These all provided conditions for people seeking to migrate from South Korea,вЂќ he says. Kim notes that the U.S.вЂ™s involvement in the Korean War played a pivotal role in causing this swell in immigration: вЂњIt was direct military intervention that produced these dislocations, and which shaped the South Korean regime of authoritarian military dictatorships. Over the next 20 years, Koreans would flood into the United States by the thousands, peaking in 1987, when 35,849 arrived. (During this time, however, Japanese Americans would come to dominate the chick sexing industry, a practice depicted extensively in Minari.) In 1965, President Johnson passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, partially in response to the Civil Rights Movement. In the coming decades, the number of Korean and Asian immigrants would stagnate. They were barred from becoming naturalized citizens-and many states passed Alien Land Laws, making it impossible for Koreans to buy their own farmland and control the means of production. Koreans faced harassment and violence and were refused service in restaurants, public recreation facilities, barbershops and renting houses. Dong-hoe, or village councils, were organized on plantations, and Korean churches became central to community life.Д«ut anti-Asian sentiment was high in California, with the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League gaining clout and political power. Korean communities with working populations popped up in towns like Reedley, Sacramento and Delano. There, they once again became farmhands, working alongside Mexicans, African-Americans and other Asian immigrants and helping to turn California agriculture into a multimillion-dollar business. вЂњThey were largely held outside of any kind of legal or political safeguards.вЂќДЄs living conditions in Korea under Japanese rule continued to deteriorate-and as the original contracts of Korean workers in Hawaii ran out -many Koreans found ways to move to California. вЂњThey worked under an extremely highly regimented system of labor with a great deal of surveillance and oversight, and lived in poor housing conditions,вЂќ Kim says. Korean workers were paid less than Japanese laborers and complained of being treated вЂњlike draft animals.вЂќ They were also prevented from seeking better opportunities on the mainland when an executive order targeted at curbing Japanese migration from Hawaii was also applied to Koreans in 1907. set up a system of indentured servitude, in which they lured Korean workers to Hawaii with promises of вЂњgold dollars blossoming on every bushвЂќ-according to Erika LeeвЂ™s The Making of Asian America: A History-and then had them work brutally long days on HawaiiвЂ™s sugarcane fields to pay off the price of their voyage. was looking for cheap Asian labor to develop its newest territory, Hawaii, especially due to the fact that Japanese workers there had begun to strike for better wages. At the start of the 20th century, the Japanese colonization of Korea had led to widespread oppression and poverty there. can be found in cities like Los Angeles and New York, the first wave of Korean immigrants were actually farmhands. While the biggest Korean-American populations in the U.S.

Here are their stories, and the history that paved the way for them. вЂњIt feels so close to our story that I canвЂ™t believe someone made a movie about this,вЂќ Joseph Chong, who grew up on a California family farm in the вЂ70s and 80s, says.Д«efore the filmвЂ™s release, TIME asked several Korean-American farmers to watch the film and reflect on the aspects of it that resonated.

вЂњAgriculture was really the only viable form of livelihood for many Asian immigrants during this time period.вЂќДЄnd although most of the Korean immigrants who arrived following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 went into other fields, there are nonetheless many Korean-American farmers who acutely recognize the experiences portrayed in Minari-and until this point, had never seen themselves reflected onscreen with such specificity. вЂњIn the early 1900s, farming provided the foundation for the Korean immigrant economy,вЂќ Richard Kim, a professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis, says. While Chung initially believed his life story to be unique, farming is deeply entwined with the Korean-American experience.

But while Chung has successfully won over a wider audience, his story is also resonating particularly deeply with its subjects: Korean-American farmers and their families.

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