My dad started to watch westerns at dollar cinemas in Seoul and felt like America was a miraculous place. His family had lost a lot of land during the Korean War and the Japanese occupation. That affected him a lot as a kid. He always felt like he needed to come to the U.S. and get land.

This quote by Lee Isaac Chung reflects a deeply personal family history intertwined with broader historical events. Chung recalls how his father began watching westerns at dollar cinemas in Seoul, forming an early fascination with the United States. To a young man growing up in post-war Korea, these films presented America as a miraculous place—a land of open spaces, opportunity, and renewal. Westerns, with their imagery of vast frontiers and self-made livelihoods, became a cinematic window into a world that felt both distant and possible.

The quote also roots this longing in the trauma of the Korean War and the earlier Japanese occupation, periods during which Chung’s father’s family lost a lot of land. In traditional Korean society, land was not only an economic asset but also a source of identity, stability, and generational legacy. The loss meant more than financial hardship—it represented displacement, diminished status, and a fracture in familial continuity. Such experiences left a lasting impression on him as a child.

This personal loss shaped a lifelong aspiration: the feeling that he needed to come to the U.S. and get land. For Chung’s father, America represented the possibility of reclaiming what had been taken away—not in Korea, but in a new world where self-determination seemed more achievable. The symbolism of land ownership in America, amplified by the frontier mythos of western films, fused with his own desire for restoration and autonomy.

Ultimately, Chung’s words reveal how cinema, history, and personal loss intersect to inspire migration and ambition. His father’s vision of America was filtered through both the silver screen and the scars of war, creating a deeply emotional connection to a place he had never seen. It is a testament to how storytelling—both lived and imagined—can shape the trajectory of a life and even an entire family’s future.