Christians as well as business and land owners faced with the confiscation of their property began fleeing to the South. In North Korea, the government of Kim II-Sung arrested and imprisoned student and church leaders, and gunned down protesters on November 23, 1945.By 1948 partisan warfare had enveloped the whole of South Korea, which in turn became enmeshed in civil war between South and North Korea. In South Korea, the United States built up a police force and constabulary and backed the authoritarian leader Syngman Rhee, who created a police state.Both South and North Korea became repressive regimes. With Japan on the verge of defeat in World War II, two young American army officers drew an arbitrary line across Korea at the 38th parallel, creating an American zone in the south and a Soviet zone in the north.Japan imposed colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945.ArmyĮndnotes Recommended Resources About the author Racism and class stratification in the U.S.“The Horror, The Horror”: Korea’s Lieutenant Kurtz.Dirty little secrets: Maltreatment of prisoners of war.South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and atrocities in the war.The war’s costs, dirty secrets, and legacies Letter exchange between a questioning Marine, his father, and Dean Acheson.American soldiers’ experience and disillusionment.Grassroots antiwar activism and dissent.The responsibility of intellectuals: “Crackpot Realists” and the New Mandarins.Manufacturing consent: Media coverage of the war.Public opinion and antiwar dissent in the United States Bombing ‘em back to the Stone Age: Aerial techno-war over North Korea.High noon: The Truman-MacArthur stand-off.Chinese counterattack and American retreat.“So terrible a liberation:” Pusan, Seoul, Inchon, and Operation Rat Killer.North Korean blitzkrieg and occupation of Seoul.Domestic politics and bipartisan support for the war.Southern provocations and the origins of the war.Brutal anticommunist pacification in South Korea.Social revolution and repression in North Korea.“Massacre in Korea” by Pablo Picasso, 1951 I.

Ghost Flames by Charles J. Hanley