The Forum > General Discussion > ANZAC Day - What does it mean to you, and your Families?
ANZAC Day - What does it mean to you, and your Families?
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The tragedy of Korea is that it could have been so much different especially if the two powers had supported the short lived provisional government of the People's Republic of Korea. It had been formed through People's Committees one of which was headed by a very popular leader in waiting, one Cho Man-sik.
He was a Christian with quite pacifist views learned from studying Ghandi. He was arrested during the Japanese occupation for striving for independence for his people. As the war was coming to an end he and others formed the Peoples Committees negotiating a peaceful transition to power with the Japanese. He received initial support from the Soviets who approached him to head the north's government. He however refused because he disliked communism and wanted more autonomy to govern.
The PRK's agenda included;
"the confiscation without compensation of lands held by the Japanese and collaborators; free distribution of that land to the peasants; rent limits on the nonredistributed land; nationalization of such major industries as mining, transportation, banking, and communication; state supervision of small and mid-sized companies; …guaranteed basic human rights and freedoms, including those of speech, press, assembly, and faith; universal suffrage to adults over the age of eighteen; equality for women; labor law reforms including an eight-hour day, a minimum wage, and prohibition of child labor; and "establishment of close relations with the United States, USSR, England [sic], and China, and positive opposition to any foreign influences interfering with the domestic affairs of the state."
Its leader in the South was Lyuh Woon-hyung but within months of the Americans arriving they had outlawed the party because it was deemed too communist like and Lyuh was assassinated. They even tried to put the Japanese back into governing positions before widespread protests put a stop to it.
After resisting Soviet overtures Cho Man-sik disappeared into the North's prison system never to be heard from again.
Hard left and right rulers were established in the North and South by the respective cold war overlords and Korea remains totally divided to this day.