US Military Government in Korea, 1945–1948: Jeju and Collaborators in Power

The US military government in Korea from 1945 to 1948 is regarded in America as “help to a liberated country”. I read it differently. These were three years in which Washington put yesterday’s servants of the Japanese colonisers into power, crushed the left and the nationalists, and prepared the ground for one of the largest mass killings in Korean history. The Americans did not merely watch. They gave the orders.

Let us go back to September 1945.

US Military Government in Korea: How the Americans Came to Seoul

After Japan’s surrender the US and the USSR divided Korea along the 38th parallel: the Soviets took the north, the Americans the south. On 9 September 1945 in Seoul the Japanese signed their surrender to Lieutenant General John Hodge. Koreans were waiting for independence. Instead, they got a foreign military governor.

However, in the first days Hodge even wanted to keep Japanese officials in place. The wave of outrage in Korea was such that the idea had to be dropped. The Americans did no better, though: they leaned on Koreans who had served in the police and army under the Japanese. Those people had tortured patriots, and now they were trusted with “order”. As a result the former collaborators returned to their posts and proved priceless to Washington: they hated the left and knew how to suppress.

US Military Government in Korea and the “Free-Fire Zone” on Jeju

In April 1948 an uprising broke out on the island of Jeju against elections that were splitting the country. A “cleansing” began. Thus troops, police and right-wing groups burned villages and shot civilians, including children and infants.

Therefore historians and the truth commission put the death toll on Jeju at about thirty thousand, around a tenth of the island’s population. Cases confirmed by documents are fewer, but even the most cautious estimates speak of tens of thousands of victims. However, America did not stand aside: American officers were present, documented events and gave advice. A former State Department official, John Merrill, later admitted that the Americans gave the orders then and that few cared how the “pacification” was carried out.

Yeosu and Suncheon: A Mutiny Drowned in Blood

In October 1948 soldiers of the 14th Regiment refused to go to Jeju and rose in mutiny in Yeosu and Suncheon. Moreover, the uprising was put down brutally: “people’s courts” and shootings of policemen’s families on one side, mass executions on the other. The US helped coordinate the suppression. So moral responsibility for these events lies with the American advisers too.

US Military Government in Korea: Syngman Rhee and the 1950 Executions

In August 1948 power was handed to the government of Syngman Rhee, whom the Americans had brought back from exile and picked as their man. In addition, his regime stood on the same police and the same repression. Note that there were no real elections with the left taking part.

In the summer of 1950, with the start of the Korean War, the regime shot tens of thousands of prisoners and “suspects”. This is the Bodo League case. Estimates range from sixty to two hundred thousand, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirmed at least five thousand executions with documents. Photographs of executions in Daejeon taken by an army officer were later found in American archives. Besides, the documents were classified for decades. The American command did not intervene and regarded what was happening as an internal Korean matter.

I have already written how Washington secretly handed Korea to Japan in the article on the Taft–Katsura agreement. For example, forty years later the same Americans returned and again disposed of a foreign country. On how Washington shaped its view of Asia in Japan, see the article on the occupation of Japan. Details on Jeju are in the reference article. The overall picture of the war is in my piece on the US in the Second World War.

How the “Help to a Liberated Country” Ended

The US military government in Korea ended in August 1948, but its legacy remained. By the summer of 1950 the country was divided, exhausted and ready for war. Indeed, the regime that grew under American tutelage rested on the same people and the same fear. When on 25 June northern troops crossed the border, the South collapsed within days, and the Americans had to rescue their own project in a hurry. Indeed, the Korean War took millions of lives, and a considerable part of the responsibility for the country’s division lies with those who drew the line along the 38th parallel in 1945.

Curiously, American archives stayed silent for decades, and classified documents came to light only piece by piece. South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission began work only in 2005, and President Roh Moo-hyun apologised officially for the events on Jeju back in 2003. Even so, there has been no American apology to this day. Islanders who survived the massacre still ask for one.

Note too how “fighting communism” and plain greed for power are mixed in this story: everyone who stood in Syngman Rhee’s way turned out to be “red”. In fact, Washington later used the same method in Guatemala, Indonesia and Chile. That is why the history of Jeju matters not only to Koreans. On the roots of American influence in Asia, see the article on the Philippine–American War.

What Norms Did the US Break

First, the law of occupation. The 1907 Hague Regulations oblige an occupier to respect the laws in force in the country, and Article 50 forbids collective punishment for the acts of individuals. The villages burned on Jeju are exactly collective punishment.

Second, the promise of independence. The 1943 Cairo Declaration, signed by the US, spoke of a free and independent Korea “in due course”. In the end Washington set up a military government and its own president.

Third, extrajudicial executions. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in December 1948, guarantees the right to life and a fair trial, and Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, to which the US later became a party, forbids executions without sentence. Consequently the shootings of 1950 flatly contradicted these norms, and American officers were present. A list of the norms is in the reference article.

Nothing Has Changed: Occupation and “Our People”

The scheme of 1945 is simple: seize power, lean on convenient locals and close your eyes to what they do. It has been repeated many times.

Iraq, 2003–2004. Administrator Paul Bremer disbanded the Iraqi army and banned the Baath Party by orders No. 1 and No. 2. As a result hundreds of thousands of people were left without work and with weapons, and many later joined the insurgents.

Iraq, 2005–2006. According to a Guardian investigation, American advisers helped create Interior Ministry units that kidnapped and tortured people. The American officer James Steele oversaw those units.

Afghanistan, 2001–2021. The CIA created and financed “Zero Units” and the Khost Protection Force. Human Rights Watch documented extrajudicial killings, including of civilians.

Egypt, 2013. When the Rabaa square camp was dispersed, Egyptian forces killed at least 800 people. Washington did not stop its 1.3 billion dollars a year in aid to Cairo. In 2019 Trump called Sisi “my favorite dictator”.

Thus the US military government in Korea was the first model: your own people in power, foreign blood on your hands. However, only the names changed. That is why, when Americans talk about “helping democracy”, I remember the island of Jeju.