Anti-Japanese Movement in Korea - A Photo Journal: IV
| March 15, 1941 - The Soviets detain Kim Il Sung and his band of guerrillas of about 25 men and subject them to lengthy interrogations. They are forced into the Red Army. Later some of them are to fight the Germans in Stalingrad and beyond until the
end of WW2. Kim Il Sung and his partisans are pressed into the 88th Special Independent Guerrilla Brigade of the Soviet Army. The main task of this unit is to gather military intelligence in Manchuria. The 88th is located in a wooded area of Vyachkra ne
ar Khabarovsk (Siberia).
March 19, 1941 - Gen. Nozoe declares the end of his war against the anti-Japanese guerrillas in Manchuria and disbands his unit. Gen. Nozoe has eliminated some 15,000 Chinese and Korean guerrillas from 1932 to 1941. |
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| Kim Il Sung commands the 1st Battalion (about 200 Chinese, Koreans and Russians) of the 88th Brigade. The Brigade has about 60 Korean partisans from Manchuria - including Yi Don Wha, Kang Gun (Commander of the 4th Battalion), Kim Chaik, Choe Yong Gun, and An Kil (photo: from left to right - An Kil, Kim Il Sun and Choe Hyon). |
| April 13, 1941 - Moscow: Stalin signs a neutrality pact with Japan. |
| Feb. 8, 1942 - Japan attacks Singapore with 15,000 troops. Within a week, Malaya and Singapore falls. British Gen. Percival surrenders to Gen. Yamashita on Feb. 15, 1942 (photo: the British surrender to Yamashita, executed at the end of WW2 on MacArt hur's order.) |
| Aug. 16, 1942 - Kim Tu Bong forms the Korean Independence League in Yanan which is to become the New Democratic Party and then the Yanan group after the Party's merger with the Korean Workers Party in 1947. NB: Kim Tu Bong (alias Kim Paik Yon, Kim S un, the hero of 'Arirang' published in US) was born on March 16, 1886 in Kyonsang Namdo. He fled to Shanghai in 1919 after participating in the March 1st (Samil) Movement. He held a number of high positions including Kim Il Sung University presidency. |
| 1943: Teheran: Pres. Roosevelt tells Stalin - "Koreans are not yet capable of exercising and maintaining independent government and...they should be placed under a forty-year tutelage." Stalin does not object. US, USSR, Great Britain and C hina issue a joint statement - "Mindful of the enslavement of the Korean people, the aforementioned Great Powers are determined that Korea shall, in due course, be free and independent." | |
| Sept. 1944 - Things are not going well for Japan. |
| Nov. 17, 1944 - Chungking: Gen. Stilwell, chief of the US military in China (photo: Stilwell pinning another metal on Chiang's chest), asks Roosevelt's permission to equip the Communist troops to fight Japan. Chiang Kai Sek goes into a rage and forces Roosevelt to sack Gen. Stilwell. Stilwell says - "The basic trouble with Chiang is just his plain dumb ignorance. One of the worst disservice done to the American people is the overselling of Chiang Kai Sek. We've made a hero out of him and he believes a ll the crap he's read in our press about him and he thinks he hasn't got anything to learn. Actually, he has little power - far less than people at home suppose. He couldn't get his generals to obey him if he ordered one; they don't want to move. They ar e making money now - hoarding food for speculation, selling our supplies on the black market, lending money; by God, they are not soldiers, they're speculators...each general has settled down on his own little dunghill and doesn't want to disturb the peac e.". |
| A movie footage of the scene (QuickTime required) | Aug. 6, 1945 - The first A-bomb is dropped on Hiroshima - over 80,000 Japanese civilians die. |
| 8, 1945 - Stalin declares war on Japan. Three Red Army groups, over one and half million men, 5,500 tanks and self-propelled guns, invade Manchuria and reach the Korean border in less than two weeks. The once mighty Kwang-tung Army disintegrates. So
viet marines occupy Port Arthur (Manchuria). The Chinese 8th Route Army under Lin Piao takes over villages and small towns, while Chiang's KMT (Kuo Ming Tang) troops take over large cities in Manchuria from the Soviets in accordance with a secrete agreeme
nt made between Stalin and Chiang Kai Sek behind Mao's back. Chiang's troops aided by US soldiers provide safe havens to Japanese civilians. Stalin's troops cart off Japanese POW's to Siberia. Japanese civilians caught outside the safe havens are dealt h
arshly by the Chinese peasants.
Aug. 9, 1945 - The second A-bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese authorities in Korea begin to transfer power to Korean leaders. Gen. Abe (Governor General of Korea) wants to leave behind an independent united Korea. |
| Aug. 10, 1945 - The Soviet troops land at Ung-gi and two days later at Chungjin and Hungnam. Japan offers to surrender: "The Japanese Government is ready to accept the terms enumerated in the joint Declaration which was issued at Potsdam on 26 July, 1945...with the understanding that this Declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the right of His Majesty as sovereign". The Allies reply: "The ultimate form of the government of Japan shall, in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration, b e established by the freely expressed will of the Japanese people." |
| Aug. 10, 1945 - During the night of the 10th and early hours of the 11th, Col. Charles H. Bonesteel (Chief of the Policy Section, US Army Operations Division) and Lt. Col. Dean Rusk (later to become assistant secretary of State for Far Easte rn Affairs 1947-1960; Secretary of State 1961-1969 - the main architect of the Vietnam War) formulate the General Order No. 1. James Bymes (US Secretary of State in 1945) instructs the young colonels to draw a line "as far north as possible". The colone ls are unable to find a detail map of Korea and end up using a small wall map of the Far East. Lt. Col. Rusk's fingers find the 38th parallel on the tiny map. Thus, the fate of the Korean people is determined by a young desk-bound junior officer. To th e surprise of the US military, Stalin accepts the 38th parallel. Stalin orders all Russian units already in S Korea to turn around and retreat north of the 38th.. | |
| Aug. 15, 1945 - Japan surrenders. Hirohito says on the radio: "Despite the best that has been done by everyone, the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage,,. In order to avoid further bloodshed, perhaps, even the total exti nction of human civilization, we shall have to endure the unendurable, to suffer the insufferable.." |