joshuamit

Liberation of Korea in 1945 (Term Paper Final Revision) – Edited Version

The 35 years of Korea under Japanese annexation was the one time in Korean history when Korea’s legitimacy, tradition, and history temporarily ceased to take place. The reasons as to how Japan’s annexation of the Korean peninsula was able to happen can be explained in a brief history. Around 1860, Japan began to walk rapidly towards modernization, which led Japan to start becoming a powerful country. The Korean peninsula was originally under the control of China’s Qing Dynasty, from 1637. However, after Japan won the Sino-Japanese War (war between Japan and the Qing Dynasty) in 1894, the Qing Dynasty could no longer control Korea under its rule, and so this occurrence led to the Japanese starting to want Korea as part of their own territory (Kuo 12).

Through Japan’s newly established Political Reform of Korea in 1894, Japan was able to deeply participate in reforming Korean government politics. In 1904, Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, which enabled the Japanese to receive official international acknowledgement of their sovereignty over Korean’s own politics, military, and economics. During the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese pressed the Korean government into the formation of a Korean-Japanese governmental policy, so that Japan could intervene further in Korean domestic policies. After the Russo-Japanese War, on August of 1904, Korea and Japan signed their first treaty, so that the Japanese could start the official colonization plan in Korea (Kuo 18-19).

In 1905, Korea and Japan signed their second treaty, called the Eul-sa treaty, which led to the Japanese fully trying to annex Korea. Two years later, in 1907, Japan utilized the Hague Secret Emissary Affair (which resulted from Korean Emperor Go-jong sending confidential emissaries to the Second Peace Conference at Hague, Netherlands in 1907) in order to enforce the abdication of the Korean Emperor Go-jong. After Korean Emperor Go-jong was successfully dethroned, Japan ordered its officials to take charge of Korea’s sovereignty. Finally, in 1910, Korea was officially annexed by Japan when Korea was forced by Japan to sign the Korean-Japanese annexation treaty (Deutsch).

During the time period when Korea was under the annexation of Japan, there were horrendous events carried out by Japan in Korea. For example, the Japanese performed many outrageous experiments on thousands of Korean civilians. They tested out on Korean citizens how long it would take for a person’s body to separate in a centrifuge similar to a washing machine, through how many people would a gun penetrate, etc. (Kuo 27-29). There was also the Jeamne (or Jaeamni) Massacre, where many Koreans were confined in churches lit with fire, burned to death inside the church; those who managed to escape out of the burning church were shot to death by the Japanese outside (Kuo 27-29). Moreover, the Japanese tricked many of Korean women to become “comfort women” by stating that they could earn a lot of money from such job; instead, Korean women deceived into such job were only used as sex toys, and they were shot after Japanese men used them for comfort (Kuo 27-29). Furthermore, Japanese officials suppressed Korean nation by taking away land and food, threatening or killing Korean people who would disobey their rule, and treating Koreans as slaves. Lastly, the Japanese discontinued Korean traditional culture by forbidding any Korean traditions, such as songs (e.g. Arirang), national days, and even the language itself (Kuo 27-29).

The Korean civilians and government could not stand such horrifying annexation, and thus they rebelled. They tried many different strategic ways to earn their freedom back from Japan. First of all, there were many movements, such as the 3.1 movement (1919), 6.10 movement (1926), Gwang-Ju students’ movement (1929), and the cultural movement, which were all very critical and influential to Korea’s liberation from Japan (Kim, M.S.). Of these movements, the most famous movement attempted by Korea to achieve liberation was the 3.1 Movement.

After World War 1 ended in 1918, Wilson, the president of America back then, presented the principle of Nationalism at the Paris Peace Conference. However, Wilson’s stating of Nationalism only applied to the colonies of those defeated nations like Germany, and so it did not apply to the colonies (Korea) of those triumphant nations like Japan or America. Though because Korean citizens did not recognize this fact, they came out with the public opinion to appeal for Korea’s independence to the Paris Peace Conference. Thus, an independence petition was written, and Kim Kyu-shik was sent to Paris as a representative. Then, the 3.1 movement plan was initiated by Son Byung-hee, Lee Seung-hoon, and Han Yong-un’s preparation from later 1918. At March 1^st, 1919, at 2:00pm, many students, civilians, and the thirty-three representatives of the 3.1 movement (including the three promoters mentioned above) gathered at the Top-Gol Park and proclaimed that Korea be liberated. They waved the Korean national flag, recited verses from independence declaration script, threaded through the city of Seoul shouting “Daehan Dokrip Manse (Hurrah for Korean Independence day)!” Korean people’s hearts were burning with the desire for independence, and this movement started to spread nationwide. Because of the 3.1 demonstration movement, the Japanese were frustrated, and so they used guns and knives to suppress the Korean rebelling forces, involving massacres and slaughters. Yoo Guan-soon, an extremely influential and famous female independence movement leader, died during this movement. The 3.1 movement’s heat lasted until the end of April when the Japanese managed to oppress the majority of people participating in the 3.1 movement. The 3.1 movement did not help Korea advance into immediate and complete liberty. However, it did implant an important lesson into the hearts and minds of Korean citizens: there must be unity within the Korean people. Recognizing that independence is not achievable without the power of unity, the Korean nation establishes a provisional government in Shanghai, China. The purpose of such a temporary government was to unite the Korean race and lead independence movements (Kim, S.R.).

Although many eager rebellion methods that were tried by the Koreans had failed, Korea, after 35 years of horrendous ruling under Japan, was finally able to achieve its freedom back from Japan, in part through the help of American armies dropping bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan in 1945. With the ongoing rise of power in Japan, America, which was allied with United Kingdom and Soviet Union, decided to drop atomic bombs on Japanese cities to stop Japan’s power from spreading. Japan immediately lost its power after a critical damage on its cities in 1945, and underwent heavy casualties and deaths; the Japanese had to surrender to the Main Allies power. “Practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death,” Japanese radio announcers said in a broadcast received by Allied sources. After the Japanese had surrendered, the Potsdam Declaration stated, “We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurance of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.” With the aid of American troops towards the end of WW2 in 1945, the Japanese annexation of Korea came to an end. With Japan no longer having the rights to rule other countries, Korea was officially liberated from Japan in August 15^th, 1945 (Cntv).

Well, why did the Americans drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The atomic bomb was originally developed to suppress the German Nazi forces. However, a history professor at Dartmouth College, named Martin Sherwin, suggested that according to his study, the atomic bomb jettisoned on Germany might happen to be a blind shell. If the bomb dropped on Germany indeed happened to be a blind shell, the bomb America spent a hard time creating would only promote Germany’s creation of its atomic bomb. Thus, in order to avoid dropping a blind shell on Germany, the American government decided to drop an atomic bomb on Japan, a country allied with the Nazi Germany, to ensure successful bombing. Also, America wanted to end World War 2 as soon as possible in order to reduce the number of casualties in America. Because Japan was still behind in atomic bomb research compared to America and Germany, the American Ministry of National Defense diagnosed that even if the atomic bomb dropped on Japan happened to be a blind shell, this would not be as fatally beneficial to Japan (Cntv).

The Japanese government in 1945 divided its military strength into half to set Tokyo as its first headquarters and Hiroshima as its second headquarters. As the purpose of dropping atomic bomb on Japan was not to destroy the country, America decided to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima instead of Tokyo to avoid killing and injuring too many Japanese people. However, because the Americans thought dropping an atomic bomb only on Hiroshima would not be so effective, they decided to also drop one on Nagasaki, an urban city with strong military forces. After Japan received critical damage from the two atomic bombs, the Japanese surrendered; thus, the Pacific War was then over. Although America intended the drop of atomic bombs on Japan for a purpose other than to directly help Korea out of Japan’s annexation, its dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese lands indeed aided Korea to achieve liberty.

After Korea was able to retrieve freedom back from Japan in 1945 through America dropping atomic bombs on Japan, Korea underwent various reformations. The Main Allies (U.S.A., Soviet Union, and United Kingdom), after achieving victory from World War 2, had to deal with problems regarding not only the world but also Korea. With the ongoing Cold War between America and Soviet Union, the Soviet Unions took charge of the Northern part of Korea, and the Americans became in charge of Southern part of Korea, splitting Korea in half along the 38^th parallel division line (Kim M.S.). Through debate in conferences between the three countries of the Main Allies (the U.S. America, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union), they decided that they would rule Korea for a certain amount of time period. Since Korean citizens, except those who were Communists, were strongly against this decision, this decision was prohibited from coming into play. Because the decision to rule Korea for a certain time period became ineffective, the UN held a general election between both North and South Korea to establish a united government. During the election, North Korea did not accept the UN’s opinion to have a united government, and so in 1948, South Korea established a government and pursued republican rule under president Lee Seung-man, whereas North Korea had communist rule under Kim Il-sung.

In 1965, Korea and Japan now both agreed the Korean-Japan annexation treaty in 1910 was invalid, but they have different reasons as to why the treaty was ineffective: Korea states that the treaty was already invalid when it was signed, whereas Japan states that the treaty was ineffective because Korea established a government after the liberation. Both Korea and Japan now have stabilized truth, but inner hostility within the Korean people’s hearts towards the brutal Japanese people during the 35 years is still ongoing for many of the Korean citizens.

Works Cited

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Cntv. “From 1931 to 1945, Reaching the Independence Day of Korea.” Cntv.cn. 06 April. 2012. Web. <http://korean.cntv.cn/20101129/100102.shtml&gt;.

Deutsch. “1910, Signing of the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty.” Deutsch`s Web Cafe. Daum, 22 Aug. 2008. Web. 02 April. 2012. <http://dcafe.tistory.com/630&gt;.

Ion, A. Hamish. British and Canadian Missionaries and the March 1st 1919 Movement. 07 April. 2012.

Jae-gal-gong-myeong. “1919(Samil) Independence Movement.” A70777.egloos.com. Egloos, 14 Aug. 2007. Web. 07 April. 2012. <http://a70777.egloos.com/5540677&gt;.

Kim, Myoung Shik. “90 Years after 1919(Samil) Independence Movement.” Dynews.co.kr. 03 April. 2012. Web. <http://www.dynews.co.kr/detail.php?number=38907&gt;.

Kim, Seong Ryong. “Everlasting Monument(1) – The Meaning of Independence Day of Korea.” Krcnr.cn. 04 April. 2012. Web. <http://www.krcnr.cn/zt/yhdfb/201010/t20101021_32912_1.html&gt;.

Kuo, Poyu. The Annexation of Korea. Verlag Dr. Mueller, 02 April. 2012

“Pictures Commemorating the Independence Day of Korea.” Homfree.com. 05 April. 2012. Web. <http://www.homfree.com/serok80/?p=7601&gt;.

Sonicad2. “Pictures during and after the Independence Day of Korea.” Blog.naver.com. 05 April. 2012. Web. <http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=sonicad2&gt;.