From the Land of Hibiscus

9. “Unity for What? Unity for Whom?”: The United Korean Committee of North America, 1941–1945

220 As overseas nationalist organizations throughout the Korean diaspora worked to liberate their homeland from the yoke of Japanese colonial rule, by the 1930s, Korean nationalist organizations based in Hawai‘i and the continental United States emerged at the forefront of the independence movement. This was the result of a number of factors, including the degree of political freedom available for Korean immigrants in the United States to pursue independence activities, the sympathy of many influential American political and religious leaders concerning the plight of Korea, the emergence of a leadership cohort attuned to the American political system, and the ability of U.S. Korean communities to have the financial means to support such pursuits. This milieu provided ample opportunity for the proliferation of numerous Korean nationalist organizations. While the liberation of Korea may have ostensibly served as the common denominator for such groups, however, the means for liberation, the rebuilding of Korea, and the aspirations of individual leaders of these organizations covered the entire political spectrum. setting aside old differences: the launching of the united korean committee Recognizing that the American entry into World War II signaled the best hope for Korean liberation, Korean nationalists of all political stripes were eager to seize this moment. Acutely aware of the necessity of presenting a united front to the American public and, more important, to the U.S. government, nationalist leaders worked to bridge the many political and personal differences that existed within Korean communities. As a result, during the last week of April 1941, a mass meeting of Korean nationalist organizations was convened in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. For over a week, nationalist leaders young and old debated strategy and worked to make political unity a reality. The result of the convention was the formation of the Chaemi Hanjok Yônhap Wiwônhoe, the United Korean Committee of North America (UKC). This 9 “Unity for What? Unity for Whom?”: The United Korean Committee of North America, 1941–1945 Anne Soon Choi the united korean committee 221 umbrella organization included the Korean National Association (KNA) of Hawai‘i, the KNA of Los Angeles, the Tongjihoe (also spelled Dongji Hoi: Comrades Society) of Hawai‘i, the Tongjihoe Society of Los Angeles, the Tongniptang (Independence Party) of Hawai‘i, the Korean Patriotic Party, the Sino-Korean People’s League, the Korean Student Federation of North America (KSF), the Korean National Revolutionary Party (KNRP), the Korean Women’s Relief Society of the Tongjihoe of Honolulu, and the Korean Women’s Relief Society of the KNA of Honolulu.1 The coalition of these organizations effectively represented nearly all the Koreans in Hawai‘i and North America, especially since many Koreans had overlapping memberships in these organizations. The explicit mission of the UKC was to support the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) in Chungking, China, and Syngman Rhee, who directed the Korean Commission, the representative arm of the Provisional Government in Washington, D.C. Well aware that when the United States entered the war, the political status of Koreans would be uncertain since they were classified as Japanese nationals, the UKC clearly outlined that it was an organization that was “voluntarily motivated by patriotism and furthermore of war efforts against Japan” while simultaneously aiding the United Nations for the recovery of Korean independence.2 By the spring of 1941, given the inevitability of U.S. military involvement, 12 Delegates of the United Korean Committee were honored by the Korean Women’s Relief Society in May 1941. 222 choi UKC leaders clearly understood that if Koreans in the United States were to have a stake in postwar Korea, they needed to present a united front to the international community. Fashioning a united front, however, was no easy task given the long history of political differences within the Korean independence movement . This chapter, in tracing the activities of the UKC between 1941 and 1945, works against conventional historical interpretations that have largely dismissed the efforts of the UKC as ineffectual or as “too little, too late.” Instead, this chapter focuses on the ways in which the UKC emerged as an important site to consider how generational struggle, personal ambitions, transnational politics, and the political lessons that a new generation of nationalist leaders learned in the late 1920s and 1930s in the United States transformed the Korean independence movement in the 1940s. After a surge of political action in the aftermath of the March First Movement , nationalist...