Japan's Korean War

By Kim Mi-kyoung

The year 2015 marks the 65th anniversary of the Korean War (1950-53) outbreak.

Japan’s military operations in foreign territories are surfacing in public debate amid the current Abe administration’s maneuverings to reinterpret and eventually amend its “Peace Constitution.” The Japanese public is being belatedly alerted to the nationparticipation in the Korean War, which happened only five years after Tokyo’s unconditional surrender in 1945 and three years after the promulgation of the Peace Constitution in 1947.

The facts regarding Japan’s Korean War participation were classified as top secret for 29 years. They were deemed too sensitive to be made public. Japan reborn as a pacifist country and the people with deep pride in its new identity probably could not handle the hard facts on the nation’s war involvement so soon and in such broad scope.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s current plan to push forward revision to its New National Security Law would permit military operations in various global conflicts. The Korean War was the precursor for its rearmament and the formation of the U.S.-Japan security alliance more than six decades ago.

On Aug. 19, 1950, about seven weeks after the war began, the Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a statement titled “Japan’s Position on the Korean War.” The Japanese government soon started implementing its practical support for American military operations on the Korean Peninsula. On Aug. 25, the Logistical Command of Japan was established in Yokohama. Four days after that, on Aug. 29, then Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida corresponded with Gen. MacArthur and stated: “(l)et me assure you that the Japanese government and the people are ever ready and anxious to furnish whatever facilities and services that you may require (for the Korean War). I only regret that we cannot do more by way of cooperating with the U.N. in its crusade against Communist aggression.”

Japan was transforming into a military stronghold in “fire across the sea.” The areas of Japan’s Korean War cooperation were on the military, medical and civilian levels. While some actions were taken under the U.S. pressure, others were voluntary. On Oct. 2, 1950, deputy chief of staff to the Commander of Naval Forces Far East, A. A. Burke, summoned Maritime Safety Board (MSB) Director Takeo Okubo and ordered him to assign a task force of minesweepers. Only four days later on Oct. 6, 16 vessels carrying 1,200 Japanese soldiers departed the port of Shimonoseki for the Korean Peninsula. On Oct. 17, Chief Steward Nakatani Sakataro was killed at the age of 21 and 18 crewmen were wounded in minesweeping operations near the Incheon offshore.

Non-governmental actions were also taken primarily to render logistical support for the United Nations Forces. The Japanese Red Cross organized blood donation campaigns for the U.N. Forces. Thirty-nine Japanese-manned tank landing ships were deployed to the peninsula. Many former Japanese Army soldiers applied and participated in the War as volunteers as they had lost homes, families, and jobs from the previous world war.

The sudden (re-)discovery of historical facts along with Yoshida’s (in-)famous analogy of the nearby bloody conflict, as a “god sent gift,” regard only limited aspects of Japan’s Korean War involvement. The war entailed complicated reality that far surpassed the support role to the U.N. troops and manufacturing boom in the metal industry.

The ethnic Korean community, for instance, enacted in a proxy-warfare along with the divided ideological allegiance. They could not free themselves from the fratricidal violence of the homeland. And 642 Korean university students in Japan volunteered to fight with the South Korean and U.N. forces where 52 of them died in battle with 83 missing in action. North Korean residents in Japan, on the other hand, protested against the U.S. and Japanese support for South Korea, where some of them engaged in sabotage. They tried to prevent Japan from providing military supplies and logistical support to South Korea.

Japan’s little-known Korean War participation preceded Tokyo’s deployment of Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to 16 foreign territories four decades later. A series of laws were enacted to permit the SDF to engage in international crisis since the first Gulf War in 1991. The deviation from the original spirit of the Peace Constitution was, again, justified with the commitment to disaster relief, anti-terrorism, peace-keeping, and humanitarian intervention. That was 25 years ago.

Today’s Japanese politics vis-a-vis war and peace is like deja vu all over again.

Kim Mi-kyoung is associate professor at Hiroshima City University-Hiroshima Peace Institute. She can be reached at mkkim_33@hotmail.com.