1920-1925
America emerges from the ashes of World War I
as the world's richest & most powerful nation
(rise of the American Empire)

89 Koreans are living in Los Angeles, California

trot
a form of American-style pop music
introduced by the Japanese
begins to gain popularity in Korea
(origin of Korean pop music)

1920
birth of singer Florence Ahn in Los Angeles
who will star in LACC's Marriage of Figaro
(first Korean to attend the Julliard School)

one year after the end of World War I
the last group of US troops from WWI
finally stops fighting and returns home
after 300 American soldiers are killed
by 10,000 Korean guerrilla warriors
in the wilderness of Manchuria & Siberia
(2 year long "Siberian War"
is the 2nd violent conflict
between Koreans and Americans since 1866)

 
1922
solitary & wandering hunters
that can grow up to 12 feet long from head to tail
and weigh 700 pounds
Siberian or Amur tigers
the largest cats in the world
are hunted to extinction
in all of southern Korea
and in most of northern Korea
under the Japanese colonial government

1923
territory of China includes only Canton
centered around the southern tip of SE China
ruled jointly by Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang Party
and by the Chinese Communist Party
(origin of modern China)

"Chinese Communist Party" is a mistranslation
of what is more accurately the "Public Assets Party"
since 90% of "Chinese Communists" are ethnic Koreans
(Han Chinese & Koreans rule modern China at its birth)

Tibet
Mongolia
NW China
Inner Mongolia
most of SE China
are independent

12 years after the fall of the Manchu Empire
the once powerful Manchus
    the rulers of China from 1644-1911
    whose homeland is Okjo in North Korea
    where the highest of Korea's mountains can be found
    Paektusan a volcano worshipped as a God since 8000 BC
    with a perfect crater lake at the summit
now rule over only
    NE China including Peking
    half of Manchuria

1925
Rhee Syngman the first President
of the exiled Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai
is expelled for embezzlement
and replaced by former Tonghak rebel Kim Ku

origin of the distortion of Korea's history
when the Japanese rulers of Korea
establish the Korean History Compilation Bureau

the Korean-majority "Chinese Communist Party"
establishes its first branch in Seoul
(origin of the "Korean Communist Party")
the influence of which is limited to South Korea
("Communism" does not exist in North Korea)

1926
death of Kojong's son
Great Han Emperor Sunjong
the last reigning monarch
of the Yi or Choson Dynasty

designed by a German architect
to resemble the Japanese character for "Japan"
Seoul's new Western-style capitol building opens up
(President Kim Young Sam demolishes the building in 1996)

 
1927
Civil War breaks out in SE China
between Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang Party
and the Korean-majority Public Assets Party
(beginning of Chinese Civil War)

1929
Japanese & Korean youth clash in Kwangju
sparking mass pro-independence demonstrations throughout Korea
lasting 4 months and involving 54,000 students from 194 schools
(beginning of the Korean student movement)

a high school student in Manchuria
Kim Il Sung who is originally from Pyongyang
is arrested for political activities
and imprisoned for a few months

1931
Japan conquers all of Manchuria
and renames the region Manchukuo
(beginning of Manchukuo)
with Manchu territory now reduced
to only small parts of NE China
(expansion of the Japanese Empire
into the Asian mainland begins)

Minsaengdan is a right-wing political organization
that forms in Japanese-ruled Korea
based on a platform that demonizes
the Korean guerrilla warriors
battling the Japanese military in Manchukuo

the left-wing Public Assets Party or "Chinese Communist Party"
begins a systematic purge of ethnic Korean members
in SE China, Manchukuo, and South Korea
including Kim Il Sung in Manchukuo
who is imprisoned by the "Communist Party"
(1,000 Koreans are arrested and 2,000 executed)

Mao Zedong & the Han Chinese minority
rise to power for the first time
in the Public Assets Party or "Chinese Communist Party"

Younghill Kang
who immigrated to New York City
9 years earlier at the age of 19
publishes The Grass Roof
about his life in North Korea
before coming to America
(first novel published by a Korean in America)


1932
Yi Bongchang of the Provisional Government of Korea
throws a bomb in Tokyo
that almost kills Emperor Hirohito

the last Manchu Emperor Puyi
is installed by the Japanese
as puppet ruler of Manchukuo
(basis for the movie The Last Emperor)

Yun Bonggil of the Provisional Government of Korea
throws a bomb in Shanghai
that kills & maims many top Japanese military commanders

after his release from prison
20 year old Kim Il Sung the future founder of North Korea
organizes his first anti-Japanese guerrilla unit in Manchukuo
(90% of all anti-Japanese guerrilla resistance in Manchukuo is Korean)

Japan initiates a bloody anti-guerrilla campaign in Manchukuo
slaughtering up to 25,000 Koreans
which provides the subject matter
for North Korea's most famous opera
entitled Sea of Blood


1933
246,000 Japanese officials and elite
rule 25,000,000 Koreans in Korea & Manchukuo

200,000 Koreans are virtual slaves
in Western-style industrial factories
built by the Japanese colonial government


1935
led by Mao Zedong
the once Korean-dominated "Chinese Communist Party"
battles Chiang Kai-Shek and the Kuomintang Party
in Han Chinese-controlled SE China
(Chinese Civil War continues)

Unit 731 is established by the Japanese Empire
in the city of Harbin in NE Manchukuo
to study the effects of chemical & biological weapons
(captured Korean guerrillas are used as live test subjects)

Japan invades and seizes
    all of NE China including Peking
    Inner Mongolia
    northernmost SE China including Nanking & Shanghai
(World War II begins in Asia)

200,000 Korean "comfort women"
serve as sex slaves
to the Japanese army during WWII

Japan's conquest of NE China
leaves the Manchus completely stateless
accelerating Manchu assimilation
as Korean or Han Chinese
("disappearance" of the Manchus)

Han Chinese territory is reduced to
the southern half of SE China

right-wing Chiang Kai-Shek & left-wing Mao Zedong
unite their formerly warring armies
to drive the Japanese out of China

Japan initiates an "assimilation" policy in Korea in which
    Korean-language newspapers & magazines are suppressed
    Japanese language is spoken in all schools
    scholarly & literary groups are disbanded
    oaths of allegiance to the Emperor of Japan are mandatory
    Shinto is the official religion
    shaman rites are outlawed
    political prisoners fill the jails
    land is seized
    rice is exported to Japan while Koreans go hungry   

200,000 Koreans from Russian-controlled NE Manchuria
considered to be the "same" as the Japanese
are deported by the Russian Empire to Central Asia

Stalin executes all Koreans
in the Russian Communist Party

25 year old Kim Il Sung
is now one of the key leaders
of the Manchukuo-based Korean guerrilla resistance
which comprises Korea's main organized military opposition to Japan

bears are hunted to extinction
in all of southern Korea
and most of northern Korea
under the Japanese colonial government


1938
head of the Japanese army's "Special Kim Detachment"
Colonel Kim Sok-won aka Colonel Kaneyama Shakugen
begins hunting for Kim Il Sung in Manchukuo
(7 years later Kim Sok-won will control South Korean forces
along the 38th parallel on the day the Korean War breaks out)

Lieutenant Park Chung Hee aka Lieutenant Takagi Masao
hunts down other prominent anti-Japanese Korean guerrillas
(23 years later Park Chung Hee will be the 2nd ruler of South Korea)

1939
all Koreans are ordered
by the Emperor of Japan
to adopt Japanese names

1940
now the most feared anti-Japanese guerrilla leader in Manchukuo
Kim Il Sung makes his base on the slopes of the volcano Paektusan
on the border between Okjo in NE Korea & Kando in SE Manchuria

Russia briefly imprisons Kim Il Sung
who is accused of being a spy for Japan
(Kim Il Sung's imprisonment by the Russian Communists
his 1931 expulsion from the "Chinese Communist Party"
and the confinement of "Korean Communism" to South Korea
suggest that Kim Il Sung was not in fact a "Communist")

 
1941
29 year old Kim Il Sung and his band of guerrillas
are almost wiped out by the Japanese army
which pushes them north of the Amur River
out of Japanese-controlled Manchukuo
and into Russian-controlled Siberia
at the site of the Puyo tribal league of Korea
the original homeland of
    Koguryo (North Korea & Manchuria)
    Paekche (South Korea)
    Huns aka Uighurs (NW China)
    Mongols (Mongolia)
where Kim settles down & raises a family
living as a refugee until the end of WWII
(end of anti-Japanese resistance in Manchukuo)

Mu Jong
an anti-Japanese guerrilla from NE Korea
homeland of the Manchus & the volcano Paektusan
establishes the Korean Volunteers Army
in Japanese-ruled NE China & Inner Mongolia

Mu Jong of the Korean Volunteers Army
Mao Zedong of the Public Assets Party
Chiang Kai-Shek of the Kuomintang Party
unite to drive Japan out of the Asian mainland

publication in America
of the bestseller Song of Ariran
the autobiography of Kim San
co-written by Nym Wales
in which Kim details his life
as an anti-Japanese Korean guerrilla
in Japanese-ruled Inner Mongolia
during the time of Mu Jong
    "for the individual to struggle
    against superior power is only futile tragedy
    one must organize equal force against force
    and if this cannot be mobilized
    action must wait and not engage in adventurism
    a revolutionary leader does not work with human skulls
    to be lined up right or left
    he works with the material of human life
    he works with the human spirit so hard to crush
    and with the human body so easily destroyed
    tragedy is a part of human life
    to rise above oppression is the glory of man
    to submit is his shame
    his only individual decision
    is whether to move forward or backward
    whether to fight or submit"

America enters WWII after Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in Hawaii
(occasional bombing of Korea by the US during World War II
marks the 3rd violent conflict between Koreans & Americans since 1866)

66 year old Rhee Syngman
who is living in Washington DC
with his 41 year old Caucasian wife
publishes Japan Inside Out
a denunciation of Japan which draws on his experiences
as one of the oldest living anti-Japanese Korean activists
who witnessed the entire 15 year Japanese takeover of Korea
from the murder of Queen Min at the close of the Choson Dynasty
to the annexation of Korea by the Japanese Empire in 1910
who is from Kaesong on the "north" side of the 38th parallel
and was the first Korean to earn an American Ph.D. degree


1942
US President Franklin Roosevelt
orders 120,000 Japanese
2/3 of whom are American-born citizens
to relocate from the west coast of America
to various concentration camps
some as far away as Wyoming and Arkansas
for the duration of World War II

the concentration camps also house
    Canadian Japanese
    some Inuits & Aleutians
    some Germans and Italians
    some Koreans considered to be the "same" as the Japanese

Japanese Empire now rules
    Japan, Korea, Manchukuo, NE & SE China, Inner Mongolia
    Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, all of Indochina
    Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines
    Hong Kong, Taiwan, Guam
    New Guinea & various islands of Oceania

Japanese planes bomb Australia 

Koreans begin to be drafted into the Japanese army

1943
hapkido
a martial art emphasizing
non-resistance, circular motion, and adaptability
originates in Korea under Japanese rule

1944
Japan invades India

2,000,000 Koreans are now living in Japan
(at least 200,000 Koreans are slaves
in Japan's wartime industrial sector)

in Japanese-controlled Korea
2,600,000 Koreans are slaves


August 6, 1945
US drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima (20,000 Koreans die)
(4th major American-Korean violence since 1866)

August 9, 1945
Russia declares war on Japan
and seizes all of Manchukuo
(end of Manchukuo after 14 years)
and the northern fringe of Korea
(Russia's first military invasion of Korea since 1903)

August 11, 1945
US drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki (unknown number of Koreans die)
(5th major American-Korean violence since 1866)

August 15, 1945
Japanese Empire surrenders (end of World War II after 7 years)

liberation of Korea & other Asian/Pacific areas from Japanese rule

American Empire now rules Japan
and other former possessions
of the fallen Japanese Empire
(end of Japan's Asian/Pacific Empire after 77 years)

US Colonel Dean Rusk (future architect of the Vietnam War)
and US Colonel Charles Bonesteel divide Korea at the 38th parallel
(beginning of the division of Korea which continues today)
creating an artificial & arbitrary boundary
as a "barrier" to stop the Russian army
occupying Manchuria & the northern fringe of Korea
from occupying all of the Korean Peninsula
(Russia accepts the US division of Korea
rather than risk starting war with America)


September 6, 1945
Seoul's Japanese colonial government
is replaced by the Korean People's Republic
which is intended to be the government
of an independent unified Korea with
    Rhee Syngman as President
    Yo Un-hyong as Vice President
    Kim Il Sung as Minister of War
    Kim Ku as Minister of the Interior
(Yo Un-hyong who is the architect
of the Korean People's Republic
will be assassinated 2 years later)

September 8, 1945
led by General John Hodge
and Father Francis Spellman
US troops arrive in Seoul
(America's first land invasion of Korea since 1871)

US Military Government
under the supreme command of General Douglas MacArthur
overthrows the Korean People's Republic in Seoul
and rules southern Korea directly for the next 3 years
(origin of the US colonization of South Korea which continues today)

Russian military remains in Manchuria & northernmost Korea
but does not attempt to rule either region directly

General MacArthur disbands Kim Ku's Korean Independence Army
(end of the Korean Provisional Government after 26 years)

October 1945
33 year old Kim Il Sung
the future first ruler of North Korea
aka DPRK aka Democratic People's Republic of Korea aka Choson
returns to Pyongyang from exile in Siberia

70 year old Rhee Syngman
the future first ruler of South Korea
aka ROK aka Republic of Korea aka Taehan Minguk
returns to Seoul from exile in America

Civil War breaks out again in China
between on-and-off allies Chiang Kai-Shek
who now rules SE China & Taiwan
and Mao Zedong who now rules NE China & Inner Mongolia

Mu Jong's Korean Volunteers Army
relocates out of NE China & Inner Mongolia
and seizes Manchuria & northernmost Korea from Russia

Koreans now rule
most of Manchuria
and all of North Korea
(same territory as
Ancient Choson in 400 BC
and Koguryo in 412 AD)

Russian Empire now includes
    Russia and all of E Europe to Hungary
    Finland to the north and Armenia to the south
    all of Central Asia
    Siberia from the Pacific coast to the Ural Mountains
    NE Manchuria

American Empire now includes
    48 continental states  
    territories of Alaska & Hawaii
    Virgin Islands, Panama, Puerto Rico   
    Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands   
    Philippines, Guam, Samoa
    Japan, South Korea, West Germany
with US military occupying
parts of Italy and Austria       

Tibet, NW China, and Mongolia remain independent

 
December 31, 1945
mass pro-independence demonstrations erupt in US-ruled South Korea

 
1946
intending to soothe the angry masses
General Douglas MacArthur orders Japan
to transfer the tiny islands of Dokdo
seized from Korea by Japan in 1905
to the administration of South Korea

anti-Japanese guerrilla leader Kim Il Sung
establishes the Korean Worker's Party in North Korea
(often mistranslated as the "Korean Communist Party"
the KWP is unrelated to the Seoul-based "Korean Communist Party")

farmers & labor activists in South Korea rise up
against the US Military Government but are defeated
(6th major American-Korean violence since 1866)

7,000 Koreans are living in America