The Constructed Silence in the Construction of Korean Diaspora in Kansas: The Presence and Role of Korean Women and Korean Military Brides

• Published in: Institute of British and American Studies Vol. 39; pp. 297 - 326
• Main Author: Kim, Sang-Jo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 영미연구소 28.02.2017
• Subjects: 학제간연구
• ISSN: 2508-4135; 2508-5417
• DOI: 10.25093/jbas.2017.39.297

In the past, Korean women (especially, Korean military brides or KMBs) who associated with foreigners, especially American servicemen, were at once a target of loathing and yet that of envy for many Koreans. More importantly, they have been invisible in the collective psyche of Korean American society and Korean diaspora in the United States. In Kansas, for example, KMBs have been such shadowy figures that only elderly KMBs and elderly Korean immigrants whose migration to America involved with the KMB route were willing to share their stories about shame and familiar desire to pursue their American Dreams. This paper is designed to reveal that in the constructed silence in Korean diaspora, KMBs have been, in fact, the backbone of the Korean migration to Kansas, while examining the official history of Koreans in the Greater Kansas area. KMBs have offered so many of their families and relatives a chance to migrate to the United States. They have also passed on many Korean cultural values to their children to be good Korean/Americans. This paper hopes to unearth the ways in which KMBs have been hidden in the history of Korean immigration to Kansas and, in so doing, it attempts to illuminate their presence because they have been active in the formation and maintenance of the Kansas City Korean community. These women are in fact the agents who have defied odds, hurdles, and a shameful stigma of yanggongju to make Kansas a home for many Korean immigrants. KCI Citation Count: 0