THE HISTORY OF THE SEPARATION OF KOREA
In Chapter Three, Between Hybridity and Hegemony in K-Pop’s Global Popularity of From Factory Girls to K-pop Idol Girls, Gooyong Kim discusses U.S. hegemony in the formation of Korean society, and writes:
“Korean society can be dissected through trajectories of Americanization because American military, economic, political, and cultural influences have been intertwined and have worked simultaneously since the U.S. Army landed to establish a military government in 1945.”
Why did the U.S. Army come to Korea to establish a military government in 1945? Why are there two countries for Koreans, a people who have shared common histories and cultures for thousands of years? Why are they separated by a demilitarized zone considered the most heavily armed place and the most heavily militarized border on Earth?
Web search results for “Korean War” often begin with “North Korea attacked South Korea in 1950, igniting the Korean War.” However, why was there a North Korea and a South Korea in the first place?
To understand, we have to go back to the late 1800s and the global events leading up to the partition of the Korean peninsula.
After Japan won the First Sino-Japanese War, the Kingdom of Joseon was no longer a tributary state of the Qing dynasty, and so in 1897, Emperor Gojong proclaimed the founding of Daehan Jeguk, literally meaning Great Korean Empire.
Joseon was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting for over 500 years. The kingdom declined in the late 1800s, and dynastic rule ended with Japanese annexation in 1910.
In 1902, Britain and Japan signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, in which they pledged to help each other with their respective interests in China and Korea, and to contain the expansion of the Russian Empire in East Asia.
After Imperial Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 — and after the Taft–Katsura Agreement* between Japan and the U.S. — Japan made Korea its protectorate to expand its sphere of influence. Five years later, in 1910, Japan officially annexed Korea through an annexation treaty.
*The Taft–Katsura Agreement was a memorandum of understanding that Japan would not intervene with the U.S.'s colonization of the Philippines, and the U.S. would not intervene with Japan’s colonization of Korea.
For 35 years, Korea was under brutal Japanese colonization. The Korean language was banned in public places, schools, and universities. Over 200,000 Korean historical documents were burned. Rice crops, land, and human labor were used as resources for Imperial Japan.
Land was granted to about 100,000 Japanese families. Nearly 725,000 Koreans were forced to work in or for Japan. Hundreds of thousands of Korean women were coerced into life as “comfort women” in military brothels.
This is why, when the United States’s atomic bombs in 1945 killed an estimated 225,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, about 50,000 were conscripted Korean laborers and so-called “comfort women.” Koreans suffered a higher death rate compared to Japanese because they lived in poor neighborhoods near the hypocenter of the bomb, and a high proportion worked outdoors, where they were directly exposed to the blast and radiation.
In 1941, the U.S. and Britain issued the Atlantic Charter statement, outlining their goals for a postwar world. This statement would later form the basis for the formation of NATO and lead to the 1943 Cairo Declaration by Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek.
From left to right: Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill
The Cairo Declaration stated:
“The Three Great Allies are fighting this war to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan. They covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion.
... all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China. Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed.
The aforesaid three great powers, mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent.”
In 1945, there were two landmark conferences.
In February 1945, the Yalta Conference took place with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin. Roosevelt asked Stalin to enter the Pacific theater of WWII against Japan with the Allies to end the war sooner and reduce American casualties.
Stalin promised that the Soviet Union would do so three months after defeating Germany.
Five months later, the Potsdam Conference and Declaration took place in July 1945, defining the terms for the surrender of Japan. The Potsdam Declaration stated that “the terms of the Cairo Declaration,” which promised Korea its independence, “shall be carried out.”
From left to right: Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman, and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference.
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
On August 8, as they had promised, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan after Nazi Germany surrendered in May, and pledged to support the independence of Korea.
On August 9, Soviet troops entered Japanese-occupied Manchuria, and the United States detonated another atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
On the night of August 10, the U.S. hastily put two young army officers, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, in charge of devising a plan for the U.S.
They worked on short notice and later admitted they were entirely unprepared for the task. Without consulting any Korean, they merely used a National Geographic map of Korea and decided to use a line on the map, the 38th parallel, as the dividing line.
This proposal would be approved as General Order No. 1: Japanese forces north of latitude 38° N would surrender to the Soviets, those south of that would surrender to the Americans. Imperial Japan would surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945.
On September 8, 1945 U.S. troops landed in Incheon, southern Korea. General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, ordered Lt. General John R. Hodge to not only accept the surrender of Japanese forces but also to set up a military government.
The United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) was the ruling body in the south.
In the north, the Soviet Civil Administration (SCA) was the government. It governed concurrently with North Koreans after the setup of the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea.
That is how, by the end of 1945, there were two zones in Korea, separated at the 38th parallel.
