 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,897,200 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Alyeska oblast | 520,000 |
| Orpeon oblast | 228,000 |
| Yukona oblast | 102,000 |
| Rest of the country | 184,000 |
| Languages | |
| Korean, Russian, Ukrainian | |
| Religion | |
| Orthodox Christianity and Buddhism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Koreans, Koryo-Saram and Sakhalin Koreans | |
Korean Alaskans (Korean: 알래스카의 한인; Russian: Корейцы Аляски; Ukrainian: Корейці Аляски) is a general term used to describe people with full or partial Korean ancestry who reside within the Republic of Alaska. There are nearly 2 million ethnic Koreans in Alaska, more than any other Russophone country by far.
History[]
Korean people have lived in what is today Manchuria and the Russian Far East for centuries, if not more. Increasing poverty among the Korean lower classes led to mass emigration of people to neighbouring regions under Chinese rule, especially Siberia's vast lands which were tempting for impoverished peasants. This immigration reinforced the Korean majority in Southeast Siberia. Some parts of China with a Korean majority were transferred to Russian rule under the Treaty of Aigun, and later the Peking Protocol. Koreans outnumbered Russians in the Russian Far East until the construction of the Tran Siberian railroad.
The first Koreans to cross the Bering strait were probably mixed in with the Chinese who came in the gold rush from 1848 to 1860. Russian Immigration officials counting new immigrants just called the new arrivals "Asians", majority were Chinese but a small amount were likely the first Koreans in Alaska. Most didn't stay in Yukona oblast for long and either returned to Asia or migrated farther south, were they became farmers and fishermen.
The first people documented as ethnic Koreans arrived in 1863. They were already Russians by citizenship, and they had children who were born in the Russian Empire. These intercolonial migrants were still just looking for land and they believed that the New World would have that. Within a few years the Oblast of Orpeon had at least 10,000 Koreans.
Korean immigrants, circa 1930
Korean migration to Russia as a whole was about 34,000 immigrants per year, Alaska only got a fraction of these, but still a substantial amount, this number does not include the ethnic Koreans born in Russia that made the decision to move to Alaska. While earlier generations established themselves as settlers, during industralisation most were used as cheap labour in coal mines and lumber yards. By 1900, there were half a million Koreans in Alaska.
During the Russo-Japanese war, many Korean Alaskans served in the Russian army. Many refugees, about 100,000, arrived in Nushagak. These refugees were both Korean and Chinese, most chose to stay in Alaska. Koreans in Alaska were free to criticise the Japanese occupation of their homeland so major population centres of the group became hotbeds for revolutionary anti-Japanese sentiment.
The final wave of Koreans to Alaska were supporters of the Whites who fled the Soviets.
Culture[]
In Alaska, Korean is usually writen in Cyrillic, most Korean Alaskans do not know how to write Hangul, although the use of the script is increasing. Due to long periods of Russo-Ukrainian influence words are often spelled and pronounced differently. People from Korea have described the Alaskan dialect as having a harsher tone, but words are more traditional or posher in the sense that there is much less slang. Korean immigrants came overwhelmingly from the far south of the peninsula or regions close to Russia, the accent reflects the use of Jeolla and Gyeongsang accents.
The community is split pretty much evenly between Orthodox Christianity and Korean Buddhism.
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| Ethnic groups in Alaska | ||||||||
 Armenian
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 Chinese
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 German
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 Greek
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 Jewish
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 Polish
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Korean
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 Scandinavian
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