Essay outline

Redefinirg the Boundaries of Traditional Gender Roles Korean Picture Brides, Pioneer Korean Immigrant Women, and

Their Benevolent Nationalism in Hawai'i

LiIiM,KM

In L9I7 a petite, sixteen-year-old girl left her family in a small village in Kyoung Nam. Korea. With her long black hair neatly braided, she set off for Hawai'i, where she was to marry a Korean man whom she had never met but whose picture she had seen through a "go-between." She had heard that people "can collect money by rake" in America and hoped that her picture marriage would provide the opportunity to pursue wealth in Hawai'i. She survived the grueling fifteen-day journey by sea that nearly left her dead from seasickness and arrived on the shores of Honolulu, to be met by Kim Ja Soon,r her husband-to-be, who was all but unrecognizable from the picture he had sent her from his younger days. Nam Soo Young recalled, "When I see him, he was much older, an old man. I was surprised. He cheated his age ten years. He was twenty-five years older than I. 'How can I live with him?' I thought." Tiying to buy herself time, she asked to post- Pone the wedding for one week, but to no avail. With tears running down her cheeks, Nam married her husband and was released from the Immigration Station of Honolulu as the wife of Kim Ja Soon.2

Nam was one of an estimated one thousand Korean picture brides who came to Hawai'i and the continental United States between 1910 and 1924.3 The far-reaching influence of Korean picture brides on the future of the Korean community in Hawai'i is hard to exaggerate. Because sugar planters sought strong, healthy laborers, pioneer Korean immigrants to Hawai'i mostly consisted of single men in their twenties, and a few married men who came with their families. By coming to Hawai'i as prospective wives to Korean bachelor laborers, Korean picture brides solved the problem of the lack of marriageable Korean women in the early years of Korean immigration. Unlike the Chinese, who, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, remained largely"single" in the early twentieth century, pioneer Korean immigrants were able to marry picture brides, start families, and create a thriving next generation of Korean Americans.a

Furthermore, Korean picture brides significantly shaped and contributed to the Ko- rean independence movement in the United States during the crucial years of overseas Korean nationalism, after Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910. Unlike the small num- ber of pioneer Korean women who came to Hawai'i with their husbands between 1903 and 1905, the picture brides had lived under |apanese colonial rule before coming to

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Redefining Traditional Gender Roles 107

i{awai'i. Their sorrow over losing Korea to }apan and their determination to see Korea :lberated made them active community members against the backdrop of the thriving ','et bitterly divided Korean independence movement in Hawai'i. Redefining the bound- aries of traditional gender roles, Korean picture brides, together with the pioneer Ko- :ean immigrant women who came before them, contributed to the Korean indepen- .lence movement in important and alternative ways. By demonstrating what I call irnevolent nationalism-nationalism rendered through valuable social and economic services that focused on the good of the community and future of Korea-Korean pic- rure brides and immigrant women expanded the scope of community activism and al- lered the contours of the Korean independence movement in Hawai'i. At the same time, their organizational activities to promote Korean patriotism and to preserve Korean culture expedited their Americanization process by challenging and crossing the boundaries of Korean traditional gender roles.

Korean Picture Brides Come to Hawai'i

The picture bride practice began after the United States and fapan reached the Gentle- men's Agreement of 1907, which stipulated that ]apan would voluntarily cease issuing passports to all fapanese laborers coming to the United States. This restrictive agree- ment, however, allowed for the immigration of wives and children who wished to be united with their husbands and fathers in the United States. Unmarried fapanese la- borers in Hawai'i also took advantage of this provision by sending for picture brides. \Vith |apan's annexation of Korea in 1910, Koreans were considered fapanese nation- als, and Korean laborers in Hawai'i could also bring wives and picture brides from Korea under the Gentlemen's Agreement Act of 1907. The Immigration Act of 1924 prohibited the immigration of anyone ineligible for citizenship and thus stopped vir- rually all Asian immigration to the United States, including that of Korean picture brides.

Single Korean men sent for picture brides not necessarilybecause they could not find other women to marry-although that was true in many cases-but mainly because they specificallywanted to marry a Korean woman. fulia Chang Chung spoke of her fa- ther's popularity as a prospective husband and son-in-law before marrying her mother, Do Yun Hong, a Korean picture bride:

Neighborhood people with eligible daughters just wanted to marry their daughters offto my papa. There was this Portuguese man who wanted my papa to marry his nice-looking

daughter. There was another Hawaiian family who had to have my papa as a son-in-law. And you couldn't find a better catch than Papa! He invited him for dinner, gave him this and that. He even said, "Marry my daughter, and I will give you a house and a lot." Papa said he wanted the house and the lot, but couldn't think of marrying anyone except a Ko- rean girl.s

Like Chung's father, many single Korean men turned to the picture bride practice to find a Korean wife and start a family.

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As one can imagine, a marriage agreement based on pictures with short self-de- scriptions on the back involved a good deal of courage on the part of Korean picture brides. Like Esther Kwon Arinaga's mothet many Korean picture brides were "willing to risk life with a total stranger in a new land, in exchange for the opportunity to fur- ther ftheir] education, escape ]apanese domination, and pursue religious freedom."6 Phyllis Ahn Dunn, who came to Hawai'i as a fourteen-year-old picture bride, recalled, "I begged my mother to let me go to Hawai'i-I was not afraid!"7 As in the case of Nam Soo Young, inflated ideas about the kind of life available in Hawai'i prompted prospec- tive picture brides to marry men they had never met and to make a new living in a place they had never been to.

For their part,Korean men used the deception that picture marriages allowed to al- lure prospective wives. Men often sent pictures from their younger days to conceal their actual age. They also tried to give an impression of wealth they did not have by renting a suit or taking a picture next to their boss's automobile. Invariably, then, a Korean pic- ture bride's initial meeting with her husband-to-be was a devastating disappointment. Like Nam's husband, most men looked nothing like the picture. Their workers'cloth- ing and dark tans from working in the sugar plantation fields all day gave away their poor economic standing.s

Going back to Korea, however, was not an option for picture brides for two reasons. First, although the prospective husband sent money for the bride's one-way passage to Hawai'i, he would not pay for her to back out of the marriage and go back to Korea; nor could he have afforded to do so. Second, as Nam explained, going back meant a life of unbearable shame in Korea: "I want to go home, but I could not go home too. Because if I go home, I only get big shame. People say that the girl went for marry to Hawai'i, but she come back. She sent back. That would be most shameful abuse for a girl."e The only way to stay in Hawai'i legally was to marry their prospective husbands, but some picture brides held out as long as they could:

I'm so disappointed I cry for eight days and don't come out of my room. I don't eat noth- ing, but at midnight when everybody sleeps I sneak out to drink water, so I don't die. . . . But I knew that if I don't get married, I have to go back to Korea on the next ship. So on the ninth day I came out and married him. But I don't talk to him for three months. Later

on, it was all right.lo

Despite a disappointing beginning, many picture brides had happy marriages, with children who became very successful. But in some cases, husbands became abusive out of paranoia. Some husbands, afraid their new wives might run away, had them locked up before going to work each day. Other picture brides eventually divorced their hus- bands.rl

Creating a precise profile of the picture brides is difficult, as accurate information on them is hard to come by and existing accounts conflict. Some scholars have maintained that the picture brides who came in the second wave of Korean immigration between 1910 and l924were "new women" who benefited from a modernization period during which Korean women received a formal education for the first time. Sharply contrast- ing with this view, other scholars have insisted that because of prevailing Confucian be-

Redefining Traditional Gender Roles 109

liefs, the majority of the picture brides arrived in Hawai'i with very little formal edu- cation.r2

Regardless of their educational level, Korean picture brides changed the traditional gender dynamics in Korean marriages, not onlybyworking outside the home and con- tributing to the family finances but also by expanding their influence to the public sphere, actively serving in the Korean churches as teachers, Bible study leaders, and committee members. As Margaret Pai recalls in her family memoir, her mother, Hee Kyurg Kwon, and other picture brides founded important church organizations, such as the Methodist Ladies Aid Society. Pai writes:

At her church, she helped form the Methodist Ladies Aid Society, a powerful organization

that provided a network of services reaching every Korean family in the community. Al-

though the immigrants were all poor, so dedicated were the Society members that no fam-

ily went without food or a roof over their heads (immigrant men often lost their jobs); a

mother who became ill could depend on other mothers to help her; and a mother with a newborn baby did not have to rise from her bed until she was strong. All these services

were rendered despite the fact that every woman was burdened with heavy responsibilities

of her own.13

Through such community services, Korean women exerted their power outside the home, and their activities helped to form bonds with other women providing and re- ceiving assistance.

Given the powerful role of Christianity in convincing Koreans to emigrate, churches

were organized at a furious pace. Korean immigrants founded thirty-one churches and chapels in Hawai'i, and in California many new converts, nearly two-thirds of the Ko- rean population, filled up twelve Korean churches. But more than willing acceptance of Christianity accounts for this rapid growth. Many Koreans saw conversion to Chris- tianity as a way to expedite their Americanization, and the planters, in turn, encouraged them to become Christians in the hope that Christianized Koreans would make more dependable and diligent workers in the fields. To that end, Hawaiian missionaries openly supported Korean efforts to build and establish churches. Although Korean women held important positions in the church, they deferred to male dominance of leadership, unless they organizedtheir own societies. Another public arena where Ko- rean women could exert greater influence through separate, all-female organizations was in the independence movement.

Fractured Community: The Korean Independence Movement in Hawai'i

Away from the watchful eyes of their colonizers, Koreans in Hawai'i and the continen- tal United States launched a fi.rll-scale independence movement and rallied for Ameri- can support after the annexation of Korea by Iapan in 1910. The dominant narrative of the Korean independence movement tells the story of bitter factions and rivalries among four prominent male leaders-syngman Rhee, Kilsoo Haan, Chanho Ahn, and Youngman Pak.ra Rhee emphasized gradual diplomatic efforts in Washington as the

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head of the Korean Commission. Pak believed military training was the key to fighting back Japanese aggression. Ahn, who was most active in California, firmly supported ed- ucation as the most effective way to train and cultivate able Korean leaders. Haan, the leader of the Sino-Korean Peoples' League, to which only about one hundred Korean community members belonged, insisted on more radical tactics, namely, the support of revolutionaries in China who were engaged in a common fight against fapan and the sponsorship of espionage work to provide key military information to the United States.

Rhee was the focal point of the various leadership conflicts, and the most severe ri- valry developed between Pak and Rhee. Pak came to Hawai'i in 1912 to become the ed- itor of a local Korean newspaper, the Korean National Herald, the official organ of the Hawai'i Korean National Association. Invited by Pak to join him in creating a powerful Korean independence movement, Rhee arrived in Hawai'i at about the same time. Rhee had just completed his doctoral studies at WoodrowWilson's Princeton University. Be- cause of his education and connections to prominent U.S. officials, Rhee was regarded with deep respect and had a large,loyal following in Hawai'i.rs

Although Pak and Rhee began as friends, they soon became archrivals. The first of many disagreements between Pak and Rhee began over a Korean language school they both hoped to establish. Pak wanted to build a high school, but Rhee wanted it to be a grade school where students would study not only Korean language and history but also other subjects such as English and science. Rhee won the battle for public approval, and Pak had to turn over the funds he had raised.

Clashing over strategies to restore Korean independence, Rhee and Pak fiercely com- peted for power and respect in the community and undermined each other's authority. When Pak successfully founded the Kundan, or military academy, in 1914, Rhee quickly maneuvered to curtail Pak's popularityby spreading rumors that Pak was a traitor. Not to be outdone, Pak and his supporters accused Rhee of mishandling the Korean Na- tional Association's finances.16 Soon there were two irreconcilable factions within the Korean National Association in Hawai'i: supporters of Pak and of Rhee. Rhee and his followers formed their own organization, the Tongihoe (Comrade Society), as a sepa- rate faction within the Korean National Association. The Tongihoe eventually broke all ties with the Korean National Association in 1930. The split also reflected Korean re- gionalism: members of the Tongihoe were predominantly immigrants from the south- ern parts of Korea, and members of the Korean National Association were overwhelm- ingly northern Koreans.rT The division between the two factions became even wider after Rhee's dispute with William Fry, the superintendent who oversaw the operaiion of the Korean Methodist Church. Rhee and his followers started a new place of wdrphip that eventuallybecame the Korean Christian Church.Allbut one of Rhee's followers left the Korean Methodist Church to join the Korean Christian Church.

The rivalry between the leaders deeply affected their followers and the overall progress of the movement. Reflecting on the tumultuous years of the Korean indepen- dence movement,Hazel Park Chung recalled, "When Dr. Rhee came here, he divided the Korean community."te This was an understatement, to be sure, for Korean people lost friendships, threw punches at each othet and ultimately hurt the cause of Korean liberation over whether one supported Rhee or not. Julia Chang Chung remembered,

Redefining Traditional Gender Roles 111

'Whenever there were people from two opposite sides, there were verbal confronta- tions, and they would start hitting each other. Sometimes they would bring out the knife. When the police came, they would disperse."re Demonstrating the severity of the division, Rhee supporters, in extreme cases, would call anti-Rhee Korean members of the community"Iapanese." To call a fellow Korean "not Korean" and ")apanese" was in- deed one of the most serious insults to a Korean.20

Longing for Korea, Braving the New World: Korean Women's B enev olent Nationalism

The hegemony of the male leaders' role in the current narrative of the Korean inde- pendence movement is understandable, for they did occupy the most visible and prominent positions vis-i-vis their interactions with U.S. officials, and effects of their bitter rivalry spared no corner of the deeply divided Korean communities. But as Shirley Hune has pointed out in her critique of current scholarship on Asian American history, male-dominated narratives and representations of Asian American communi- ties view gender as "neutral or separate, at best" and, as a result, render Asian American women "invisible, misrepresented, or subsumed in Asian American history as if their experiences were simply coequal to men's lives, which they are not."2r A closer exami- nation of women's participation in the Korean independence movement, both at the leadership and grassroots levels, not only reveals Korean American women's accom- plishments, but also different, gendered expressions of nationalism that utilized infor- mal networks as well as formal associations. Thus, focusing on Korean American women's participation in and contributions to the Korean independence movement fundamentally alters our understanding of Korean American nationalism and how we historicize it. While by no means completely immune from the factional divisions in the larger community, Korean women in early immigration years contributed immeasur- ably to the Korean independence movement by providing services to the members of the Korean community in Hawai'i and fellow Koreans in Korea. Further promoting Ko- rean unity and ethnic pride, they bridged the generational gap between the first and second generations.

Responding to unfolding political events in Korea, Korean picture brides and immi- grant women mobilized to show their support for Korean independence effiorts. Even before fapan took complete control over Korea in 1910, the first Korean women's orga- nization in Hawai'i, the Korean Women's Association (Hankuk Buin Hoe), was formed in 1908 to teach children the Korean language.22 The March 1 movement of 1919 in Korea directly prompted the formation of the most powerful women's independence or ganization in Hawai'i.

The March I movement, the most important and bloodiest independence effiort in fapanese-occupied Korea, began with a peaceful march on March 1, 1919, by thirty- three patriots, who signed the Declaration of Korean Independence as a symbolic re- jection of ]apanese colonialism. When more than a million people joined the signers of the declaration in the march shouting, "TeahanToknip Manse" (Long live Korean inde- pendence), the Japanese law enforcement reacted with ruthless force and brutality. All

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told, in the following few months of similat reoccurring protests, over seventy-five hundred Koreans were killed, fifteen thousand injured, and some forty-five thousand people were arrested. During that time, an independent Korean provisional govern- ment was erected in Shanghai, later moved to Chungking, and continued to exist in exile.23

Inspired by the heroic acts of ordinary Korean men and women who fearlessly put their lives on the line during the peaceful protest that began the March 1 movement, Korean women in Hawai'i recreated a similar peace march in March 1919. Donned in traditional Korean dresses, Korean women marched in downtown Honolulu, singing Korean patriotic songs. After the march, forty-one women representing all the Hawai- ian islands gathered in Honolulu, and two weeks later, these women met again to es- tablish the Korean Women's Relief Society.2a Maria Hwang, leader of the Korean Women's Relief Society, was someone the community people called a "warrior woman" because she immigrated to Hawai'i by herself with her children after leaving her hus- band, who had a concubine. Although Korean husbands commonly kept concubines in the early 1900s, Hwang did not accept the practice. She allegedly told her husband, "I can no longer live under these circumstances with you. I am taking our children to America and will shame you in the future. These children shall become educated and I shall become a wonderful person. You can remain as you arel'z5

Under Hwang's leadership, the Korean Women's Relief Society demonstrated its benevolent nationalism and at once expanded and redefined the scope of the Korean independence movement. The purposes of the organization, according to its petition, were "to give the needyhelp in time of their distress, and to promote the mutual human interests, understanding and friendship among the Koreans and Americans, and to en- courage the fair and just treatment of all races, familiarizing its members with the West- ern ideals and equality, and other social activity, promoting the spirit of good fellow- ship among its members."26 Emphasizing unity and humanity as its central aim, the Ko- rean Women's Relief Society espoused a greater, universal purpose of peace and harmony beyond the immediate goal of regaining Korean independence.

Members of the Korean Women's Relief society practiced such a philosophy of hu- manity and compassion primarily through fundraising and charity work. Aside from their annual dues of $2.50, they raised money by going door to door to sell copies of the Declaration of Korean Independence manifesto, signed by thirty-three patriots in Korea during the March 1 movement of 1919. They also cooked and sold homemade Korean food items. Altogether the women of the society raised an impressive total of about $200,000. With the money they collected, they provided financial assistance to families whose members were killed or injured in the March 1 movement and to vic- tims of famine and flood in Korea. They also contributed to the Korean provisional government in China, the Korean Commission in Washington, D.C., and the Korean Independence Army in China and Manchuria.2T

Such organizational efforts of Korean women were a significant accomplishment. Although the members of the Korean Women's Relief Society took on "traditionally feminine projectsi' such as the sale of Korean food to raise funds, the extent to which they contributed financially to the independence cause was a tribute to Korean women's

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abilityto redefine and negotiate the boundaries of traditional gender roles. Out of their love for Korea and their ardent hope for its restored independence, women freely gave their time and resources, both financial and emotional.

While giving emotional resources and energy may have been easy, coming up with financial contributions every week or month was much more difficult for Korean women and their families. Considering that on average male Korean plantation labor- ers worked for a mere sixty-seven cents a day-and Korean women laborers for even less-extra income was virtually nonexistent. Despite this apparent difficulty of fi- nancing a political movement with their meager income, Koreans conscientiously gave what they could. One FBI report in Honolulu aptly noted:

Natural obstacles to their work for independence which were insurmountable received lit- tle consideration by the average Korean. For the cause of independence and party politics,

the followers unstingily and without consideration of self and kindred, g:rv€ much of their hard-earned money for the cause. In connection with local Korean politics, thousands of dollars have been poured into party coffers.28

Korean leaders were relentless in asking the community to contribute. An article in the Korean section of the Korean National Herald-PacificWeekl1, asked:

Who wants independence of Korea? Every Korean wants independence, and those who are opposed to it are only the |apanese. . . .We, Koreans, the people without government, are trying to regain independence through our dedicated patriotism and resources. . . . Noth- ing works without money. Money makes army, and army makes victory possible.2e

The author requested that everyone "with a drop of Korean blood" contribute to the in- dependence cause. Tightening their belts, Korean women made adjustments to their family finances and, together with their husbands, dutifully made contributions to the independence movement.

But aside from organizing independence groups and participating in the Korean in- dependence movement in a traditional sense, Korean women found alternative ways to express their love for Korea. Striying to stay above unproductive divisions caused by factional independence movemrjnt politics dominated by men, Korean women focused on the important work of cultural preservation, as well as social and public service both in Korea and Hawai'i. Ha Soo Whang was an important visionary and a leader in help- ing Korean American women channel their patriotism and love for Korea in ways that were meaningful to Korean American women. Arriving in Hawai'iin 1922 at the age of thirty to accept a position at the International Institute of the Young Women's Christ- ian Association (YWCA), Whang had a remarkable record of achievements to help Ko- rean American women in Hawai'i. She founded a Korean cultural organization called Hyungjay (Sisters) Club. Its primary purpose was to provide a social space where young Korean girls could learn Korean traditional culture and follauays. Her niece Mary Whang Choy a member of the club, summarized its impact on second-generation Ko- rean girls:

ll4 LrLr M. KIM

At Hyungjay Club, we learned old folk culture. My aunt Ha Soo recruited Korean men and

women who recently immigrated to Hawai'i with expertise in Korean folk music, Korean

dancing, and had them teach us Korean folk culture. And from there, productions would

be produced. My aunt Ha Soo wrote the play, directed it, and produced it. Young girls

would get dressed up and depict old folk tale of Korea. We never lost sight of the fact that

we are Koreans. We had a great pride in our heritage. We credit my aunt Ha Soo for her deep feeling for Korea and carrying on old cultural ways, music, and dance to pass them

on to the new Korean American generation.30

This was a far more effective way to instill ethnic pride in second-generation Korean Americans than forcing factional independence politics on them. Whang opted to ex- press her "deep feeling for Korea" by helping to preserve Korean culture in Hawai'i among second-generation Korean girls.

At the same time, Whang's vision of a strong Korean community embraced the Americanrzation of Korean women to empower them to become productive members of the Korean community, as well as in the larger Hawaiian community. For elderly Ko-

rean women, she created a Mothers'Club, where she taught English and exposed mem-

bers to American culture. She invited physicians, nurses, and other health experts as guest speakers to discuss health issues pertinent to the elderly.3t She also catered to the

special needs of Korean picture brides in abusive domestic situations by serving as their translator in court. With her sense of public service and commitment to ensuring a pro- ductive, thriving Korean community, Whang provided much-needed day-to-day ser- vices for women of the Korean Hawaiian community, with immediate as well as future implications for the lives of Korean women.32

Her ability to weave in and out of Korean and American culture comfortably made Whang particularly effective in bridging the cultural and language gaps between the first and second generations. The fact that she was born in Korea but educated at an American college (Mills College) before she arrived in Hawai'i made her "acceptable" to both first- and secpnd-generation Koreans. Her special focus of service was "that of adjusting difficulties which arise out of the contacts of the older generation of non- English speaking Koredns with American institutions and with the second generation of Koreans."33 Whang recognized the importance of uniting different generations and strove for common understanding of the challenges of living in the United States as people of Korean ancestry.

Another benevolent Korean women's club that bridged the political factions was the Young Nam Buin Hoe, or the Southern Women's Society, an organization for Korean women from the southern provinces in Korea. Focusing on social service, the club helped both current members and newcomers. One of the last of the surviving Korean picture brides, Pun Cho Yu, was a member of the Young Nam Buin Hoe. Because of his

heart condition, her husband did not work from the time Yu arrived in Hawai'i as a pic-

ture bride in 1919. Yu was the primary breadwinner of the family and did not have the time or means to participate in the Korean independence organizations or churches: "I worked day and night. I was too busyworking to participate. Other women would curse me for not coming when they saw me. I was too busy working. I had no time." Despite having to work "day and night," she did enthusiastically participate in the Young Nam

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Buin Hoe.Its focus on helping people from her hometown region in Korea appealed to Yu more than any political work:

We helped students from the southern provinces. We collected money to purchase winter coats for new students coming from the southern provinces, because it is cold in the United States. We never fought. We had everyone from Tongihoe and Kuk Min Hur [Ko- rean National Association].3a

As a member of this organization,Yu found a meaningful connection to Korea and took pride in the services she and other members of the organization provided for fellow Ko- reans.

Bridging different factions of the community by attracting both Rhee and Pak sup- porters, the Young Nam Buin Hoe fully supported the Korean liberation cause. After hearing of the plans for the March I movement in Korea, the women of the Young Nam Buin Hoe made plans to go back to Korea to participate in the movement. After realiz- ing the daunting logistical task of making this goal a reality including coming up with funds to pay for their passage to Korea by boat, they elected to pay for one representa- tive, Margaret Pai's mother, Hee Kyung Kwon, to go to Korea. Kwon, with her unde- terred patriotism to "do what we can to help," would eventually be captured by the |apanese and jailed in Korea.3s

More informally, Korean women of all ages in Hawai'i regularly met to socialize and share a Korean meal together. Nam Soo Lee held such events frequently, especially for former Korean picture brides who were widowed. Lee's children have vivid memories of all the Korean women who gathered in their house to socialize and enjoy a special Korean meal that their mother had prepared:

All the ladies were there. Most of them were very old. Most of the ladies were sick or too old to leave home. They were either widows, or widowed for many years. [Our mother] al- ways provided refreshment. She loved to cook. You can't make a little. You had to make a lot. The old ladies lived by themselves. She felt ihat the food was the thing to give them.36

Whatever the occasion, such meals strengthened their common bonds as Korean women and intensified their nostalgia for Korea. Pai also recalls her mother and her friends hosting meals to welcome a Korean visitor who came to Hawai'i to solicit funds for the independence cause and who served to inform the community members of the deteriorating conditions back in Korea. While such fundraising dinners ended up caus- ing a fight between her mother and her father, who did not share the same degree of in- dependence spirit, the meals that her mother hosted for the Korean visitor reawakened "the old revolutionary spirit" in her mother.37 Organizing outside the limelight through these informal social gatherings, Korean American women often spearheaded grass- roots education and mobilization in the community.

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Conclusion

Whether they arrived as wives of plantation laborers with the hope of striking it rich quickly or as picture brides in pursuit of a comfortable home and a husband, discover-

ing the harsh realities of life and conditions in Hawai'i was devastating for Korean women. But nothing demoralizedthe Korean community in Hawai'i as did the news of the |apanese annexation of Korea in 1910. Doing their Part in the Korean independence movement, Korean women effectively carved out their public sPace and extended their

influence outside the home. In a deeply divided community, scarred by factional inde-

pendence politics, Korean picture brides and pioneer Korean immigrant women in

Hawai'i found outlets for their love for Korea through their public service and activism

to promote unity, patriotism, and preservation of Korean culture. While male leaders vied for power and respect in the community, which came at the

cost of the overall unity of the Korean independence movement, Korean women's so-

cial and economic services and cultural initiatives had a deep, lasting effect on future

generations of Korean Americans and their households, and particularly on Korean American women. By organizing purposefully around the goal of promoting Korean

nationalism through preserving Korean culture and empowering those who needed as-

sistance carrying on everyday activities, Korean immigrant women and picture brides

served as important mediators of the new and old worlds: they helped the younger gen-

eration understand the rich cultural and political heritages of the Korean past, and they

helped the community members survive and thrive in their new, adopted country. Thus, the dominant historical focus on the activities of a few Korean American male leaders provides a limited view of the Korean independence movement within the com-

munity in Hawai'i. Attention to Korean American women, their leadership and activi-

ties, illuminates their new roles in the United States and their agency in building their

community and participating in political causes. The legary of Korean American women's benevolent nationalism in the early years

of Hawai'i went far beyond the fundraisers, benefit shows, boycotts of ]apanese goods,

and other independence activities. Their public service of helping the needy families in

both Hawai'i and Korea imparted to the entire community a sense of autonomy and self-sufficiency, even during the bleak moments of )apanese colonialism in Korea. Fur-

,; thermore, Korean women's benevolent nationalism fundamentally altered the Korean \. ind.pendence movement by shifting its objective of Korean liberation from a political

goal to a project of humanity. Driven by both anger at |apanese imperialism and com-

passion for the suffering of Koreans in occupied Korea, Korean American womerlfo- cused on providing aid to fellow Koreans on both sides of the Pacific. Through ttheir charity work and social services, Korean American women leaders and participants in

the Korean independence movement envisioned and subscribed to nationalism that

embraced humanity first and foremost, not politics, without losing sight of the politi- cal nature of their work.

Ironically, their very efforts to promote, redefine, and strengthen Korean national-

ism facilitated Americanization of Korean immigrant women and picture brides. Politi-

cizedby their nationalist activities, Korean American women skillfully challenged and

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Redefining Traditional Gender Roles Il7

redefined the boundaries of their traditional gender roles in marriage, family, and com- munity. Once confined to their roles as wives and mothers, Korean American women exerted public influence through their collective organizing activities in and outside their homes. While personal factors such as regional ties, direct experiences of |apanese colonialism, and class status varied their ability, intensity, and areas of involvement in the Korean independence movement, Korean American women collectively shaped the ideological basis for and the range of activities of Korean nationalism in significant ways. Focusing on Korean American womert's overlooked contribution to Korean na- tionalism necessarily alters our understanding of the Korean independence movement in Hawai'i during the fapanese occupation of Korea.

NOTES

I am grateful to Shirley Hune for her several critical readings of this essay at different stages that greatly improved the final version. Portions of this chapter were presented at the annual meet- ing of the Association for Asian American Studies, Toronto, Canada, 28 March-l April 2001, and at the Berkshire Conference on the History ofWomen, Storrs, Connecticut, 6-9 lune2002.I ben- efited tremendously from the encouragement and insightfi.rl comments of Alice Yang Murray. Lynn D. Gordon's thoughtful feedback on this essay in its earliest form significantly shaped the central argument. I give special thanks to Michael Macmillan for his assistance with sources, and I gratefully acknowledge the research support of the UCLA Institute of American Cultures Post-

doctoral Fellowship in Ethnic Studies during the writing of this essay.

1. I adhere to the Korean naming practice of listing the last name first, followed by the first and middle name, when they appeared so in the original sources.

2. "The Oral Life History of Mrs. Nam SooYoung," conducted by Hwa Ia Kim Park, Decem- ber 1986, Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu.

3. Warren Y. Kim, Koreans in America (Seoul: P. Chin Chai Printing Co., l97l),22-23. Ac- cording to his estimate, 951 Korean picture brides came to Hawai'i and 115 more to the conti- nental United States.

4. Some of these seemingly "single" men had wives back in China and therefore were not bachelors. But the point that the Chinese immigrant communiry dominated by men, could not reproduce remains valid.

5. Interviewwith Iulia Chang Chung, tape 19, the RobertaW. S. Chang Collection (RWSCC), Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu.

6. Esther $won Arinaga, "Double ldentity: A Korean Experience in Twentieth-Century Hawaii" (unpublhhed autobiographical paper delivered at the symposium on "Korean Ameri- c\in Hawaii: Their Life and Experiencei' Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manba, Honolulu, 13-15 fanuary 2000).

7. Interview with Phyllis Ahn Dunn (in Korean), translation by author, tape 2I, RWSCC. She was on the last ship from Korea to bring picture brides.

8. Wayne Patterson, The IIse: First Generation Korean Immigrants in Hawaii, 1903-1973 (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press,2000), 85-87.

9. "Oral Life History of Mrs. Nam Soo Young." 10. Nancy Foon Young and Judy K. Parrish, eds., Montage: An Ethnic History of Women in

Hawaii (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1977),75. 11. Interview with Mary Hong Park, tape 3, RWSCC.