A few of 400 plus rubbings of Korean gravestones collected and transcribed by Seri. Photo by Jan Wizinowich Although not native to Korea, the hibiscus has long been its national symbol. Probably originating in India, the hibiscus is easily transplanted, making its way north through China and is endowed with the quality of adaptability. Adopted as an emblem of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and as the national symbol of the Republic of Korea (1948), it has long been a symbol for the endurance and prosperity of the Korean people.
Perhaps the attributions of the hibiscus were carried in the hearts of the Korean immigrants, who arrived in Hawai`i, a native home of the hibiscus. Between 1903 and 1905 when the first official Korean immigrants arrived in Hawai`i, their homeland was in flux, a pawn in global political events and heading towards Japanese occupation in 1910. They approached their new situation with hard work and the hopes of the restoration of the Land of Hibiscus.
Koreans make up one of the smallest immigrant groups on Hawai`i Island, and much of their lives and accomplishments live in shadow. But U.H. Hilo English professor, Seri Luangphinith, author of The Paths We Cross: The Lives and Legacies of Koreans on the Big Island, is setting out to change that. What started out as a catalogue for a 2017 Korean art exhibition, became a book that captures an array of the history, culture and experiences of Koreans on Hawai`i Island.
The project emerged out of a request from U.H. Hilo students to add Korean studies to the humanities curriculum. Seri began to study Korean with Korean Language teacher, Hanna Kim who introduced her to the unique work of Korean artists; two of those artists, Hae Kyung Seo and Byoung Yong Lee, were featured in a 2017 Korean art exhibit at the East Hawai`i Cultural Center.
Hae Kyung Seo began developing her unique style of calligraphy from the age of seven. Through many years of exploring various forms, her art is now a combination of calligraphy, poetry and ink-wash paintings to depict Korean history, among the first in Hawai`i.*
After earning a degree of fine arts from Hongik University in Seoul, Byoung Yong Lee left to study at the Pratt Institute in New York City. In 1994 he moved to Hawai’i Island where he engaged in community activism, notably the restoration of the Korean immigrant graves at `Alae cemetery. Byoung Yong Lee’s more contemporary expressionistic artwork provided a contrast with the more traditional art of Hae Kyung Seo, but also created a synergy of cultural roots.*
Perhaps the attributions of the hibiscus were carried in the hearts of the Korean immigrants, who arrived in Hawai`i, a native home of the hibiscus. Between 1903 and 1905 when the first official Korean immigrants arrived in Hawai`i, their homeland was in flux, a pawn in global political events and heading towards Japanese occupation in 1910. They approached their new situation with hard work and the hopes of the restoration of the Land of Hibiscus.
Koreans make up one of the smallest immigrant groups on Hawai`i Island, and much of their lives and accomplishments live in shadow. But U.H. Hilo English professor, Seri Luangphinith, author of The Paths We Cross: The Lives and Legacies of Koreans on the Big Island, is setting out to change that. What started out as a catalogue for a 2017 Korean art exhibition, became a book that captures an array of the history, culture and experiences of Koreans on Hawai`i Island.
The project emerged out of a request from U.H. Hilo students to add Korean studies to the humanities curriculum. Seri began to study Korean with Korean Language teacher, Hanna Kim who introduced her to the unique work of Korean artists; two of those artists, Hae Kyung Seo and Byoung Yong Lee, were featured in a 2017 Korean art exhibit at the East Hawai`i Cultural Center.
Hae Kyung Seo began developing her unique style of calligraphy from the age of seven. Through many years of exploring various forms, her art is now a combination of calligraphy, poetry and ink-wash paintings to depict Korean history, among the first in Hawai`i.*
After earning a degree of fine arts from Hongik University in Seoul, Byoung Yong Lee left to study at the Pratt Institute in New York City. In 1994 he moved to Hawai’i Island where he engaged in community activism, notably the restoration of the Korean immigrant graves at `Alae cemetery. Byoung Yong Lee’s more contemporary expressionistic artwork provided a contrast with the more traditional art of Hae Kyung Seo, but also created a synergy of cultural roots.*
Mainstreet Hilo circa 1918. After leaving the plantations, Korean immigrants were able to create businesses that served the Hilo community. Photo courtesy of Lyman Museum Lives Well Lived
When Seri began interviewing people the project grew exponentially. “Every interview yielded two or three more people to contact,” said Seri. As well as the interviews, Seri scoured scholarly articles, books, local community publications, newspaper clippings, oral histories and the archives of Lyman Museum, the Plantation Museum, and the main Hawai`i State Archives, unearthing the rich tapestry of Korean lives.
Probably the most well-known Korean immigrant was Syngman Rhee, prominent Korean national and eventual first president of the Republic of Korea. During his time in Hawai`i, he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of Korean immigrants through education and enterprise, while helping to organize the Korean independence movement in Hawai`i. Rhee created the Korean Christian Institute, a coeducational boarding school on O`ahu, which provided opportunities for the children of plantation workers to improve their lives through education.
On Hawai`i Island, Rhee helped to start Donjihoe Investment Company and Dongji Chon (Comrade Village) just south of Ola`a where they harvested lumber, made charcoal and farmed. “The charcoal factory was just one of several unassuming businesses run by Korean nationalists in the 1920s,” said Seri.
In the late 1940s with funds from the closure and sale of Korean Christian Institute and funds from the Dongji Investment Company, Inha Technical College in Incheon was opened. Highly rated, it continues to provide education for Koreans and Korean Americans, specializing in engineering and physical sciences.
The original seven thousand plus Koreans in Hawai’i began a legacy of hard work and innovation. Soon Koreans began leaving the plantations to begin businesses in Hilo. There was a Korean drug store on Front Street owned by Park Bong Soong; a shoe store owned by Parls Nails Hun on Volcano Street; and a hotel owned by Choy Hung Choon on Front and Richardson. *
Husbands of many picture brides tended to be older and so the women often outlived the men and became the back bone of the community. Over the course of her life, Harry Kim’s mother, Ya Mul Kim undertook a poultry business, lauhala weaving venture and started the beloved Kea`au Kimchee Factory. *
Working in the ginger fields until 2003, Yeon Boon Kang and her husband Shin Mook Kang went on to start businesses of their own. Yeon started H and K Lunch Shop and Shin created an organic piggery based on waste management techniques developed in Korea.*
Two Koreans who excelled in the medical field were Moon Soo Park and Hoon Park (no relation). Overcoming many obstacles, Moon Soo Park earned a medical degree as a pathologist and went on to found Clinical Laboratories of Hawai`i. Hoon Park was a pediatrician, who just before he retired while on medical missions in Southeast Asia, encountered the natural farming techniques of Master Han Kyu Cho and hosted several workshops, enabling Hawai’i Island farmers to develop sustainable agriculture.*
Another well-known Korean son is Judge Ronald Ibarra whose Korean mother, Young Hi Lee was born on Kehena Ranch where her father worked planting corn. The family moved to a coffee farm in Captain Cook, where Ibarra grew up. After much hard work and two law degrees, he became the first administrative judge of Korean descent to be appointed on Hawai`i Island.*
When Seri began interviewing people the project grew exponentially. “Every interview yielded two or three more people to contact,” said Seri. As well as the interviews, Seri scoured scholarly articles, books, local community publications, newspaper clippings, oral histories and the archives of Lyman Museum, the Plantation Museum, and the main Hawai`i State Archives, unearthing the rich tapestry of Korean lives.
Probably the most well-known Korean immigrant was Syngman Rhee, prominent Korean national and eventual first president of the Republic of Korea. During his time in Hawai`i, he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of Korean immigrants through education and enterprise, while helping to organize the Korean independence movement in Hawai`i. Rhee created the Korean Christian Institute, a coeducational boarding school on O`ahu, which provided opportunities for the children of plantation workers to improve their lives through education.
On Hawai`i Island, Rhee helped to start Donjihoe Investment Company and Dongji Chon (Comrade Village) just south of Ola`a where they harvested lumber, made charcoal and farmed. “The charcoal factory was just one of several unassuming businesses run by Korean nationalists in the 1920s,” said Seri.
In the late 1940s with funds from the closure and sale of Korean Christian Institute and funds from the Dongji Investment Company, Inha Technical College in Incheon was opened. Highly rated, it continues to provide education for Koreans and Korean Americans, specializing in engineering and physical sciences.
The original seven thousand plus Koreans in Hawai’i began a legacy of hard work and innovation. Soon Koreans began leaving the plantations to begin businesses in Hilo. There was a Korean drug store on Front Street owned by Park Bong Soong; a shoe store owned by Parls Nails Hun on Volcano Street; and a hotel owned by Choy Hung Choon on Front and Richardson. *
Husbands of many picture brides tended to be older and so the women often outlived the men and became the back bone of the community. Over the course of her life, Harry Kim’s mother, Ya Mul Kim undertook a poultry business, lauhala weaving venture and started the beloved Kea`au Kimchee Factory. *
Working in the ginger fields until 2003, Yeon Boon Kang and her husband Shin Mook Kang went on to start businesses of their own. Yeon started H and K Lunch Shop and Shin created an organic piggery based on waste management techniques developed in Korea.*
Two Koreans who excelled in the medical field were Moon Soo Park and Hoon Park (no relation). Overcoming many obstacles, Moon Soo Park earned a medical degree as a pathologist and went on to found Clinical Laboratories of Hawai`i. Hoon Park was a pediatrician, who just before he retired while on medical missions in Southeast Asia, encountered the natural farming techniques of Master Han Kyu Cho and hosted several workshops, enabling Hawai’i Island farmers to develop sustainable agriculture.*
Another well-known Korean son is Judge Ronald Ibarra whose Korean mother, Young Hi Lee was born on Kehena Ranch where her father worked planting corn. The family moved to a coffee farm in Captain Cook, where Ibarra grew up. After much hard work and two law degrees, he became the first administrative judge of Korean descent to be appointed on Hawai`i Island.*
Memorial created by Korean artist, Byoung Yong Lee, marking the Korean section of 'Alae Cemetary, Hilo. Photo courtesy of Seri Luangphinith Look to the Ancestors
Amidst oral history interviews, Seri began digging through old newspapers and public records of Koreans in the Lyman Museum archives. “Then, on a hunch I started looking at Korean cemeteries because I knew that Japanese and Chinese immigrants recorded hometowns and families on their graves and sure enough the Koreans also did the same thing.”
The `Alae cemetery slopes down to the highway just before Hilo town. In the center is the perfect canopy of an African shower tree. Just behind the tree is a large obelisk engraved with the Hawaiian version of Arirang, a Korean national song. The obelisk created by Korean artist, Byoung Yong Lee, commemorates the lives of the Koreans who came to the island before him and marks the Korean section of the graveyard.
The grave markers of this and other island cemeteries, many abandoned, provided Seri with clues that contributed to the picture of the lives of the Korean immigrants. The grave stones list parents, spouses, siblings and children, hanai relationships and close friendships, as well as village of origin, social standing and political stance. Additional insights were gained by searching out the origins of the use of a particular style of Chinese characters as well as Giwon, a traditional method of recording time derived from the legend of Dangun.
Amidst oral history interviews, Seri began digging through old newspapers and public records of Koreans in the Lyman Museum archives. “Then, on a hunch I started looking at Korean cemeteries because I knew that Japanese and Chinese immigrants recorded hometowns and families on their graves and sure enough the Koreans also did the same thing.”
The `Alae cemetery slopes down to the highway just before Hilo town. In the center is the perfect canopy of an African shower tree. Just behind the tree is a large obelisk engraved with the Hawaiian version of Arirang, a Korean national song. The obelisk created by Korean artist, Byoung Yong Lee, commemorates the lives of the Koreans who came to the island before him and marks the Korean section of the graveyard.
The grave markers of this and other island cemeteries, many abandoned, provided Seri with clues that contributed to the picture of the lives of the Korean immigrants. The grave stones list parents, spouses, siblings and children, hanai relationships and close friendships, as well as village of origin, social standing and political stance. Additional insights were gained by searching out the origins of the use of a particular style of Chinese characters as well as Giwon, a traditional method of recording time derived from the legend of Dangun.
Holualoa Cemetery gravestone of Gary Chong's grandfather's grave. Photo courtesy of Seri Luangphinith
The photo of the gravestone of the Chueng family sparked an unexpected connection with a descendant of a Korean immigrant family. On New Years Eve 2021, Seri got a surprise email from Gary Chong who had found his grandfather’s grave stone in the book. Seri had learned of the graveyard located in an abandoned coffee field in Holualoa through the Reverend Gyo Mun Kim of the Korean Methodist Church in Kona, whose book first documented some of the graves.
Stories Continuing to Unfold
A chapter of the The Paths We Cross: The Lives and Legacies of Koreans on the Big Island relates the journey Seri and her soon to be husband took to Korea to search out the ancestral graves and villages recorded on grave stones of the Hawai`i Island cemeteries. This is a story that is just beginning to unfold.
Since the 2017 publication of the book, Seri has continued to research for the next volume, which she hopes to have published in 2025. A cornerstone of much of Seri’s investigation has been following the stories told by the gravestones of Korean immigrants, found in several grave sites around the island and this and other emerging information is evolving into the next volume of Hawai`i’s Korean story.
“Researching graves in particular gave us a glimpse into the past to a time when Korea was still a unified peninsula known as Joseon, when Jeju Island was once still part of Jeolla Province and when Seoul was called Gyeongseong—these became a starting point in our later quest to track down and photograph more than two dozen hometowns of the first generations of immigrants as recorded on their headstones,” said Seri.
Daughter of Japanese and Chinese immigrants, for Seri, these projects are a heart quest. “That’s why the stories of Koreans resounded with me—they remind me of what my father’s countrymen suffered. I empathize with Korean history and have learned what occupation and war can do to a people and culture. When a country unravels like that the traumas are lingering. There are stories I will never be able to tell, what people had to do to survive.”
A chapter of the The Paths We Cross: The Lives and Legacies of Koreans on the Big Island relates the journey Seri and her soon to be husband took to Korea to search out the ancestral graves and villages recorded on grave stones of the Hawai`i Island cemeteries. This is a story that is just beginning to unfold.
Since the 2017 publication of the book, Seri has continued to research for the next volume, which she hopes to have published in 2025. A cornerstone of much of Seri’s investigation has been following the stories told by the gravestones of Korean immigrants, found in several grave sites around the island and this and other emerging information is evolving into the next volume of Hawai`i’s Korean story.
“Researching graves in particular gave us a glimpse into the past to a time when Korea was still a unified peninsula known as Joseon, when Jeju Island was once still part of Jeolla Province and when Seoul was called Gyeongseong—these became a starting point in our later quest to track down and photograph more than two dozen hometowns of the first generations of immigrants as recorded on their headstones,” said Seri.
Daughter of Japanese and Chinese immigrants, for Seri, these projects are a heart quest. “That’s why the stories of Koreans resounded with me—they remind me of what my father’s countrymen suffered. I empathize with Korean history and have learned what occupation and war can do to a people and culture. When a country unravels like that the traumas are lingering. There are stories I will never be able to tell, what people had to do to survive.”
Grave sites of Korean immigrants in Holualoa Cemetary. Photo courtesy of Seri Luangphinith
Seri on a search for the lineage of Hawai'i's Korean immigrants. Photo courtesy of Seri Luangphinith
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