Relations between US forces and the population of South Korea

484 Pages·2017·8.4 MB·English

by  Bertrand Roehner

Relations between US forces and the population of
South Korea
Bertrand Roehner
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Bertrand Roehner. Relations between US forces and the population of South Korea. 2014. ￿hal-
01708277￿
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RELATIONS BETWEEN
US FORCES
AND THE
POPULATION OF SOUTH KOREA
Bertrand M. Roehner
Institute for Theoretical and High Energy Physics, University of Paris 6
Laboratoire de Physique The´orique et Hautes E´nergies, UPMC
Working Report

It had been the one song of those who thirst after absolute power that the interest of the
staterequires that itsaffairs shouldbeconductedin secret.
—Baruch Spinoza, TheologicoPoliticalTreatise(1670)
Publishedanonymouslyin the DutchRepublic, the bookwas officiallybanned fouryears
afteritspublication.
“Is thereanypointto whichyouwouldwishto drawmy attention?”
“Yes, tothecuriousincidentofthedoginthenight-time.”
“Thedogdid nothinginthenight-time.”
“That was thecuriousincident,”remarked Sherlock Holmes.
—SirArthurConan Doyle,SilverBlaze(1892)
There is a strong family resemblance about the misdeeds, and if you have all the details
ofathousandatyourfingerends, itisodd ifyoucan’t unravelthethousandandfirst.
—SirArthurConan Doyle,The Valleyof Fear(1915)

RELATIONS BETWEEN US FORCES
AND
THE POPULATION OF SOUTH KOREA
1945–2010
Bertrand M. Roehner, University ofParis6, [email protected]
Versionof1August2014. Commentsarewelcome.
WehopethatthesenoteswillenableustogetintouchwithKoreanscholars;needless
to say, this is an essential condition for the success of this project. Please, if you
happen to know people who have a working interest in this kind of historiography
do not hesitate to send them a copy of the present draft.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
1 Introduction
2 Incidents
3 Trials by US military tribunals
4 Censorship
5 Economics and black market
6 Chronology
7 Quantitative evidence
8 Enduring US influence
9 Conclusion
10 Appendix A: Aircraft accidents in South Korea (1945-1947)
11 Acknowledgments
12 Abbreviations
13 References
14 Occupation episodes and analytical history
FIGURES AND TABLES
Fig. 1a: Radiogram ordering the end of strafing (7 November 1946)
Fig. 1b: Confirmation of the termination of low passes (and strafing), 8 November
1946
6
Fig. 2: Interview of Chief of Police Chang about the organization of the election of
May 1948
Fig. 3a: Some buildings in Yosu before 1940
Fig. 3b Yosu in the days after the city was retaken
Fig. 1.1: National Personnel Records Center
Fig. 1.2a: Map of South Korea: cities
Fig. 1.2b: Map of South Korea: mountains
Fig. 1.2c Map of South Korea: provinces
Fig. 1.2d Map of South Korea: provinces
Fig. 1.3: Professor Kojubu (Kojubu Samgukji)
Fig. 2.1: Sub machine gun
Fig. 2.2: Water cooled machine gun
Fig. 2.3: Scout car S1
Fig. 2.4a: P-38 Fighter aircraft
Fig. 2.4b: P-51 Fighter aircraft
Fig. 2.4c: AT-6 light attack aircraft
Fig. 2.5: Prisoner of war camp of Koje Island
Fig. 2.6: Monthly US fatalities
Fig. 2.7a: Key US and Korean military officers at Jeju airfield on 5 May 1948
Fig. 2.7b: General William Lynn Roberts with South Korean officers in May 1948.
Fig. 5.1: Production collapse in South Korea in 1946
Fig. 6.1: Headquarters of the US Military Government in Seoul
Fig. 6.2: Syngman Rhee with General MacArthur
Fig. 6.3: Page excerpted from the “Satan’s Angels Courier”
Fig. 6.4: M7 tank
Fig. 6.5: Withdrawal notice from the US national archives
Fig. 6.6: Withdrawal notice from the US national archives
Fig. 6.7: 105-mm howitzer
Fig. 6.8: Destroyer USS Craig (DD-885) in 1948
Fig. 6.9a: Court Organization Law in Japan (April 1947)
Fig. 6.9b: Court Organization Law in South Korea, handwritten draft (1947-1948)
Fig. 6.9c: Court Organization Law. Typewritten draft with corrections and com-
ments.
Fig. 6.9d: Court Organization Law, comments on first draft (April 1948)
7
Fig. 6.9e: Court Organization Law as published in the “Official Gazette” of US-
AMGIK (4 May 1948)
Fig.6.10: Map of the Sunchon-Yosu area
Fig. 6.11: Two sorts of weapons used against the Yosu uprising
Fig. 6.12: Stars and Stripes flag held by the mission members
Fig. 6.13: Piper L-4 Grasshopper
Fig. 6.14: Flag of the 14th Regiment
Fig. 6.15: Command center during the Yosu uprising.
Fig. 6.15b: Numbers of US troops remaining in Korea.
Fig. 6.16: April 1950, 15 km north-east of Seoul. Execution of 39 civilians.
Fig. 6.17: Mass execution of Bodo League members (July 1950)
Fig. 6.18: An American tank destroys a barrack at the Koje Island prisoner camp
Fig. 6.19: Funeral procession in Seoul after the death of a candidate in the presiden-
tial election (May 1956)
Fig. 6.20: A South Korean soldier clubs a man arrested during anti-government
protests in Gwangju on May 20, 1980
Fig. 7.1: Number of prisoners in national prison
Copyright notice: Most of the pictures were either made by the author or are in the
public domain. However, if you think you are the copyright owner of one of them
then please get in touch so that an arrangement can be made.
Table 2.1: Degrees of self-censorship in military reports in the case of the Kwanju
suppression by US troops of the miner demonstration of 15 August 1946
Table 2.3: Comparison of different sources about the Koje-do prisoner camp
Table 2.4: Partial list of US citizens who died in South Korea, 1945-1949
Table 2.5: Casualties in the uprisings of October–November 1946 in the provinces
of North-South Kyongsang and South Cholla according to US G-2 sources
Table 3.1 Number of provost court trials in different occupation episodes
Table 5.1: Agricultural and industrial productions in South Korea: 1940–1950
Table 6.1: Fatalities in the South Korean civil war (July 1949–March 1950)
Table 7.1: Members of the Korean armed forces who were killed, August 1945–24
June 1950
Prologue
Preface
There have already been many studies about the period 1945-1949 in Korea. What
are the specific objectives of the present investigation? First, let me say that this
study is not about interpretation, it is about facts. Its ambition is to present new data
at least as far as permitted by available sources. Their interpretation will largely be
left to the judgment of the reader.
As a disciple of the French historian Marc Bloch (1886-1944),I cherish the truth and
think that the best way to put facts in the right light and perspective is by means of
comparative historical studies. That is why this study is part of a broader investiga-
tion of occupation episodes1.
At its beginning the US occupation of South Korea paralleled the American occu-
pation of the Philippines that followed the Spanish-American War of 1898. In both
cases the United States took over the power from a colonial lord, and kept in office
the colonial governor2. In the Philippines Spanish and US troops fought side by
sideagainst the Filipinos who wanted their independence. Similarly, the US Military
Government in Korea used the police force set up by the Japanese together with its
own troops to suppress the organizations fighting for Korean independence. Yet, a
crucial difference was that in the Philippines Spanish landowners were to some ex-
tent permitted to keep their holdings whereas in Korea Japanese property was taken
over by the Military Government3.
What are the events that this study tries to investigate particularly?
Questions
1PreviousstudiesaboutChina,Hawaii,IcelandandJapanareavailableonmywebsite.
2In the Philippineshe was keptin officefor 6 monthswhereasin South Korea he remainedin officeonly fora few
days.
3These holdings were partly sold and partly released step by step to the South Korean government established in
August1948.
Prologue 9
• We know that during the period of the Military Government (MG) there have
been thousands of trials of Koreans by American military courts, either by provost
courts or by military commissions. Yet, so far only limited information is available
about these trials. There are no systematic data about their number by province
and by month and we know very little about charges and sentences. One of the
following chapters is devoted to this question. These trials are not only of interest
in themselves but also as a major primary source of information because this source
provides systematic coverage in time and space and is basically uncensored.
• In Japan all bills had to be approved by the political sections of SCAP before
being discussed in the Diet4. This applied even to amendments or to bills which
were very technical in nature. It also applied to all decisions and orders taken by the
Japanese government and which did not require a discussion in the Diet.
Did the same situation prevail in South Korea during the period of the interim Na-
tional Assembly and interim government? It will be seen that during the first half of
1947 many important “laws” (which were in fact ordinances) were published in the
“Official Gazette of the USAMGIK” (USAMGIK=US Army Military Government
of Korea), a substantial part of which were drafted by US advisers5. What happened
in this respect after August 1948? There were still many US advisers in all govern-
ment departments. What role did they really play? So far, we have no answer.
• Weknowthatafter thecapitulation of Japanon15 August1945, many “Korean
People’s Republic Committees” sprang up throughoutSouth Korea. By 8 September
1945 there were 135 local committees (Henderson 1968 p. 118). They took over
the administration and police. The situation was basically the same as in France af-
ter the Normandy landing in June 1944. In all French cities representatives of the
Provisional Government lead by General de Gaulle took over the powers previously
in the hands of the Vichy government or German military authorities. It should be
observed that at this time the French provisional government had not been officially
recognized by the US government. In other words, the situation was not very dif-
ferent from that which prevailed in South Korea (except for the fact that the Soviet
troops were not so close). As a matter of fact, the initial American occupation plan
for France was basically the same as the one that would be implemented one year
later in South Korea (de Gaulle 1956, p. 268, Coles and Weinberg 1986 p. 665,
Roehner 2014). The proclamation whose leaflets were disseminated over France by
Allied aircraft on the eve of the Normamdy landing (June 1944) (i) asked French
authorities, including those who had directly collaborated with the Germans, to keep
their positions, (ii) did not mention the existence of the provisional government of
GeneraldeGaulle, (iii) promisedfutureelectionsthatweretobeorganizedinacoun-
4ManybillswereinfactdraftedbySCAPofficers.SeeRoehner(2010a).
5Forinstancethe“CourtOrganizationLaw”.