Mosaic - Korean Immigrants

Immigration was difficult for Koreans, who were subject to harsh restrictions under Japanese colonial rule. Some Koreans snuck across the northern Korean border into Manchuria and travelled to Shanghai, where they could book passage on an American steamer going to the United States. Otherwise, securing the Japanese passport required to immigrate was a long and grueling process.

Most Korean arrivals on Angel Island were single men claiming to be refugee students, arguing that they were exempt from the passport requirement because they had left Korea before the 1910 annexation and were therefore not subjects of Japan. There were also picture brides and the wives and children of Korean immigrants already residing in the US.

80% of Korean arrivals did not have passports: as one refugee student described himself, they were "a people without a country.”

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Photo Caption: Im So See (Anna So Sa Im), Pok Kyong Whan (Wanda Kyong Park), and child Pok Yun Sun (Rose Young Soon Park) at the Angel Island Immigration Station, 1914. Courtesy of Irvin Paik.