The students

In 1920, Korean Americans opened an aviation school in Glenn County to train pilots for Korea’s independence movement. It lasted a little over a year, and its graduates helped start Korean aviation.

The Willows Korean Aviation School

The Willows Korean Aviation School (대한인비행가양성소) was set up to train pilots for the Korean independence movement, and many of its students belonged to the Korean National Association. Korean Americans founded it in Glenn County on February 20, 1920, with the backing of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai. It closed in April 1921.

Why California

Several things pointed to California. The March 1st movement had energized Koreans at home and abroad. The Korean American community was interested and willing to pay for the school. World War I had shown how much aviation mattered in combat and defense. And Japan could not control or influence a school on American soil.

Northern California already had a strong Korean American community, built on immigration during the Japanese occupation of Korea, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. Before the Willows school opened, young Korean men in San Francisco had trained at private aviation schools. They wanted to become combat pilots who could one day help liberate Korea, and that drive led them to open a school of their own. The community invested its time and money in it, and the Korean Provisional Government, committed to building its air power, approved and helped.

A little over a year

February 20, 1920

The school is established in Glenn County.

February 19, 1920

The Willows Daily Journal reports that the Koreans will have an aviation field. A week later it reports a local man warning of a “menace” in the Korean flying school.

March 1, 1920

The Journal reports that Koreans plan to train aviators in Willows.

June 22 and 24, 1920

The Journal announces the arrival of the school’s first and second airplanes.

July 5, 1920

The school celebrates its grand opening.

September 4, 1920

The Journal reports that the school will be seen in the movies.

October 1920

A disastrous flood destroys the rice fields of Kim Chong Lim, the first Korean American millionaire and the school’s main financial backer. He loses his fortune.

April 1921

The school closes.

Sources differ on some dates. The school is usually said to have been established on February 20, 1920, though one account puts it in early March, and it is said to have closed in April or the summer of 1921. The grand opening was on July 5, 1920.

The people

Lee Jae-su co-founded the school and served as its treasurer. He was first buried in Maxwell, California, and in 2019 his remains were reinterred in South Korea in recognition of his part in the independence movement. Shortly before he died, he wrote a manifesto to his children asking them to keep working to rebuild a free and independent Korea.

The school trained many of the pioneers of Korean aviation, including Park Hee-sung, Lee Yong-keun, and Song Yi-kyun. Two graduates later joined the Republic of Korea Air Force, which recognizes the Willows school as its predecessor. A memorial at the National Aviation Museum in Korea honors the Willows pilots.

The Willows Airmen

The cadets are remembered as the Willows Airmen, a nod to the Tuskegee Airmen, who trained two decades later at the air base in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Korean Provisional Government later appointed two of the cadets, Park Hee-sung and Lee Yong-keun, as its first aviation officers. Historians credit the school with training more than 30 pilots in its short life. Defense Minister Roh Paik-lin of the Provisional Government is said to have helped set it up after hearing of the community’s wish for a combat-pilot school.

Forerunner of the Korean Air Force

The Republic of Korea Air Force, founded in 1949, recognizes the Willows school as its forerunner. Some graduates later flew for it. When the Air Force was formed, the United States provided it with 10 L-4 Grasshopper light aircraft.

Remembering the school today

The Willows Memorial Foundation of Korea’s First Aviation School and Air Corps is working to preserve the school building and its airfield. A nonprofit group has also proposed a museum between the Willows airport and Interstate 5, connected to the one-room Quint schoolhouse, which housed the Korean pilots. The group says the museum would tell the origin story of the Korean Air Force alongside Willows’ aerial agriculture and aerial firefighting, which are the other chapters on this site.

Learn more

The school is the subject of Korean American Pioneer Aviators: The Willows Airmen by Edward T. Chang and Woo Sung Han, published by Lexington Books in 2015.

Drawn from Willows Korean Aviation School on Wikipedia, which cites 1920 Willows Daily Journal reports and the book above, the UC Riverside article Willows Korean Aviation School Fueled Independence Movement, a museum article on the school, the Asian Pacific Islander Historic Places project, the Asian Wisconzine account of Chang and Han’s book, and 2021 KRCR reporting on the proposed museum.