[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the Chinese Minister for
Foreign Affairs (Soong)
Held down by a large Japanese army of occupation, the mood of the
Korean people is that of sullen submission, with memories of
historic injustice rankling, and having been dispossessed of the
rich South Korean rice-growing areas by Japanese landlords and
oppressed by the present civil and economic disabilities.
Except for sporadic assassinations in Korea itself, Korean
discontent is manifest only among their nationals living in
China and Russia, while ideologically existent among Koreans in
the United States.
The principal leaders of the Korean revolutionaries are living in
Chungking, on the one hand the members of the Korean Provisional
Government Party, which is the historic party of Korean
disaffection, and on the other the Korean Revolutionary Party
which is made up of younger and supposedly left-wing elements.
Korean revolutionaries in the United States are adherents of one
of these two parties. With the limited aid of the Chinese
Government, there is in existence a small Korean Peoples Army,
which is operating with Chinese guerrillas in North China and
numbers a few thousand.
In Siberia the Russians have incorporated for many years two or
three regiments of Koreans in the Russian Far East army, but
until hostilities commence between Russia and Japan, no step-up
in this activity can be expected.
If the United Nations, particularly the members of the Pacific
Council, desire to foster Korean independence, two measures are
indicated:
1. After promoting a fusion of the two rival revolutionary
parties by promising help to a united Korean revolutionary
organization, which appears easily feasible, undertake to raise,
arm and support a Korean irregular army of, say, 50,000 men,
which will be located in the guerrilla areas of North China, and
which will be the rallying center for all Korean revolutionary
activities both within and outside Korea. The purpose of such an
army would be:
- (a)
- to operate in Korea at some opportune moment to be
selected by the United Nations;
- (b)
- to be headquarters for sabotage activities by Korean
workers in munition works and vital communications
centers in Korea and Japan;
- (c)
- to constitute an intelligence service through Koreans
working in the lower ranks of civil servants and police
in Korea, North China and Japan.
The prospect for irregular activities will be particularly
promising because, owing to the shortage of labor in Japan
similar to that in
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Germany, large numbers of Koreans have been recruited for
munition works in Korea, Manchuria and Japan. In addition, large
numbers of Koreans are working as agents in North China in such
instruments of Japanese policy as monopolies in opium, morphine
and heroin, prostitution and gambling, to demoralize the Chinese
population With a well-organized system, these Japanese
activities could prove a boomerang.
2. As a political measure, in order to encourage Korean
aspirations at some opportune moment the Pacific Council could
announce its determination to effect the independence of Korea
after the war. Recognition of a Korean Provisional Government
might be effected either simultaneously or at some time
later.
