HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii had a strong influence on South Korea’s first President Dr. Syngman Rhee, who spent more than a third of his life in the islands.

But his legacy is not without controversy.

HNN visited Ihwajang in Seoul, South Korea — Rhee’s private residence and the birthplace of Korea’s first democratic government as the Republic of Korea. Rhee is considered the George Washington of South Korea because he was its first president.

We met his adopted son In-soo Rhee and his son’s wife Hye-ja Cho, who explained how Hawaii influenced the elder Rhee’s leadership in the Korean independence movement. (In-soo Rhee has since passed away, on Nov. 1.)

Syngman Rhee moved to Hawaii in 1904 as part of the first wave of Korean immigrants. While many came to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations, Rhee was a scholar fleeing political persecution as a critic of Korean royalty and Japanese colonial rule.

Rhee earned a master’s degree at Harvard and doctorate’s at Princeton and spent 30-plus years as a freedom fighter, serving as the first president of Korea’s provisional government in exile.

“Under Japanese, Korean people cannot be educated not much. His most important thing is education,” Cho said.

She said Rhee established Christian churches and schools for Korean immigrants across Hawaii — making it a critical hub for Korea’s independence movement.

Japanese rule ended after World War II, and Korea was divided in half — the Soviet Union occupied the North and the United States controlled the South.

Supported by the Americans, Rhee was elected president of the new Republic of Korea in 1948. That first government was founded at Ihwajang.

During the Korean War, Rhee invested in industrialization — using donations from Koreans in Hawaii and the sale of the 24-acre Korean Christian Institute to build a polytechnic institute called Inha University – named for both Incheon and Hawaii.

“Korean Christian Church members in Hawaii built Korean MIT in Incheon,” Cho said.

“Education very important to development Korean now.”

While some criticized Rhee’s pro-American views, many acknowledged the benefits of the U.S. alliance.

“Very important. Very important to fight communist,” In-soo Rhee said.

Still that hardline anti-communist stance makes Rhee a controversial figure — a champion of democracy decried as a dictator for silencing critics and changing the rules to remain in power with military backing

“He was a real kind of heroic leader when he was in Hawaii,” said Tae-Ung Baik, law professor and director of the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“But he is a very, very strong minded, self centered person.”

“He had his own view, his own group of people who can work together, I wish he could have done more in cooperation with his opposition groups. But again, it was really authoritarian way of ruling the country that actually had been the issue for so long time in Korea.”

After 12 years as president, Rhee was ousted after a series of deadly student led protests. He fled to Honolulu in 1960 and died in exile five years later at Maunalani Nursing Home.

Still, Rhee is remembered as the father of the Republic of Korea — a dream that started in Hawaii but is only half complete.

Rhee envisioned one Korea under one democracy, but that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.

“North Korean people are really miserable,” Cho said. “(North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un is really their poison over Korea. Poison of our history, Korean history.”

But Cho is optimistic. After all, Korea’s independence would not have been possible without those first brave immigrants.

“Korean people in Hawaii still they live in Hawaii but their hometown, home country is Korea. They love Korea.”

Tune in every Thursday at 5 p.m. Hawaii time on KGMB and KHNL or on livestream for a new episode of HNN’s special series “Focus on Korea.”

View more episodes here.

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