Denny Roy
Once again, Koreans Will Fight In Someone Else’s War: For the fourth time in recent history, Korean soldiers are fighting in another country’s war. Those destinations have all been at the behest of regional major powers: Japan, China, the United States, and now Russia. Historically, the consequences for Korea of its young men fighting outside the Peninsula have been a complicated mix of good and bad.
The reasons Koreans went abroad to fight were both financial and political.
During the Pacific War, when Korea was under a Japanese colonial government, many Koreans volunteered to join Japan’s armed forces. Their principal motivation was to escape poverty, as nearly all of them were from peasant families. Recruiters promised that volunteers would get priority consideration for government jobs after finishing their military service.
At the same time, various groups of Koreans traveled to China and joined guerrilla groups fighting against the invading Japanese Army. Their motivation was to degrade Japan’s military strength and thereby indirectly help liberate Korea from occupation by Japan.
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