In December 2021, the 118th year of immigration history, I would like to set up a stone on the hill of San Francisco, the old Sanghang Port. This milestone contains tears from the sugar cane fields in Hawaii, gunpowder smoke from two doctors, Jang In-hwan and Jeon Myeong-un, and the prayers of Koreans who first set foot on the American continent. If you put your ear to the stone, you will hear it.

 

For a long time we have lived without a trace. It's not that we haven't done anything, it's that we've been forgetting ourselves. Just as we can't write a diary for you, we  If we don't record, no one will record us. It is history if it is recorded and honored, and oblivion if it is not recorded.

 

In San Francisco, the gateway to the American continent, there are many traces left by our ancestors. 'Ferry Building', 'Public Association', 'Palace Hotel', 'Heungsadan', 'Oakland Korean United Methodist Church', 'Sanghang Korean United Methodist Church', 'Willows Korean Flight School', 'Burgess Hotel', etc. Ahn Chang-ho, Jang In-hwan, Jeon Myung-un, Kim Jong-rim, Park Yong-man, and many other great personalities lived or worked here as a base. San Francisco is not only a source of space and people, but also a source of democratic springs for our country. These historical sites are rapidly disappearing or hard to find, and there is no sign of them when you visit them.

 

At the SF Korean History Museum, we want to set a milestone on the Korean United Methodist Church in Oakland, a national church founded in 1914 (born in 1905) at the beginning of Korean immigration history, and dedicated to the independence of the country, the national movement, and the self-reliance of Koreans in the Americas. do. Just like the seniors who split their poor living expenses to fund the Shanghai Provisional Government and the independence movement, you gathered your will and sincerity to create the monument. It was made in Seoul with the meaning that the motherland is our root.

 

Today, we will establish one, but tomorrow we will establish ten, and the day after tomorrow, we will establish one hundred to record a brilliant history and serve as seeds for future generations. We will record our mothers and fathers and make them future assets for our sons and daughters. Recording together is not just about engraving the past, but about capturing the future.

 

Please join us with a breath, a song, an old letter, a photo, or a coin. The Korean independence movement in America begins to set up markers.

 

Eunkyung Jung

 

Chair, SF Korean American History Museum

 

2021.12