There are regions in the world where conflict is
endemic. Between the latitudes of 35 ̊N and 40 ̊N
and 125 ̊SE and 130 ̊E a mountainous, heavily
forested peninsula extends southwards from
Manchuria. Its lands border on China and Russia
in the north and, across the Straits, with Japan in
the south. The people call their country ‘Choson’,
‘Land of the morning calm’. It expresses their
longing rather than reality, for Korea’s strategic
importance and potential wealth have attracted
covetous neighbours since the second century BC.
Korea became the pathway along which
Chinese culture reached Japan, which in turn
invaded Korea. The Korean peoples were usually
too weak and divided to resist more powerful
neighbours. But in the struggles ancient and mod-
ern against foreign invaders a sense of Korean
identity was formed, as was pride in a Korean cul-
ture and tradition. Since ancient times too the fate
of the Korean peoples was dependent on the
development of their neighbours in Asia. Their
country was repeatedly invaded, rent by factional
struggles and its people oppressed. Paradoxically,
for much of the nineteenth century the Koreans
successfully resisted half-hearted Western attempts
to open the country and were able to maintain
their isolation. It was the Japanese once again who
forced Korea to yield in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century. But the Chinese too wished
to reassert their ancient rights.
In modern times three wars of global signifi-
cance were fought for control of Korea. The first,between China and Japan in 1894–5, ended in a
Japanese victory. With the close of the nineteenth
century Russia became a new contender for
Korea. The second war was therefore between
Japan and Russia; once more, in 1905, Japan was
victorious, and for the next forty years it occupied
and ruled Korea. But despite Japan’s repression a
strong movement for Korean independence
developed. Both wars over Korea, especially the
Russo-Japanese war and its outcome, had world-
wide repercussions. Checked in Korea, tsarist
Russia turned its attention back to the West, with
the result that its concerns in the Balkans were to
contribute to the outbreak of the First World War
in Europe. Korean independence remained a
dream. But that dream at last looked realisable to
politically minded Koreans in 1945 with the
defeat of Japan. The Allies had promised at the
Cairo Conference in 1943 that a unified, free and
independent Korea would be established. But a
period of trusteeship was envisaged. With Russia’s
entry into the war against Japan on 8 August
1945, an old contender for influence in Korea
came back on the scene.
The suddenness of Japan’s surrender left a large
Japanese army still in effective occupation. The
Russians were closest and were able to enter Korea
from the north on 12 August. American troops
could not be brought there for another three
weeks. Working with Korean communist and
nationalist resistance movements, the Soviets, who
had promised to respect Korean independence.(^1) Chapter 36
1950
CRISIS IN ASIA – WAR IN KOREA