The quest for statehood : Korean immigrant nationalism and U.S. sovereignty, 1905-1945 / Richard S. Kim.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kim, Richard S., 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Korean resistance movements, 1905-1945.

Korean resistance movements (1905-1945).

Koreans--United States--History--20th century.

Koreans.

Koreans--United States--Politics and government.

Nationalism--Korea--History--20th century.

Nationalism.

Politics and government.

History.

Korea.

Korea--History--Japanese occupation, 1910-1945.

United States.

Physical Description:

xii, 223 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2011]

Summary:

In This Book, Richard S. Kim examines the central role played by immigrants in the independence movement that sought to liberate Korea from Japanese colonization. Regarding Japanese rule as illegitimate, Koreans in and out of the Korean peninsula viewed themselves as a stateless people. Their independence activities had to be carried out from abroad, creating conditions for the emergence of a diasporic nationalism. Using English and Korean language sources, Kim traces how Koreans in the United States articulated visions of national sovereignty, drawing particularly on American political rhetoric and symbolism, and increasingly relied on U.S. state power to mobilize international support for their cause. Their efforts to establish an independent homeland necessitated their participation in civic and political activities in the United States, engaging in organizational activity that led to the development of an ethnic consciousness and paradoxically established them as an American ethnic group. Ultimately, Kim argues, homeland nationalism was central to the assimilation of Korean immigrants as American ethnics, even as they were denied U.S. citizenship.

Richard S. Kim is Associate Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Book jacket.

Contents:

Mapping the geopolitical terrain of the Korean diaspora

Becoming diasporic : from labor migrants to exiled nationalists, 1905-1919

Inaugurating a "New Korea" : the March first movement and the Korean provisional government

Contesting issues of state power in the diaspora

Local struggles and diasporic politics : the 1931 court cases of the Korean National Association of Hawaii

Kilsoo Haan and "constructive Americanism" : the ethnicization of Korean immigrant nationalism, 1931-1945

"In due course" : diasporic nationalism, the United Korean Committee in America, and U.S. sovereignty.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780195369991

0195369998

9780195370003

0195370007

OCLC:

665064360