[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 120, Issue 8

[Yong-Ho Choe]

I was at Taegu as a seventh grader at the time. There were occasional--not
often--air-raid warnings, whereupon we had to move into air-raid shelters
(where we had to fight mosquitoes mostly). Sometimes, we saw a white line
of airstream--single, not multiple--high up in air. We were told that's
B-29. I never saw a bomb droping from any plane.

On the other hand, the United States was planning an amphibious landing on
the Korean Peninsula, and the US Navy was operating to gather information
on the Korean coast. On April 6, 1945, an American submarine, "Tirante,"
fired upon a fleet of Korean fishing boats off Samch'Onp'o and
abducted--yes, abducted at gun point--three Koren fishermen. These Koreans
were brought to Pear Harbor. The US Navy wanted to get information on YOsu
bay.

The team that abducted the Korean fishermen was headed by Lt. Endicott
Peabody, who later became the governor of Massachusstts.

One of the Navy officers who interrogated the Koreans at Pearl Harbor was
Horace G. Underwood.

For more information, see my article "Korean Prisoners-of-War in Hawaii
During World War II and the Case of US Navy Abduction of Three Korean
Fishermen" in "The Asia-Pacific Journal," 49-2-09 (December 7, 2009).

YOng-ho Ch'oe


On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 1:20 AM, Bill Streifer <photografr7 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Allow me to respond (in no particular order):
>
> 1. Was the U.S. Army Air Corps familiar with strategic targets in Korea?
> Yes. I have pages and pages from 1944 describing an oil refinery (at
> Wonsan) and the LARGEST chemical complex in the Far East (at
> Hamhung/Konan), and yet neither was attacked. The U.S. was even aware that
> Wonsan and Konan was shipping strategic materials to Japan in early 1945.
> Still, American commanders decided to mine the ports rather than bomb the
> factories. If anyone would like a copy of U.S. Army descriptions of  North
> Korean "targets" that were never struck, just ask.
>
> 2. The B-29's that flew over Korea, "but never dropped bombs," were
> reconnaissance flights, mostly in late-1944 and perhaps 1945.
>
> 3. At one point, Koreans attempted to prove their loyalty to the U.S. by
> reminding them that Korea forewarned the U.S. that an attack on Pearl
> Harbor was about to take place. The warning was apparently ignored, to our
> regret. I have a copy of a letter from a Korean organization containing the
> information (a long list) offered to the U.S. during the war. If anyone
> wants that letter, just ask. It was obtained years ago through a CIA FOIA
> request.
>
> 4. Roosevelt and Rhee may not have struck a deal, but the U.S. acted as if
> they had.
>
> Bill
>
> __________________________________________
> Bill Streifer & Irek Sabitov
> The Flight of the Hog Wild
> http://www.my-jia.com/The_Flight_of_the_Hog_Wild
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20130612/81f77a1f/attachment.html>