For Those That Are Itching To Go To War- A Little Piece Of History With North Korea

Hi Below is an extract written by Bruce Cumings from a web site called The Asia-Pacific Journal which details some information gathered from archives:-

The media claim that North Korea is trying to obtain and use weapons of mass destruction. Yet the United States, which opposes this strategy, has used or threatened to use such weapons in northeast Asia since the 1940s, when it did drop atomic bombs on Japan.

One of the first orders to burn towns and villages that I found in the archives was in the far southeast of Korea, during heavy fighting along the Pusan Perimeter in August 1950, when US soldiers were bedevilled by thousands of guerrillas in rear areas.

On 6 August a US officer requested "to have the following towns obliterated" by the air force: Chongsong, Chinbo and Kusu-dong. B-29 strategic bombers were also called in for tactical bombing. On 16 August five groups of B-29s hit a rectangular area near the front, with many towns and villages, creating an ocean of fire with hundreds of tons of napalm.

Another call went out on the 20 August. On 26 August I found in this same source the single entry: "fired 11 villages." (4) Pilots were told to bomb targets that they could see to avoid hitting civilians, but they frequently bombed major population centres by radar, or dumped huge amounts of napalm on secondary targets when the primary one was unavailable.

www.japanfocus.org...

Some countries have long memories and you can understand why they may have a claim to their beef.

There are US forces poised over the border. They have huge military exercises every year to ensure they are ready for a conflict. Many would say they are only defensive forces but a certain US President labelled North Korea as one of the Axis of Evils. In fact for sixty years the rhetoric coming from the US has always been the same, North Korea is evil.

The US has attacked nation after nation.

If you were North Korea how would you feel? I would feel very threatened and intimidated. I would be thinking that it is our turn very soon.

If I am going to be attacked anyway, if I am going to be destroyed come what may, then I will study "The Art of War" and decide to have this war on my own time table. I will prepare for it ( in this case for 60 years) and I will look at the tactics of all the nations that survived such an onslaught. (Vietnam)

We need to look at this from the perspective of North Korea. It is an eye opener.

P

You're right, they have every right to be angry with America, as do many countries in the same boat, but please explain where threatening to nuke Tokyo fits into that equation.

America didn't start the sabre rattling. Un is angry over recent sanctions imposed on him by the UN for human rights abuses amongst other things, this has nothing to do with the Korean War.

reply to post by Pinkorchid

The media claim that North Korea is trying to obtain and use weapons of mass destruction.

NK admits they are trying to obtain and use weapons of mass destruction.

I don't want to see another war with NK or any other country but facts are facts.

reply to post by pheonix358


America won't be invading Korea unless provoked, be it by an actual attack or a false flag. Regardless, another war is not something we can afford at the moment and NK doesn't have any oil, so there is no desire to conquer it.

NK may feel like a cornered animal lashing out at its captors, but its government makes no attempts to play ball with the rest of the world. The UN says, "treat your people more humanely," Un replies, "No!" The west says, "do not test this missile," Un responds, "Too bad!!!!"

They have no right to threaten to nuke anyone.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


You may want to research what the Japanese did to Koreans before and during WW2. That would be the first thing from a historical perspective.

In the first Korean War, Japan was used by the US as the primary Staging area for all of its forces. Denying this staging area to the US is a military defensive strategy and a reasonable one.

I am not saying that it is a good idea from a moral viewpoint, it is not! But from the points of both strategy and payback, it could well be.

P

ETA from your first post, the US has been sabre rattling for the past 60 years. The rhetoric from both sides is and always has been near mirror images.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


Just how does the US get provoked by their own false flag!

P

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


I agree.

I will put the other viewpoint across as well. The US has no right to attack other countries. But they do! The US also disregards the UN, constantly.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

P

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


Agreed , they have no right to threaten anyone.
But we should also look at the hypocrites that are screaming about human rights violations and also remember the patterns that are put into play to manipulate the the opinion of the citizens of the world.
No country should abuse it's citizens , but it's a bit of a joke , if you were to ask the Libyian's and the Syrians and don't forget the Iraq people .

It's a bit like a murderer telling a rapist he's doing bad things.

What would be really interesting to hear , is what you now feel about what the author has written regarding those times.

I feel until we can actually own as a World , what we have done to others, war will never cease.

reply to post by billy565


Hello billy565, ATS Readers, Writers,

The article is written at japanfocus.org.. When Media claim something, it doesn't mean it is automatically saying it is false. There are truthful claims, and false claims. In this case, the claim is TRUE. Yes, Korea is/was trying to get and maybe use WMD.

It was perhaps bad wording by the authors at japanfocus.org.

I am just trying to point out that certain words can cause some people to assume something that is not meant.

The article goes on to point out the utter sheer hypocrisy of the USA at times. IT applies to many nations, but in this case it is referring to USA hypocrisy during the Korean conflict of 1950 to 1953.

Real history truly sucks, because it usually shows that both sides in whatever conflict were real evil and did things that were horrible.

As one person said some time ago, the victors get to write the history of a conflict. And the "victors" usually don't tell all the terrible things THEY did to achieve that victory, but will sure focus on the bad things that the "losers" did.

Another example: History books in the USA do not tell of the over 1 million German soldiers imprisoned and starved to death/shot after WW2 by Eisenhower. Just because the books don't mention it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

This whole Korean mess is a leftover from WW2, when a couple of American Administrators decided to divide Korea at the 38th parallel. One of those guys was Dean Rusk of Nixon era fame and reknown.

It is also a left over from when Russia occupied North Korea, after the war...via their Manchurian invasion of 1945.

The Soviets set up the Kim dynasty, he didn't seize power or anything.

Pravdaseeker

I imagine someone ought to mention the fact that the US wouldn't have been in Korea, ordering airstrikes to keep from being over-run and killed to a person if North Korea had not first invaded it's Southern neighbor.

The US not only had nothing to do with that, history records the Central Intelligence Agency (a contradiction in terms to set the standard by) was telling the President that North Korea had no ability OR intention of military attack on the Republic Of Korea mere weeks before they did, in fact, invade and overrun them.

History seems to repeat itself like a bad movie. Never the good parts, either. Just the real crappy ones.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Yes, you are right about the North's aggression against the South. I was wondering when somebody would bring that up. However, the attack came about largely as a result of Cold War posturing among the Americans, Russians and Chinese, as well as political differences between the North and South.

The North Koreans have reason to be suspicious of America and its allies, particularly Japan. However, that suspicion is now several notches above full-blown paranoia. And the hardships the regime imposes upon the people of North Korea are simply inexcusable, whatever external enemies it may think it has.

There is no possible happy ending to the North Korean story. The alternatives seem to be state failure and social implosion followed by a draconian Chinese occupation to control a huge cross-border refugee problem, or war with the South and a defeat in the course of which the North will be utterly destroyed.

This has always been a game of risk, Find any reason to get troops to the new location and plant there while you slowly take over.

Human Society might go down because of politics, the politics of America using twisted truth given to the public to do what it wants. We definitely need 100% transparency now. But as a corporation they will never admit to something they have done bad unless its been so many years and they cant be held accounted for it. Such as releasing documents that were against them way back in the day but is fine to read now.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


Hello DDD, ATS Readers, Writers,

I am thinking it has something to do with regional long lasting hatred of Japan for what took place during and before WW2.

Japan occupied Korea from 1910 until 1945, then the Soviets moved in at the end of the war, via their Manchurian Invasion of 1945.

It also might have something to do with all the "comfort girls" that were abducted from Korea to service the Japanese soldiers in forced sex slavery.

Another "theory" is that it might also refer to recent China vitriolic cries of currency war, when Japan did its own version of Quantitative Easing by printing boatloads of extra yen. This would really only apply if Korea is still taking orders from China, and IF China did in fact request N Korea to make the statement..lol.

Sabre rattling has gone on in Korea since its conflict ended in 1953.

And did not President Bush claim Korea as being in the Axis of Evil??? So when do you want to claim the start of sabre rattling?? N Korea has seen other nations in that list get wiped out, so you can't really blame them for being a bit nervous?

I am NOT taking sides with N Korea, because I think the Kim dynasties need to go as well. Maybe even more so than Iraq, Libya, and the current onslaught in Syria.

But Korea isn't as close to Israel as those other nations now is it?

People forget about the Project for a New American Century..PNAC.. A re-read up on that empire preserving article would probably do us all good.

www.abovetopsecret.com...&flagit=934582

www.abovetopsecret.com...&flagit=193966

In my opinion, (which might not mean squat..lol); this Korea mess is just a chapter in the PNAC book, and ongoing saga of war forever, set in motion in 2001. The Military Industrial Complex took over after JFK got shot. Eisenhower warned us about "them" nobody paid attention.

Almost all of the worlds woes are leftover messes from a previous conflict that wasn't settled properly or fairly.

Real history is a bear to get through.

Pravdaseeker

reply to post by pheonix358


Here's a little of that research you were speaking of pheonix358.
In reading some it , I find that it may give reason to their perceived paranoia, with special regards towards both Japan and the US.

After Emperor Gojong died in January 1919, with rumors of poisoning, independence rallies against Japanese invaders took place nationwide on 1 March 1919 (the March 1st Movement). This movement was suppressed by force and about 7,000 were killed by Japanese soldiers and police.[98] An estimated 2 million people took part in peaceful, pro-liberation rallies, although Japanese records claim participation of less than half million.[99] This movement was partly inspired by United States President Woodrow Wilson's speech of 1919, declaring support for right of self-determination and an end to colonial rule for Europeans.[99] No comment was made by Wilson on Korean independence, perhaps as a pro-Japan faction in the USA sought trade inroads into China through the Korean peninsula.

The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was established in Shanghai, China, in the aftermath of March 1 Movement, which coordinated the Liberation effort and resistance against Japanese control. Some of the achievements of the Provisional Government include the Battle of Chingshanli of 1920 and the ambush of Japanese Military Leadership in China in 1932. The Provisional Government is considered to be the de jure government of the Korean people between 1919 and 1948, and its legitimacy is enshrined in the preamble to the constitution of the Republic of Korea.[100]

AND ..........

Some Koreans left the Korean peninsula to Manchuria and Primorsky Krai. Koreans in Manchuria formed resistance groups known as Dongnipgun (Liberation Army); they would travel in and out of the Sino-Korean border, fighting guerrilla warfare with Japanese forces. Some of them would group together in the 1940s as the Korean Liberation Army, which took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia. Tens of thousands of Koreans also joined the Peoples Liberation Army and the National Revolutionary Army.

During World War II, Koreans at home were forced to support the Japanese war effort. Tens of thousands of men[104] were conscripted into Japan's military. Around 200,000 girls and women, some from Korea, were engaged in sexual services, with the euphemism "comfort women". Previous Korean "comfort women" are still protesting against the Japanese Government for compensation of their sufferings
en.wikipedia.org...

Perhaps to have a true perspective of what it feels like to be invaded ( if you are a country that hasn't and has only been the aggressor ) then reading what psychological effects this type of event has on a nation might be of value in understanding why they do what they do.

I thought that was the reason for carving up the country of Korea to begin with,divide and conquer and use them as chess pieces.If I were Korean I`d be pee`d off just by have other countries do that to my country.

If the west had of taken all of Korea they probably imo thought rubbing shoulders with China and whats now NK is too close for comfort,best let China and Russia have a few years and get to ajust and love for the capitalist ways. Then when the timings right we can become the ultimate One World Government and monetary system.

All the worlds their stage.

reply to post by pheonix358


I'm well aware of Japans actions during WWII, Unit 731 was an atrocity. This thread, however, addresses North Korea's feelings towards America. Since WWII Japan has not shown itself to be a warmongering nation; North Korea has no reason to fear an invasion from Japan. So again, please explain why they are threatening to nuke Tokyo when Japan has done nothing to provoke them.

Also, following that logic, why isn't Poland threatening war against Germany?

reply to post by Pinkorchid


Nobody is forcing Un to treat his people in a humanitarian manner, but on that point most nations will use lack of human rights as an excuse to cut aid and enforce sanctions on North Korea. The situation there is really one to be pitied; the people are starving and the government is too stubborn to make compromises in an effort to care for them.

reply to post by pravdaseeker


America wouldn't launch a war initiative against North Korea because it's not sitting on trillions of dollars of precious metals or natural resources, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan. The only benefit to invading NK would be establishing military bases around China, which China really does not want.

I understand what you're saying, and I could see NK feeling uneasy about being placed on the Axis of Evil.

The problem is that NK's govt brought these sanctions upon itself; they don't want to cooperate with the West and now they are throwing a hissy fit because they don't like the outcome of their actions.

They would have to be mad to actually nuke Japan or America, but their leader is an over entitled man-child who seems a bit out of touch with reality. How many times do they have to cry "we're going to nuke you" before America launches a preemptive military initiative against them? Are we really going to wait until NK actually uses a nuke?