K A M   R e V i e w i n g   O u r   P a s t

C o m m u n i t y  P h o t o g r a p h s


Shown here is a portion of the early 1900's Korean community at Camp Pachapa in Riverside, California. Ellen Thun has gathered many of the names of the individuals in the photograph. Community members struggled to survive as fruit pickers, housekeepers, and cooks. An integral part of their struggle for survival was the empowerment and liberation of Korea. Despite hard manual labor and numerous obstacles, they managed to devote considerable time and resources to this cause.


English school, Vine Street, Riverside, California.
Late 1918 or early 1919.

Top Row: Shunney Lee, Sam Kim, Willie Lee, Dollie Kim. Middle Row: Mallie Kim, Esther Lee, Addie Lee, Elizabeth Thun. Bottom: Lucy Kim, Kaysan Lee, Ellen Thun, Johnny Kim. Teacher: Choy Cha Duk (Chadwick Choy)

About the time the school photo was made, Mr. Choy had the taller boys make a huge kite. It must have been springtime when the wind blew but not too hard as in autumn months. The boys saved strings of every kind for the longest time; balls of string were bought from the store to make ends meet. Then when the great day came, Mr. Choy got the boys and the kites started in a running leap from the quarry site and up, up the kite went. I stood in awe, the kite kept flying southeasterly, I think. It kept rising and moving farther and farther away -- it was almost like a small bird floating. I cannot remember if the string broke and the kite lost -- it probably happened that way; I see it moving slowly into the distance and that is as far as memory goes. It was a great sight always to remember. Mr. Choy worked hard to teach us things to do other than eating and going to public school.

- Recollection of Ellen Thun



Copyright 1996 Korean American Museum

ReViewing Our Past | KAM Main Page