[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 128, Issue 35

[Yong-Ho Choe]

I still maintain that Han Kil-su (Kilsoo K. Haan) was a false harbinger as
far as his supposed prediction of Pearl Harbor attack is concerned.

Consider these points:

He claims that he had obtained information on the Pearl Harbor atttack from
the Honolulu Japanese consulate-office. How could it had been possible for
the Japanese consulate office would have gotten this top secret
information? WE now know that the decision to attack the Pearl was made at
the last moment and that this information was known only to handful fews in
the highest circle within the Japan government. Even the commander-in-chief
of the Japanese attacking forces was not given the final decision of attack
until only a few hours before the D-day. We should also remember that all
telegram messages to and from Japan had been intercepted and decoded by the
US. There is no way for any Japanese office or individual in Hawaii to know
about the attack in advance.

On the credibility of Han Kil-su, there is this information. In an
"Interoffice Memo," dated May 26, 1943, Alfred W. Tozzer, the head of the
OSS in Honolulu, writes: "Among these reasons is the fact Kilso [sic] Haan
and other Koreans are not to be trusted. As I said in my Memorandum, some
may be "vehicles of espionage." This comment by Tozzer was made in
rejecting to include Koreans as "friendly aliens" in Hawaii.

The New York Times reported on June 23, 1942 under the heading, "Uprising
in Korea Feb. 2-6 Reported," based on Kilsoo Haan's claim: "A native revolt
occured in Northern Korea from Feb. 2 to Feb. 6 in which more than 1,000
Japanese were killed and extensive damage done to Japanese military
installations...." It also reports that "six oil tanks were dynamited" at
Unggi, that "In Heijo [Pyongyang] the police headquarters was stormed and
burned, two hangars and twenty-two airplanes were burned and sixty-eight
Japanese residences were destroyed by fire," and "In Seoul police
headquarters were attacked and set fire and 180 residences in the Japanese
section were burned...." Haan also informed that "twenty-six large German
submarines, carrying 500 German naval experts for advisory service with the
Japan navy, had reached Japan via the Indian Ocean."

On Aug. 13, 1942, NY Times carried a front page article under the heading
"Tojo Reported Shot by Korean in Tokyo" based on the information given by
Haan. Its opening paragraph reads: "Unconfirmed secret reports that
Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo had been shot and slightly wounded on July 17
were made public today by Kilsoo Haan, head of the Sino-Korean People's
League. He said the attempted assassin , Park Soowon, a Korean, had been
killed by the police....."

On November 15, 1942, NYT reports under the headline "Japanese Reported
Studying Invasion." It reads: A total of 12,000 Japanese is undergoing
special training for invasion of the Pacific Coast of the United States,
Kilsoo Haan, Wahington representative of the Korean National Front
Federation, said today on the basis of 'unconfirmed information from
usually reliable sources.' Mr. Haan made public a letter to this effect to
President Roosevelt...."

These claims by Han Kil-su are totally groundless. He fed similar
allegations to the news media from time to time, and the gulliable media in
the war frenzy competed against each other to accost him for more such
claims.

Among those who bought Haan's claims include Sumner Well, the under
seceretary of state; Frank Know, the navy secretary; and Sentator Guy M
Gillette.

I believe he did a far more damage than positive effects to the cause of
Korean nationalist movement with his falsified claims.

최영호 (Yong-ho Choe)


On Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 2:18 AM, Bill Streifer <photografr7 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Did I suggest that Kilsoo Haan was a double agent? I'm not the first.
> Here's a 2004 Yonhap press release that says the same thing:
> http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.china/2005-11/msg00598.html
>
> -- Bill Streifer
>
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