[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 58, Issue 18
Bruce Cumings
rufus88 at uchicago.edu
Fri Apr 18 13:05:06 EDT 2008
Regarding Tim Savage's contribution, it seems we had two conflicts in
1945: OSS in Washington vs. OSS in China, which had been going on for
some time (Wild Bill Donovan had contempt for OSS/China, which, like
Chiang Kai-shek, never seemed to be doing much against the enemy
Japanese); and OSS vs. State, which was also a deep conflict, but in
the case of Rhee took the form of Goodfellow vs. State. I know
Donovan was critical of Goodfellow's ersatz schemes, again because
they amounted to so little, but I never saw hard evidence that he
opposed Goodfellow's operation to return Rhee to Seoul. Nor do I
understand how that could happen, given that Goodfellow was his
deputy and Donovan was the OSS director, and it would be rank
insubordination.
Regarding Sun Joo Kim's contribution, I read Chang Chun-ha's account
many years ago and also spoke with Kim Jun-yop about it, but I was
talking about OSS classified documentation, which Koreans and Chinese
could not see--and I never found any.
Bruce Cumings
On Apr 18, 2008, at 12:00 PM, koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws wrote:
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> <<------------ KoreanStudies mailing list DIGEST ------------>>
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>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 58, Issue 15 (Sunjoo Kim)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:57:20 -0700
> From: "Sunjoo Kim" <sunjookim1 at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 58, Issue 15
> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Message-ID: <BAY118-F395A0AF55287C44295EE2493E40 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> Dear Bruce and all,
>
> "The OSS in China, led by Milton Miles and always working closely with
> Chiang Kai-shek's secret service under the notorious Tai Li, also
> tried to
> bring Yi Pom-sok (known to Americans as Bum Suck Lee) into Korea from
> Shanghai in August 1945; it is documented that they did so, but
> for reasons
> I have never seen explained, after a short time the plane turned
> around and
> took him back out."
>
> Both Kim Chun-yOp and Chang Chun-ha, who accompanied Yi POm-sOk at
> the time,
> left details in their autobiography on this dramatic story and the
> reasons
> why the plane that landed on YOUi-do on August 18, 1945 (accroding
> to Kim)
> but was forced to fly back to China the next day. See:
>
> Kim Chun-yOp, _ChangjOng 2: Na Ui Kwangbokkun sijOl, ha_ (Nanam
> ch'ulp'ansa,
> 1989; 2003): 234-252.
> Chang Chun-ha, _Tolbegae_ (Segyesa, 1992; 2005): 299-316.
>
> Sun Joo Kim
>
>
>
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Bruce Cumings <rufus88 at uchicago.edu>
> Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Subject: Re: [KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 58, Issue 15
> Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:28:03 -0500
>
> In re: Doc Rock's story, it is well documented that Preston
> Goodfellow,
> Deputy Director of the OSS, arranged for Rhee to be sent back
> first to
> Tokyo to meet Gen. Macrthur, and thence to Korea on MacArthur's
> personal
> plane, the Bataan, arriving October 16. The State Department
> objected to
> this and indeed had objected for years to Rhee's claim to
> represent an
> exile government; this smuggling of Rhee back into Korea (there
> was no
> commercial air traffic into Kimp'o) was done over State's strong
> objections. Rhee was then welcomed in Seoul by Gen. Hodge, who
> quickly
> worked up a welcoming ceremony for "UN troops" on October 20, in
> which Rhee
> was the featured speaker--thus suggesting that Rhee was the
> American man in
> Seoul (a Chalabi, as it were). Goodfellow had told Hodge that
> Rhee had
> "more of the American point of view." Within months Hodge grew to
> hate
> Rhee, but there is no question that this early American support
> greatly
> helped Rhee consolidate his power.
>
> The OSS in China, led by Milton Miles and always working closely with
> Chiang Kai-shek's secret service under the notorious Tai Li, also
> tried to
> bring Yi Pom-sok (known to Americans as Bum Suck Lee) into Korea from
> Shanghai in August 1945; it is documented that they did so, but
> for reasons
> I have never seen explained, after a short time the plane turned
> around and
> took him back out. This may be the story Doc Rock has heard. Yi,
> who was
> quite close to Chiang, came back to Korea and by mid-1946 had a
> youth group
> (Korean National Youth) modeled on Chiang's "Blue Shirts" (the KNY
> wore
> blue, too). Blue was the chosen color in the 1930s because black
> (Mussolini), brown (Hitler) and green (Brazilian dictator) were
> already
> taken. Lee was defense minister in the 1948 ROK government.
>
> Bruce Cumings
>
>
> On Apr 17, 2008, at 11:00 AM, koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws wrote:
>
>> Send Koreanstudies mailing list submissions to
>> koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
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>>
>> Today's Topics:
>>
>> 1. Freedom Fighter and member of the Shanghai Provisional
>> Government (Reggi Lee)
>> 2. Re: Shanghai Provisional Gov't (Michael Robinson)
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:24:00 +0900
>> From: "Reggi Lee" <reggilee at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [KS] Freedom Fighter and member of the Shanghai Provisional
>> Government
>> To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>> Message-ID:
>> <8b930470804170724g135faea5jac98a0d6cccacb20 at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>
>> Dear members,
>>
>> I was wondering if anyone might have heard of a Korean Freedom
>> Fighter and
>> member of the Shanghai Provisional Government (SPG) by the name
>> of LEE,
>> Jung-? (surname LEE); he went by various aliases including:
>>
>> (in his younger days)
>> - HONG, Pa
>> - LEE, Hyup
>>
>> and finally,
>>
>> - LEE, Chang-il (which later became his legal name and was
>> registered in
>> his
>> "ho-juk doong-bun")
>>
>> He was from the "HyoRyung Dae-gun" clan, and his father was an
>> individual
>> by
>> the name of LEE, DalJae.
>>
>> I have heard that there was in existence (current whereabouts
>> unknown), an
>> old photo of him as a young man sitting in the front row (on the
>> right I
>> believe, with hair neatly parted to one side) in front of the
>> executive
>> members of the SPG, including KIM, Ku, RHEE, SungMan, etc. As far as
>> distinguishing features, he had a small mole (birth mark) next to
>> his left
>> upper lip.
>>
>> There a story that he was sent on a secret mission to Japan by
>> the SPG
>> (for
>> reasons unknown), but on his boat journey over, the Japanese police
>> decided
>> to search passengers and check IDs. Consequently, he was forced to
>> discard
>> his belongings and abandon his mission. Once in Japan however, he
>> eventually met with his future wife, SUNG, SoAh, bore two
>> daughters and
>> two
>> sons, and later moved back to Korea before the outbreak of the
>> Korean War. At the beginning of the war, he was abducted by the
>> North
>> Koreans and presumably executed. If still alive, he would be
>> past 100
>> years
>> of age.
>>
>> Any information would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your
>> consideration,
>>
>> --
>> Reginald J. Lee
>> Hanyang University
>> Tel: 82-2-2220-1215
>> Fax: 82-2-2291-4739
>> -------------- next part --------------
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>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:37:25 -0400
>> From: "Michael Robinson" <robime at indiana.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [KS] Shanghai Provisional Gov't
>> To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>> Message-ID: <001201c8a098$8e6e8520$6500a8c0 at Michael>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>
>> Dear Doc Rock:
>>
>> Some of us who worked at the Asea munje yon'guso during the mid
>> 1970s were
>> privileged to know Kim Junyop and he was full of such stories.
>> I've never
>> done research in this period, but knowing Kim I believe his
>> story. He, of
>> course, was a far different person than Rhee and with much more
>> progressive politics, Although had he maneuvered his way into
>> power, who
>> knows what his politics might have been.
>>
>> Mike R.
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Dr. Edward D. Rockstein
>> To: Korean Studies Discussion List
>> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:58 AM
>> Subject: Re: [KS] Shanghai Provisional Gov't
>>
>>
>> Below is a comment (slightly edited) which I posted on Frog in
>> a Well
>> 15 Mar 2006 and may or may not be of interest:
>>
>> March 15th, 2006 at 7:20 am
>>
>> While this is only tangentially related, it may be of some
>> interest: In
>> 1967 when I was
>> going to Korea as a Fulbright Fellow from Princeton to be
>> attached to
>> the Asiatic Research
>> Center (???s???-?}?x????) at Koryo University, I met Kim Jun-
>> hyop from
>> the Center, first at
>> Princeton and later in Seoul. In the course of our association
>> he told
>> me how he had been
>> in the Japanese Army in China and deserted to join the Korean
>> government in absentia in
>> Shanghai. He related an interesting anecdote about the end of
>> the war
>> in the Pacific:
>> apparently there was a race on between the State Department, on
>> one
>> hand, and the OSS to gain control in Seoul as the Japanese were
>> forced to
>> withdraw. According to Kim (and my
>> fading memory), the OSS loaded up its guys, including Kim, onto an
>> airplane and flew them to (I believe) Kimp??o to try to set up a new
>> government while State was hustling Syngman Rhee and his cohort
>> off from
>> Hawaii. The OSS timing, apparently, was a bit premature, and the
>> aircraft
>> arrived at Kimp??o before the turnover by the Japanese, the plane
>> was not
>> permitted to land. In the interim, the turnover took place, Rhee
>> came into
>> power and, the rest, as they say, was history. I wonder if
>> anyone has
>> corroborating or different information on such a race for control of
>> post-occupation Korea?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Doc Rock
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dr. Edward D. Rockstein
>> Senior Language Instructor
>> Language Learning Center (LLC)
>> Office 410-859-5672
>> Fax 410-859-5737
>> ed4linda at yahoo.com
>>
>> "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too
>> much
>> liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. " Thomas
>> Jefferson
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>> --------
>> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo!
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>> it now.
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>> End of Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 58, Issue 15
>> *********************************************
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> End of Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 58, Issue 18
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