Imperial Korean Brigades

During WWII Japan never seemed to have a shortage of manpower, yet closer inspection shows factory delays, and conscription issues mixed in with general issues in garrison forces.

Now I was thinking about the garrison issues in the Philippines and China. Many Japanese military stressed that men trained to the standard combat level were kept back to hold down regions while the front needed every man possible.

WI Japan tried to deal with such an issue by making use of its large Korean population? Could the Japanese see use in having Koreans take on a more active role with in the Empire?
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
It would be highly improbable. Koreans were seen as the lowest of the low, basically a slave people, below even Chinese. And we all know what the Japanese thought of the Chinese back then...
 
What about Koreans fighting for the allies?

The Japanese did use Koreans as labour troops and as guards at POW camps, though in a mark of how little these troops were thought of you'd often get twenty or thirty Koreans commanded by a corporal, and they were often the only soldiers of the Japanese Army to surrender. Could some of these men be convinced to join a Korean Free Corps in the same manner the Germans created Indian and Russian units?
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Could some of these men be convinced to join a Korean Free Corps in the same manner the Germans created Indian and Russian units?

No way. The Russians and Indians who threw in with the Germans, they were fighting to liberate their countries from Soviet and British rule, respectively. They were fuelled by patriotism and anti-communism/anti-imperialism.What would the Koreans be fighting for?

"Join the Korean Free Corps! Fight for Japan! Free Korea...from...oh...oh dear...oh dear, what have we just done?"
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Oh...whoopsie!:p

In that case, I can totally see the Allies trying to do something like that (are we sure they didn't in OTL? Because if not, wow is that an oversight!)

The only question is logistics, though it's a big one. The Russians and Indians who fought for the Axis always could just skedaddle a few miles over the border to regroup and get weapons and supplies. That might be a little difficult for the Koreans, what with the Pacific in the way and the Chinese not really liking them a whole lot, either.

Actually, I'm fairly certain the Soviets had a sort of Korean Free Corps led by Kim Il-Sung called the Korean People's Army.
 
Actually a lot of Koreans did fight for Japan: they were conscripted.

Koreans in the Japanese military


The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (March 2009) Korean military participation until 1943[55] Year Applicants # accepted 1938 2,946 406 1939 12,348 613 1940 84,443 3,060 1941 144,743 3,208 1942 254,273 4,077 1943 303,294 6,300 Starting in 1938, Koreans both enlisted and were conscripted into the Japanese military and the first "Korean Voluntary" Unit was formed. Among notable Korean personnel in the Imperial Army was Crown Prince Euimin, who attained the rank of lieutenant general. Of those who survived, some later gained administrative posts in the government of South Korea; well-known examples include Park Chung Hee, who years later became president of South Korea, Chung Il-kwon (정일권,丁一權), prime minister from 1964 to 1970, and Paik Sun-yup, South Korea's youngest general, famous for his defense of the Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War. The first 10 of the Chiefs of Army Staff of South Korea graduated the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and no one from the Korean Liberation Army.[56][57]
Recruitment began as early as 1938, when the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria began accepting pro-Japanese Korean volunteers into the army of Manchukuo, and formed the Gando Special Force. Koreans in this unit specialized in counter-insurgency operations against communist guerillas in the region of Jiandao. The size of the unit grew considerably at an annual rate of 700 men, and included such notable Koreans as General Paik Sun-yup. Historian Philip Jowett noted that during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Gando Special Force had "earned a reputation for brutality and was reported to have laid waste to large areas which came under its rule."[58]
During the Second World War, American soldiers frequently encountered Korean soldiers within the ranks of the Japanese army. Most notable is the Battle of Tarawa, which was considered during that time the be one of the bloodiest battles in US military history. A fifth of the Japanese garrison during this battle consisted of Korean laborers who were trained in combat roles. Like their Japanese counterparts, they put up a ferocious defense and fought to the death. [59][60]
Starting in 1944, Japan started conscription of Koreans into the armed forces. All Korean males were drafted to either join the Imperial Japanese Army, as of April 1944, or work in the military industrial sector, as of September 1944. Before 1944, 18,000 Koreans passed the examination for induction into the army. Koreans to provide workforces to mines and construction sites around the island nation. The discovery proved that the number of conscripted Koreans reached its peak in the year in preparation for the war in the Japanese mainland.[4] The application ratio was allegedly 48.3 to 1 in 1943. From 1944, about 200,000 Korean males were inducted into the army. The number of Korean military personnel was 242,341, and 22,182 of them died during World War II.
After the war, 148 Koreans were convicted of Class B and C war crimes, 23 of whom were sentenced to death (compared to 920 Japanese who were sentenced to death), including Korean prison guards who were particularly notorious for their brutality during the war. Justice Bert Röling, who represented the Netherlands at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, noted that "many of the commanders and guards in POW camps were Koreans - the Japanese apparently did not trust them as soldiers - and it is said that they were sometimes far more cruel than the Japanese."[61] In his memoirs, Colonel Eugene C. Jacobs also wrote that during the Bataan Death March, "the Korean guards were the most abusive. The Japs didn't trust them in battle, so used them as service troops; the Koreans were anxious to get blood on their bayonets; and then they thought they were veterans."[62] Korean guards were even sent to the remote jungles of Burma, where Lt. Col. William A. (Bill) Henderson wrote from his own experience that some of the guards overlooking the construction of the Burma Railway "were moronic and at times almost bestial in their treatment of prisoners. This applied particularly to Korean private soldiers, conscripted only for guard and sentry duties in many parts of the Japanese empire. Regrettably, they were appointed as guards for the prisoners throughout the camps of Burma and Siam."[63] The highest ranking Korean to be prosecuted after the war is Lieutenant General Hong Sa-ik, who was in command of all the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in the Philippines.
In 2002, South Korea started an investigation of Japanese collaborators. Part of the investigation was completed in 2006 and a list of names of individuals who profited from exploitation of fellow Koreans were posted.

Of course very few troops were actually accepted until it was too late.
 
Many Koreans were sent to Japan as forced labor in the fields and factories. Others served as ships' crews, supply troops, and prison guards. A few even volunteered for kamikaze missions to earn better treatment for their families.

However, Koreans almost universally resented Japanese control, and those who fought for Japan did so out of desperation or because they had no other choice.
 
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