Film depicts resolve of Korean exiles

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i filmmaker Tom Coffman's camera peers into many faces; many peer back with solemn, sad or angry expressions born of a struggle for survival.

A dramatization from "Arirang" shows a scene after World War II when Koreans return to their newly liberated country and find the adjustment difficult. Jiri Dvorsky

A few faces stand out in "Arirang: The Korean American Journey," which makes its TV premiere tonight. One belongs to noted journalist K.W. Lee of California, who gives his view of how his forebears persevered.

"That's why Koreans never die — because of their stamina," Lee says. "Their chutzpah, their energy, it's like primordial energy. That's the only weapon we have. What else we got? Koreans' only weapon is stamina."

"Arirang" is named for the Korean folk song — a theme with many regional variations — that became a repository of hope for a displaced people who longed to see their homeland freed from Japanese occupation. The song, language, national flag, costume and other elements of culture, banned in Korea, endured in Korean enclaves in Hawai'i and elsewhere in America.

The film, underwritten by the Centennial Committee of Korean Immigration to the United States, covers the background of political forces in Korea that drove the immigrants overseas, their arrival in Hawai'i 100 years ago today, and work by their political leaders in exile to restore sovereignty.

"Once we did Part One, I realized what a standalone it is, in terms of resolving the story of the early immigrants," Coffman said.

Some in the Korean community have complained privately that the film dwells too much on the occupation and political rifts within the community and not enough on its accomplishments. But Coffman maintains that most people are not familiar with the political story, and everyone, Korean and non-Korean, needs to hear it.

For example, the documentary presents the conflict over longtime Hawai'i resident Syngman Rhee, who became South Korea's president. "I try to deal with it in a historical way, while acknowledging that there are people divided about it," Coffman said.

The route to freedom was obscured by unresolved conflicts: Korea was self-determined but divided. Coffman describes Koreans' historically resolute character, their determination to stay the course through all adversity.

"At the grassroots level, there's an astonishingly high number of people who were involved in supporting, in essence, government in exile," he said. "There was a lot of money given to the cause when money was scarce, and a lot of effort in various ways."

Coffman acknowledges the irony of a people who were losing their country settling in a land where the native people had just lost theirs. He cited the production of his 1998 documentary about the Hawaiian sovereignty battle, "Nation Within," as an experience that parallels this one.

"For me, going from that research to a Korean-American film was kind of like blinking my eye," he said. "It was about colonization and annexation and the divisions that occur within communities that are oppressed.

"The conflict is not over whether we want to be sovereign again; it's about how we go about doing that."

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.