Burnt by the Sun. The Koreans of the Russian Far East - Jon K. Chang

9

TWO

The RFE as a Frontier Melting Pot,

1863–1917

The region (krai) strug gles with dependence on foreign busi-

nesses, adjacent or related to the Chinese empire, this [depen-

dence] strengthens them [the Chinese].

— V. D. Pesotskii, Koreiskii vopros v Priamure, 19131

R

egarding the origins of the Koreans in the RFE, most were peasants

from Hamgyong Province who came to Rus sia due to famines,

hardship, a lack of social mobility, and the desire for arable land.^2

The first years were a strug gle. Still, the Koreans made an immediate contri-

bution eco nom ically to the region and became known as a productive “colo-

nizing ele ment,” a tsarist- era term. Yet, despite a lack of colonists and an

abundance of fallow land, there was a reluctance to accept them and to grant

them land and citizenship. During the First World War, a chilling omen for

the Koreans occurred. Germans, Jews, and Poles of the Rus sian Empire,

many of whom had “passed” as Rus sians for one generation or more, were

now linked to their titular homelands, had their properties and businesses

seized, and were deported. Many Chinese laborers were also deported from

the empire. The Koreans did not face large- scale repressive mea sures, but ex-

perienced their own prob lems during tsarism due to ideas that linked them to

China or Japan and nativist sentiments towards Rus sian resources.

RELEASING THE FLOODGATES

During the mid- to- late nineteenth century, one could see thousands of

Chinese and Koreans arriving on the shores of vari ous diff er ent continents

and in Western or Eu ro pean socie ties in large numbers for the first time.

This emigration is also a tale about the individual agency of East Asians

who heard of intriguing opportunities for work and the possibility of owning

their own land and, literally, jumped at the opportunity to board ships and

sail to foreign shores.

In the mid- nineteenth century, several Eu ro pean nations and Amer i ca

forcibly coerced China and Japan to end their disengagement from Western