The Koreans in Hawaii; an annotated bibliography

Abstract

This volume represents the second of a series implemented to compensate for the lacunae of bibliographic source materials on Hawaii's people of Asian ancestry. It is particularly appropriate that a volume on Hawaiians of Korean ancestry should appear at this time, for in recent years the university has grown to a position of leadership in Korean studies, and planning is underway for the establishment of a Korean Center. Moreover, during the long period of colonial status, Hawaii served as a rallying point for a major segment of the Korean liberation movement. The first generation of Korean immigrants who sustained that movement here are now passing on, and Mr. Gardner's efforts have come at a moment when their experience and efforts can still be appraised on a firsthand basis. It is hoped that the materials presented here will serve as the foundation for a social history of the Koreans in Hawaii. Support for this research was provided by grant funds from the Ford Foundation, and a gift from an anonymous member of the local Korean community contributed toward the publication costs of this volume. The proportion of Koreans within the total population of Hawaii has never been large. The number of residents of Korean ancestry in 1970, slightly less than one percent of the state’s approximately 800, 000 people, is not appreciably greater than the total number of Koreans who arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in the one relatively brief period of concentrated immigration from 1903 to 1905. The distinctiveness of these Korean Americans is therefore being overlooked by some observers simply because of their small numbers. The earliest Korean arrivals in Hawaii were included along with the Chinese for statistical and recording convenience, and a recent trend has been to include the Koreans in the "all others" category in most comparative ethnic studies. The small number of Koreans in the islands has resulted through the years in a relatively high rate of intermarriage with other ethnic groups. Yet, the Korean community has, to a remarkable extent, resisted erosion of its separate identity. Its members have built and maintained a unique position among other ethnic groups in the wider Hawaiian community. Koreans were never enemy aliens, never suspect because of their numbers. They were people with a dramatic "cause, " products of a resilient culture who had highly individualistic personalities. The result has been that Koreans in Hawaii have become established as a greater influence in the community than their small numbers might otherwise have warranted. Although a few small groups of Korean merchants were admitted to the Hawaiian Islands as early as 1899, the first shipload of immigrants who came specifically to work on the sugar plantations arrived in Honolulu on January 13, 1903. Before the flow of organized emigration was cut off in the early summer of 1905, almost seven thousand Koreans were admitted to the territory.