History of Korea

On August 15th, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced on the radio that Japan had surrendered and that the long war in the Pacific was finally over. The news came as a shock that rocked the very core of the Japanese nation. In contrast, the news of the Japanese capitulation was welcomed with a great deal of relief and joy in Korea. The Japanese surrender to the Allies meant that forty years of harsh colonial rule would come to an end. The 15th of August, the day that WW II was officially over, was also the Day of Liberation in Korea.

Unfortunately, liberation from the Japanese would not spell the end for Korea's misfortunes. The division of Korea into two separate states loomed just beyond the horizon. And perhaps the greatest tragedy of all, the Korean War, lingered not too far behind. The events that would occur between Liberation Day and August 25th (the day that there were two official governments in the Korean peninsula) would set the stage for the tragedy of the Korean War.

To learn more about the liberation of Korea, the American & Soviet occupation of Korea, or the emergence of separate states in Korea just "click " on one of the following choices:

• Allied Plans for Korea
• The Soviets and Americans enter Korea
• Liberation & Occupation
• The Failure of Trusteeship
• The Emergence of Two Koreas
• Consolidation and Confrontation
• Chronology
• Suggested Readings

Liberation and the Korean War