From Sea to Shining Sea: The First Wave of Korean American Immigration (1903-1949)
From Sea to Shining Sea is a KAYAT blog series following the three major waves of Korean American immigration.
1903-1949
January 13, 1903. A black-belted ship docks on Hawaiian shores, and weary travelers survey the island from the deck. The arrival of the RMS Gaelic marked the beginning of the first significant wave of Korean immigration to America. After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented Hawaiian plantation owners from hiring Chinese laborers, American diplomat and Presbyterian missionary Horace Allen encouraged the recruitment of Korean workers.
By 1905, over 7,000 Koreans had immigrated to Hawaii, fleeing famines and political unrest in Korea for the pineapple and sugar plantations of Hawaii. After plantation labor contracts ended, about half of Korean immigrants relocated to mainland America, starting small businesses like laundromats and salons. Because of missionaries like Horace Allen, Korean immigrants from the Naeri Methodist Church in Korea also traveled to America, founding the first Korean Methodist Church in Honolulu. Churches such as this grew into cultural refuges for Korean immigrants to connect with their cultural roots.
In the early 20th century, around 2,000 Korean “picture brides” moved to America to marry bachelor plantation workers. These workers contacted matchmakers, who selected brides from their native countries to pair them with. However, this mass immigration was soon halted when Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act, which banned all Asian immigration, only accepting a few Asian students attending American academic institutions. At this time, Korea had fallen under Japanese rule in 1910, causing many Korean political and intellectual refugees to study at East Coast universities, including Boston University, Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton.
In 1919, the March 1st Movement erupted as a protest effort by Koreans demanding independence from Japanese oppression and cultural assimilation. In support, Korean immigrant communities convened across America. In 1920, the Boston League of Friends of Korea was formed, including important Korean figures like Philip Jaisohn, the first Korean to receive American citizenship, and Syngman Rhee, the future first president of South Korea. After the brutal suppression of the March 1st Movement, many Korean nationalists fled to America to study, rising to become influential student leaders of the Korean independence movement in America.
From the arrival of Korean immigrants on American soil to the gatherings in Boston crying for independence, Korean Americans greatly impacted the United States, ultimately altering the face and spirit of America.
