Korean American Pioneer Aviators: The Willows Airmen PDF
Preview Korean American Pioneer Aviators: The Willows Airmen
Korean American Pioneer Aviators Korean American Pioneer Aviators The Willows Airmen Edward T. Chang and Woo Sung Han LEXINGTONBOOKS Lanham•Boulder•NewYork•London PublishedbyLexingtonBooks AnimprintofTheRowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc. 4501ForbesBoulevard,Suite200,Lanham,Maryland20706 www.rowman.com UnitA,WhitacreMews,26-34StannaryStreet,LondonSE114AB Copyright©2015byLexingtonBooks Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyany electronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrievalsystems, withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewerwhomayquote passagesinareview. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Chang,EdwardT. KoreanAmericanpioneeraviators:theWillowsairmen/EdwardT.ChangandWooSungHan. pagescm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-1-4985-0264-1(cloth:alkalinepaper)--ISBN978-1-4985-0265-8(electronic) 1.Airpilots--California--Willows--History--20thcentury.2.Airpilots--California--Willows--Biog- raphy.3.KoreanAmericans--California--Willows--Biography.4.Koreans--California--Willows-- Biography.5.WillowsKoreanAviationSchool--History.6.Airpilots--Trainingof--California-- Willows--History--20thcentury.7.Willows(Calif.)--Ethnicrelations--History--20thcentury.8. UnitedStates--Relations--Korea.9.Korea--Relations--UnitedStates.10.Korea--History--Autonomy andindependencemovements.I.Han,WooSung.II.Title. TL522.C2C472015 629.13092'3957073--dc23 2015004318 TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Contents Preface:KoreansinAmerica:fromFarmerstoIndependence Activists vii Acknowledgements xxvii Introduction:JourneytoWillows:KoreanIndependence, Nationalism,andExile xxix 1 EstablishingtheWillowsAviationSchool:BattlingThree Fronts:Racism/SegregationintheU.S.;Japanese OccupationofKorea;MenwithoutaCountry 1 2 SettingtheRecordStraight:TheSchoolandItsMembers 21 3 KoreanandAmericanAviationHistory 37 4 NotableKoreanAmericanPilots,IndependenceActivists, andOrganizations 51 5 FurledWings:CarryingontheMission 73 Epilogue:FromWillowstoSeoul:LastFlightofParkHee-sung 101 Bibliography 105 Index 111 AbouttheAuthors 117 v Preface Koreans in America: from Farmers to Independence Activists KoreandiasporainAmericaiscloselylinkedandconnectedwithKorean 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. Withthearrivalof102KoreanlaborersinHonolulu,Hawaii,onJanuary 13, 1903, official Korean immigration had begun.1 In fact, Congress offi- cially designated January 13 as Korean American Day, and in 2003, the KoreanAmericancommunitycommemoratedthecentennialanniversary ofKoreanimmigrationtotheUnitedStates. Between1910and1940,approximately1,000Koreanstudents,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 immi- grants in the United States refused to be identified as Japanese and in- sistedontheirKoreannationalidentity. Meanwhile, the Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Association adopted a consciousstrategytodiversifyitslaborforceinordertopreventworkers from organizing a labor union. The “divide and control” strategy re- sulted in bringing 400,000 workers from 33 different countries between 1860and1940.2Koreanlaborerswerepartofthismultiethniclaborforce thatfundamentallychangedthelandscapeofHawaiiansociety.Inpartic- ular, 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 Eu- rope as it cost 250 dollars for Caucasian laborers, but only 70 dollars for Asianworkers.”3 TheHawaiianSugarPlantationAssociationsentDavidDeshlertoKo- rea to recruit laborers. The association promised Deshler pay on a per capita basis as well as the profit he could make by transporting Korean laborersfromIncheon,Korea,toKobe,Japan,onhissteamship.4Initially, Deshler faced several major obstacles, and it was not easy for him to vii viii Preface recruitKoreanworkers.First,Koreadidnothaveanorganizationalstruc- turetooverseetheemigrationprocess.Priorto1905,Koreawasstillruled byamonarchy.Consequently,theKingofKoreahadtoissuepermission forKoreanstoemigrate,andtheKoreangovernmenthadtoestablishthe Su Min Won to handle the emigration process and issue passports. Sec- ond, Koreans proved reluctant to leave their ancestors’ graves, as they felt obligated to honor their customs and beliefs through ancestral wor- ship.ThethirdobstacleDeshlerfacedwashowtofinancethetransporta- tionfeeofKoreanlaborers,ascostsamountedtoroughly100dollarsper person. TheHawaiianSugarPlantationAssociationinstructedDavidDeshler tosetupabankinIncheon,Korea—Deshler’sBank.Theassociationpro- vided Deshler with funds. The Deshler Bank advanced transportation feestoKoreanswhowantedtogotoHawaii.TheKoreanworkerscould thenpaybackthefeefromtheirpaychecksoverathree-yearperiod.5 DeshlersuccessfullyrecruitedthousandsofKoreansasHawaiiansug- ar plantation workers. The reason for his success was multifaceted, in- cluding a religious factor. According to researcher Wayne Patterson, “American recruiters seeking Korean labor for Hawaii met with success largelybecauseoftheirconnectionstoProtestantmissionarieswhourged theirnewparishionerstoleavetheirhomelandforthepromiseofaland undertheinfluenceofChristianity.”6 When Koreans arrived in Hawaii, they were treated like all the other laborers and viewed as a necessary “commodity” for profit, not as hu- man beings. Faced with low pay and harsh working conditions, at least onethousandKoreansmigratedtotheUnitedStatesmainlandafterthey paidbacktheirtransportationloan. In1905,theJapanesegovernmentopposedKoreanemigrationtoHa- waiiandstoppeditafterKoreabecameaprotectorateofJapan.TheJapa- nesegovernmentwasconcernedwiththeriseofanti-Japanesesentiment 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 Japa- nese 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 contributed to the rise of anti-Japanese sentiment and exclusion move- mentsinCalifornia;(3)ifKoreanscouldbekeptoutofHawaii,thewages 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.
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