KJCKorea
Journal Central

Following the Asia-Pacific War, postwar settlement began. The goal was to disarm and neutralize the Japanese military to prevent it from waging war again. To accomplish this, the Allied Forces initiated military occupation and implemented military operations to establish military governments. In the case of the Korean Peninsula, the 38th parallel was drawn as the operational boundary line, with U.S. and Soviet forces occupying the north and south respectively. The divided Korean Peninsula, not recognized as an independent nation, came under the direct rule of the military government established by the U.S. forces. This article revisits the process and outcomes of why this occurred. It examines the concepts of postwar settlement and military government, the characteristics of postwar settlement in Asia, a military review of the situation in Korea in August 1945, and the implementation and results of the U.S. military government, reflecting on the meaning of postwar settlement and military government.

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This study examined the beginning of the Japanese occupation and the dissolution of the Japanese military immediately after 1945. This process is valuable as a basic study to confirm the existence and status of Japan's current security, constitution, and Self-Defense Forces. The characteristic of Japanese occupation by the Allies is that it is not a divisional occupation by multiple states, but a sole occupation by the United States. And rather than direct control, the Japanese government was kept alive and indirectly. Therefore, the United States planned to take advantage of Japanese military and officers who were elite and to occupy the occupation using Japanese government agencies. This suggests that the United States kept the Japanese military alive, contrary to the original occupation plan of the Japanese military's total dismantlement, and that they later financed the process of Japan's re-armament. In this way, the political situation in the United States and the Allies changed the Japanese surrender and occupation system after the Asia-Pacific War. In particular, as the Cold War became entrenched, the US occupation became solid, and Japan also strengthened its security system, which relied on the United States, reducing its sense of responsibility for the Asia-Pacific War. As a result, Japan lost, but instead of forming an alliance with the United States, it failed to properly recognize its relationship with Asia or its post-war treatment. This perception deeply affects each country's history education, political discourse, and international relations.