As he bade goodbye to the feudal Korea under Japanese rule, math teacher/reformist Kim
Chung-Chin, 28 and married, changed his first name to Ho, a Chinese character meaning
"nothing."
The only son born to an impoverished yangban (noble) family that had produced three
queens, "Kim Nobody" was on his way to America via China leaving behind an all-female
household including his mother, wife and child. His 1912 departure turned out to be the
beginning of his rags-to-riches American success story.
Within a half-century this Nobody, along with his partner Harry Kim (no relation), would
be hailed as the Peach King for producing and marketing the popular fuzzless peaches
called nectarines on a global scale. At the height of anti-Asian exclusionary fever and fear,
the born-again pilgrim Charles H. Kim became the first Korean millionaire, wielding a far-
reaching influence on the worldwide peach industry.
For the first half of the century-old Korean passage to America, this innovative agribusiness
pioneer was overshadowed by such charismatic independence fighters as Philip Jaisohn
(Seo Jai-Pil), Syngman Rhee, Park Young-Man and Dosan Ahn Chang Ho. Upon closer on-
site research and investigation, however, the "Kim Nobody" legacy looms larger. History
cries out for some answers into the lifelong pursuit of Kim as the great unifier of the
fractious people and the unbowed guardian of the conscience of an undivided Korea free
from covetous neighbors and super powers.
His is truly a transformational journey indeed, rising from a bird of passage in the Wild
West to an apex of money and power in the fertile Central Valley of California. He and his
Reedley group were instrumental in the development of the first Korean settlements of
Dinuba/Reedley in the continental United States and later to the founding of the post-
liberation Koreatowns in Southern California.
Few Koreans, may I dare say, have achieved more on so many economic, political and
cultural empowerment fronts on a longer sustained commitment than Kim Ho, the moving
spirit of Kim Brothers Company, the main source and base of political and economic
energy for the people of han (everlasting grievance) in their early solitary passage.
Above all, the total sum of his lifetime works should elevate him in company of towering
independence fighters Philip Jaisohn, the architect of modern Korea; martyred Dosan Ahn
Chang Ho, the icon of the Great Awakening for a democratic Korea, and the Rev. Whang
Sa-Yong, the great liberator of Korean slaves and circuit rider in Mexico's Yucatan.
Professor Marn Jai Cha of Fresno State University has spent years examining and
chronicling the life and times of Koreans in the vast Central California. In his just
completed manuscript on the subject, the retired political scientist is visibly impressed with
the scope and depth of Kim Ho's vision and deed. He sees Kim Ho as the core leader of the
three-member Kim Brothers Company: "Philosophically, Kim Ho was a unifier and long
ranger, a person with a sense of history. Remember, Kim Ho did his best to keep Korea
from splitting, as he shepherded the UKC's birth and direction (in the U.S. and Korea).
"Also, the fact that he fed and kept Warren Y. Kim in his household for him to do nothing
but write about the 50-year history of Korean immigration. It was an act of a man of a
remarkable sense of history, a man who knew how important letting the next generations
know about where they came from would be."
A man of few words and few pretensions, Kim Ho lived modestly but held lofty principles
that were unyielding despite threats or persecutions or temptations. In early struggles, he
roamed the Western states to raise money for independence while engaged in dangerous
coal mine dynamiting to earn money to send home to his all-female family.
In later success, Kim Brothers gave jobs, shelter, burials, stability and hope to thousands of
mostly bachelor farmhands without a country or safety net or between jobs. Ditto for
hundreds of hungry and jobless students from Korea during summer breaks for their
American education. His was an equal opportunity employer, dealing fairly and equally
with any nationalities or ethnic groups. Kim Brothers played no favoritism despite frequent
complaints from fellow Korean workers.
A centrist/nationalist and moderate at heart, Kim Ho sought to unify the two rival factions
- Dosan's KNA and Rhee's Comrade Society - for common war efforts through the
UKC on two occasions in 1920 and 1941. Each time, Rhee's faction pulled out. Kim
Brothers also bankrolled not only the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai, but also
the Korean volunteer troops fighting Japanese military in China.
Kim Ho's UKC had kept alive a flickering torch for the reunification of the peninsula
through a neutralization route, but after two allied leaders, Kim Koo and Yeo Woon-hyung,
were assassinated by pro-Rhee thugs, his delegation returned to the States, defeated.
Because of his stand against Rhee's dictatorship, Kim Ho had endured years of persecution
by his vengeful foe until Rhee was toppled by high school kids in 1960. Kim Ho's Reedley
group also overhauled the revived KNA by replacing the traditional personality-centered
system with the consensus-building committee system and purged a handful of
radicals/communists within the ranks.
Facing the influx of second-wave immigrants in the '60s, Kim Ho teamed up with business
associate Song Chul, a Rhee loyalist, restored unity among the warring factions, built the
Korean Center in the heart of Koreatown and formed a Korean foundation to foster
hundreds of future leaders with academic training. Out of this community infrastructure
emerged the homegrown Korean Federation of Southern California.
Throughout his 40-year exile activity in America, Kim was faithful to his wife back in
Korea whom he had married at age 16. As a fitting tribute to his all-American epic, he and
his wife, Henrietta Sook Chong Lee, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in Reedley.
Kim died in glory in 1968, and Henrietta joined him in 1978.