Burnt by the Sun. The Koreans of the Russian Far East - Jon K. Chang

130 Chapter 6

The Japa nese were now entrenched in two states (Manchukuo and

Korea) that flanked the rear guard of the Rus sian Far East. Immediately

after Japan had invaded China (July 1937), it began to recruit Koreans into

the Korean (colonial) Army to make up for the shortage of draft- age avail-

able males in the Japa nese Empire.^71 The establishment of Manchukuo

(1932) greatly increased the threat of war and the fear of fifth columnists.

Naturally, with the continuities of tsarist primordialist ideas diaspora na-

tionalities were “first among equals” as suspects of espionage.

In November 1932, during a joint Chinese- Korean cele bration of the

October Revolution (in Vladivostok), Sin Zhen Khin stated:

We, the Korean and Chinese workers in friendship unite around the Party

and fight for the fulfillment of the people’s economic plan while strengthen-

ing the defense- capability of our country. We, the Chinese workers have

deducted from our own salaries for the construction of three airplanes. Let

the imperialists know that if they want to threaten socialist construction

we, the Chinese and Korean workers, together with our Rus sian brothers,

will fight to the very last drop of blood.^72

This speech borrows from Stalin himself, who used this metonym of blood to
represent unwavering loyalty in a December 1929 speech: “to devote to the
cause of the working class, to the cause of the proletarian revolution and
world communism, all my strength, all my faculties, and, if need be, all my
blood, to the very last drop.”^73 To follow the vozhd ( great leader) in words
and deed was to survive. After 1931, Chinese and Koreans in the RFE un-
derstood that their socialist credentials and character would be challenged
because of their cultural and historic links with the Japa nese.^74 Chinese and
Korean Soviet cadres and Party members understood that Arsenev’s “white
paper” had supporters despite an official “class line.” Hence, “the last drop of
blood” to be given for the RFE was both literal and figurative. Soviet Koreans
were willing to fight and purge enemies in order to show their loyalties and
remain in the RFE. They also dramatically displayed their loyalties during
the Intervention, the Free City Incident, latinization, and several speeches in
the 1930s.
In 1932, Ministry of Finance (Narkomfin) issued a secret report that
had been created jointly with the Special Section of the OGPU on Japa nese
citizens and their activities in Vladivostok. This vignette highlights the fact
that capitalism makes strange bedfellows. The relationship between the So-
viet Union and Japan in the 1930s as a result of their joint- venture partner-
ships in their “concessions” meant that they exchanged labor, currency, and
valuable resources that helped Japan strengthen its military and enlarge its