Koreans in the Japanese military
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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.