[KS] Korea 1945-1949

[Bertrand Roehner]

Dear Colleagues,

A researcher at the University of Paris, I have written
a book about the history of South Korea
in the period 1945-1949. It is entitled:

``Relations between US Forces and the population of South Korea''

A first draft (about 200 pages) is available on my website at:

http://www.lpthe.jussieu.fr/~roehner/occupation.html

It can be downloaded in pdf format.

Naturally, when a French scholar writes about the history of
Korea he wishes to submit his investigation to Korean
people. That is the reason of this message.
Any remark, observation, correction that you will make
will be taken into account.

This book is not about interpretation, it is about facts.
Its ambition is to present data and events which, so far,
have been ignored.

For instance, there have been several thousand
trials of Koreans by US military courts but this question
has received very little attention so far apart from
a paper in Korean by Prof. K.C. Song. These trials are not
only of interest in themselves but also as a source of information
about incidents which occurred in this time.

In a general way, in previous accounts there has been a marked
tendency to belittle and minimize the role of US Forces.
For obvious reasons US military accounts have the same tendency.
Yet, even according to such sources there have been numerous
clashes between Koreans and US troops especially in
1945 and 1946 when the Korean police and Constabulary were
not very operational.

This work is provisional in the sense that
many interrogations remain unanswered.
For instance, very little is known about the first months
of the occupation.
We know that the provisional People's Committees were
suppressed by US troops but we ignore in what conditions.
Did they offer resistance? Probably, but on this point
US sources are sketchy to the point of being useless.
For this as well as for many others episodes
one needs to find alternative sources.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best regards,
Bertrand Roehner

Email: roehner at lpthe.jussieu.fr)
Website: http://www.lpthe.jussieu.fr/~roehner

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Dr. Bertrand ROEHNER
University of Paris (Pierre and Marie Curie)
LPTHE, 4 place Jussieu, F-75005 Paris, France
Phone (office): 33 1 44 27 39 16
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