Background to Korean War
Men of Task Force Smith, I report we
completed our assigned task with honor
Go!
February 19, 2008
Background History - Why was Darrigo there?
We're going to throw a lot of history at you in this section. We
want to explain what Capt. Darrigo was doing as the only
American on the 38th parallel when the North Koreans invaded.
And, we want to explain the background that led to the
employment of Task Force Smith and others during the first few
weeks of the Korean War. This is not all together a happy read.
But it's history we must understand.
Ed Evanhoe, a contributor to Gordon L. Rottman’s book, Korean
War Order of Battle, US, UN, and Communist Ground, Naval
and Air Forces, 1950-1953, described the US military situation
prior to the Korean War. It's the same story that applied to our
situation prior to WWI, WWI, and Vietnam:
“When the Korean War began, 25 June 1950, United States
armed forces were in a sad state of preparedness.”
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Background to Korean War
Truman giving Truman Doctrine address, March 12, 1947. Presented by the
Truman Library & Museum.
Following WWII, President Truman and the Congress forced a
major military drawdown. Force levels were drawn back,
military spending was reduced significantly, and industrial
production shifted to civilian pursuits. Americans were tired of
war. While they were tired of war, the Soviets became an
obvious strategic problem. As a result, the Truman Doctrine of
1947 directed attention to preventing further expansion of the
Soviet sphere.
The Cold War had begun. Strategic deterrence was the lexicon.
Strategic Warfare against the Soviet Union and all-out war in
Europe dominated military planning. Nonetheless, military
demobilization continued. What forces we would develop would
be mostly strategic, the B-52 strategic bomber, Intercontinental
Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and Submarine Launched Ballistic
Missiles (SLBMs) with potent nuclear warheads, and some
ground divisions and fighter wings in Europe to serve as a
trip-wire.
What is a "trip-wire?" The Soviets, and their Warsaw Pact allies,
massed significant forces in eastern Europe, while the US and its
allies deployed substantial forces there, but not enough to defeat
a Soviet invasion. If the Soviets were to invade western Europe
through Germany, they would immediately meet US force. Those
US forces would not be enough to stop the invasion, but they
would fight and die, and the US public would rise up to fight.
That is the trip wire. Those US forces on the line were the trip
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wire. Once such fighting began, the US would have to move
quickly to employ strategic and tactical nuclear weapons against
Soviet forces and the Soviet Union to stop the onslaught. That
was the essence of deterrence in Europe.
The Soviet threat devoured American foreign and military
policy. The trip-wire approach enabled the US to continue
drawing down its military forces while building up its
technologic capacity to deliver strategic nuclear weapons with
speed, accuracy and lethality.
Herman S. Wolk, in his book, Fulcrum of Power: Essays on the
United States Air Force and National Security, explains the
situation this way:
"... Demobilization continued, and the US military
establishment that had triumphed in the war no longer
existed ... (General) Marshall, Secretary of War Henry L.
Stimson, and Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal (among
others) had warned against a rapid, massive military
drawdown, but public and congressional pressures
understandably were too great to be resisted."
The point to be made here was that the Korean peninsula did not
fit into this calculus. Japan, however, did. The US was far more
interested in rebuilding Japan than liberating the Korean
peninsula. As you'll see, this train of thought flew in the face of
Korean history and aspirations and in the end drew the US into a
war on the peninsula.
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Background to Korean War
Remarkably, US national policy-makers could not see the
strategic importance of the Korean peninsula in the immediate
post-WWII era. This map depicts the obvious threats.
The USSR and China were communist countries, both were
hostile to the US, and the US was, at the very least, very
distrustful of each of them.
By 1949, the Communist Chinese defeated the Nationalist
Chinese, an American ally during WWII, and forced them to
leave the mainland and move to Formosa, now called Taiwan.
The Soviets began to occupy northern Korea, prematurely, just
before the end of WWII, ahead of schedule. The US occupied
southern Korea and all Japan, and maintained the alliance with
the Nationalist Chinese to form the Republic of China on
Formosa. While the US occupied Japan, the Soviets wanted a
piece of that action and had a long bill of particulars against the
Japanese. The communists were also making headway in
Indochina, having declared independence, and the French were
having trouble holding on. The net result was that all the East
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Asia mainland and Soviet Far East from Indochina all the way to
Alaska was communist and hostile to the US, with the exception
of one little parcel of land, known as southern Korea. She was an
island in the midst of threats. Both the USSR and China wanted
the entire Korean peninsula to be communist. The US was
mostly offshore, in the Philippines, Formosa and Japan. Both the
USSR and China were interested in all three.
How American policy-makers failed to see the strategic
importance of this peninsula stands in my mind as a great
American foreign policy failure.
Not only did our national policy makers not see Korea’s strategic
importance, they did not understand the fundamentals of Korean
history.
Korean workers mobilized to carry supplies for Japanese troops. Note the looks
on the faces of the two Japanese soldiers to the right, looks of mockery.
Presented by Global Korean Network of Los Angeles.
The central feature of Korean history always has had to do with
its location. Its small size and geographic location amidst Japan,
Russia (later the USSR) and China destined the peninsula to be a
focus for such struggles. In one form or another, Korea's history
is marked by being occupied by one of these three. Each one of
those occupying nations despised the Korean people, seeing
them as inferior, second-rate, and unworthy of serious attention.
It was so bad that in the 19th century, Korea chose to be close to
China, but otherwise wanted everyone to stay away. In those
days, it was known as the "Hermit Kingdom." The Korean
government in the day held Westerners in great contempt, seeing
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them as barbarians.
China also resisted foreign entrees, but was inundated with
Western traders nonetheless. Japan too kept its ports closed to
Westerners, except for a very few.
Commodore Perry meeting Japanese officials at Yokohama. Presented by
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Commodore Matthew Perry in the 1850s demanded Japanese
ports be opened to American trade, and succeeded in obtaining a
treaty to that end. The Koreans saw some benefits to the Chinese
from the trade, but also saw many negatives, so they remained
adamantly closed. The Americans, and other Western nations,
did not like that.
An American merchant, W.B. Preston, arranged with a British
firm, Meadows & Co., to send the US merchant ship General
Sherman, formerly the US Navy armed merchant-marine
schooner, Princess Royal, to Korea. She traveled up the Daedong
(Tao-dong) River to Pyongyang in 1866 trying to open trade. The
ship ran aground, the crew abandoned ship, there was fighting on
shore, and eight of the crew were killed with the rest imprisoned.
Kim Il Sung, the North Korean leader who invaded South Korea
in 1950, would later claim that his great-grandfather was
involved in this incident and boasted of his anti-American
heritage.
In any event, the Koreans destroyed the Sherman. In response, in
1868 the US sent the USS Shenandoah to investigate, but she
returned home after being unable to find out anything.
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The USS Monocacy towing landing boats in the Han River, during the Korean
expedition of May-June 1871. Presented by US Naval Historical Center.
In the 1871, the US sent five Navy ships loaded with 1,230
Marines to the area. The ships included the the USS Colorado,
USS Alaska, USS Palos, USS Monocacy, and USS Benicia, Rear
Admiral John Rodgers, commander, Asiatic Fleet, in command.
The mission was to support an American diplomat, Frederick W.
Low, sent to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the
Koreans, and find out more about the General Sherman.
The fleet entered the Han River, prohibited by Korean law, and is
said to have been fired on. In response, Marines and Navy
"bluejackets" landed on Gangwha (Kangwha) Island from the
Salee River, an outlet of the Han River to the Yellow Sea, and
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took the island. The US suffered one Naval officer, one Naval
Landsman, and one Marine private killed in action, while some
350 Koreans died. The Marines occupied the entire island. The
Navy ships tried yet again to sail up the Han, met stiff resistance,
and departed for China feeling the effort was not worth it. The
diplomatic mission failed. The Koreans wanted no part of it.
Korean General Eo Jae-yeon's garrison flag captured at Fort McKee in the
attacks on the Salée river forts, Korea, June 10 and 11, 1871, by Private Purvis
of the USS Alaska, assisted by Corporal Brown of the USS Colorado, both
awarded Medals of Honor. On right, Captain McLane Tilton, commanding
marines. Photograph taken on board USS Colorado, Captain George H. Cooper,
commanding. Flagship of Rear Admiral John Rodgers, commanding U.S.
Asiatic Fleet. Excerpted from "Marine Amphibious Landing in Korea, 1871,"
compiled by Miss Carolyn A. Tyson, HQ USMC. Presented by Naval Historical
Foundation. We commend this detailed account of what happened to you.
As an aside, the US in October 2007 agreed to return the Korean
battle flag taken by US Marines during this fight and shown in
the above photo. It had been kept at the US Naval Academy.
You Hong-june, administrator of the Cultural Heritage Administration (center),
and other officials salute Gen. Eo Jae-yeon's flag at a ceremony to mark its
return to Korea at the National Palace Museum of Korea on October 22, 2007.
Presented by english.chosun.com
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Returning to the battle of 1871, the Japanese watched all this
carefully, and later sailed their ships to the same area and
threatened to bombard Seoul if the Koreans failed to sign a trade
treaty. The Koreans signed one, and the Japanese gained entry.
While the Koreans had their heels dug in over trade with the
West, they could see how China was benefitting, and worried
they would miss out. Having been defeated by better American
technologies simply reinforced that view. Therefore, during the
1880s, the Koreans sought contact with the US, and with other
countries as a way to benefit from the Industrial Revolution.
Many Koreans did not like this initiative, instead wanting to
maintain Korean values and integrity. This in turn led to political
unrest on the peninsula. In response, both Japan and China sent
in troops. They would both attempt to control Korean politics,
and both maintained forces there.
Here again, the Korean people did not like this, and tried to evict
the Chinese and overthrow their own government. Japan, which
envied China's ties to Korea, helped that evolution along. China
and Japan almost came to blows over this, in 1884, but for the
moment, decided to hold off. Instead, both China and Japan
worked hard to influence events in Korea, the Chinese focused
on politics, the Japanese on business.
Japanese troops land on Inchon, Korea in June 1894. Presented by Global
Korean Network of Los Angeles.
China's political efforts paid off. A rebellion erupted in 1894
designed to overthrow a Chinese supported government. It was
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known as the Donghak Peasant Revolution. The Korean
government asked its ally, China, to help, and more Chinese
forces were sent to the peninsula. The rebellion also sought to
throw out the Japanese. Therefore, the Japanese sent in more
troops as well. It was simply a matter of time before Chinese and
Japanese troops would come to blows. That happened in the
Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.
Japan defeated the Chinese and drove them off the peninsula in
1895. China had seen Korea as a "tributary state," so Japan
forced China to sign a treaty affirming Korea's independence.
China did so.
Now Russia entered the picture and attempted to control Korean
politics. Queen Min, once an ally of China, now allied with
pro-Russian factions. In response, Japanese troops took the
palace and killed the queen.
That notwithstanding, Russian influence still grew, especially in
the business world. American businessmen joined in to gain
special business interests along with the Russians. Elements of
democratic organization actually started to bloom, and so did
Korean nationalism.
Japanese troops marching through Seoul [early 1900’s]. Presented by Global
Korean Network of Los Angeles.
Then, in 1904, Japan launched a surprise attack against Russia at
Port Arthur, kicking off the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
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Japanese troops at Seoul's West Gate, 1904. Presented by Korean History.
The Japanese entered the Korean peninsula to fight Czarist
Russia, and sent advisors to "assist" the various Korean
ministries. The Russians had occupied much of Korea's northern
regions, and many Koreans welcomed Japanese forces as
liberators. However, Japanese troops occupied most of the
peninsula, and remained there once they defeated Russia.
Apparently subsumed by business interests, and worried about
Russian expansionism in the Pacific, President Theodore
Roosevelt recognized that Japan had special interests in Korea.
He did that in exchange for Japan recognizing that the US had
special interests in the Philippines. The Japanese, of course,
would later invade the Philippines on the same day they attacked
Pearl Harbor.
In 1905, Japan set up Korea as a protectorate, Korean officials
sought international help in vain, Japanese troops fought against
Korean resistance, the Japanese dissolved the Korean Army,
known as the Yi Army, and massacred many in the Korean
Army.
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In 1907, the Korean Righteous Army of nationalists, a group of
whom is shown here courtesy of Anti-Japanese Movement in
Korea, was joined by elements of the Yi Army and anti-Japanese
Korean elite. Fighting continued, Japan suppressed Korean
activism, and in 1910 Japan annexed Korea and became a
full-fledged occupation force.
Japanese occupation troops frequently engaged in terror tactics, executing
anyone suspected of being involved with the resistance. Presented by Global
Korean Network of Los Angeles.
Korean nationalists rose up and the Japanese destroyed them.
Japanese businesses and political entities moved in and took
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over, economically, politically and culturally. Korean nationalists
fought the Japanese through WWII, and shed a great deal of
blood at Japanese hands. Many Koreans, however, accepted the
Japanese, allied with them, tried to integrate Japanese culture
with Korean, including language, and fought for the Japanese.
In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and in 1937 invaded China.
Cairo Conference, 1943. Seated, L-R, Chiang Kai-shek, FDR, and Churchill.
Standing to the left (right of Chiang) is General George C. Marshall, Chief of
Staff Army. Presented by San Diego University.
At long last, during WWII, the US, Britain and China, the latter
led by US ally Chiang Kai-shek, agreed that they needed to keep
their eyes on Korea. This was a tough sell, given that the US and
British had their hands full with Germany and Japan. That said,
the Americans started to realize that they would have to pay
more attention to Korea, given that they knew they would
someday have to take apart the Japanese Empire. Following the
Cairo Conference of 1943, the three leaders issued a statement:
"The aforesaid three great powers, mindful of the
(Japanese) enslavement of the people of Korea, are
determined that in due course Korea shall become free
and independent."
Japan ruled Korea until the end of WWII, September 1945. As
you will learn, independence for Korea was not in the cards.
Lt. General John R. Hodge, who
would lead US occupation forces
into southern Korea and command
US Army Forces in Korea
(USAFIK) for a while, wrote an
article entitled, "With the US Army
in Korea," published in the June
1947 edition of National
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Geographic magazine. We will
refer to his words more than once.
He referred to the above statement
issued at the Cairo Conference, and
pointed out that the phrase "in due course" meant "indefinite,"
"some day in the future," in English. However, the phrase was
exceedingly difficult to translate to Korean. Most Koreans
interpreted the phrase to mean independence very shortly after
Japanese surrender, even days after. He added:
"Upon one thing Koreans are thoroughly agreed. They all
want their independence."
Korea's history is and was clear: Koreans have long wanted to be
Koreans living in a free Korea. They fought for a free Korea over
and over, and lost every time. Once WWII was over, and the
Japanese knelt defeated and humiliated, Koreans felt certain they
had been liberated. Koreans were sure their independence was
but a few heartbeats away. Japan was defeated, not Korea. Korea
was liberated. Japan was to be occupied, not Korea.
Many nationalist groups came forward to create an independent
Korean republic, hoping to start afresh following decades of
brutal Japanese occupation.
Throughout WWII, the US had viewed the Pacific and Asia as
second fiddle to Europe. The priority was first to defeat
Germany, and then turn to defeating Japan. Despite the Cairo
statement, the US political and military establishment attached
little priority to Korea. The Soviets, however, attached
considerable importance to her, in line with historical precedent.
Yalta Conference, February 1945, L-R Messrs. Churchill, FDR, and Stalin. US
Army photo.
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As it became clear the Germans were going to be defeated,
British Prime Minister Churchill, US President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin met at Yalta, in
February 1945. Korea was not an agenda item, but FDR
recommended to Stalin that a trusteeship be set up for Korea
following the war, administered by the US, China and the USSR.
Stalin agreed and added Britain. It appears FDR was motivated
by a desire to ingratiate the Soviets and provide them yet another
reason to enter the war against Japan. A secret agreement was
reached to award the Soviets certain territorial concessions in the
Far East in return for Russia declaring war against Japan.
Vice President Harry Truman takes the oath of office as President of the United
States, April 12, 1945.
FDR died in April 1945, just as US forces were landing in
Okinawa. Harry Truman replaced him. Stalin got word to
Truman about the 4-nation trusteeship agreement for Korea.
Korea was on Stalin's mind even if she were not on Truman's.
Then, in May 1945, Germany surrendered. The three major
powers met in Potsdam, July 17 - August 2, 1945. With the
Germans defeated, all eyes turned to the war against Japan.
Just prior to Potsdam, in June, General MacArthur's forces
defeated the Japanese at Okinawa after a horrendous fight. He
and Admiral Nimitz were next preparing to invade Japan's Home
Islands on November 1, 1945, the invasion plan known as
"Operation Downfall."
As a contingency against a sudden and unexpected collapse of
the Japanese government or a sudden unexpected surrender,
MacArthur's staff also was preparing for a quick response
occupation of Japan, nicknamed "Operation Blacklist."
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While at Potsdam, on July 16, 2007, Truman was informed that
the atomic bomb test, known as "Trinity," had occurred and
succeeded. The bomb, known as the "Gadget," worked. He
further knew that targets in Japan had been selected, and aircrews
had been training for the mission. That said, he also knew his
military leadership was not in favor of using the bomb, instead
preferring to invade if required.
All together, this meant Truman had three options to try to end
the war with Japan: "Operation Downfall" (invade and occupy),
A-bomb, "Operation Blacklist." He also knew the Soviets had
promised to declare war against Japan, which some thought
might be enough alone to cause the Japanese to surrender
unconditionally.
Truman was in a delicate position with Stalin. He was not as
eager to ingratiate the Soviets as was FDR, but he still needed
the Soviets to declare war against Japan. Truman and his
advisors distrusted the Soviets and understood that they would
have to be careful following the war to assure the US maintained
considerable influence in East Asia.
Triple handshake at the Potsdam Conference, with Churchill, Truman, and
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Stalin. Presented by the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Britain’s Prime Minister Churchill, the Soviet Union’s Marshal
Stalin, and the American President Truman cut some deals at
Potsdam, Germany in very early August 1945 affecting the
character of the world. However, except for some military
consultations addressing how to execute a trusteeship for Korea,
there were precious few political discussions about Korea at
Potsdam. the Potsdam conference closed on August 2, 1945.
The first A-Bomb, "Little Boy," was dropped on Hiroshima on
August 6. No word from the Japanese on surrender. So the
second A-bomb, "Fat Man," was dropped on Nagasaki on
August 9. Still no word from the Japanese.
Soviet tank in Manchuria 1945. Presented by Japan Focus.
One day before Nagasaki, the USSR declared war on Japan, with
effect on August 9, 1945. Also on August 9, the Soviets invaded
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Manchuria to expel the Japanese. By definition, this meant the
Soviets would push toward and into Korea. The intrigue
throughout all this is mind-boggling. Still no word from the
Japanese on surrender.
General MacArthur's "Operation Blacklist," the American plan to
occupy Japan's Home Islands, did include occupation of Korea,
parts of Manchuria, Formosa, Indochina and the Chinese coast.
These plans were detailed by the time the Potsdam Conference
took place.
Operation Blacklist envisioned US forces landing on Kyushu
Island and the Tokyo Plain, and then fanning out to key
objectives. In many respects, it had a lot in common with the
planned invasion of Japan. It is interesting to learn, however, that
MacArthur planned to occupy Tokyo in Japan and Seoul (Keijo)
in Korea as top priorities, with Pusan and Kunsan, Korea as the
next priorities.
Pusan and Kunsan were two ports the American military
planners considered essential to occupation, Pusan on the
southeast coast, Kunsan on the southwest.
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He had a good occupation plan, but MacArthur waited for the
formalities of Japan's formal surrender before sending forces to
Korea. The Soviets did not wait that long.
We learn from Lt. Colonel David M. Glantz, USA, his book, The
Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria, 1945: "August Storm',
that the Soviet Far East Command had ordered its units as early
as July 25, 1945, to be ready to attack Japan's forces in the Far
East. On August 7, the Soviet command made its final decisions
on the timing. It attacked on August 9. Glantz suggests that the
August 6 atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima expedited the
decision to attack. What is key here is that timing was important
to the Soviets --- they had a keen eye on getting as many
territories from the Japanese as they could. The war of 1905
would be avenged.
Soviet Admiral I.S. Iumashev's area of responsibility, between the red line and
the mainland coast.
In his book, Glantz makes this important statement:
"At 0330 hours on 8 August (1945), the 'Stavka' (Soviet
General Army Headquarters) ordered Admiral I.S.
Iumashev, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, to bring his
forces up to operational readiness level No. 1 ... Earlier,
the 'Stavka' had delineated Iumashev's area of operations,
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which encompassed the region bounded by a line
extending along the eastern coast of the Kamchatka
peninsula, by the northern part of the Kurile Island chain
to the La Perouse Straits and the central portion of the Sea
of Japan, and then turning south to Wonson (Korea) and
the coast of the Korean peninsula."
Let's spend a moment on this Soviet attack, because Soviet
forces entered Korea long before the US expected, and as you
will see, the Americans were not ready.
In broad terms, the Soviets attacked Manchuria on two fronts, the
TransBaikal Front approaching eastward into western
Manchuria, and the 1st Far Eastern Front attacking westward into
eastern Manchuria, which is the front we want to highlight. Two
armies, the 35th and 25th, would participate on this latter front.
We'll concentrate for the moment on the 25th Army. We'll show a
map in the moment.
The Soviets advanced through Manchuria far more quickly than
even the Soviets expected. The Japanese emperor finally
announced his surrender on August 14-15. That did not stop the
Soviet advance.
Map presented by Lt. Colonel David M. Glantz, USA, from his book, The Soviet
Strategic Offensive in Manchuria, 1945: "August Storm', courtesy of the
Leavenworth Papers
The 25th Army operated from positions
just west of Vladivostok, General Ivan
M. Christyakov in command, shown
here. Much like the rest of the Soviet
forces involved on both fronts, the 25th
Army moved out on August 8-9. They
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had a tough task. The Japanese were
heavily fortified and the weather was
terrible. Nonetheless, the 25th Army
moved smartly and quickly.
Soviet forces entered northeastern Korea on or about August 11.
A Soviet naval task force and elements of the 25th Army secured
the Korean port of Unggi on the morning of August 12. The
ground forces then moved south and took the port of Najin on
August 14.
Between August 8 and 13, Soviet naval aircraft and torpedo
cutters bombarded the Korean port city of Chongjin, south of
Najin. On August 13, the Soviets landed a small reconnaissance
force in Chongjin and fighting between it and Japanese forces in
the city was intense, so intense that Major General M. P. Trushin
began landing his 13th Naval Brigade under protective fire on
August 13. One source said he took the city on August 14,
though fighting continued. Another source says the Soviets took
the city by August 16. For our purposes, the Soviet Army was
inside Korea by mid-August.
With the emperor's surrender announcement done, the Soviets
consolidated their hold on northeastern Korea and Manchuria,
and Japanese forces started surrendering.
With the Soviet 25th Army already in northeastern Korea, the US
State Department had to jump through hoops to devise a plan to
stop the Soviets from taking the entire peninsula. There were no
US forces in Korea. The closest combat forces were in Okinawa,
about 600 miles away, and they had only taken that island in late
June after a horrendous fight. The point is, there was nothing in
Korea to stop the 25th Army from marching all the way south to
Pusan. The US had no plan.
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Jasper Becker, in his book, Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the
Looming Threat of North Korea, talks to this moment:
"On the evening of August 10, 1945, an all-night meeting
was convened at the Executive Office Building next to the
White House. Around midnight two young officers were
sent to an adjoining room to carve out a US occupation
zone in Korea. One of them was Lt. Colonel Dean Rusk,
and the other Colonel Charles H. Bonesteel, and they were
given 30 minutes to find a line to draw across a map. Even
finding the right sort of map was a problem. A search
turned up an old National Geographic magazine. Using
this they picked the 38th parallel as a convenient way of
dividing the peninsula."
Recall that MacArthur planned to occupy Seoul, Pusan and
Kunsan during his occupation of Japan operations. The 38th
parallel covered the military requirement. The State Department,
however, wanted to move the line up to the 39th parallel. The
Soviets would never have given up access to the ports in
Manchuria, most notably Dairen and Port Arthur, so the State
Department backed away.
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Rusk, who would later become a secretary of state, and
Bonesteel, who would later command all US military forces in
Korea, put together a draft plan that was woven into a broader
plan for Asia called General Order #1. An excerpt from this
order affecting Korea reads as follows:
"The senior Japanese Commanders and all ground, sea, air
and auxiliary forces within ... Korea north of 38 north
latitude ... shall surrender to the Commander in Chief of
Soviet Forces in the Far East ... [A]ll ground, sea, air and
auxiliary forces in ... Korea south of 38 north latitude ...
shall surrender to the Commander in Chief, US Army
Forces, Pacific."
President Truman approved the 38th parallel dividing line on
August 17, 1945. Some historians say Truman did not see Korea
as a major US interest, and simply wanted to get it off his plate.
Others argue that Truman saw what the Soviets were doing in
eastern Europe, and in Manchuria, inherently did not trust them,
and simply tried to salvage at least half of the Korean peninsula
to prevent the Soviets from taking the whole thing.
To the surprise of many, the Soviets agreed to the 38th parallel
plan. Indeed Jasper Becker wrote:
"The Soviets were just as irresponsible (as the Americans),
and to everyone's surprise agreed to an arbitrary
demarcation that took no account of history or geography."
There is a lot of intrigue in the history surrounding Soviet
intentions and actions in Korea. Stalin was not salivating for a
fight, but events and mistakes on the part of the Soviets ended up
drawing him in. I commend that to your study.
Perhaps the most important point to be made here, and we'll
make it in various forms again and again as we go on, is that the
US and Soviets decided how to carve up Korea, when in fact the
Koreans thought they had been liberated from the Japanese by
these two powers, not defeated by them.
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This photo shows the Bokhan (Pukhan) River, a tributary of the Han, near
Chuncheon, central Korea, northeast of Seoul. Chuncheon is at about 37 degrees
57 minutes latitude. The 38th Parallel runs roughly along the ridge in the
distance. You see a lone hill in Chuncheon, labeled by our pilots, "Unnecessary
Hill," because it was all alone and in their way during approach. You can see
this is very rough country. Such rugged mountains start at about 126 degrees 50
minutes east longitude and extend all the way to the east coast. This is why
invasions are normally expected in the western sector of the peninsula, and why
fighting in the central and eastern sectors was "terrain difficult." Photo presented
by "The GI and the kids of Korea," by Robert H. Mosier, Technical Sergeant,
USMC, National Geographic, May 1953 edition.
General Hodge described the 38th parallel this way:
"The 38th parallel is not a natural boundary. It cuts across
more than 85 rivers and streams. It lies almost exactly
between the Yalu River in the north and the Korea Strait in
the south."
Nobuyuki Abe, shown here, was a
general in the Imperial Japanese
Army. He served as the 10th
Japanese Governor General of
Korea beginning in 1944 and was
the last one. He would become the
principal interface for the Japanese
government with the Americans
during the occupation planning
process. Here again, occupation
planning of Korea would be done
by the US in consultation with the
Japanese. Incredible when you
think about it.
The Japanese refused to surrender to the Koreans, a clever move
borne of historic tradition, but clever nonetheless, as you will
soon see. That said, we learn from Djun Kil Kim, in his book,
The History of Korea, that on or about August 12, 1945, one of
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Background to Korean War
General Abe's assistants told Song Chinu, the leader of the
Korean Kim Songsu political party, that Japan would surrender
in a few days and offered to transfer administrative control to
Song. Song refused, instead saying the provisional government
exiled in China was the rightful government. Song might have
made a mistake here.
This provisional government in exile was established in
Shanghai, China in 1919, after WWI, by Syngman Rhee. Its
objective was to overthrow the Japanese in Korea. He was
elected president, and served for six years after which he was
impeached for misuse of authority. This government coordinated
armed resistance against the Japanese army, it created the Korean
Liberation Army, and declared war against Japan.
Celebration in Seoul on the August 14, 1945 announcement that Japan had
agreed to surrender unconditionally to the US. Presented by Global Korean
Network of Los Angeles.
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Background to Korean War
Yo Unhyong, his head circled, celebrates Korea's liberation in Seoul on August
21, 1945, greeting throngs of Korean students. Presented by Liberation? - No!,
Kimsoft.
There was no way Japanese General Abe would accept Song's
option, so his representative went to Yo Unhyong, who had been
secretly forming the Korean Independence League. Yo accepted
the offer, and immediately organized the Committee for the
Preparation of Korean Independence (CPKI).
Syngman Rhee
Kim Il Sung
The Committee appointed Syngman Rhee as chairman and Kim
Il Sung in charge of defense. At the time, Rhee was in exile in
the US, and Kim was in exile in Siberia, the latter a hardened
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Background to Korean War
communist.
Yo invited all nationalists to join, but those on the right hesitated
and his committee soon became a leftist organization and was
reorganized by the Korean Communist Party.
Stop for a moment and think about all this. We've got one
hell-uva situation here. The US and Soviets divided Korea on
their own. The Soviets sent in troops ahead of the official
Japanese surrender to get their spoils. The Soviets could have
march all the way to Pusan virtually unopposed. The US was
negotiating with a Japanese general to determine how best to
occupy southern Korea. And the Japanese general was trying to
decide how the Korean government in the south should look,
rejecting the nationalist government set up in 1919 in China,
choosing instead some other organization that ended up to be
communist.
This division and occupation along with all the political intrigue
created tumult in Korea. In Korean eyes, this was a very bad
deal: Germany was the bad guy in Europe, and as punishment,
was divided and occupied; Japan was the bad guy in Asia, it was
kept whole, and was to be occupied by the Americans with plans
to rebuild Japan as a democracy; Korea, a victim of defeated
Japan for decades, somehow got divided and occupied. To
Koreans, this did not compute.
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Background to Korean War
The red dots indicate the locations the US military viewed as a top priority. The
green dots show major locations where the Soviets advanced during August
1950. The Soviets were on the ground in their locations in August, while the
Americans had their locations in a plan at that time.
Where are we? The Soviets were already in Korea, a consul had
remained in Seoul throughout WWII, with troops in the northeast
at Unggi and Chongjin. The Soviets continued moving in. The
Soviet 25th Army began landing at Wonson harbor on August
21. It trapped thousands of Japanese soldiers. By August 24, the
Soviets occupied Pyongyang and Hamhung.
So now there were three surprises for the Americans. First, that
the Soviets agreed to the 38th parallel, second, that their military
forces entered Korea in August, before WWII was officially
over, and third, the Soviets stopped at the 38th parallel.
Here again, the Soviets considered Korea to be important, while
the Americans did not, but at this point Stalin was more
interested in solidifying his grip on the north than going into the
south, a policy known as "socialism in one zone." That the
Soviets stopped at the 38th parallel served as notice that the
Soviets at this time considered the line to be permanent.
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Background to Korean War
In an article entitled "Carrots and Radishes," published by Time
magazine on November 13, 1950, the author described the Soviet
arrival like this:
"Within hours after the first Russian troops had (formally)
entered Pyongyang in September 1945, nearly every
billboard and wall space in the city was plastered with
effective, brightly colored posters extolling the military
and civil virtues of the Soviet Union ...
"At first the people of Pyongyang had little reason for
resentment. Besides posters, sound trucks and propaganda
squads, the Russians also brought with them carefully
trained cadres of civilian political officers. These
functionaries, most of them Russian-indoctrinated
Koreans, had their offices set up only 48 hours after their
arrival, and the offices really worked. There was little
hunger in Pyongyang, because the Russians got rice into
the city promptly and distributed it as fairly as possible.
The Russians also insisted that their military government
would last only so long as it took to set up an independent
'people's government' run by Koreans for Koreans."
History continued on the next page.
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