We all know that Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans experienced a lot of discrimination during WWII while living in the US, but what was it like to be an Asian American, particularly an East-Asian American? Did they experience lots of discrimination due to being confused for Japanese people? How much of the nationalist sentiment in the US was Japanese-focused as opposed to Asian-focused?
Another question. Were Koreans also interned?
Koreans spent a lot of time and effort trying to distinguish themselves from the Japanese. They played a significant part in the anti-Japanese movement and created the Society for Aid to the Korean Volunteer Corps in China based out of Los Angeles in 1941. While this group sought to aid Korean refugees and aid workers in China, they also sought to display to Americans their work against one of the axis powers.
The Korean American population was still fairly small at this time. The largest single population could be found in Los Angeles but still only numbered around 500. There were about 200 Korean university students in the United States when the war broke out, but many of them spoke both Japanese and English. They found jobs in the "United States government as interpreters, translators of Japanese secret documents, and teachers at the Japanese language training school."
As American anti-Japanese sentiment grew "the United Korean Committee sent representatives to the American authorities and convinced them that Koreans should not be treated as enemy aliens." This resulted in the State and Treasury Departments issuing official statements that Koreans were not only not Japanese, but instead should be extended the same rights as other American allies.
Koreans continued their work with the American government through "the establishment of a Korean brigade incorporated into the California National Guard . . . named the Tiger Brigade." It was later separated from the National Guard and attached to the civilian militia as it could not be incorporated into the United States military as a foreign force. This group continued to represent the Korean and Korean American community in Los Angeles promoting Korean interests in Asia and the United States.
The Tiger Brigade rededicated the Korean Flag on August 29, 1943, unused since Korea's annexation by Japan in 1910. The United Korean Committee received the following letter from then Mayor of Chicago, Edward Kelly, after sending out requests to councils and mayors across the United States to recognize the flag.
Dear Mr. Kim: This is to thank you for your letter of June 4 and to let you know of my appreciation for bringing to my attention the attitude toward and the participation in the present war of the Korean people. You may be sure that we in Chicago shall be glad to display the Korean emblem at municipal and government functions.
As a result of their positive recognition by the United States, Koreans in America started to look at their situation after the war and their future separate from the Japanese. The United Korean Committee was formed by Koreans seeking to establish a provisional Korean government out of Chongqing. This ended up being the line the American government drew in their support to Korea. Chairman Syngman Rhee, 이승만, failed to convince Americans to support the provisional Korean government as "there was unanimous opinion among American authorities that such 'action would be premature and unwise'". As a result, the United Korean Committee broke into factions as early as 1942 and by 1945 Korea's future would remain unclear when "The Cairo Declaration only promised Korean independence in 'due course'".
The Korean American goal of "hoping for the restoration of national independence soon after an Allied victory" had failed. However, they succeeded in distinguishing themselves from the Japanese who had largely been cleared from public life across the United States and placed in internment camps.
As a personal aside, I find Korean response to anti-Japanese sentiment to have created one of the most ironic instances in the war. While Jews were being identified against their will across the Atlantic Ocean with badges and armbands bearing the Star of David, the "United Korean Committee issued identification badges with the Korean flag, and urged all Koreans to carry the badges at all times as protection from the hysterical anti-Japanese public."
All of the information above comes from Koreans in America by Bong-Youn Choy, 최봉윤, published in 1979.
Chinese Americans were often perceived as the "good" Asian during the war years, especially with China as one of the States' allies. Prior to the war Chinese Americans often survived on jobs confined to their ethnic communities, but with the onset of the war they took up jobs in the defense industry which in part helped to reverse the societal distaste/racism that persisted against them. Combined with their service in the military, the govt bolstered this attitude toward the Chinese by repealing Chinese exclusion (which was in place since 1882) with the Magnuson Act in 1943 that finally gave them naturalization rights. It's not a completely happy story though - as a result of these attitude shifts and acceptance, many Chinese Americans also perpetuated racism against the Japanese, fighting against a minority just like their own.