating conditions in their native countries, and they all suffered from the rigid and harsh plantation life in Hawaii. They came from the same Confucian culture and were treated as members of the same racial group. In spite of their common backgrounds, this book clearly demonstrates the need for examining the distinct life experience of each immigrant group in the United States. Korean immigrants were sharply distinguished from the above two Asian immigrant groups in three ways: first, while most Chinese and Japanese immigrants came from rural areas, a high proportion of Korean immigrants were recruited from cities. Their urban backgrounds turned out to be an important factor for their subsequent life in Hawaii. Second, Korean immigrants were small in numbers, and their smallness greatly affected their life in Hawaii. Third, from early on, a majority of Korean immigrants were permanent settlers due to Japanese colonial rule over Korea. Their mentality as settlers also set them apart from the life of Chinese and Japanese immigrants. About half of the Chinese immigrants (23,000 out of 46,000) and more than half of the Japanese (98,000 out of 180,000) eventually returned to their native countries.



In comparison, only one-sixth of the Korean immigrants (1,300 out of 7,500) returned to Korea. Professor Patterson contends that these distinct points clearly set Korean immigrants on a unique course of life in Hawaii. For example, their difficulty in the field, urban sense of lifestyle, and settlers' mentality impelled them to move out of the plantations fast. Due to the small number of Korean immigrants, there was no concentrated residential area of Korean immigrants in Hawaii. They lived scattered around Honolulu and other urban areas. Their small number and urban background facilitated their Americanization and learning of English. Their settlers' mentality worked in their effort to bring picture brides and a higher rate of outmarriage.

It is well known that Korean immigrants were heavily involved in two things: their active support of the movement for Korean independence against Japanese rule, and their enthusiastic participation in ethnic churches. This book devotes a considerable portion to the first-their support of the independence movement. But it pays little attention to their church activities, the author's conscious decision. Nonetheless, I think this oversight is still a weak point in this otherwise excellent book. Without any serious discussion of their church life, no discussion of Korean immigrants' life experience in Hawaii can be complete, in my view. Another weakness of the book is its limited analysis of Korean immigrants' personal responses to various situations of their life in Hawaii. For example, Professor Patterson observes that factionalism considerably weakened the collective power of the Korean immigrants' independence movement. Then, what have been their personal feelings or response to the unfortunate turn of the movement with which they were greatly concerned? With their fast mobility to the city, how would they have described their individual experience of mobility or their response to their new urban living environment?

As a whole, though, this book is an insightful and well-researched analysis of what happened to the earlier Korean immigrants in Hawaii. Those of us in the field of immigration studies should benefit greatly from Professor Patterson's work.