From the Land of Hibiscus

7. The Unification Movement of the Hawai‘i Korean Community in the 1930s

179 To overcome national pain and humiliation, Koreans under Japanese colonial rule continued their struggle for independence. Along with efforts toward national independence, Koreans also struggled to establish internal harmony and solidarity among the various independence movements both in Korea and overseas. These efforts by the Korean independence movement toward establishing internal harmony are important, for such solidarity and unity of purpose were necessary for a more effective struggle toward achieving national independence. With this in mind, this chapter examines the unification efforts of Koreans in Hawai‘i during the 1930s. This chapter focuses on the decade of the 1930s, as it was during this period in particular that Koreans in Hawai‘i struggled to consolidate the potential energy the national independence movement demanded. Unification efforts by Korean nationalist groups during the 1930s were taking place not only in Hawai‘i, but in China and North America as well.1 Therefore , the nature and meaning of the Hawai‘i Korean community’s unification movement should be examined not simply as the efforts of an isolated local community , but in the context of an internationally led national independence movement . The primary focus of this chapter, however, will be on the unification movement of Koreans in Hawai‘i. Background To The Unification Movement Situation of the Hawai‘i Korean Community in the 1920s As the enthusiasm of the March First Movement (1919) cooled, the Korean community in America in the 1920s began to splinter. In an attempt to bolster his own political base, Rhee, after returning from Shanghai, organized the Tongjihoe (Dong Ji Hoi) with Min Ch’an-ho, An Hyôn-gyông, and Yi Chong-gwan on July 21, 1921. On March 22, 1922, Rhee dissolved the Hawai‘i branch of the Korean National Association (KNA) (Kungminhoe), in accordance with the “Declaration of the Law of Overseas Compatriots” of the Korean Provisional 7 The Unification Movement of the Hawai‘i Korean Community in the 1930s Sun-Pyo Hong 180 hong Government (KPG) in Shanghai. In its place, Rhee organized the Korean Residents Association (Taehan’in Kyomindan; hereafter Kyomindan). In January 1923 Rhee formulated the by-laws of this new organization to favor himself, placing it under his personal authority. According to the new by-laws, the president and the vice president of the Kyomindan were to be chosen with the approval of the chairman of the Korean Commission (Kumi Wiwônhoe), which Rhee created and led in Washington, D.C., thus placing it effectively under Rhee’s control. As a result, the Koreans in America, who had previously been united under the influence of the KNA, were now divided into two groups— those in Hawai‘i under the Kyomindan and those in the mainland United States under the KNA with the national headquarters located in San Francisco. The Hawai‘i Korean community in the 1920s was itself divided into two groups—that of Rhee, which controlled both the Tongjihoe and Kyomindan, and that of Pak Yong-man (Young-Man Park), which was composed of members of the Korean National Independence League (KNIL) (Tae Chosôn Tongnipdan ). These two groups had been fighting with one another since 1915 and their reconciliation proved difficult. While visiting Hawai‘i on July 8, 1925, Sô Chae-p’il (Philip Jaisohn) brought together leaders of the Korean community, including Pak Yong-man, Rhee, An Wôn-gyu (Won-Kiu Ahn), Hyôn Sun (Soon Hyun), Min Ch’an-ho (Chan-Ho Min), Kim Yông-gi (Kim Young-ki), and Hwang Sa-yong, at an informal meeting in Honolulu where they discussed the establishment of unity among Korean community leaders in Hawai‘i. The meeting , however, did not go well, as those at the meeting could not come to a consensus ,2 indicating the extent of distrust among the Korean leaders in Hawai‘i. In the meantime, there were certain parties that belonged to neither of these two groups, and they began efforts at reconciliation. The mediating influence of these neutral parties grew greater in the late 1920s. Formation of the Korean National Unification Promotion Association It was in the 1920s that Koreans in Hawai‘i first began to exert efforts to heal the divisions and disunity within the Korean independence movement in Hawai‘i. As a direct result of these efforts, on February 16, 1928, twenty-nine leaders representing the Korean independence movement gathered and organized the Korean National Unification Promotion Association (Taehan...