East Asian History Essay

In the year 1943, the allied forces made a Deceleration in Cairo pledging freedom for the Korean peninsula from Japan. The US, China and Great Britain were the main parties involved in this declaration, often known as the ‘Cairo Declaration’. In the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt made a proposal to the USSR leaders for having a four-power leadership of Korea. Although, Stalin took President Roosevelt points into consideration, no formal agreement was reached upon. President Roosevelt proposed that the US, USSR, Great Britain and China would take hold on Korea. Following these talks, the tension between the communist nations and the western nations began to rise. In the Postdam conference in July 1945, Independence was promised for Korea. The US asked the USSR to enter the war with Japan to free Korea. However, they also suggested that the Japanese could not be attacked from Korea, unless the Japanese mainlands were captured. The USSR army attacked the Japanese forces from the northern side after capturing Manchuria. Following the American bombing of the Japanese cities in August 8, 1945, the Japanese troops began to surrender. The 38th Parallel was utilized as a line of control. North of this line, the USSR troops took charge and south of this line, the American army had control. The Japanese forces actually surrendered to the US forces on September 8th in Seoul. The USSR forces began to seal the line of control. The USSR forces were however present in Korea earlier compared to the American forces. There are many reasons as to why the US government wanted to divide Korea. Some suggest that it was basically done to prevent the USSR army from occupying the entire Korea. Other felt that it was to increase the military presence (from several countries) in Korea, and in this way prevent any single power from taking control of Korea. Initially, the Korean division was proposed as a temporary measure (basically for military operations). However, the conflict between the Eastern and Western powers meant that no particular solution was reached for this issue. In this way Korea continued to be divided (Turner Learning, 2007 & Britannica Encyclopedia, 2007). Once Korea was divided, the Americans began to have a Government under Korea under the rule of Syngman Rhee. This government was basically set up against communism. South Korea was called as ‘Republic of Korea’. In the northern side, the USSR government set up a communist government under the rule of Kim II Sung. This state was called as ‘Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’. Kim II Sung was actually a major of the Red Army. After the World War II he was considered the head of the North Korean communist party. He was appointed the head of a committee for settling administrative issues. In 1947, a legislative assembly was formed in North Korea, and Kim was elected the head. He had a strong military presence in North Korea. Initially, Stalin wanted to stop Kim from using communist influence in North Korea, but Kim was against this. Later, Stalin and Kim were planning to enforce communism throughout Korea. Kim II Sung’s army was known as the ‘North Korean Military Army’. This army included a few generals who had waged war against the Japanese. Kim was interested in developing a nation that was torn out of war. He brought all agricultural activities under the control of state. He also started developing the industry in Korea. On the other hand, the South Korean’s did not have a strong military presence under the US army. When the US army was withdrawing its troops in 1949, only about 100, 000 soldiers were trained in the South Korean Army. The Russians began to support an attack of South Korea in the year 1950. North Korea utilized Russian artillery, guns and tanks to launch an attack in South Korea. The South Koreans were unprepared by the attack from the North Koreans. The American aid was rather insufficient. The Americans and the UN had to support South Korea in its fight against North Korea during the Korean War (Turner Learning, 2007 & Britannica Encyclopedia, 2007).