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153 This chapter examines the highly contentious legal battles within the Korean National Association (KNA) of Hawai‘i during 1931. The battles grew out of complicated struggles for community leadership among various groups of Koreans in Hawai‘i. Accordingly, this chapter concerns itself with the factional strife that consumed much of the Korean community of Hawai‘i in 1931. These factional disputes are often cast as meaningless episodes of frivolous community bickering. They are written off as “dead moments” in the history of the Korean independence movement. As a result, the complexities and significance of such factional disputes are greatly diminished. This chapter seeks to demonstrate that the factional strife exhibited within the Korean community of Hawai‘i during the protracted court cases of 1931 was not a meaningless dead moment in history. Rather, these disputes reveal that the struggle to create and maintain a community in exile was inextricably linked to the struggle for national independence. As such, perhaps a more appropriate title for this chapter might be “Local Struggles are Diasporic Politics.” In order to understand more fully these close linkages between local-level community dynamics and larger diasporic processes at the global level, this chapter opens with an account of events that occurred at the KNA headquarters in Honolulu during January 1931, events that would become the source of heated legal contention between factions within the Korean community of Hawai‘i. the opening scene: mayhem at the korean national association of hawai‘i headquarters On January 5, 1931, the KNA of Hawai‘i proceeded to hold its annual delegate convention to determine its activities and budget for the coming year. A group of twenty-one delegates from various localities arrived at the KNA headquarters in Honolulu to take part in the annual meeting. Officials at the door refused to let them enter the KNA building, however. Citing provisions from the KNA by-laws, officials claimed that the delegates were not qualified to participate in 6 Local Struggles and Diasporic Politics The 1931 Court Cases of the Korean National Association of Hawai‘i Richard S. Kim 154 kim the convention due to their failure to pay their membership dues from the previous year. A boisterous argument quickly ensued, which soon erupted into a physical altercation. The unexpected ruckus forced KNA officials to postpone the convention until the following week.1 One week later, on January 12, KNA officers tried to reconvene the annual delegate assembly meeting. During the adjournment, officials had distributed admission badges to delegates who were determined to be duly qualified to participate in the convention. Additionally, officials posted guards at the entrance of the KNA building in anticipation of another altercation. When the disquali- fied delegates returned to seek admittance to the meeting, the guards would not allow them to enter without the mandatory admission passes. The delegates protested vehemently, prompting the guards to expel them from the premises. After the minor scuffle, the delegates inside proceeded to hold their annual convention .2 At the end of the meeting, KNA President Duk-Yin Shon (Son Tôk-in) was notified that the excluded delegates had threatened to take over the KNA building by force.3 In response, Shon continued to employ guards at the entrance of the building. The following day, January 13, the excluded delegates, with a group of some forty supporters, returned to the KNA headquarters on Miller Street. Without warning, they stormed the building during the assembly meeting in session and forcefully expelled the members inside the building. The disgruntled delegates and their supporters then barricaded themselves inside the building and refused admittance to the ousted members.4 A large part of the Honolulu police force was called in to restore order.5 The delegates who had taken over the KNA headquarters refused to give up possession of the building for two weeks. During that time, they conducted their own delegate assembly, appointing Tai-Wha Chung (Chông T’ae-hwa) as the new chairman to preside over the annual convention. In the meantime, the police maintained watch over the KNA premises to prevent the ousted members from reentering the building while those inside continued with their assembly meeting.6 The violent altercation and subsequent police action received widespread local press coverage in Honolulu. Tai-Wha Chung informed reporters that the delegates holding the present convention believed that President Shon and his officers had misappropriated KNA funds. This constituted a...

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