The Korean wave to Hawaii: part 1

Waiting for an opportunity on the Jemulpo waterfront circa 1890-1900s Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

In early 1903, notices pasted or tacked to walls began to appear in markets and other busy places throughout Korea. These notices offered opportunities and hope ― things many people desperately wanted and needed. For many, the Land of the Morning Calm was one of oppression caused by social classes and Mother Nature. To use the modern term, it was "Hell Joseon."

Over the previous decade, the peninsula had suffered waves of drought, famine, pestilence, disease, lawlessness, insurrection and war. Hundreds and thousands died. Those who survived were often left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, and beggars and thieves were frequently encountered in the streets. The beggars were nuisances whose pitifulness caused passersby to reluctantly give them small coins while the highwaymen were outright dangerous and would steal not only all of the passersby's coins but sometimes their lives.

People were desperate to escape this "Hell Joseon" and the notices provided the key they needed ― emigration to Hawaii. It is unclear how many people actually knew where Hawaii was located but there were some ― particularly those in Jemulpo ― who knew what Hawaii's flag (prior to its annexation by the United States) looked like.

In early February 1898, an American resident in Jemulpo wrote: "The Hawaiian flag waves beautifully over our port and the good ship Honolulu is rapidly disgorging her wooden contents …. The Koreans say she is bigger than any steamer they ever saw, and want to know if we have many such (ships) in America."

According to the Independent, a newspaper published in Seoul, Honolulu was a four-masted schooner that was delivering "a million and a quarter feet of Douglas pine which [was] reported to have been the finest shipment of timber ever sent from Oregon across the Pacific." The timber was to be used for trestle work and station building for the railroad being constructed between the port and the capital.

A crowd gathers along the Jemulpo waterfront circa 1890-1900s. Robert Neff Collection

The Honolulu may have been impressive, but the promises made on the notices were even more amazing. Hawaii was described as a paradise, it had a great climate, employment was plentiful and the wages were great: about $15 a month ― quite a sum of money when one considers Koreans working at the Western gold mining concessions in northern Korea only received 25 cents a day! This, according to one resident of Pyongyang, was more than the annual salary of the governor of that province ― obviously an exaggeration but one that many readily believed.

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As if any more incentives were needed, the notices also assured the reader that free education, housing, fuel, water and medical care would be provided.

Of course, not everyone was eligible for this ticket out of Hell Joseon. They had to undergo a "superficial physical examination," obtain a passport, be able to answer simple questions as to their names, destination and reason for traveling and each traveler had to have enough money in their possession to take care of their needs. All of these things could be obtained at one of David Deshler's offices located in various parts of the country. Deshler was an American businessman in Korea responsible for this immigration enterprise. The opportunity he presented sounded almost too good to be true or legal. And, to a degree, many of the claims were partially true and the scheme was barely legal (at the time).

There is an old saying that opportunity only knocks once, and in 1903, many people heard that knock and answered it immediately. But for those who could not hear very well, The Korea Review provided a visual. According to an article published in January:

"Fifty-four Koreans took passage with their families for the Hawaiian Islands to engage in work on the sugar plantations. No contract is made with these men before leaving Korea. They are not required to promise to stay any specified length of time but in case they leave within a reasonable time they will have to pay their return passage out of their earnings. They are to work ten hours a day but not on Sundays. All children will be put in schools, as education is compulsory. The Koreans are encouraged to take their wives and families with them. Encouragement will be given them along religious lines and opportunities will be given for Christian instruction. On the whole, it would seem that this is a good opportunity for work, and Koreans who go to Hawaii will learn valuable lessons. The hours of labor are short compared with those of Korean farmers or coolies, and there seems to be little doubt that they will be prosperous and contented."

In February, 90 people answered opportunity's knock and boarded a steamship bound for Hawaii. The wave had truly begun.

However, not everyone saw this as an escape from the oppression of Hell Joseon ― they saw it as just a different type of oppression. In the early spring, Homer Hulbert, the editor of The Korea Review, felt compelled to answer these claims of oppression.

"The interest of the Koreans in the emigration to Hawaii continues, several small parties of farmers, some of them accompanied by their families, having left to seek employment. An absurd suggestion has been made that they would be subject to slavery on going to the United States, but only the most ignorant people would credit such a report. Nothing approaching slavery or enforced contracts is allowed in the United States or its possessions and the government exercises the closest supervision over emigrants both as to the conditions under which they enter and the treatment they receive."

It was not the last time he was forced to defend Deshler's enterprise. In August he wrote:

"There is a mistaken impression on the part of a few of the foreign residents in Korea that the work which is being conducted by Mr. D. W. Deshler in sending Koreans to work in the sugar fields of Hawaii is contrary to U. S. law. There is a clause in these laws that permits any State or Territory to advertise the advantages of and solicit immigration to that place. The Legislature of Hawaii has appropriated a considerable sum of money for the printing of literature soliciting immigrants, in conformity to the United States laws, and a portion of this literature is being circulated in Korea. Those Koreans who have been in Hawaii for some time seem, so far as the letters we have seen convey intelligence on this point, to be getting along very well, and their children are within reach of modern schools and advantages."

Throughout the following months, The Korea Review continued to publish the numbers of Koreans who left that month bound for Hawaii to start their new and happier life. But who were these people and what was life really like in Hawaii?

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.