UNITED STATES AND THE OTHER POWERS IN THE KOREAN QUESTION

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF China's Korea policy during World War II has so far been underestimated or, at best, misinformed. This chapter will examine China's wartime policy on Korea, looking at its significance and policy goals in the broader framework of China's foreign policy. It will consider how China cooperated with, or confronted, the United States; how the Kuomintang (KMT) government controlled, managed and used the Korean issue, particularly as regards the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) in Chongqing; and how all these elements exerted an influence on the division of Korea.

The foreign policy of a state is generally founded upon its national interests. In a sense, what we call “national interest” is a totality of social values, which are comprehensive and abstract in nature. Yet in another, narrower sense, it might be defined as an immediate foreign policy goal. This chapter has raised the basic idea of national interest to examine more fully how the powers defined and approached the value of the Korean peninsula, in terms of their own national interests. In particular, if a power played a secondary role in an East Asian war (e.g., China in the war against Japan), or if, like Britain, it had limited interest in the East Asian region, we could reasonably expect certain questions regarding national interest, and related foreign policy objectives, to be revealed in that power's Korea policy.

The interests that the powers had in the peninsula arose from the geopolitical and strategic value of the area. Paradoxically, it was this strategic importance that made the United States take an extremely cautious approach to Korean affairs. The United States dealt with the issue of Korea based on the general principle of having to establish a postwar system of peace. The peninsula was not at all essential to U.S. interests, but its geopolitical and strategic value could make the area a source of international discord. The United States thus concluded that the Korean peninsula must not become an object of conflict that would threaten a durable peace in East Asia and the Pacific.