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South Korea WORLD WAR II and KOREA
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Figure 3. South Korea in Its Asian Setting, 1990
On August 8, 1945, during the final days of World War II, the
Soviet Union declared war against Japan and launched an invasion
of Manchuria and Korea. By then, Japan had been depleted by the
drawn-out war against the United States and its Allies and
Japanese forces were in no position to stave off the Soviets. The
dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6
and August 9, respectively, had led the Japanese government to
search for ways to end the war. On August 15, 1945, Japan
surrendered unconditionally.
The Japanese surrender and the Soviet landing on the Korean
Peninsula totally altered the history of contemporary Korea. At
the Cairo Conference of December 1943, the Allies had decided to
strip Japan of all the territories it had acquired since 1894,
the beginning of Japan's expansionist drive abroad. The United
States, China, and Britain had agreed at Cairo that Korea would
be allowed to become free and independent in due course after the
Allied victory. The Soviet Union agreed to the same principle in
its declaration of war against Japan.
Although the United States president, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
and Marshal Josef V. Stalin of the Soviet Union had agreed to
establish an international trusteeship for Korea at the Yalta
Conference of February 1945, no decision had been made on the
exact formula for governing the nation in the aftermath of Allied
victory. The landing of Soviet forces, however, compelled the
United States government to improvise a formula for Korea. Unless
an agreement were reached, the Soviets could very well occupy the
entire peninsula and place Korea under their control. Thus, on
August 15, 1945, President Harry S Truman proposed to Stalin the
division of Korea at the thirty-eighth parallel. The next day
Stalin agreed. Evidently Stalin did not wish to confront the
United States by occupying the entire peninsula. He may also have
hoped that the United States, in return, would permit the Soviet
Union to occupy the northern half of the northernmost major
Japanese island, Hokkaido
(see
fig. 3).
The Allied foreign ministers subsequently met in Moscow on
December 7, 1945, and decided to establish a trusteeship for a
five-year period, during which a Korean provisional government
would prepare for full independence; they also agreed to form a
joint United States-Soviet commission to assist in organizing a
single "provisional Korean democratic government." The
trusteeship proposal was immediately opposed by nearly all
Koreans, especially the Korean right under Syngman Rhee, who used
the issue to consolidate his domestic political base. The Korean
communists objected at first, but quickly changed their position
under Soviet direction.
The joint commission met intermittently in Seoul from March
1946 until it adjourned indefinitely in October 1947. The Soviet
insistence that only those "democratic" parties and social
organizations upholding the trusteeship plan be allowed to
participate in the formation of an all-Korean government was
unacceptable to the United States. The United States argued that
the Soviet formula, if accepted, would put the communists in
controlling positions throughout Korea.
Data as of June 1990
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