From the President

Thank you for visiting the Dosan Memorial Foundation of Americas.

In the late autumn of 1902, a twenty-four-year-old Ahn Chang Ho boarded a ship at Incheon days after his wedding. What waited across the Pacific was hard labor in the orange groves. Yet he told his countrymen: “To pick a single orange with care is also to serve your country.”

The Korean American community began with those words. Dosan organized the laborers’ quarters, founded schools, published newspapers, and opened the first Korean chamber of commerce in America. The framework of this community, which we now take for granted, he laid a hundred and twenty years ago.

Our foundation began in 1999, built by the devotion of Korean Americans who wished to root that spirit in this land. In 2001 we raised the statue of Dosan Ahn Chang Ho in Los Angeles; this year it stands for twenty-five years.

Since the passing of our founding president in 2021, the foundation has come through difficult years. To the directors and members who held their posts through them, I offer my deepest thanks.

We are now working toward a Dosan Memorial Hall and a museum of Korean American immigration history. We begin in a small office in Cerritos. Modest as the start is, it is the seed of a memorial hall that will one day stand tall on American soil.

Dosan taught ae-gi-ae-ta — love others as you love yourself, and give yourself to the community. Neither the memorial hall nor the next generation can be raised by one organization alone. As our forebears did a century ago, it will be finished only when we join it together.

The spirit of Dosan — beyond one hundred and twenty years, into the future. We look forward to walking it with you.

David Kwak, President, Dosan Memorial Foundation of Americas

Dosan Ahn Chang Ho built the first Korean community in America. We are the people still building it.

213-256-4820 · Info@dosanusa.org · 13903 Artesia Blvd, Cerritos CA 90703