Emmett Reilly and Dean Chamberlin

Introduction

The Korean war had numerous effects on global politics, not only the current split between the two Koreas. It is very common for Westerners to view the war as the cause for the divided peninsula we see today. However the war itself only cemented the effects of several factors that had been plaguing the Korean people for nearly half a century before 1950, for example the complete dismantling of the Korean government, and near eradication of their cultural and ethnic identity by the Japanese colonizers, as well as mismanagement. There is often also a general ignorance of the two foreign forces, the United States and Soviet Russia that came to govern the country at the end of colonial era, which coincided with the end of World War II. These two factors created a disorientated people, caught in the middle between two ideological camps wanting to take the country in two different directions.

Background

The Korean peninsula was governed by the Joseon dynasty from 1395 until 1910. By the nineteenth century Korea began to feel the pressure of Western nations’ eastern expansion, as well as from the Japanese who had just come out of the Meiji Restoration (1868). As Korea watched its historical protector China get swallowed up by various foreign governments, it closed itself off to the rest of the world. This period came to an end when the Japanese arrived in 1875 and forced an unequal treaty upon the Koreans. Within the next decade many of the major western powers did the same. Korean politics became split between three camps: the more progressive Japanese and Russian and the traditional Chinese. Attempts by the Japanese to assassinate the Korean queen pushed the royal family into the Russian camp. The Russians took advantage of this by expanding the trans-Siberian railway across northern Manchuria. However the events of the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the following Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) pushed both China and Russia out of Korea for good. The Taft-Katsura agreement between Japan and the U.S. essentially permitted each to colonize Korea and the Philippines respectively without interference from the other. This allowed for Korea to be made a protectorate, and effectively sealed its fate in the hands of the Japanese.

Colonial Korea

Japan’s harassment and eventual take-over of the Korean peninsula came not long after the end of the Russo-Japanese war in . The country was officially annexed in 1910 , but even proceeding that the Korean military was disbanded and King Kojong was forced to abdicate his throne in 1907. In response a force of Korean resistance fighters known as the Righteous Army launched an attack to retake Seoul with a force of 10,000, they were repelled and defeated by the Japanese Army with many retreating to Manchuria and Russia.^[1]  Organized military resistance grew increasingly difficult in colonial Korea, and by the 1930s harsh police crackdowns had practically ended it. Once King Kojong’s son was forced to abdicate in 1910, the country was ruled over by residency-general and then governor-general over the 35-year occupation. All of these were high-ranking military officials. Although the Koreans were officially considered citizens to the (Japanese) emperor, their treatment at the hands of the Japanese was at best that of a conquered people.

The Koreans first felt the impact of the Japanese in the division of their land. Japan had been experiencing overpopulation and as a result 100,000 Japanese families immigrated to Korea.^[2] These colonists were aided by Japanese military rule to create what in many ways was a feudal system with the Japanese as landowners to the Korean peasantry. This system led many Koreans to leave their familial lands and go north to Manchuria or venture to Japan as laborers. Those who stayed faced taxes that took more than half their total crop. This forced farmers to send their daughters and wives to work in factories or even as prostitutes. Even with agricultural production rising Korean consumption of rice was down 50% between 1932 and 1936 compared to the levels consumed between 1912 and 1916.^[3] This was because almost all of the rice produced in Korea was sent to Japan for its population. The Japanese government substituted the rice the Koreans grew themselves with coarse grains imported from Manchuria.

A massive shift in the Korean economy and infrastructure also took place during the colonial period. Agriculture, forestry and fishing made up 84.6% of total economic production in the early years of the occupation. By 1941 those industries made up only 49% of the total economic production.^[4] It’s perhaps even more telling that manufacturing, something practically non-existent during the Joseon period preceding the Japanese expansion, rose to 29% of the total economic production.^[5]. It’s crucially important to mention nearly all companies on the peninsula were Japanese owned. To put that in economic terms, Korean capital was only 1.5% of the total capital invested in Korean industries. This was not unintentional, on average Koreans faced interest rates on loans 25% higher than Japanese colonists.^[6]

Early on in the occupation the Koreans were largely treated as inferior natives in a Japanese colony. On March 1, 1919 Korean leaders read and signed a declaration of independence in Seoul. As many as two million people were present at the rallies and faced violent suppression from the Japanese. 50,000 Koreans were arrested and 7,500 killed in the wake of the protest , which would carry on into the following year.^[7]. During the twenties and much of the thirties Japanese officials somewhat relaxed their grip over the people. For the first time many western forms of writing and painting became an influence to the country. Korean authors wrote books and poetry often critical of the colonization of their homeland such as Ch’ae Man-sik‘s 1934 work Ready Made Life.^[8] This change also precipitated the introduction of socialist ideas and groups into Korea and neighboring Manchuria. One example of this is the creation of the Korean Proletarian Artist’s Federation, which was shut down by the Japanese in 1935.

The greatest injustice committed against the Koreans came in the suppression of their culture. Two factors in the late 30s would cause a disastrous turn in the treatment of the Korean people. The first one was the rise of the military government in Japan. The second is the start of the second Sino-Japanese war in 1937. The war caused the government to mobilize the entire country in the war effort. 725,000 people were sent from Korea to labor for the war effort throughout the Japanese Empire.^[9] Even more horrifying, the Japanese army began a policy of either forcing or tricking women and young girls to be “comfort women,” sex workers for it soldiers. The sexual trauma experienced by many of the women in these military brothels had lingering effects on their physical and mental health long after the war.

The Japanese also began a policy of forced assimilation, attempting to strip the Korean people of their culture, language, and history, and replace them with that of Japan. In order to accomplish this the Korean language was outlawed in public life, especially schools and universities. The Japanese also began forcing Koreans to pray at Shinto shrines to “worship the gods of imperial Japan, including dead emperors and the spirits of war heroes who had helped them conquer Korea earlier in the century,” explains historian Donald Clark.^[10] An official policy for Koreans to choose Japanese surnames was also started in 1939. 84% of Koreans would change their names.^[11] This was meant to be voluntary, but the Koreans soon learned that those with Korean names would be shut out from the colonial government’s services as the mail service or even ration cards. Had the war not ended in 1945, the status of Korean language and cultural identity might have been lost forever.^[12]

American occupation

Shortly after being released from Japanese control, American and Russian forces arrived in Korea: the Russians in the north and the Americans in the south. The presence of the two in the country prevented any large scale conflicts from erupting but as the American and Russian presence diminished, the inevitable ensued. On June 25, 1950 war broke out on the 38th parallel in the Korean peninsula. The fighting continued until July 27th, 1953 when the ceasefire was signed.^[13] This conflict continues to this day and has had lasting effects on both countries’ economies. The division of the country led to a struggling South Korea. With very little resources and almost no way to take advantage of the resources around them they were in need of aid. This and the larger goal of promoting capitalism and halting the growth of communism was what drove the Americans to get involved in the conflict. Unfortunately the Korean War had many misfortunes. Millions were killed and displaced from their homes and separated from family members. And in some cases families were split between two countries.

The split of the country led to a crippled South Korea. Most of the country’s industry was in the north and their supply of electricity came from the north as well. On top of this many of the country’s mines and other natural resources were being cultivated by the Japanese. ^[14] With the departure of the Japanese these facilities were left without workers or equipment for proper use. The other issue was the return of millions of Koreans from China, Japan and Manchuria. These Koreans were left without jobs and homes and many of them fled to urban areas with around a third of the returning Koreans settling in Seoul.

On the northern side of the 38th parallel where the peninsula was roughly divided in two, the approach to recovering from the war was quite different. North Korea focused on heavy industry, neglecting the production of consumer goods. Eventually North Korea reached a point where they needed aid from Western countries and Japan. This left the country with 3 billion in debt between 1972 and 1979. Ultimately North Korea fell short of its goals and fell behind in its production capabilities with respect to its southern neighbor.^[15]

The growth and recovery of the South Korean economy was a slow process following the end of the Korean War, only growing by around 4% a year until 1960. The collapse of the government in 1960 left the country unsure of its future, however the groundwork that had been done to drastically improve education throughout the country helped create a well educated population that was motivated to change its future for the better. Korea managed to get 96% of all children in school on top of creating literacy programs for adults. Another change that greatly impacted the development of the Korean economy was a policy change preventing individuals from owning too much land. Before the Korean War the top 3% of the population controlled two-thirds of the land. After the changes were made the top 6% only controlled 18% of the land.^[16] These changes created opportunities for entrepreneurs and the ability to expand on one’s wealth instead of keeping the money in a small percentage of the population.

Conclusion

All of this shows how South Korea gained the resources and motivation to become a modern country that participates in the global economy. Despite the negative impacts of occupation by both the Japanese and Americans, South Korea was able to catch up with the modern world and grow its industries. This helped propel them towards the country they are today and past their neighbors to the North. Unfortunately all of this came at the cost of decades of cultural genocide and suppression, as well as years of war that lead to millions of deaths.

Bibliography

Andrea Matles Savada and William Shaw, editors. South Korea: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1990.

Blakemore, Erin. “How Japan Took Control of Korea.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, February 28, 2018. https://www.history.com/news/japan-colonization-korea.

Miller, Jacob. “23 Photographs of the Japanese Occupation of Korea and the Liberation.” HistoryCollection.co. History Collection, July 8, 2017. https://historycollection.co/23-photographs-japanese-occupation-korea-liberation/.

Seth, Michael J. “South Korea’s Economic Development, 1948–1996.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, December 19, 2017. https://oxfordre.com/asianhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-271.

Shin, Stella Young Yee, “No Longer Forgotten: North Korea-South Korea Relations Since the Korean War”, 2001, http://web.stanford.edu/class/e297a/North%20Kores-%20South%20Kores%20Relations%20Since%20the%20Korean%20War

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“US Enters the Korean Conflict.” National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/korean-conflict.

Zimmerman, Thomas.“The Japanese Colonial Period 1910 – 1945.” KoreanHistory.info. http://koreanhistory.info/japan.htm.