Paper short abstract:

This paper traces Japan's postwar rebirth. It highlights Japan's extended presence on the Korean Peninsula fo;;owing its surrender to the Allied forces in min-August 1945. This extension began with an exchange of correspondence between general Kosuku in Seoul and General Hodge in Okinawa.

Paper long abstract:

On September 1, 1945, a short two weeks following the Japanese emperor’s “jewel voice” surrender speech, General Kosuku Yoshio, head of the 17th Japanese Army in Korea, contacted U.S. General John Hodge, Commanding Officer of the XXIV Corps then in Okinawa but soon to travel to Seoul to direct the U.S. occupation of southern Korea. As the Soviet armies were quickly advancing south from the Manchurian border the Japanese officer informed Hodge that “there are Communist agitators among the Koreans who are plotting to take advantage of the situation to disturb the peace and order here.” Hodge directed the Japanese that they were to maintain control over the peninsula until U.S. forces arrived; he promised to have leaflets dropped over the Peninsula to inform the Korean people of this directive. This directive was one of a number of clues that Japan would be positioned by the United States to maintain its superior position among states in the Northeast Asian region. Prior to this, U.S.-based Japanese objected to rumors that Japan would be offered the chance to surrender under negotiated, rather than unconditional, terms, and that the emperor would be treated leniently rather than as a war criminal. Even after the occupation of southern Korea commenced the Korean people saw signs that they interpreted as the U.S. directing more favorable treatment toward the defeated Japanese military than toward the liberated Korean people. This presentation argues that U.S. attitudes toward the enemy Japanese softened as its relations with its soon to be former ally, the Soviet Union, hardened, even as the battles waged in the Pacific. To what extent did it suggest Japan’s importance to combat an anticipated “cold war” with the Soviet Union and the territory it would soon occupy in northern Korea?