My Response to Ramseyer’s Effort to Deny the History of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery

The main objective of this paper is to critically evaluate as many of Ramseyer’s arguments as possible included in his 2022 paper. It consists of three sections in addition to the introduction and concluding remarks. The first section summarizes the expanded literature that interpreted the “comfort women” system as sexual slavery, judgments, and recommendations to the Japanese government given by scholars, international human rights organizations and the legislative branches of four Western countries. Since Ramseyer published his article denying the “comfort women” system as sexual slavery without introducing this literature, we cannot consider his article as an academic work. The second section critically evaluates Ramseyer’s unacceptable and untenable arguments that Japanese and Korean “comfort women” were commercial sex workers with labor contracts rather than sexual slaves. The third section critically evaluates Ramseyer’s severe criticisms of the Korean council and its redress activities

The Immigration of Koreans to the United States:A Review of 45 Year (1965-2009) Trends

This paper reviews changes in patterns of Koreans' immigration to the United States between 1965 and 2009 based on annual statistical reports by the immigration office. This review captures changes in the annual number of Korean immigrants, their immigration mechanisms and occupational characteristics, and the proportion of status adjusters. The annual number of Korean immigrants gradually increased for the first ten years, reached the peak between 1976 and 1990, gradually decreased in the 1990s, and slightly increased in the 2000s again. At the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, professionals, especially medical professionals, composed a significant proportion of Korean immigrants. The proportion of Korean immigrants in specialty occupations declined in the late 1970s and early 1980, with a concomitant increase in the proportion of family-based immigrants. But the trend reversed beginning in the early 1990s, with the gradual increase in the proportion of Korean specialty immigrants and the radical decrease in the proportion of family-based immigrants. The predominant majority of Korean immigrants during recent years are status adjusters. The presence of an increasing number of non-immigrant temporary residents in the Korean community, along with great technological advances, has helped Korean residents maintain strong transnational ties to their homeland

Korean Immigrant Wives' Overwork

The primary objective of this paper is to demonstrate, based on interviews with 298 Korean married women in New York City, the extent to which Korean immigrant wives overwork. Its secondary objective is to analyze the factors that contribute to the differentials in Korean immigrant wives' share of housework. A large majority of Korean immigrant wives in New York City are found to take the economic role. An overwhelming majority of Korean working wives are involved in excessively long hours of work, comparable to their husbands. Moreover, Korean immigrant working wives are responsible for most of housework. As a result, they spend some twelve more hours per week than their working husbands. As expected, the amount of time Korean immigrant wives spend for paid work and the number of their cohabiting extra adult members significantly reduce their share of housework. Years of education Korean immigrant wives received have a moderate, but statistically significant negative effect on their proportion of housework. However, neither their length of residence in the U.S. nor gender role attitudes have a significant effect on their share of housework

Twice-Migrant Chinese and Indians in the United States: Their Origins and Attachment to Their Original Homeland

China and India, the two most populated countries in the world, also have the largest overseas populations scattered all over the world. Following the global migration flow, many overseas Chinese and Indians have re-migrated from their diasporic communities to the United States in the post-1965 immigration era. This article, focusing on twice-migrant Chinese and Indians in the United States, has two interrelated objectives. First, it shows twice-migrant Chinese and Indians regions and countries of origin that roughly reflect their global dispersals. Second, it examines their attachment to their original homeland using two indicators: use of ethnic language (a Chinese or an Indian language) at home and their choice of ancestry. It uses the combined 2009-2011 American Community Surveys as the primary data source. This article is significant because by using an innovative data source, it describes the origins and ethnic attachment of the two largest twice-migrant groups in the United States

Ethnic mobilization among Korean dry-cleaners

Korean immigrants in the U.S. rely heavily on ethnic resources to start small businesses.  Ethnic resources include business networks and knowledge, start-up capital, and access to labor power that are embedded in networks of family, friends, and co-ethnics.  This paper shows how Korean dry cleaners in Southern California used ethnic resources to mobilize in response to an environmental policy initiated by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD).  While Korean immigrants used ethnic resources to start dry cleaning businesses, they found themselves working with a toxic chemical.  In 2002, AQMD required dry cleaners in Southern California to convert to costly alternative machines by 2020.  Korean dry cleaners used ethnic-based collective action, particularly the Korean Dry Cleaning Association, as a means of fighting for regulatory concessions.  They also used ethnic resources to overcome cultural and linguistic barriers to facilitate the adoption of alternative cleaning machines in compliance with the regulation.   &nbsp

Korean Immigrants in Los Angeles

A large number of Koreans have been admitted to the United States as legal immigrants since the change in the immigration law in 1965. A significant proportion of the new Korean immigrants have settled in Los Angeles. As a result, the Los Angeles Korean community, the home of some 200,000 Koreans, has become not only the largest Korean center in the United States but also the largest overseas Korean center. This paper provides an overview of Korean immigrants and the Korean community in Los Angeles. It focuses on Koreatown, Korean immigrant entrepreneurship, and Koreans’ ethnic attachment and solidarity in Los Angeles. Interviews with some 500 Korean immigrants in Los Angeles were used as the major data source for this paper. It also depends upon public documents, ethnic directories, ethnic newspaper articles, and previously published materials by other scholars for information on Koreans in Los Angeles

Caught in the middle: Korean merchants in America's multiethnic cities

In this unflinching exploration of one of the most politically charged topics of our time, Pyong Gap Min investigates the racial dynamics that exist between Korean merchants, the African American community, and white society in general. Focusing on hostility toward Korean merchants in New York and Los Angeles, Min explains how the "middleman" economic role Koreans often occupy - between low-income, minority customers on the one hand and large corporate suppliers on the other - leads to conflicts with other groups. Further, Min shows how ethnic conflicts strengthen ties within Korean communities as Koreans organize to protect themselves and their businesses.Min scrutinizes the targeting of Korean businesses during the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1990 African American boycotts of Korean stores in Brooklyn. He explores Korean merchants' relationships with each other as well as with Latin American employees, Jewish suppliers and landlords, and government agencies. In each case, his nuanced analysis reveals how Korean communities respond to general scapegoating through collective action, political mobilization, and other strategies.Fluent in Korean, Min draws from previously unutilized sources, including Korean American newspapers and in-depth interviews with immigrants. His findings belie the media's sensationalistic coverage of African American-Korean conflicts. Instead, Caught in the Middle yields a sophisticated and clear-sighted understanding of the lives and challenges of immigrant merchants in America