Liberation and the Birth of Modern Korea

At a glance

• 🗓️15 August 1945

  The day Japan's defeat in the Second World War liberated Korea — a full 35 years from 22 August 1910.

• 🗳️10 May 1948

  75% of registered voters in the south voted, electing 198 assembly members and launching the Constituent Assembly.

• 🚧The election was southern only

  Soviet authorities refused entry to the north for the UN commission that was to supervise the vote.

• 📛The name was settled in 1919

  'Daehanminguk' was established as the state name in the Shanghai Provisional Government's constitution and is still in use.

The Korean word for this day, gwangbok, means "the recovery of light." It is not simply "liberation."

The encyclopedia describes the idea as having arisen as the antithesis to the national contradiction of the colonisation forced on Korea by Japan. The word therefore applies properly only to the era running from the beginning of the Korean Empire's collapse in the early twentieth century to 15 August 1945, and it encompasses the thought and the movement of anti-Japanese national independence.

As a span, it refers to the nationalist movement that continued for a full 35 years, from the forced annexation of 22 August 1910 to liberation on 15 August 1945. It is the same stretch of time as the colonial period, named from the side of the resistance rather than the side of the rule.

This is the theme you will meet most often in exhibitions on the period, and the encyclopedia addresses it directly.

On 9 August the Soviet Union declared war on Japan under the Yalta agreement, began landing at Unggi and Najin on the 12th and at Cheongjin on the 14th, and occupied the whole area down to the 38th parallel. Shortly afterwards American forces occupied the area south of it.

The encyclopedia records that Koreans consequently came to realise that the agent that brought liberation was not themselves but the American and Soviet armies. Until the 38th parallel appeared they had thought the division would be temporary, and watching two armies divide and occupy the country changed that.

That sentence is not an interpretation added here; it is the self-assessment carried in the source. Knowing it in advance explains the tone of the galleries covering this period.

What happened between 1945 and 1948 followed clear stages.

The American military government pursued a left–right coalition in the south and failed. With Syngman Rhee pushing for a separate government, even the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly rejected the trusteeship plan decided at the Moscow conference. When the US–Soviet Joint Commission produced no result, the decision was taken to pursue an independent government in the shortest possible time instead of trusteeship.

Then comes the decisive sentence. Because Soviet authorities refused entry to the north for the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea, which was to supervise the general election, the election took place only in the southern region where supervision was possible.

There was opposition. Kim Ku, Kim Kyu-sik and other leaders opposed the establishment of a separate government and campaigned for a unified one; North Korean communists responded, and a North–South political conference was held in Pyongyang in April 1948 without producing any particular result.

On 10 May 1948, in the southern region, 75% of all registered voters took part and elected 198 members of the National Assembly, launching the Constituent Assembly.

The First Republic was built on the basis of that 10 May general election. However, the forces around Kim Ku and Kim Kyu-sik who supported the North–South negotiations boycotted the election.

A parallel process ran in the north. The North Korean authorities began drafting a constitution in November 1947, adopted a draft in April 1948, and finalised it after forming the Supreme People's Assembly on 8 September that year.

Two procedures running side by side is what the division consisted of, and two years later the war began.

The name the new state used was not a new one.

"Daehanminguk" was established as the state name in the constitution of the Provisional Government founded in Shanghai in 1919, and has been in use ever since. The name settled in the year of the March 1st Movement carried straight through.

So Liberation Day and Independence Movement Day are not unrelated holidays. One marks the year the name was chosen; the other marks the day that name could become a country's.

Where to see this period

• 

  National Museum of Korean Contemporary History

  The museum that takes this period head-on. On the Gwanghwamun boulevard, so it attaches easily to a palace day.

• 

  Seodaemun Prison History Hall

  Covers the 35 years before liberation. Taken in order, it is the first half of this article.

• 

  War Memorial of Korea

  Where this leads: the war that began two years later.

Frequently asked questions