South Korea: Postwar Split-Present

Question 1

What is coloniality?

Answer 1

• everything that persists post-colonialism
• Japanese in Korea did not plan to leave until December 1945 (3 months post-liberation) because they are forced to leave
• ~700,000 Japanese residents
• Americans had all these transport ships for island hopping and decided to move all of the Japanese out of Korea

Question 2

What is the Jeju Rebellion?

Question 3

What is the Guidance League?

Answer 3

• 1940s
• Koreans suspected of Leftist activity were put on the list of people who were suspected of Communist activity
• after 1945, names are added to the list
• outbreak of Korean War, the people on the list are ordered to be executed
• mostly Japanese speakers because you had to have gone through a Japanese education to become Leftist
• estimated 100-200k people died
• killing along ideological lines

Question 4

What is victimhood nationalism?

Answer 4

• Koreans who believe that their country was a victim of foreign powers
• often forgets that Koreans were the perpetrators of their own violence
• very common in any post-colonial situation
• colonization of the mind: their worldview becomes dominated by hierarchies (civilized vs. uncivilized, colorism, etc.)
• this logic persists after colonialism even without the violence
• no decolonization of the mind has happened
• the easiest way to create a shared identity is to project it against the hostile outside force

Question 5

What is kominka? What is kugminhwa?

Answer 5

• Japanese for “becoming an imperial subject” or citizen of the Japanese empire
• Korean for “making a national population”
• plays a part in everybody resisted and nobody collaborated

Question 6

Who is Song Chin-u?

Answer 6

• editor of the Tonga ilbo
• 1st choice for the conservative side to be president (post-liberation)
• no Japanese collaborator ties
• declines the invitation to take over
• knew it would be controversial

Question 7

Who is Yo Un-hyong?

Answer 7

• Korea’s 2nd choice to lead new gov’t post-liberation
• managed to escape assassination attempts, until he eventually gets shot (magical life)
• popular figure, nationalist credentials
• was sympathetic to the Communists and worked with them but never actually joined the Communist Party (nor was he an ideological Communist)
• organized his own gov’t and formed the People’s Committee for Independence
• Japanese sort of put him in charge (he would work with them, but then he formed his own party/gov’t)
• chunggang ilbo

Question 8

What are People’s Committees?

Answer 8

• independence committee/gov’t created by Yo Un-hyong (and other local leaders)
• local leaders who took over basic functions of the gov’t (maintain peace, collect taxes, etc.)
• Sept 6, 1945, these representatives come to Seoul and declare the establishment of the Korean Peoeple’s Republic and try to create a single unified gov’t
• Americans arrive and say ‘no’ to it (USA did not authorize) and try to break it up

Question 9

What is trusteeship?

Answer 9

• Soviets in the North, Americans in the South (Korea split at 38th parallel)
• essentially WWII ended “too quickly” for Korea
• most influential people in North were conservative Christians (and Cho Man-sik)
• USA wanted to essentially put someone in charge that they could “control” (work with Song Chin-u group)
• 5 years trusteeship and then own independent gov’t
• everyone was against it, Soviets told Leftists in South Korea to go along with it so they would win (but general population don’t like it)
• now it makes conservatives popular (and start publishing in the Tongha ilbo more)

Question 10

Who is Cho Man-sik?

Answer 10

• moderate

Question 11

What happened with the 1948 UN-sponsored Korean elections?

Answer 11

• Syngman Rhee wins
• most of Korea was against the trusteeship (allowed the conservatives like Rhee to become more appealing than Leftists)
• politics of assassination just before the elections
• Pyonjin Hok (Sept 1945 death), a prominent Communist who represented groups of Leftists who did not have a pro-Soviet stance
• Song Chinu - because he turned down the invitation to lead AND suggested that Korea go with the trusteeship plan killed the next day)
• Yo Un-hyong - killed in Haehwadong Rotary (escaped 9 assassination attempts), considered the true moderate leader who everyone could support
• Kim Ku - killed because he decided to attend the Northern conference when most other conservatives supported separate elections and he refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the election, refused to participate in the National Assembly

Question 12

Who is Syngman Rhee?

Answer 12

• first Korean president
• leader of the Independence Club
• arrested for his involvement in nationalist movements and converts all the nationalists to Christianity
• studies in USA (Hawaii)
• no alternative but USA kept complaining about him
• extremely anti-Communist
• ## authoritarian

Question 13

Who is Kim Kyu-shik?

Answer 13

• somewhat an alternative to Syngman Rhee
• moderate
• American educated, spoke fluent English
• Kim Kyu-“sickly” (seen as soft)

Question 14

Who is Kim Ku?

Answer 14

• famously goes to Pyongyang and meets with Kim Il Sung (everyone told him not to do it)
• # 2 in elections
• ## hoping to unify/keep one Korea together

Question 14

What are the republics of Korea?

Answer 14

• ## 1948-