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| KNA letterhead from July 1914 |
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The Korean National Association (KNA) was one of the key anti-Japanese independence movement organizations during the Colonial Period (1905 to 1945) of Korean history. The KNA was officially launched on February 1, 1909. This February it will be 100 years since the KNA was founded and patriotically struggled to save Korea from Japanese Imperialism.
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| 1911 Riverside, CA - Korean National Association members of the Riverside community gather to welcome Dosan Ahn Chang Ho back from a four year journey to organize the fight for independence from Japanese Imperialism. During this journey Dosan organized the Shinminhoe in Korea attempting to build a foundation for the first Korean Republic. |
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Dosan Ahn Chang Ho was the President of the Central Congress of the Korean National Association which made him the leader of all KNA branches and all people outside of Korea at that time. He forged the backbone of the KNA on his beliefs in the strength of honesty and civic responsibility.
The idea of vigorous truth-seeking is well elaborated in Dosan's own words: "Let there be no deception or telling of lies, and let honesty be our guide to action, such that we will be able to collectively build a capital of credit."
Dosan's famous slogan mu shil yok haeng - living truth, energetic action - embodies his philosophy and is his base of all ethics. Though Dosan did value the external display of morality, he more urgently prioritized a program of moral discipline for the self. Broadly understood, this approach meant the individual embraces a thoroughly honorable stance toward the society and nation to which one belongs. Dosan believed only when such a condition is met can social activism and nationalist movements escape the trap of zeno-phobia to embrace the larger world and achieve the ultimate goal of world peace and shared prosperity.
How can anyone who says they follow Dosan's ideals be corrupt, manipulative and opportunistic? How do people who mislead others take an honorable stance toward the Korean American community and the nation of Korea?
Most people invovled in the KNA activites today are dishonest when they say they respect Dosan and are doing the right thing.
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Korean National Association
In 1904 under the leadership of Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, Koreans in California had developed the Mutual Assistance Association as the political organization to represent all Koreans outside of Korea. The Headquarters was established in San Francisco. By 1907 there were offices in Los Angeles, Riverside, Redlands and Rock Springs, Wyoming. In 1908 two offices in Siberia were established. Many Koreans coming to the mainland from plantations in Hawaii were seeking better job opportunities. Dosan and his followers created a system of improving immigrants’ lives socially, economically and politically through the Mutual Assistance Association. This organization was the predecessor of the Korean National Association.
In 1908 in San Francisco two Korean immigrants Chun Myung Un and Chang In Hwan assassinated Durham Stevens, an American spokesperson for the Japanese government, who publicized Japanese imperialism in Korea was the proper course of action regardless of what the Korean people claimed about the unjust take over and occupation of their country. The court trail and defense of these two Korean patriots became the basis for the founding of the Korean National Association. Out of the need to defend the two Korean patriots the Korean community in California joined forces with the United Korean Society of Hawaii and moved ahead to form the KNA in February of 1909.
The United Korean Society of Hawaii was formed by the large group of Koreans who came to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations in 1903. Japanese laborers had gone on strike and American businessmen who knew about the hard working Koreans brought them to Hawaii as replacement labor. The Koreans in Hawaii were a major factor in raising funds to support the fight to free Korea. The Japanese were trying to take over Korea and erase the Korean culture. The KNA lead the anti-Japanese efforts. The main goal of the KNA was to provide support for the independence movement activities. Koreans living outside of Korea contributed their hard earned wages to save Korea from Japan and replace the monarchy with democracy.
“The Korean Government has failed but the spirit and yearnings for democratic nation still exist strongly”. This statement indicated the growing nationalistic ideal for a Republic of Korea instead of the Korean Empire ruled by a king. The KNA was the main representative of the democratic political ideology that Koreans abroad had at this time. The old corrupt ideal of monarchism was replaced with new ideals of republicanism and nationalism.
The KNA representing all Koreans outside of Korea worked with Koreans inside Korea to achieve independence from Japan. Korean people united under the leadership of the KNA to do everything they could to save their country from the unjustified and cruel Japanese occupation.
In June of 1913 a group of Korean laborers in Hemet, CA were attacked at a train station. Local people thought they were Japanese and tried to prevent them from working in the citrus groves in Southern California by throwing rocks at them and not letting them get off the train. There was a heavy anti-Asian feeling at the time. The Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles tried to intervene on behalf of the Koreans. Dosan and Lee Dae Wi contacted the American Government and explained the situation that Koreans had been unjustly colonized by Japan. Dosan further explained many Koreans left before Japan officially annexed Korea and were not subject to Japanese rule. William Jennings Bryant, Secretary of State at the time, agreed with Dosan’s declaration all Koreans who were outside of Korea were represented by the KNA not the Japanese Consulate in the US. Korean people in America and the KNA were politically distinguished as different from Japanese.
In 1915 Dosan became the president of the Central Congress of the Korean National Association and was in charge of all Koreans outside of Korea.
The Korean National Association assumed responsibilities of Korean Consulate General to protect lives, assets, interests, and rights of Koreans. Any problem or matter related to Koreans had to be consulted by the KNA to be resolved. The KNA developed into the first national organization of Koreans in America and established offices across the US. The headquarters remained in San Francisco for many years. There was an office in Washington, DC and it constantly petitioned the US Government to stop Japanese imperialism in Asia. The KNA had offices in Siberia, Russia, Manchuria, Cuba, Mexico and China.
The KNA created political and educational programs to make Koreans good citizens of Korea and America. The KNA also financially supported the independence movement and the struggle to save Korea from Japan. Korean people in America gave most of the money they earned at their jobs to support the fight against Japan. The Korean Provisional Government was established following the March First Movement in Korea in 1919. Dosan brought $25,000 US from the KNA with him in April of 1919 to establish the KPG headquarters in Shanghai. Without the KNA Japanese would be the official language of Korea today.
The KNA established a new headquarters in Los Angeles in 1937. This historical building which was completed in 1938 still stands today on Jefferson Boulevard East of Vermont near the University of Southern California campus.
The KNA was the central organization of the Independence movement until 1941 when the United Korean Committee was created in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Korean National Association was finally dissolved in 1988 and left everything it had to the Young Korean Academy which was another organization Dosan founded in San Francisco in 1913.
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