English III
Research Paper
18 November 16
The Korean war has often been named the "forgotten war," while even today the aftermath of the war itself is still an issue with the Koreas being divided between north and south. From the 18th century, Korea has seen war and power struggles for control of land that not only included the Koreas but Japan and China along with other countries. The Korean War was three different conflicts. For North and South Korea, this was a civil war, a war with no possible solution between two competing plans for Korea’s future. Northern Korea was a communist army led by three dictators, while the southern was a Christian-styled make up with the support of the United States and the United Nations. For each member of the Communist side, the Chinese, Russians, and North Koreans, the war was one more step toward destroying Japanese imperialism. Japan had defeated the Chinese in 1895 and the Russians in 1905, and then moved Korea into the Japanese empire in 1910. The United States had recognized Korean independence in 1882 but did nothing to stop the removing of Korea by the Japanese. Only a handful of Americans knew very much about Korea at all. …show more content…
The Soviets had already invaded and occupied northern Korea in their August 1945 movement against Japan. To limit differences between the allies, the United Statesand the Soviet Union agreed to divide Korea at the 38th Parallel as a temporary border. The Americans saw that the division put more than half of the thirty million Koreans under United States protection. The Soviets took over Korea’s gold and coal mines, fertilizer and concrete plants, and hydroelectric power system. This division, planned to be temporary, destroyed Korea’s