This year marks 120 years since the first Koreans arrived in Hawaii, laying the foundation for Korea’s historic relationship with the islands and the United States.
Their journey began in the port city of Incheon on the northwest coast of South Korea.
In December 1902, more than 100 Korean men, women and children boarded the RMS Gaelic, bound for Hawaii to work on pineapple and sugar plantations.
This first group sparked a wave of migration that is commemorated in the Museum of Korean Emigration History, near the pier where their story began.
On 13 January 1903, 102 Koreans arrived in Honolulu – nearly 50 women and children, several generations seeking opportunity and escape from poverty and instability in Korea.
The majority – 86 of them – were from Incheon.
“Incheon was the hub of the Korean peninsula, so compared to the other cities in Korea, people in Incheon were not afraid of something new, and they have more curiosity about something new,” said Sang Yul Kim, director and curator of the Museum of Korean Emigration History, through an interpreter.
But recruiting farm workers wasn’t easy.
Kim says Hawaiian plantation owners asked Christian missionaries to find workers, so more than half of the 102 were members of the Naeri Methodist Church in Incheon.
The museum displays recruitment posters, passports and photographs that tell the stories of these pioneers.
In less than three years, more than 7,400 Koreans followed this first group. Their names are inscribed on a wall in the museum – mostly single men who came as labourers, students and political refugees.
Some 800 women were recruited as “picture brides” to marry the single men.
Unlike Chinese and Japanese plantation workers, Koreans were not bound by long-term contracts. Many left plantation life to start businesses or return to Korea.
What they earned they sent back home as investment in economic development and educational institutions such as Inha University.
“The contribution of expats in other countries was a must. Without the willingness and efforts of the expats and all the contributions to Korea, today’s Korea would not exist,” Kim said.
From 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled by Japan, and Koreans in Hawaii helped finance the country’s independence movement.
“They collected the money and sent it back home, and with nostalgia for the homeland and patriotism in their hearts, they started the very meaningful history of Korean immigrants in the US,” said Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok through an interpreter.
It’s a history that’s also the backbone of Incheon’s 20-year sister city relationship with Honolulu, Jeong-bok said.
“Incheon has become the capital for all Koreans living in other countries, and also Incheon has become the hub for their activities, and also Incheon has become the centre for their future,” he said.
The Korean diaspora continues to grow – with 7.5 million people in 193 countries – an ongoing journey that began with that first group in Honolulu in 1903.
