John M. Frankl

10.18399/acta.2014.17.2.005

Korea-U.S. Relations Korea-Japan relations Modern Korean Literature Colonial Period March First Movement

Many mistakenly posit the presently close relations between Korea and the United States as having begun with Japan’s surrender in 1945. The alliance exists to this day, and there are still many who can scarcely imagine a Korean peninsula without U.S. military forces present. The curious triangle of Korean-U.S.-Japanese relations, however, began much earlier. A forced treaty with Japan in 1876 was the first attempt to coerce Korea away from the traditional East Asian world order, while a treaty of “amity and commerce” with America in 1882 represented a more autonomous move toward a new global configuration. With annexation in 1910, the first battle lines had been drawn: Japan had betrayed Korea and America represented the best hope for salvation. And this was more than historical reality; it also clearly manifest itself in works of early modern Korean fiction, which reveal a naïve optimism regarding America’s role in Korea’s mod-ernization and rescue. With the failure of America, however, to come to Korea’s aid during the independence movement of March 1, 1919, there came a turning away from the U.S. and to Japan. The U.S., once the promised land, became a wasteland, while Japan came to fill the vacated position of redeemer. From the 1920s, we see a systematic dismantling of America’s privileged position and a concomitant acceptance of the reality of Japanese hegemony. Ironically, however, Japanese oppression and American silence liberated Koreans psychologically from the naïve fantasy of U.S. salvation, even as they politically drove them further toward subjugation and assimilation.