SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Rise and Fall of the U.S. Trusteeship Plan for Korea as Peace-maintenance Scheme, 1941-1945

Abstract

During the World War II, the U.S. State Department prepared the Korean trusteeship as a diplomatic strategy to prevent rivalry among the great powers over Korea after its liberation from Japan.   It established the principle of ‘joint management’ of Korean trusteeship among the Allies to preserve Korea as a ‘single administrative unit.’   To achieve this goal, the officials in the State Department consistently recommended the U.S. leaders to have detailed consultations with the Russian leaders before the end of the War.  However, such a recommendation was not accepted by the U.S. leaders, President Truman and Secretary of State James Byrnes, during spring and summer of 1945.  These leaders were concerned about a repetition of what happened in Poland in Korea, even if the joint-trusteeship was introduced under an agreement with the Russians.  They also expected that the use of the atomic-bomb would end the war against Japan quickly, thus limiting Russian occupation and allowing the U.S. to secure the southern half of Korea.  This paper offers a synthesis between the traditionalist and revisionist accounts on the causes of Korean division, by tracing the process of diplomacy and examining both U.S. threat perception and its intention to use atomic monopoly to prevent Soviet domination of Korea

Speaker Biography

Seung-young Kim teaches international history and politics of Korea and Northeast Asia (the 20th century) in the School of East Asian Studies at University of Sheffield.  He joined Sheffield as a Senior Lecturer in September 2011, after working for eight years in the Department of Politics at University of Aberdeen.  He received his doctoral degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University) and MA degree from Columbia University on international affairs.   He has had research affiliations with Harvard University, University of Tokyo, and Keio University in Japan.  He published his monograph American Diplomacy and Strategy toward Korea and Northeast Asia, 1882-1950 and After (Palgrave Macmillan) in 2009.  Before pursuing his doctoral degree, SY Kim worked as the diplomatic correspondent and UN correspondent for The Chosun Ilbo newspaper in South Korea until 1995.